European championships 2018 Hello and welcome to my blog. It is going to be broken up into two parts, the actual race (this one) and my lead up and preparation leading up to the event. Be sure to check out my social media (at the bottom of the blog) if you want to be notified about when I post! So on Thursday 9th August, we piled the car up with clothes and equipment, strapped the bike to the roof and then Mum, Dad, Ollie and I jumped in to start our 7 hour journey up to Strathclyde Park, Glasgow. We managed to break up our trip by stopping off at Lake Coniston in the Lake District. A gorgeous place where we could open water swim and tombstone (jump off rocks) into the lake. Perhaps not perfect prep for a big race but it’s an amazing experience. We arrived in at Strathclyde Park and I headed straight off to get registered and listen to the race briefing which was interesting but I knew a lot already as I had read all of the athlete information packs. It was fun to go because it meant that I could see some of my triathlete friends who I only see a few times a year. Friday came about quickly and it was time for the bike course familiarisation. The weather was pretty bleak so I took it steady going around with Triathlon Lee (Thompson) and also managed to catch up with some of the lads in my age group. I then racked my bike, which you have to do the day before ETU races, and headed off for some lunch. We returned later that evening to see the elite men’s race which was awesome to watch. Alistair Brownlee blew out in the last 3km of the run, Marc Austin came off his bike and Alarza had a phenomenal run making it a very exciting experience. Definitely fired me up a little bit. My swimming coach Jason Tait travelled up on the Friday to come and watch me (and some other athletes) so it was good to watch the elites with him and chat ahead of my race. Final kit check and then it was time for an early bed. 4:30am alarm clock and I was up and ready to go after 2 portions of porridge and a banana. Everything was set so we headed out the door. My race started at 7:00am and my age group (20-24) was racing at the same time as the u20’s. Our race involved a 750m lake swim, 20km non draft bike and a 5km run. All of it as fast as you could go. We arrived and I set up my transition. Big shout out to David Fryer-Winder for lending me his track pump to use. Bike shoes attached to the bike, talcum power was in the shoes and my legs felt fast!! I nailed an awesome warm up. 10 minutes of varied skipping, 5 minutes of jogging, 20 mins of a wide variety of drills. I was super pumped and ready to do this. My result at Redcar on the 29th July meant I was coming into this race with a decent swim, strong bike and a sub 17 5km off the bike. Ready to do some damage! All of the athletes in my 7am swim wave headed to the start line where everyone was supringly calm. We’re 5 minutes away from the start of the European championships but everyone’s making jokes about peeing in their wetsuit?! I managed to stay focused until Matthew Bailey turned up in a pink woman’s wetsuit! He had managed to leave his wetsuit and timing chip in the hotel so he had to hire one, sadly the only one available was quite bright pink and I couldn’t help but laugh. We got called into the water and had about 30 seconds to adjust to the chilly temperature before the start horn went off. I had made the brave decision to go absolutely balls out up until the first buoy to try and clear the mass of people that would be colliding around the 90degree turn. This worked for about 100m (where I was leading the race!!!) until I got swamped by everyone and sucked back into the pack of swinging arms and kicking legs. I got a small smack to the face resulting in my goggles filling with water. I quickly flipped onto my back to empty them before attempting to make up some ground. It took up until the last 100m for me to feel like I could get into a rhythm. Until BANG, someone’s heel caught me right in the eye, forcing my goggle into my eye socket and leaving me struggling to breathe. I don’t know why but I was just stunned and couldn’t breathe. It took me a few seconds to compose myself before I then went on to overtake the guy who kicked me and exit the water in 10:36. A very poor swim for this level of competition but considering I’d only been swimming twice a week for the last few months, I couldn’t really complain. Out of the water, the wetsuit was down to my waist and I was running over to transition. I easily found my bike, slid the wetsuit straight off and attempted to get my helmet and sunglasses off. Having an aero helmet makes it very hard to put it on quickly. Adding sunglasses to the mix made it harder. I threw the glasses on the floor and decided to go without. Picking up my bike and running over to the bike mount line, I threw myself onto the saddle and got cycling. The course was an undulating 3 laps with 2 dead turns and one 90 degree corner at the bottom of a very fast hill. I decided to ride the tt bike although if I had clip on bars for my road bike, I definitely would’ve used it to help with the