900m Swim 28km Bike 20km Run - Temperature 18oF
Swim 00:14:22 - T1 01:41 - Bike 00:44:10 - T2 01:08 – Run 01:23:35 Total Time 2:24:57
50 - 54 Age Group Champion, 35th overall
With the 2019 race calendar starting to fill up I needed to find a Challenge race to have a shot at qualifying for their 2019 championship race, effectively their version of the 70.3 Ironman world champs. Daytona looked a good bet and they had allocated double slots (12) to the race since it was their launch race for the USA market. I took the plunge, entered the race and got the logistics organised. It was an easy race to get to and holding it in the Daytona International racing circuit meant it had the potential to be a special location.
Being a middle-distance race, I felt I would only need to tick over post Kona and hold on to some of my fitness. In the end I was more tired than I had bargained for with the year’s racing catching up with me. I did manage to string together a couple of reasonable weeks of training, but I was only just in the right shape to have a crack.
The weather was forecast to be stormy by lunchtime but warm. As we pulled into the car park, we heard the tannoy announce that the swim had been cut to 800m, the bike to a two lap 20 mile course and the run would still be a half marathon around the circuit. That was a real shame as we had ridden the course earlier in the week and it would have been really fun to do. Anyway, I refocussed and figured out a race plan – go hard from the gun to the tape, genius!
The swim was in the lake in the centre of the circuit and was a great venue for spectators. It was a rolling start which was a shame, but with a small field (<600 athletes) it would still be a fairly compact and competitive race. The water was choppy as the wind was picking up ahead of the inbound storm. I placed myself in the lead group but navigated poorly and got gapped. By the time I hit T2 I was a couple of minutes adrift of where I wanted to be and with the shortened race that could be crucial. Whilst I had entered to qualify, I was racing for the win.
One of my goals for the race was to practise fast transitions as it’s an area I have been lazy with and given away time to my competitors. I was through T1 pretty well, posting the fastest T1 time in the age group, and out onto the race circuit to chase down the leaders. There was a group of 20 athletes a few hundred metres ahead of me and I spent the entire lap of the track burying myself to catch them. As we exited the circuit, I managed to make contact and backed off the power to regroup before pushing on again. With only 20 miles of riding it was going to be red lining all the way and I wanted to be with the fastest riders. Out onto the main road and the group put the hammer down, riders were quickly being spat out the back of the pace line, but I hung in until there was only three of us. We then moved up through the field, passing other riders who’s riding was not as strong as their swimming. Lap 2 was pretty congested as each lap was only 12k long, but we just stayed to the left and kept the power down. I ended the ride with a PB power output for the 45 minutes duration and the fastest bike split for the age group by a handful of seconds. 
As I came into T2 there were no bikes in the racking around me, so I was in top spot with my strongest discipline to come, it was mine to lose. Again, a really fast T2 and I was out on the track, 3.75 laps to complete the half marathon. The first few ks were quick and that put me in a strong position of winning, but I figured I would need to run 90 minutes or better to put the win out of reach of the others. The first couple of laps were pretty quiet but I focussed on each kilometre and everyone I ticked off under 4:15 min/km stretched the lead and was one closer to the tape. I had a tough spot in the middle section but just stayed on task and eventually quickened up again as I entered the last lap and could start to visualise crossing the line.
By the time I hit the tape it was blowing a gale, throwing it down with rain and there were only a few loyal supporters enduring the conditions to wait for their athletes. Once across the line there was no hanging around getting wetter and colder, I stopped briefly to confirm the win and then headed off to the hotel to get dry and fed.
I was pretty pleased with all my times bar the ropey swim and to both qualify and bag the win was a fantastic way to end the season. Now for a couple of weeks of down time and then start the 2019 mega campaign to hunt for a title, you only age up once every 5 years!
