72 hours on and it’s still quite hard to put my feelings on Saturday’s race. As I’m currently sitting by Santa Monica beach with a coffee, I have a mixture of feelings as I reflect on the race. A mixture of frustration, humbleness & inspiration.
In all honesty, I didn’t come here expecting to win, let’s get that out of the way! I did want to try and be competitive and show the hard work I’ve been doing. I knew if I did that, I would enjoy myself and be close to what I was capable of.
Swim: Couldn’t have been more confident here. 4th row into the water, the first 10 strokes are done then genuinely I couldn’t breathe. The water temp was fine, but I think a combination of the outside air temp, being cold from waiting to start in the pen and possibly a bit of race anxiety hit me all at once. I knew instantly it was a small panic attack and just tried to relax. As a result, took the first 300m easy before eventually settling. The rest of the swim was fine, felt very controlled and still came out in a decent time. I think I possibly lost 60-90secs during the swim which I knew I could make it up.
Time: 27:35 - 1:26min/100m
Bike: Time to really get to work! The outside temps had been in single figures in the morning in the whole lead-up. Personally, I didn’t feel the need for a jacket or gilet which some did but after advice from another athlete who raced the day before (which was colder) that only confirmed for me that neither was needed. Turned out to be a good decision, but I knew my hands and feet would be cold. So socks & gloves it was! Got to work, and attacked the ascends and descends peaking at 80kph, but really struggled to hit the power I wanted on the flats but the pace was still there. Very rarely was I overtook and I seemed to just be picking groups of people off. So I just carried on. I won’t lie though, I was worried about the bike. In the 7 days before, I had to have my electronic gears fixed as the battery kept instantly draining, expensive fix but I was told there were still issues that would need to be resolved long term (not what you want to hear pre-race). So my confidence in my bike wasn’t at its greatest let’s say, but the electronic shifting worked throughout the race. Unfortunately twice I had chain drops. Tried to solve them on the move but one was on an incline and the other got stuck under nether the chainring bolts! 🤬 anyways cracked on as best I could trying to make up for the lost time being stopped.
Time: 2:20:14 - 38.7kph - NP 247w (less then IMUK 🤦🏼♂️)
Run:
So for those who don’t know, you start off of the two-lap course knowing you have 4.5km uphill, to begin with, so just tried to settle into my stride. Didn’t want to burn any matches too soon. The first lap was fine, so I was happy, time to push on. The second lap was not so good, tried to push on as best I could but I just felt flat. I knew in the lead-up to this race my run wasn’t quite where I wanted it, too many missed runs nursing achilles issues. Did everything I could in the lead-up to manage this as best as possible. There’s a fine balance between crossing the line of pushing and doing damage. If anything, it confirmed for me that I run so much better when I run frequently throughout the week to increase my volume. Big difference from how I felt run form-wise from earlier this year at IMUK. This ended up being a pretty humbling experience as I felt constantly being overtaken. One I don’t want to experience again.
Time: 1:30:39
Finish time: 4:25:03
Even though the UAE season has just begun it’s time for my off-season. Having some time off completely and before then returning to some easy training again. Some say it’s the time to have some fun in your training, but I always enjoy training anyways. I probably won’t race again now until the new year! If I do it won’t be a triathlon, it’ll be something else for fun. I know I need it physically and mentally but I won’t lie this has fired me up to continue to improve as been inspired by being around so many great athletes and people I know. Two weeks and then it’s back to it 💪🏻
Thank you for all the messages pre, during and post-race! Thank you to those who help get me to these races in the best shape possible. Everyone I met, stayed with etc in Utah & Vegas were epic. I really enjoyed meeting and spending time with them. Hopefully won’t be the only time!
If anybody is considering racing in Utah, you 100% won’t regret it. It is a very epic course!!