World Triathlon Championships

World Championships 2010,

A really long way to come in only 8 months!

So 8 months in the sport of triathlon and I am at the World Champions, not bad, if I can make that much improvement ever 8months I will be doing alright.

We flew over to Hungary on the Monday before the race – a full week to get settled into the busy city of Budapest.

The whole build up in the week before, the first day of travelling wasn’t great delayed flight and no mini bus when we got to the other side etc.

Budapest had its flaws, especially the city being cycle UN-friendly and of course the weather, crap weather that nobody had expected, and therefore not really having appropriate clothing with them.

The cycle familiarisation was eventful; heavy rain, a lot of triathletes and some very slippy tram-lines as Elena, the Irish junior head coach found out the hard way.

It was awful once it was finished I still didn’t have a clue what the course was.

All that aside when I came to race day I felt ready and confident, I didn’t have much nerves as I didn’t feel that I had any pressure on me, I just looked at it as an opportunity to surprise people, but unfortunately it didn’t go to plan and I believe that I didn’t do myself justice and extremely underperformed. It was all basically down to the swim, I was in a good position up until the 1^st buoy, although not feeling 100%, felt a bit heavy and not as comfortable as usual, when we hit the 1^st buoy, it was basically the end of my race, I got battered and didn’t give what I was being dealt, and lost a lot of positions I went wide and after that struggled to get back into the bunch, which meant I wasn’t getting any draft, and therefore exiting the water a hell of a lot further back than I believe I am capable of. Hopefully something that can be easily fixed due to more experience swimming in a bunch.

On to the bike and I felt good, ended up being in the 3^rd pack with guys that had no intention of trying to catch the others. I made the decision to do my best to pull them along, as I was currently pissed of at where I was after my awful swim.

The cycle pissed me off the fact that nobody would work.

On to the run and I was pretty wrecked due to the fact that I had basically sat at the front of the pack for the whole cycle. One major thing that I regret was that after doing all the work at the front I dropped back going into T2 and just gave away positions, I will never do that again!

The run wasn’t disastrous as I had bust myself on the bike, but if I ever want to do anything in this sport it needs a lot of work. Didn’t really loose any positions but didn’t really gain many either.

After the race I was extremely grumpy as I had felt that I had let myself down, looking back I still have that view but I also believe that it was a vital experience that will help me with my future in this sport, and I like to think that I have learnt a considerable amount from it. The race aside I loved the whole experience of the world championships and the whole lifestyle of it.

The day after I returned home I went for an X-ray after having a pain in my lower left leg that I struggled through to get me to the end of the season. The x-rays showed that I had a stress fracture on both the bones in my lower left leg, and the doctors told me that it looks like I have had them for the majority of the season.

Looking back at the whole season I believe that it was a pretty impressive 1^st season in the sport of Triathlon and the 1^st of many more seasons to come.

I have gone from zero to the world championships in 8months and raced with stress fractures. I just can’t wait to see what I am truly capable of with more experience better training and injury free.

I hope to keep you updated along the way so keeping reading,

Thanks