Harwich Olympic Triathlon

Another good blast this weekend on the way to Ironman Switzerland.

I've not completed an Olympic distance triathlon since Swanage in 2007 so I was eager to give it a really good crack. Looking at the field I knew local vet Roy Young would be strong and Toby Radcliffe was due to start, so that might be fun! Also my good buddy and training partner George is easing himself out of injury and decided to have a crack, so we were bound to have a decent scrap, especially in the water. Then last minute another training mate Darren Treadaway entered, so things were looking tougher!

With the race kicking off at 10am it was a leisurely drive over (thanks Alex for the lift) and we had plenty of time for a nice warm up run and to sort everything in transition.

George, Darren and I were all in the first wave (of four) and with small number in each wave we were quickly off from the beach start. I few jostles of the beach and I got in a group of three (one George) very quickly.

A solid swim, just losing George at the final turn buoy left me out of the water 5th in our wave. I slipped through T1 though and came out just on Darren's shoulder in 3rd. I watched Darren ease away on the bike for 20 mins and then he seemed to slow, I kept the pressure on and at about 40mins I went past him. Unfortunately that was te kick up the &ss he needed to then charge back through me and take a minute out of me in the last 15k - gutted!

Around T2 Darren took the fast swimmer guy for the lead and had me for a minute or so, and George was maybe 2.5mins behind me battling for 4th. I had 2nd place in my sights the whole run, chipping away at his minute lead as best I could. I found my legs in the 2nd (5k) lap and pushed on, eventually ending in a sprint finish where we finished shoulder to shoulder.

So in our wave Dazzle was first, me joint 2nd and George got pipped back to 5th.

Hanging around for the awards Darren secured the win by a country mile, I got pushed to joint 3rd by local hero Roy Young and George slipped a couple of slots to 7th.

The swim and bike were long, so the time was of no consequence but I was pretty pleased. I clearly have a lot of sharpening to do to be competitive at this distance, but that's not were I'm aiming at the moment!