My Elite Debut

I returned to the London Triathlon in 2016 not to race as an age grouper in the draft illegal race but as part of the elite field, where drafting was permitted and prize money was on offer. I was nervous heading into this race but knew I had nothing to lose and it was all part of the learning process.

On the Wednesday before the race the start sheet was released. It was awash with top GB names, David Bishop, Mark Buckingham, Liam Lloyd, Harry Wiltshere and Edward Castro. Many of those have represented on the ITU circuit, or Commonwealth games, European and world champs, it was one of the most competitive fields I had seen at London. Incredibly intimidating and daunting.

My game plan for the race was to keep out of the way in the swim, hold on in the bike and finish hard on the run, all the time avoiding coming last in my first outing with the big guys. Despite being a relatively strong swimmer in age group races I knew this was likely to be different and I wanted to avoid being swum over. As a result I picked to hold back and start near the back. The horn went, and I was almost instantly dropped. The biggest difference between age groupers and elites is the elites are fit enough to push hard on all disciplines, whenever they want. I am a reasonably strong swimmer in terms of age group athletes, but my swimming strength is nothing compared to the elites. The swim started fast and seemingly stayed fast, the front group surging at points in the 1500m breaking the groups apart.

By this point I was hanging on at the back. I left the water in the final 5 and headed for T1, hoping to get in a bike group with those I left the water with. But for the difficulty of getting my wetsuit over my timing chip I would have made it in a bike group. I hammered it out of T1 on the bike hoping to catch two cyclists up the road. I felt knackered already, this was not what I had hoped would happen.

Unbeknown to me a fellow competitor had had issue with getting his suit off and was behind me, if I had known I’d have eased off and tried to work with him. But by the time he caught me I had burnt my legs a bit too soon and had to let him go. A short while later my legs began to return to me and I picked up the pace, but it was all a bit too late. I soloed the bike leg in a reasonable time, but I clearly had ruined myself in an attempt to avoid getting lapped by the front male group, or caught by the women’s elite wave that started 25 minutes before the men.

I reached T2 and I resigned myself to coming last, but I was adamant I was going to finish, I missed the row for the elite athletes, clearly not feeling worthy at that point. A quick reverse move and I was out on to the run, the longest and loneliest run. The course was empty apart from the elite athletes and then it dawned on me how few there were of us. Previously I remember leaving transition at the London triathlon and having hundreds of people to focus on and chase down, now there were very few. Thankfully I reached the run course before the elite male leaders and the elite females had finished, not feeling quite so bad about my performance.

I don’t remember much of the run apart from seeing a well-known high profile Mark Buckingham throw in the towel and decide he was not in the right state to finish, a few high fives with the other TriLondon elite Amy Pritchard, and then passing one or two male athletes. My hopes pitched up that I may not be last but when they failed to return for the following laps I realised I was merely unlapping myself. Midway through the final lap my legs began to feel heavier than ever before and I was willing the end to come. As I crossed the line and did some mental time calculations, I knew I had not finished in the time I had hoped for. Moments later they were announcing the winners and questioning them as to why they weren’t in Rio for the Olympics. Its little moments like that, when you realise how far I have come. I am still very new to triathlon but in a short space of time I am now racing some of the best in the country, who could have been on the plane to Brazil were it not for minor mishaps in qualification races.

I was incredibly disheartened with the way the race panned out. Despite finding out on the results that I was not last, but second to last (of 49 starters I was 38th, 10 DNFs), I have to look at the bigger picture. The guys I raced are doing 2-3 times the volume of training I am. This was the biggest wakeup call and most humbling experience. I want to race in such company and now have to work to be better. With draft legal racing such small things effect the whole outcome of the race; if, if, if kept coming to me through the night as I replayed the race over and over again.

I will be back, I want to prove I belong in elite triathlon racing.