technical parts of the course and the amount of climbing. A lot of my training had been focused on the bike so I really got going. Constantly attacking and trying to make up ground which was working. In all honesty, I wasn’t doing brilliantly. I was about 90 seconds down on the leaders and finding this hard. I didn’t feel hugely energised and the regular hills and corners made it hard to get into a rhythm. I kept reminding myself that there was still a lot of the race to go and I had time to make up some positions. I genuinely felt very sorry for the people I saw with punctures and mechanicals on the bike course. All that way to go down as a DNF. The sport is ruthless. I hammered the last lap and came into transition alongside James Hodgson, a good friend and very fast runner! I knew that if I stuck with him we could work together and do some damage. After one of the fastest transitions of the day, we hit the run together and it was brilliant! For about 200m... My calves cramped up instantly, complete lock out. I could only run on my heels, ruining my form and destroying any chance of getting into a rhythm. But I kept moving and really tried to pick up some speed. James just got further and further away and I was being passed by other athletes. Very frustrating! Time was passing very slowly, I was doing all I could to keep moving but it wasn’t enough. Eventually I managed to speed up a little but whenever a sharp hill appeared, it just sapped my legs of any energy. At the feed station Reece Ashfield came past (which added some fuel to the fire) so I grabbed a water bottle and squirted it at him as he overtook me. I desperately tried to hang on but a small hill left me gasping for breath. Could any more go wrong???? Luckily not, the rest of the race passed quickly and I even managed to sort out my technique and gradually increased speed for the finish line (and cameras). I crossed the line in 11th place. 10:36 swim, 34:20 bike, 19:20 Run. So what was I feeling? Disappointed. I am very happy with that result but I spent the rest of the day knowing I should’ve gone faster. Much faster. And what was this cramp? Lack of nutrition? Lack of fitness? Fatigue? I don’t know. But I can’t let it happen again. My year has been broken up with persistent injuries which took their toll when it came to it. All I know is that something is going to change ahead of the 2019 season and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t let myself down like this again. Of course I have to give a huge huge thanks to my amazing sponsors for their incredible support this season. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have even made the start line without their support so I am hugely grateful for everything they have done for me. Jason Tait at South West Swim has done huge work to my swimming. Getting me back up to a decent speed in such a short amount of time and making me fit ahead of the season has been a big job for him but he smashed it and I’m incredibly grateful. Sarah Fellows at Dyer St Chiropractic has fixed me up after loads of injuries. Rebuilding my running technique to make me more effective and giving me strengthening exercises to improve all round power. Katie Synge for being my over seeing coach for the last (almost) 2 years. She has had a lot of work trying to get me fully fit for this race and I would say it has been a success. Due to her experience as an athlete she knows exactly what its like to go through rehab which has helped hugely. I would definitely recommend the services of Jason, Sarah and Katie. They have been simply awesome for me and I couldn't thank them enough. I also have to thank, Pedal Potential for their great financial support over the year, assisting with the purchase and printing of my trisuit. As my first ever sponsor, I will always appreciate the work they have done for me. LPSevents who only started sponsoring me this year. They have provided some vital financial support which has helped me to travel, enter races and buy necessary equipment. They host and organised brilliant events all over Wiltshire and the surrounding area. Triathlons, duathlons, swims and runs. Would definitely recommend signing up to one of their events here. These two sponsors have really helped in my journey as an athlete and the impact they have made on my year has been phenomenal. Without them, none of this could've been possible. Finally the support from all of the people who have seen any of my social media posts over the last couple of weeks. I really have been blown away by the amount of positive comments and encouragement I have received. Hearing you all definitely makes it all worth it. 5,800 people saw my post ahead of the event on my Facebook page which only has 400 likes. Staggering statistics which I am very blessed to have. To keep up to date with everything I else I am getting up to throughout the season, check out my social media pages- Facebook page- Luke Campbell Triathlon Strava- Luke Campbell Triathlon Twitter- @lukecampbell246 Instagram- @lukecampbell246 Big love, Luke
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