The road to Maui

Triathlon seems to "run" in my family, not necessarily immediately obvious, but it's in there somewhere. I have always been active and that is due to my family and being encouraged to take up a variety of sports as a kid, so the blueprint was always there. This of course doesn't mean that its been a perfect transition into the discipline of 3 (especially when it comes to swimming) but it did give me a great start. At the end of my second year of tri, it feels hugely satisfying and quite daunting to say that I've been to a world championships in a hugely competitive sport, smiled the whole way through and  after a few weeks off, already feel ready to jump into the next years training so that I can try and do it all over again!

Having a large family is great, especially when most are older than you as it means you have lots of role models to look up to and try to copy. So when a few results in triathlon from my cousins started to appear it caught my attention. It wasn't straight away that I started, the fear of the swim put paid to that, but it was something that I couldn't ignore. Eventually I pulled my finger out and signed up to the 2013 Blenheim Palace sprint tri, and I'm so glad I did. The Blenheim Palace tri may only be a sprint but its an enormous event, with crowds lining the transition area, the 'lovely' 400m run up the hill from the swim and then the final stretch of the bike an run. The fact that it's set in the private grounds with traffic free roads and amazing scenery, kind of spoils you and makes you think that every tri should be like this! I was well and truly hooked and ready to do another one, unfortunately a crash in a road race put me out for a month or so, but meant I was even hungrier when the next few races came round. My final race of the season was the Xterra England sprint. My background is mainly in XC mountain biking so where I lose places in the swim, I tend to make them up on the bike and hold on for the run. This is even more true when it comes to Xterra as some triathletes bike handling skills can be questionable and meant I came home in a very happy 14th place and also bitten by the Xterra bug. I entered the Championship race for 2014 as soon as I could and couldn't wait to give it a go.

Vachery Sprint- 2013

After a long, cold winter of training (including my first half marathon raising over £500 for Crohn's and Colitis UK) it was time to start the season again and this meant we were off to Blenheim. Another great race, a little colder this time due to the rain that only stopped as I crossed the finish line but 6 minutes better this year and happy to be racing again. Another sprint followed at Marlow, a nicely run little event with a few large hills, but then it was time to take on an Olympic distance event. The bike and run were never going to be a problem, it was the swim that held the fear. A lot of time was spent in the pool training for the first one which was to be at Eton Dorney (nice and flat!) and it seemed to pay off. The swim was 2 laps, the first lap felt great and I started to struggle towards the end of the second, but I made it round! Not much happened on the bike and run, its pretty flat and windy at Dorney, but I finish in 2hrs 34mins and was satisfied with my time and the day. Next up was the London Triathlon, another huge event but lacking something for my liking. Perhaps it was just the course set for the Saturday that just felt like you were riding around the car park, rather than the Sunday course that headed further into London, however the swim in Docklands was quite impressive and the sheer number of people in one place was cool, but it wasn't an event that had me ready to go back and do it again.

Then it was the one it felt like I'd been waiting forever for, Xterra England, especially as there was a point where it was going to be cancelled as the organisers had back out! I had set it down as an experience gaining event as I wanted to qualify for the Xterra worlds the next year. However after an average swim, a bike that I didn't want to end as the course was great fun (plus a fly over from the red arrows felt really special) and a run on the edge of cramp, I finished and was high enough up my age group ranking to be in with a chance of qualifying for the Worlds. To be honest, at this time it hadn't even crossed my mind that I could be going, I thought the space was gone as there were some quick guys there. Until 1 month later that I received the email saying that I had a roll down space! I laughed nervously for a bit, checked it was real, went a bit quiet and then realized what I'd done, I had qualified for the Xterra World Championships! I was a bit of a giddy mess for the rest of the day, which doesn't really help when you're at work, but people seemed to understand :)

Xterra England- 2014

I had planned on winding down the season from there, not ramping it up, so the nice relaxing week away to Cornwall that was booked with my girlfriend (Hannah) and the dog (Harvey), turned into the perfect training camp. Hilly runs with Harvey and bike rides to no-where a plenty, with relaxing evenings with the feet up watching series after series of Breaking Bad with Hannah were just what I needed to kick on. The weeks when we returned and trying to book everything ready for the trip were stressful but well worth it. Hawaii is an amazing place to visit and race in, but I'll tell you more about that next time...

Take it easy
Tom

Harvey after one of our Cornish runs