Virgin London Triathlon Olympic 2011 RACE REPORT

My race report...

After taking part last year and getting a time of 2h 29m 06s for my first olympic dist, i was determined to go back and try to beat it. My target was to beat 2h 25m but secretly wanted to beat 2h 20m but as it turned out , it went so much better...

SWIM - lesson learned from last year, start a bit wider and drift across when approaching the first buoy turn. It went to plan , and as because its along way to the first turn, i didnt get bumped or hassled by others. Made the first turn and 20metres later made the turn for the back straight. I made for the inside following the shortest route. Got thumped on head as a swimmer came across to me but apart from that it was a good swim. Came out a minute up from last year :-) ( have since found out , that the course was slightly longer as a lot of people have noted on forums that they all about 1m30s down on their normal swim )
SWIM 30min 10sec
Transition is a long run to the bike but once in, grabbed the bike and made way out onto course.

BIKE - First and only prob, my gps watch decided not to work :-( so had to go on heart rate and guess my speed. I was on the Westminster route which involved a short lap then a long lap up to Big Ben past Tower bridge and Tower of London on totally closed roads. The bike went like a dream and not being overtaken for the whole 40km.

Bike split 40km - 57min 05 sec ( fastest in age group which i was well chuffed with )

Back into Transition for the run

RUN - Consisted of 4 laps on a near flat route with the only bump which leads up to the excel centre to start the next lap. Watch was working now so had at least a idea of how i was going. With each lap it was getting more crowed on the run as others from waves started their run, so there was alot of dodging but all in all it went well. There was plenty of support from ' rent a crowd ' cheering everyone on , which helped all taking part. Onto the last lap and went as good as i could and finshed strong with nothing left in tank.
Run split - 42min 53sec

Crossed the line with a big smile having realised that i had beaten the 2h 25m target AND the 2h 20m target.

WAS amazed to see the time of 2hr 15m 30s beating last year by 14 minutes ... cor bloody blimey ( or words to that affect without swearing ;-) HAHA )


Finshed 7th out of 357 in age


An amazing feeling knowing that after good training, losing the kilos and 18 months doing tri, you can get good results. Makes it all worth while :-)

For anyone who is unsure as to whether london is a great event, you will not be sorry to take part. Well organised on the day, lots of support from all there cheering you on and great commadarie between all the other athletes.

A going back next year to beat the time :-) be rude not too ;-)

Cheers Neil C

Excellent! Well done, Neil, and thanks for the race report, always interesting to hear how people get on

Karenx

Well done Neil! Thanks for posting, love reading race reports. How it is possible to cycle that fast I have no idea!!?!