Cotswolds 113, Blenheim, 70:3 Warsaw and IM Hamburg
It was a busy weekend for some of the Goalspecific team, racing throughout the UK and further afield, from sprint distance to full IM. Sadly the warm sunny weather has departed everywhere, and the team had to prepare for wetter and fresher racing conditions. First up were Annie, Rose and Sarah racing in the sprint on the Saturday (in gale force winds and driving rain) at Blenheim. Despite the weather they produced excellent performances with Rose and Annie 2nd and 3rd in there age group respectively - a great warm up for the European Sprint Championships in Tarragona next week. Sarah also toughed out the very challenging conditions and overcome some issues in the swim to put together a solid race.
At home, Becky and Martin lined up at the start of Cotswolds 113. They both put in a solid swim and attacked the fast, flat and breezy bike course. Despite heavy legs, and perhaps a lack of fuel (due to a lack of options the night before) they both got through the run, with a 6th AG position for Becky and 24th for Martin, losing about 15mins in the run. A good learning experience and practice for Weymouth middle next week!
Becky looking strong!
Over in Poland, Matt was preparing for a stacked 703, with a few key goals, primarily to ensure fuelling pre and during was spot on so he could ensure a solid run execution, as this has been a hurdle in previous races. Despite a slightly slower swim than predicted (and I hear there is a story behind this, looking forward to catching up on that this week) Matt executed the bike sensibly, posting a 2.12 split then worked his way up the field on the run with a 1.23 split, putting him in 9th position overall out of 146 in the very competitive 18-24 AG. Still lots to learn from, but every race he just gets faster and faster! Next race will be Versaille in July!
Kevin had signed up for the longer IM option in Germany, a favourite of his, and despite a nasty bike crash a few weeks ago, he felt ready and healed well enough to take on the challenge. The weather sadly did not play nicely, and I hear that it was chilly wet and windy throughout, however, after a solid swim, he was flying on the bike, and looking to beat his 2025 bike split by half an hour. Obviously I was tracking him throughout, and was slightly concerned when suddenly he lost half an hour on the bike, rather concerned that maybe he had taken a tumble again. Fortunately this was not the case, but sadly he was one of the Age groupers who suffered the consequences of the shrapnel that had been distributed on part of the bike course, leaving him with punctures, and trying to fix them when cold and wet. He did, and actually matched his bike split from last year despite the 30min break, and still went on to complete the Marathon, finishing a shade over 13 hours. Looks like we are going to have to go back again next year, and all good prep for Challenge Roth next month!
Races are rolling in now, over the next few weeks we have athletes racing at 703 Nice and Versailles, Challenge Roth, Challenge Sandefjord, Sprint at Belvoir castle, 10km Beach run, and Jack and I will be taking our time enjoying the vineyards whilst travelling from Cesenatico on the East coast to Tirrenia on the West coast of Italy, in a total of 280km and over 2500m of climbing in their Chase the Sun sportif.