Saturday 19th May was my second attempt at qualifying for the Glasgow Triathlon European Championships, sprint distance.
I'd tried back in September 2017 and got a ranking of 109%. With 60 athletes trying to get 25 places, my odds weren't really that high. So I was approaching this race with caution, and not being an 'A' race, didn't put too much emphasis on the event. Being a sprint, its short and fast, and with a qualifying Olympic distance 'A' race in 2 weeks time, I was happy just to see how I fared in the field of something realistically out of my reach.
That didn't mean I didn't stress over it, nor have rubbish nights sleep the two days before, and a migrane aura the day before - all working against a half decent race. So I got up early, drove to Nottingham on the morning of the event, and arrived with a good 90 minutes spare to register and rack.
200 women went off at 10:15 for the 750m swim in the rowing lake. I can safely say I would much rather be ontop that lake than inside it! It was the most hideous triathlon swim I have ever done. I couldn't breathe or see, and was being elbowed, kicked, jostled and pushed for the first 500m. I had to do breastroke (something I haven't done for 10 years in a race) to get my breath back, and could feel myself moving further and further down the pack. At one point I was ready to roll on my back, put my hands up and give up the whole thing. I also thought 'if this is what the EU Champs is like, I don't want to be there'.
But I carried on, got some sort of rythmn in the last 200m and have never been so pleased to get out of the water!
Feeling despondent, I transitioned as quickly as I could and got on the bike. 4 laps of the lake, no drafting allowed, and lots of leap-frogging with similar-paced athletes. I managed a steady 34kph throughout. Happy with that, it's almost what I've done in time trials with no bends or corners. 35kph would have taken an extra 30s off my time, which I could probably save on transition somewhere!
Onto the run. I set off at 4:27 min/km. WAY faster than I could sustain. So I mentally gave myself a talking to, to slow it down and succeeded in speeding up for the next Km! Feeling good I maintained a 4:27 pace throughout, finally running the best 5k I've ever ran. Amazing.
So, despite a terrible start to the race, I ended up in 5th place in my age group, out of 28. This MAY get me a qualifying place as the lady in 2nd wasn't trying to qualify which means my position is 4th.... as far as I understand. But the dark art of BTF age group qualification eludes me, so I will have to await the official results from Triathlon England, and try not to get my hopes up!
I'd tried back in September 2017 and got a ranking of 109%. With 60 athletes trying to get 25 places, my odds weren't really that high. So I was approaching this race with caution, and not being an 'A' race, didn't put too much emphasis on the event. Being a sprint, its short and fast, and with a qualifying Olympic distance 'A' race in 2 weeks time, I was happy just to see how I fared in the field of something realistically out of my reach.That didn't mean I didn't stress over it, nor have rubbish nights sleep the two days before, and a migrane aura the day before - all working against a half decent race. So I got up early, drove to Nottingham on the morning of the event, and arrived with a good 90 minutes spare to register and rack.
200 women went off at 10:15 for the 750m swim in the rowing lake. I can safely say I would much rather be ontop that lake than inside it! It was the most hideous triathlon swim I have ever done. I couldn't breathe or see, and was being elbowed, kicked, jostled and pushed for the first 500m. I had to do breastroke (something I haven't done for 10 years in a race) to get my breath back, and could feel myself moving further and further down the pack. At one point I was ready to roll on my back, put my hands up and give up the whole thing. I also thought 'if this is what the EU Champs is like, I don't want to be there'.But I carried on, got some sort of rythmn in the last 200m and have never been so pleased to get out of the water!
Feeling despondent, I transitioned as quickly as I could and got on the bike. 4 laps of the lake, no drafting allowed, and lots of leap-frogging with similar-paced athletes. I managed a steady 34kph throughout. Happy with that, it's almost what I've done in time trials with no bends or corners. 35kph would have taken an extra 30s off my time, which I could probably save on transition somewhere!
Onto the run. I set off at 4:27 min/km. WAY faster than I could sustain. So I mentally gave myself a talking to, to slow it down and succeeded in speeding up for the next Km! Feeling good I maintained a 4:27 pace throughout, finally running the best 5k I've ever ran. Amazing.
So, despite a terrible start to the race, I ended up in 5th place in my age group, out of 28. This MAY get me a qualifying place as the lady in 2nd wasn't trying to qualify which means my position is 4th.... as far as I understand. But the dark art of BTF age group qualification eludes me, so I will have to await the official results from Triathlon England, and try not to get my hopes up!