Echternach Junior European Triathlon Cup.

My first Junior European Cup, have mixed emotions about it, it was a fabulous experience and I have taken a lot of positives from it, the only think is that it wasn’t the outcome that I was wishing for. I finished 29^th but I believe I should have been much higher up, but unfortunately it didn’t all click together yet again, just gotta keep plugging away.

I was actually pleased with my swim for once, I was still abit off the mark but its getting there, I was really high up going into the 1^st buoy, my start position was 10 so I was at the right hand side of the pontoon, I was the fastest out of the 1^st ten and went into the 1^st buoy as the 1^st inside man and had nowhere to go- it was a smash fest, I got pulled under when someone yanked my feet and when I came up got hit in the face and smacked my goggles off, I lost I few positions due to that and then it was hard to sight and swim comfortable when my goggles where hanging on my face and full of water, so I was extremely happy to still make front pack.

The bike was pretty uneventful apart from being extremely sketchy, I don’t know how there wasn’t a crash. Managed to get into T2 safely and in the top 15, going onto the run and had a massive stitch because unlike the Europeans I took too much fluid on during the bike as I was conscious of the mistake I had made in Spain. When I took water on at the water station I ended up throwing everything up, I was sick four or five times, so that lost me a lot of time, and fell through the field. Once I was finished being sick I actually felt much better and was able to run properly on the 2^nd lap of the run. I had to make up as many places as I could, I caught 8 people infont of me in 2km, but a little too late.

So ended up pretty disappointed, I believe if I had run the whole run like I was able to on the last 2Km I would have had a good race but I just have to learn from it and focus on my next race.

Next race I have is a domestic race; the Big Splash Triathlon in Portglenone in the morning, and then next weekend I travel over to London to compete in the Junior Elite London Triathlon at the Docklands. Hopefully everything should click together over in London and I can get a good result against the best Juniors in Britain.

Athlone 2011 (Irish Sprint Champs)

If anyone was to ask me what my favourite race is; I would have to say Athlone.

I loved the race last year when I raced the Junior Europeans, (even though I crashed on the bike), its just a great course and the atmosphere is brilliant.

One year on and it was now Irish Sprint Champs, I still felt rather sluggish and tired from my awful race the weekend before in Pontevedra (previous post) but really looking forward to it. I knew it was going to be really tough as it was going to be the best competition possible in Ireland. The start sheet proved it with the Elites racing in the form and Gavin, Bryan and Conor, as well as all of the top age-groupers.

The main aim for the race was to get a bit of confidence back after the shocker the week before, to finish top Junior and have a good solid run.

I was in the 1^st of the sprint waves which was an incredibly strong wave. I had a good swim in my sailfish G-Range (picture above). 750m in a straight line is a very long way and the swim proved it, it just seemed to go on forever. I came out of the swim in 2^nd with Conor on my feet so I knew if I could stay with him the whole way I would have a good race and that’s just what happened, we stayed together throughout the cycle, (a legal distance) but never too far from each other. I was really pleased with the bike leg, it was full on the whole way, a lot different than a draft legal race, I was pleased how I was able to hold my own against some pretty amazing TT bikes.

On to the run I was still with Conor, but he raced into a lead coming out of transition putting distance between us. Since coming back from my 8 months off running I have been pleased how well my running has progressed, but I am still missing that zip and change of pace needed. During the run I tried to close the gap on Conor but couldn’t, it remained the same distance throughout the run, but I was very pleased with that in itself. Conor is running very well at the moment and to be able to run a similar sort of pace gave me a lot of confidence that my running is getting back to where it needs to be.

I ended up coming 5^th overall and 1^st junior, by 9mins, which I was incredibly happy with. This has given me a great confidence boost going into my next challenge.

My next challenge being a European Junior Cup in Echternach, Luxemburg next Sunday, so hopefully I can put in a real good performance and redeem myself after the Europeans. It will be a very strong field and a few countries are using it as a selection race for World Juniors including GB, so it will be a tough day at the office, but I can’t wait.