Name: The London Triathlon
Date: Sunday 7th August 2016
Venue: ExCel Centre, Docklands, London
Distances: Swim: 750m, Bike: 20km, Run: 5km
The London Triathlon is one of the biggest triathlons in the world. It is also a very prestigious race to race in. A good result looks very good on your CV and goes down very well. The Junior Elite wave had a strong line up with some big names including some Australians and a competitor from Hong Kong. The swim start was problem free. I took an outside line but knew I could move inwards with a strong start. I lead for the first few metres so managed to move inwards pretty quickly, but then settled into my rhythm. The wind made it very easy up the first straight, but after turning the first two buoys it was into a headwind. This stretch of the swim felt like an eternity but finally we reached the final two pigs shaped buoys to turn around and headed into the swim exit. I exited in a time of 9:48! I noticed the clock as I came out and was amazed! I was so happy! My swim has come on so much in the last few months so I was so pleased to see a time like that on the clock!
Going into transition I slipped and fell hard on my hip but quickly got back up and onto the bike and chased to catch someone up front. I sat on his wheel for good while until I thought I should work a bit. We then chased hard together to catch another person then formed the chasing group of 3 with a group up ahead of 6. We kept up good speed and worked relatively well together on the course. Towards the end two of us broke away and dropped the third guy. We completed the bike in 32.06.
It was a hot day, which made it good preparations looking ahead to Mexico, and so the run was very very good training. I messed up my dismount off the bike a so was a few seconds behind so worked hard coming out of transition and after the first half a lap moved into 8th place. I had lots of friends and family there cheering me on and coming past them each time on the run, it spurred me on even more and just helped me to keep on running hard. The run course was packed with age groupers and I was constantly shouting at people to move out they way but they didn't listen. A lot of pushing and shoving and swearing took place but I powered through the crowd and could make out the people ahead of me. There was quite a gap but I dug in to close it. Coming into the area for the final time it was so noisy. I sprinted in to finish in 1:06:08 and in 8th place! I was very happy to have placed to high and so well in such well-respected event in the calendar. It gave me a lot of confidence that my training has been going well and with a month to the World Championships things seems to be in a good place.
A huge thank you to my sponsors Pedal Potential, Swim Canary Wharf, Sam Farmer, The Body Therapy Company and Zone 3 for supporting me all the way through the year and helping me to get these results. I'm so grateful to have a a good team around me and I thank Max Curle, Excel Physiotherapy and my coach Dermott Hayes always being there to help me get the results I want.
My next race will be on Sunday 21st August at the Monster Ely Olympic Triathlon, my first Olympic distance that will be very interesting! I am looking forward to racing this distance for the first time.
I shall be blogging again soon!
Sam
Race Times
Swim: 9:48mins
T1: 2:11mins
Bike: 32:06mins
T2: 1:45mins
Run: 20:20mins
Total: 1:06:08hours
Date: Sunday 7th August 2016
Venue: ExCel Centre, Docklands, London
Distances: Swim: 750m, Bike: 20km, Run: 5km
The London Triathlon is one of the biggest triathlons in the world. It is also a very prestigious race to race in. A good result looks very good on your CV and goes down very well. The Junior Elite wave had a strong line up with some big names including some Australians and a competitor from Hong Kong. The swim start was problem free. I took an outside line but knew I could move inwards with a strong start. I lead for the first few metres so managed to move inwards pretty quickly, but then settled into my rhythm. The wind made it very easy up the first straight, but after turning the first two buoys it was into a headwind. This stretch of the swim felt like an eternity but finally we reached the final two pigs shaped buoys to turn around and headed into the swim exit. I exited in a time of 9:48! I noticed the clock as I came out and was amazed! I was so happy! My swim has come on so much in the last few months so I was so pleased to see a time like that on the clock!
Going into transition I slipped and fell hard on my hip but quickly got back up and onto the bike and chased to catch someone up front. I sat on his wheel for good while until I thought I should work a bit. We then chased hard together to catch another person then formed the chasing group of 3 with a group up ahead of 6. We kept up good speed and worked relatively well together on the course. Towards the end two of us broke away and dropped the third guy. We completed the bike in 32.06.
It was a hot day, which made it good preparations looking ahead to Mexico, and so the run was very very good training. I messed up my dismount off the bike a so was a few seconds behind so worked hard coming out of transition and after the first half a lap moved into 8th place. I had lots of friends and family there cheering me on and coming past them each time on the run, it spurred me on even more and just helped me to keep on running hard. The run course was packed with age groupers and I was constantly shouting at people to move out they way but they didn't listen. A lot of pushing and shoving and swearing took place but I powered through the crowd and could make out the people ahead of me. There was quite a gap but I dug in to close it. Coming into the area for the final time it was so noisy. I sprinted in to finish in 1:06:08 and in 8th place! I was very happy to have placed to high and so well in such well-respected event in the calendar. It gave me a lot of confidence that my training has been going well and with a month to the World Championships things seems to be in a good place.
A huge thank you to my sponsors Pedal Potential, Swim Canary Wharf, Sam Farmer, The Body Therapy Company and Zone 3 for supporting me all the way through the year and helping me to get these results. I'm so grateful to have a a good team around me and I thank Max Curle, Excel Physiotherapy and my coach Dermott Hayes always being there to help me get the results I want.
My next race will be on Sunday 21st August at the Monster Ely Olympic Triathlon, my first Olympic distance that will be very interesting! I am looking forward to racing this distance for the first time.
I shall be blogging again soon!
Sam
Race Times
Swim: 9:48mins
T1: 2:11mins
Bike: 32:06mins
T2: 1:45mins
Run: 20:20mins
Total: 1:06:08hours
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