Ok, this wasn’t how it was supposed to finish, the expectations Vs reality things kicks in here 🙁
I’m writing this blog with the 2023 season well & truly finished. I have no doubt people will say this is just a minor bump in the road (pun intended) but I’m gutted as this is not how I wanted this year to end. I should be celebrating my achievements for 2023 and yet here I am, back into the old mentality of ‘doom & gloom” pretty quickly.
I left the last blog with plenty to look forwards to, and let’s face it, there was!
The week after the Lido-To-Locks swim there was the Thames Marathon Swim from Henley to Marlow. This 13.5k swim was broken up by 4 locks/weirs that we had to get out of the water just before and get in just after. At this point we had an opportunity to have something to eat & drink – my favourite turned out to be Jelly Babies! Having (roughly) worked it out I had consumed over 50 of the little buggers, alongside some bananas, malt loaf and energy drink to get me from A to B in 3:18hrs! The pace was made to look good by a steady flow, especially after the 1st weir at 4.5km where things seemed to speed up a bit as compared to previous years (talking to other swimmers) where there was zero flow and things were a little harder & longer to complete a year previously.
There were some mini-battles in the swim, one guy towards the end was my “pilot fish” and lost my feet only to end up in a tree at the side of the river! But all in all I was pretty happy to have completed it having never completed something like this in the past & not knowing what to expect – which has its advantages. I think I might have a go again next year 🙂
Another week passes and it’s time for the Velo Club Baracchi 50-mile TT on the Bungay Bypass. This event also acted as the Eastern District Championships and our Beccles Triathlon Club 50 Champs, and as it was my idea to set up a championships within the club I felt duly obliged to turn up. I was a little apprehensive about this one, having won the scratch 10 & 25 mile champs in previous months I was acutely aware that someone might say I only set theses up to win myself. I did mention this to Suzy and a few friends and was set straight right away and told that nothing could be further from the truth – the reality was that this gave BTC members a different focus other than Triathlon and helped them with their overall goals and events later on in the year. I guess I overthink things a little bit too much and this then goes on to create conversations and thoughts that would never normally happen!
So back to the 50 – I hadn’t even set a pacing or nutrition strategy before the morning of the race and cobbled together a fairly sensible plan on power numbers and feeding during getting dressed and warming up – not something I would tell my athletes to do that’s for sure!
I set off, as first male rider, my preferred starting order as I have the open road road in front of me and no-one to chase down or be distracted by. I had asked the organiser for this and it seemed to have stirred up a few riders wanting to know why. Anyway, off I went, thanking the timekeeper and pusher-offer.
The course was a revised one, not taking in the roundabouts at Harleston and Stockton each end in previous years, this meant there would be no climbs either end of the course making it fairly flat but also meaning it was 3.8 laps instead of the old 2 lap course.
The wind was picking up each lap and towards the end it was getting more & more unbearable on the return leg into it, adding into that the fatigue that was now creeping in and things were definitely getting tough towards the end of the ride. My Wahoo bike computer had a preset timer every 20 minutes telling me to “DRINK!!!” so I wouldn’t forget – the last one at 2hrs never sounded, so I knew I was under the 2hr mark, but by how much?
Back to the HQ and sorting myself out before going into the village hall to see the results – 1:56:22! WTF! Happy doesn’t quite cut it as I’d never expect to do my 2nd fastest all-time 50 time on the Bungay Bypass. To celebrate our ride most of the BTC competitors went to a new local coffee shop where I had a triple shot oat latte and a Victoria sponge the size of a small Childs’ head!
In that moment of happiness and vulnerability I suppose, a fellow cyclist commented how on earth I could set a time like that whilst still not being able to walk without a crutch – they then suggested I was somehow lying and showing off – I didn’t know what to say so I said nothing & just smiled. Needless to say that moment of jubilation soon turned into me going home and mulling over that comment for the rest of the day (and a few days afterwards to be fair) thinking perhaps that’s what everyone else was thinking. Suzy was livid when I told her and to be fair she was a little surprised at me for not responding/retaliating at the time – I guess I’ve mellowed a little bit in recent years, people will think and believe what they want to believe, even with the facts they’ll choose what suits them – I have no control over their thoughts – that’s just people these days!
A week on and it’s showtime – Menen!
We arrived in Belgium on the Thursday afternoon after going through the Euro Tunnel, my son came with me in my car with Suzy and her mum going with Vicki who was competing on the Friday in the Aquathlon (1k swim/5k run). After we got to the event site we got a fair idea of the geography, had some “frites” as you do in Belgium and went to our hotel some 10km away in Kortrijk.
We watched Vicki get 4th place the next day, she led out of the swim and lost the 3 places in the run, in her admittance running training wasn’t really going at well, let alone well so she was pleased with her performance. Then focus turned to our race on Sunday…
The race started at 12:40 as opposed to the usual early morning race starts so this allowed for a little more civilised breakfast in the hotel and a less-rushed trip to the event to get parked and ready for the race. This extra time did give me more time to get nervous about the event, I’d rather just get there and get going but it is what it is. Into the race starting pens and a rolling start into the water – I prefer this to the “washing machine” that is mass-start racing, it allows me to start in my own space. Into the water and 300 upstream, before turning downstream to about 1200m to fight my way back upstream to the start/finish pontoon to get out into transition. Looking at the picture and videos of my son, Suzy’s mum and Vicki had taken of me in the water it was clear all technique had gone out of the window and I was simply scrabbing for water with my bare hands to get back onto solid ground! Into transition and what took most competitors 3 minutes to run through, I hobbled though in over 6 minutes, which put me on the back foot before I had even started the bike leg.
