I completed the London Triathlon in 2hrs 41mins beating my previous personal best of 2hrs 49mins!! So all the months of hard work and training following the strict program created by my triathlon coach despite injury paid off :)
It was an amazing weekend with over 13,000 competitors taking part, making the London triathlon the largest in the world!!
The race went well, with almost perfect tri conditions the weather was good, patchy cloud and about 24 degrees.
My race started at 15:40, I had to get to my transition zone by 15:00 to get the bike ready, layout running shoes and do my final checks on the road bike before putting on my wet-suit in preparation to start the swim.
I've never raced this late in the day before so it was new to me, but nice not having to get up so early :)
The swim leg was tough, starting in the middle of the pack I fought to work my way up to the lead pack, I always seemed to fighting for open water the whole way with the other guys grabbing on to my legs and taking a few kicks to the head knocking my goggles off at one point. I stayed with the lead pack the whole way but felt I could have gone quicker if I broke away but still beat my previous best time.
From the swim, it was out the water, wet suit off and into a plastic bag before entering the transition zone within the Excel centre. The wet suit didn't want to come off easily and was a bit of struggle to get it off my legs even though I used bodyglide lube, this cost me valuable seconds.
Transition to the bike was relatively smooth after I got the wet suit off. Not using the legs so much in the swim meant they weren't fatigued and were bursting with energy. I powered through the 40km bike legs thrashing my previous time of 1hr 20mins to get a best of 1hr 6 mins only 3mins slower than Jenson Button!!
After the bike leg came the 10k run, transition from the bike was smooth. The first lap of four was tough as always as the body has to adjust to the different type of exercise. The legs are slightly cramped from bike ride but they tend to settle down after 2 to 3 km. This really test's whether you over cooked it on the bike or not, going quick on the bike and not taking enough fluids on board can really screw you for the run.
Going quicker on the bike meant my legs were more fatigued than intended for the run also the knee injury was causing pain so I knew I had to take it way the first few laps, after the third I had some much in reserve practically sprinted the last lap. Going easy on the first three laps impacted my time and not timing myself I feared I'd gone a lot slower than I actually had.
All in all it was a good race and fun with a great atmosphere with all the fantastic supporters that lined the course. I'm now really looking forward to next years tri as I feel I could really shave another 10 to 20 mins off my time.. as long as I stay injury free from the football season that is :)
If you ever consider doing a triathlon this is a great one to start with, everything is so well organised and executed.
I just want to say a big big thanks to everyone who supported me and donated to my chosen charity MacMillan cancer support, I really appreciate it :) :) !!
Roll on next year :)
All the best,
Ryan
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