The Big Essex, Monster Mojo, Qualfification to Worlds and more……

It was a busy weekend for Goalspecific athletes racing across the UK from super sprints to middle distance events, looking to achieve qualification slots, AG wins and targeting race specific goals. Here in Dorset we had Eric, Liza and Tripurbeck Dave Cake racing in the Results Triathlon Try a tri in Wimborne.  Eric entered last minute, after his massive achievement last week at the New Forest he was raring to get wet again, though this time in a pool, and successfully achieved an AG win! Liza, who planned to do this event in March but due to the disruptive weather we had, was forced to wait until now to test out her swimming! What a great start! 4th overall, and an Age Group win. Dave also dusted off his triathlon gear, and came in 4th in his AG, another great result.

Further afield, George and Becky were racing in the St Neots Olympic qualification race for the World Champs (we waved at them on Saturday evening as we drove on up to Peterborough!) For both of them, it was their first triathlon of the season, and for Becky first race in a while, due to a fair few months off from running as a result of a fall last December damaging her knee quite significantly. The first race is always a shock to the system, but Becky showed her dominance on the bike, posting one of the fastest, if not the fastest bike split of the race, and a none too shabby run, despite a few issues along the way. All in all finishing 4th in her AG and a slot to the World Champs is a job well done – plenty more to come from Becky. George also had a good race in a very competitive field, only seconds separating the top part of the field. Unfortunately he decided to swim more of a middle distance swim then an olympic (we need to get some sighting practice in ) and missed out on a slot by 2 seconds…..lets just not go there! If the run had just been a little longer! Great racing though in his first qualification event. Another one coming up soon as well.

Meanwhile a little further North, I was racing at the Monster Mojo, middle distance. Seemed like a great idea at the time, when Zone 3 kindly donated their free place to me, but as many of you know, when that alarm goes off at 5am, and you know you have to jump into a cold lake a couple of hours later, you do wonder what you were thinking! However, we still do it! A rather cold, smelly swim with a fair bit of algae to swim through lead to a slowish swim (I think it was long – if only I could learn to work my watch properly!) Freezing cold I headed onto the bike, in an attempt to warm up. On the first of the three laps, I was very pleased with my slick new gears working very nicely, but couldnt work out why I was struggling to reach my straw to drink on my front bottle. A few pot holes later I realised that my handlebars were slowly slipping further and further forward, to the point that changing gear was a challenge – reaching the breaks wasn’t easy and no way could I get on my bars. Slightly frustrated, but pretty pragmatic, I made it back to T2 with a rather sore back and under fueled, to find that I was first lady at that point. So, back to the run goal, this time of making 10k  (step up from Marbella!) and then see what happens!  The run was pretty much all off road, and actually this seemed to favour my foot, due to the constant variation underfoot. This time, only the 3rd lap on a 4 lap course led to a little walking, and if I am honest that was probably more linked to a lack of nutrition and my back! Great to be back at the top of the podium and my first experience of running through a banner at the finish line!

Finally but by no means least, we move to Essex, where Adam and Russ were braving the tidal rivers, and coastal winds in the Big Essex Triathlon. Due to the tide it didn’t start until 10:30, a lie in, though does make for a very long day. Russ who is in fine form, frustratingly picked up a calf injury in the days leading up to the race, and made a really tough but very sensible decision not to run, so put in a great swim and bike. There is so much to come there, we definitely need to find some more middle distances to have a crack at. Adam put in a great ride, despite going the wrong way and riding a new bike (arrived on Monday!) – first time on a TT bike and although he found the run tough, still sneaked in under the 6 hour mark in his first middle distance, only taking up the sport at the start of the year. Lots more to come there I as well I think! So storming performances all round from the GS team as the race season starts to kick in.