All in all I didn’t know what position I was in so it was simply to go into “TT-Mode” hoping to find the same form as I did in last weeks’ 50TT. So one-by-one I started picking off riders in town, using my “roadie” cornering skills before getting out into the countryside for those long wind-swept out & back roads. It’s fair to say the only riders who passed me were the elites who were on their 2nd lap as I was on my first lap. But I held a pace similar to them most of the way and once onto the 2nd lap I just consolidated the position I had gained by hitting the first lap (admittedly) too hard and picked off a few more riders before coming in to finish.
After consuming what seemed like my own bodyweight in wine gums I waited for Suzy to finish, and once she did I consumed a few more wine gums and we headed out to meet Cheryl, Vicki and my son. He was pretty excited to watch his dad compete in the European Champs – I was pleasantly surprised as most teenage boys would be doing anything else but spend time with their dad at that age! He was especially happy as it appeared I had came in 6th place….in Europe, and first British athlete – so that’s me auto-qualified for next years event. The smile went on my face as soon as I realised I was 2nd fastest on the bike and over the whole event I was 22nd fastest…in Europe on the bike. Suzy had also auto-qualified coming in 9th and 3rd Brit so looks like we’ll have a another go at the Europeans next year.
Another week on and I made a last-minute entry into The Big East Triathlon in Maldon Essex. I won this event last year by 8 minutes and looked to do the same after my performance in Menen the week before – I kinda fancied my chances. I entered it last-minute as it wasn’t a priority but as I was feeling good I thought “why not”.
I travelled down with Suzy to Essex, again a 1:50pm late start is quite rare but it was quite relaxed to get up at a normal time and be there well ahead of the start. I saw a few familiar faces there and got myself ready without stressing out too much about what could happen mid-race and knew that I had good form. Into the mass-start swim – not my favourite, no klaxon or gun/horn and everybody just started racing, I joined in a few seconds later – visions of that false-start at the Grand National many years ago springs to mind but we were off and they weren’t stopping us. The local yacht club seemed to enjoy sailing their boats in amongst us which was not for the faint-hearted if you were watching. And what I was grabbing when I was swimming I tried not to think about – especially when the national news keeps going on about what the water companies are pumping into our rivers at the moment! Anyway, out of the swim – and Suzy informs me I’m the first Red-Hat (Middle Distance Competitor) male out of the water – I was surprised as I was 2minutes down on last years’ swim time. So into transition and onto the bike.
This is where it ended…
Coming out of a very over-populated car park I hit an unmarked speed bump and was sent flying, landing backwards on my left shoulder. Being a typical cyclist there wasn’t time for ceremonies and I got up, put my water bottle back in, my helmet visor back on and carried on in order to assess the damage further down the road without losing time. I soon realised I couldn’t put any weight on my damaged left shoulder, it was creaking and very painful and unstable when I did so I decided to try & go on my Tri-bars and put most of my weight on the right hand side – pretty hard to do at speed and on bumpy roads. After about 45 minutes and coming round to complete just the first out of the three laps I decided to come back into transition admitting defeat. I was treated by first aiders with a triangle bandage to support my shoulder and after asking the organiser to be “downgraded” to the Olympic “standard” event I found out I got 3rd place and then was given entonox before being told to go to the local A&E department because of a suspected broken collarbone.
Suzy drove as I couldn’t and was in a lot of pain, and we arrived at Chelmsford A&E to what can only be described as a war-zone, surprisingly I was assessed and given pain-relieving medication within 30mins of being admitted, soon after x-rays confirmed a posterior dislocation of the shoulder, I don’t do regular injuries – I always go for the rare ones. They tried to relocate the should with me on the green kazoo (penthrox) but it wasn’t going in so I had to go into resuscitation and go under anaesthetic (fentanyl) so they could force it back in – whatever they did I’m very sore three days later – ribs and shoulder extremely sore & painful.
So that’s it – 2023 over & out!
I’m sure somewhere in the not to distant future I will reflect back and see what an amazing year I’ve had but I wasn’t ready for it to be over just yet.
I was supposed to race at Challenge Almere this weekend but all signs are pointing towards a 6-8 week recovery from this type of injury. I did contact Challenge about this last-minute crash and they pretty much said “tough”. It’s not what I expected from Challenge as they have always been flexible and understanding as compared with other brands such as Ironman who will just take your money & run. This is what separated them from others and why we choose them but Challenge are becoming more corporate and it’s such a shame. As Suzy said – it wouldn’t cost them anything to be nice & try to accommodate us, in fact it would keep us as customers if they were seen to try but this just stops us from being customers. Fair point.
Anyway – enough doom & gloom…
