26th November 2022 Standard Distance World Championships, Abu Dhabi

1.5km Swim 39km Bike 10.5km Run - Temperature 30oC

Swim 26:29 - T1 03:26 - Bike 00:59:11 - T2 02:25 – Run 00:44:40 Total Time 2:16:19

6th 55 - 59 Age Group

I qualified for this event nearly 18 months ago having started back running after the 2019 back operation and long layoff. Woodhorn was my first 10km run in two years and the plan was to build back to be able to run a high 30s 10km to be competitive at this shorter distance race. My biking was already where it needed to be, and a good swim block 4 months out would see me in touch with the leaders. The best laid plans and all that as the subsequent months were a series of stop start running blocks as I ran into injury after injury. I knew it would take a year to get back my old running form and when it got to 6 months out from the race, and I was still not running I knew my chances of a podium were pretty much done.

Nevertheless, in the 4 months leading into the event I managed to run regularly, my running fitness slowly started to come back and so I nudged the speed once a week. On my penultimate run before heading out I got that now familiar searing pain in my calf and I knew that was it, game over rover. I contacted the team manager and asked to switch to the aquabike event, but he said it was too late to do so. Now familiar with the patience required to rehab and get running again, I figured there was a 10% chance I would be able to run at all come race day. The prospect of swimming and biking and not running held no appeal whatsoever so it was either get running or DNS – my trial run was the day before the race, and I figured I needed to be able to run 5km pain free or not bother. 

In the preceding days I continued to feel some pain in my calf, but I resolved to give it a go anyway. I popped the trainers on and headed out the door almost certain that in 500m I would pull up and pull out but to my amazement it held up, so I pushed on for the 5km, it was game on.

It was a non-wetsuit sea swim. I hadn’t done the required swim block as I hadn’t been sufficiently motivated to do the hard work and now without a wetsuit or even a swimskin (not allowed in ITU events) the chances of staying in touch with the leaders was remote at best. We were the last group off, so I figured just try and stick with a group for as long as possible on some decent feet and try and limit the losses. 

The gun sounded and off we went with the swimmers of the group gapping the rest of the field pretty quickly. Specialists at this distance are strong swimmers compared to long distance athletes as its proportionally a bigger part of the total race duration. I settled in with a few others and just tried to stay honest but still gave away 4 or 5 minutes to the leaders.

It was a 500m run to T1, so it was the first test of the calf. No dramas, got there ok and probably dropped no more than 20s to the leaders who were much more practised at transitions.

Now the bike was going to be interesting, this was my ace card to claw back some time, but I had a significant technical issue the weekend before the race. For some unknow reason the power meter broke and there was no work around to sort it. Not terminal but certainly sub-optimal as I ride and race with power and it’s an important component of the strategy to ride well. Plan B was to ride to heart rate and speed. Plan B failed as my heart rate strap didn’t work on race day, so I was just left with speed. The plan became to ride as hard as I could for as long as I could and don’t blow up before T2. Well, that worked for the first 20km but the second was certainly slower as the legs started to tire. 

However, it was good enough to make a few places up in the field and at least start the run with the chance to acquit myself well.

Through T2 with a bit of faff getting my shoes on but again, perhaps costing me 20 or 30s max. I had resolved as part of my plan 18 months ago to practise these and get as fast as the best but that had fallen by the wayside as my running consistency failed.

Now it was into the unknown. It was baking hot and I had buried myself on the bike so would I be able to run the full distance and if I could, at what pace? The first km felt sluggish, so I was pleasantly surprised to see 4:33 come up on my watch. If I could chug along at that pace then I felt sure I would be in the top half of the field. The next km was 4:28 and there it stayed as my confidence grew and I slowly started to believe I could execute a decent run and perhaps get higher up in the field. 

The heat started to take its toll on all racers but its something I have become accustomed to dealing with in my longer distance races, so whilst others started to slow I continued to churn out the kms and ended up with an 4:24 average.

I had no real idea where I was in the field when I crossed the line but I thought I exited the water around 20^th and had passed people on both the bike and the run and had not been passed by anyone. I was astonished and thrilled to learn that I had come in the top 10 despite the obstacles I had to navigate on the way to the start line, it was beyond any expectations. 

When I first came into triathlon, I had quickly done some of the GB team stuff and I had tried a few times to qualify for the world champs at this distance, but the competition was just too strong. I resigned to being a good long distance athlete and was happy at having success at that so you could say this was the culmination of 20 years of trying at standard distance triathlon!

So that’s a wrap for now, the winner took 5 minutes out of me on the swim and 3 minutes on the run. My A pan would have seen me take at least 2 minutes out of him on the run but I suspect his swim would always have been too strong for me to get the win. Back to long distance biking it is!