Hello and thank you for coming to read my blog! I must start off with a huge thanks to Tom Riches who very enthusiastically volunteered to drive us both to Middlesbrough just to complete in an hours worth of racing! The aim for this race was to warm up for the European Sprint Championships on August 11th and also attempt to qualify for the 2019 Sprint Triathlon World Championships. So if everything went well, I would be killing two rather big birds with one stone here! Anyway we started the 5 hour journey on Saturday morning and arrived in Redcar at around 2pm. The weather was rather unpleasant, strong winds and constant rain and it was only supposed to get worse ahead of the race! We roughly familiarised ourselves with the course and then headed to our separate Airbnb’s to sort our kit out and have a quick nap. When our fellow Flying Monk teammates, Sam and Martin arrived, we went around the route analysing the corners and racing line. The main problem we faced, was not knowing whether the race would include the swim or not. The RNLI would be making the call on Sunday morning meaning we wouldn’t have much time to prepare for a duathlon if that was the case. We registered and collected our race packs then went out for dinner at a lovely little restaurant where I had Cheesy Nachos and Spaghetti Carbonara as we talked tactics about tomorrow’s race. An early night was due so we headed back to our accommodation where I spent a good hour stretching and visualising the race before hitting the sack. 6am came around quickly, I completed my morning stretching routine, had 2 bowls of porridge with a banana. Tom came and picked me up and then we headed to the race start. Everyone was still unsure about whether we would be racing a triathlon or a duathlon but we set up transition hoping for the former and got ready to hear the briefing. 10 minutes later we were given the details - 750m sea swim in 14 degree water, 20km draft legal bike (4 laps) and then a 5km run (3 laps). The conditions still looked terrible but at least it was the triathlon we were expecting. I was very very excited to be racing again! My second triathlon of the season, I’d done some quality training and felt in great shape. In the 35 days since Cardiff I’d lost 3.9kg and I was feeling fast! The female athletes set off and the weather was grim, but on the plus side Michelle Dillon was racing so it was nice to watch someone who knows what they are doing!! Before long, it was our time to start. I had completed my long and very specific warm up (including 10 minutes of skipping which I would hugely recommend to anyone) and was then jogging down the sand to the start area. I was wearing my new Zone 3 Vanquish Wetsuit for the 3rd time and also had a new pair of goggles provided by Jason Tait at South West Swim. (Apparently the pros all wear a new pair each time they race to reduce fog - or something like that!). I dived into the waves to acclimatise and boy was it cold. My face was very sensitive to the temperature and I considered pulling the plug on the whole thing for about half a second. I then walked out of the sea and joined the line of roughly 200 people all wanting to get into a good bike place. A short countdown and we were off, I sprinted the 20m down the beach and dived straight into the feet of the person in front of me which opened up my goggles and loads of water got in. I decided to risk my life by standing up to re-adjust them before starting again. Luckily no one came into the back of me and I was able to get going. We had a tight turn at the first buoy, followed by what was supposed to be a 650m swim and then another turn before running up the beach. My toes were cold, I’d been beaten by the huge waves and flailing arms but I loved it! Without a doubt my favourite swim ever! I exited the water and looked at my watch, 7:47. Wow I must’ve been swimming fast. And what about that guy about 100m up ahead?! (yes - it turned out the course was about 200m short). A long run up the beach followed before we entered transition where I very unsuccessfully tried to quickly take my wetsuit off. I would’ve preferred a pair of shackles. I had tapped Reece Ashfield on the shoulder as I passed him on the way in and said “Hurry up Reece”, he then repeated the favour as I was trying to pull the wetsuit off my ankle. Out on the bike course and I was alone. Very alone. I could barely see anyone up ahead and I had no idea what was behind. I just cycled as fast as I could, hoping I could catch someone. A solo lap and a half followed before I was caught by a big group who I worked fairly well with to complete the remaining laps. I definitely held off the speed here, only putting in occasional efforts because I needed my legs to be as fresh as possible to run. The bike was by far the toughest part of the race due to the conditions. Had it not been draft legal, it would've been a real struggle. The winds were topping out at 50mph and the rain was very relentless. Although most of the course was sheltered, when you were open to the conditions, you could really feel it! Approaching T2 with 200m to go, I removed my shoes and prepped to jump off the bike. I came in waaaay too fast and practically broke my heels landing and trying to run at 30kph. I then quickly found my transition spot, left the bike and helmet, chucked on my shoes and ran out of transition as fast as I could. Now was the real make or break situation. I would either absolutely nail the run and be very happy with myself. Or bonk out like at Cardiff (Blog here) and that would be the end of it. Luckily my legs held well and I was starting to overtake people. I knew for this first lap, that all of the men I overtook, would put me one place higher in the finishers. I was setting my sights on all of the runners I could see and maintained an attacking pace, picking them off one by one. As a rough estimate, I overtook 9 people and didn’t get overtaken once. My watch clocked 16:57 for the 5km, but there was still 500m to go! I put on one final surge and crossed the line 6th overall and 4th in my age category. Automatic world championships qualification and a result I was chuffed to bits about. I hung around in the finish area to chat to some of the other lads. Unfortunately for them, one of the Loughborough Uni competitors had punctured in our bike group, and another slipped over on a run corner. It could have been a completely different result if those misfortunes hadn’t happened. Well done to Tom Riches for having a cracking race and going very fast. To Felix Wernham for almost beating me (he did at Cardiff so were 1-1 now) and to Reece Ashfield for having a superb run. Pro's - I had a strong run, I had no injury problems, my transitions were solid (other than the wetsuit removal) and I qualified for the Triathlon Sprint World Championships. Cons’- Weather was terrible, run course was possibly the worst one I’ve ever done, 3 laps of 4 dead corners where you had to completely stop to get around them, including one which was covered in mud. And the finish…… they couldn’t put a finish chute or tent up because of the wind, which is understandable, but all we got was a medal and a cup of water. Poor value considering I had paid £70 to enter this race – a handful of snacks at the end would have been welcome! To conclude, I have to give a huge thanks to my sponsors without whom there is no way I would've been racing this weekend, let alone qualified for the World Championships. To Sarah Fellows @ Dyer St Chiropractic who has literally got me back up and running faster than ever post injury. To Jason Tait at South West Swim who has spent a lot of time improving my swimming and getting me back to racing speed. To LPSEVENTS and Pedal Potential for funding my love of triathlon! And to Katie Synge who has coached me back to fitness and is still working on getting me as fast as possible! Finally to my swim/cycle/run teams- ZOOT ATHLOS racing team Performance Cycles Cirencester Athletics Club The Flying Monk Triathlon Club To keep up to date with everything I else I am getting up to throughout the season, including the European Triathlon Championships in Glasgow on the 11th August, check out my social media pages- Facebook page- Luke Campbell Triathlon Strava- Luke Campbell Triathlon Twitter- @lukecampbell246 Instagram- @lukecampbell246
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April 2019
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