Hever Castle Olympic distance

This was to be my first ever race at this distance, me and my coach decided that as Vegas didn't go as planned my legs hadn't had a hammering so this would be a chance see how I'm performing.

The race started on a cold foggy morning with water temps some 10Degs cooler than Vegas this was a shock to my system !!
The swim although cold and quite weedy seemed to go well and I was out the water and into T1 in under 28 minutes, there is quite a run uphill on wet grass (anybody who's been to Wimbleball will understand).

I exited T1 in a very quick time and was feeling ready to ride at Threshold for the 40km bike course, over the course of the season I've been under going testing and my threshold has been steadily climbing.

The Hever bike course is 2 laps which are far from flat and quite technical which makes it quite slow and not ideal for TT bikes, because this was a C race for me I opted for the full Time trial bike with disc and deep section front wheel, my coach prefers me to always train in the race position.

Over the Olympic distance I felt that I was at a disadvantage riding a heavy TT bike on a technical hilly course.

Although the uphills were tough the downhills and flat sections were fast, towards the end of the second lap I had managed to catch the wave in front of me. I entered T2 first in my wave, with a bike time of 1-10. A fast transition wasn't on the cards today as I opted to change into trial shoes to head out on the run.

The run heads out again around the castle grounds so the surfaces were mainly mud, gravel and fields which made for a challenging two lap course.

On the run I passed a number of athletes but as with any split start race it is difficult to know your position until the end! Run split was 42 minutes.

Upon crossing the line my girlfriend informed me I had no split times recorded so needed to keep hold of the timing chip for the organisers to investigate - not what you want to hear after two and a half hours of hard racing!

After some choice words with the timing people it was established the wrong chip had been given to me at the registration. Lesson learned, always check to see if there is a number on the chip and that it matches your race number!

Luckily Sarah was distracted at swim exit and didn't see me come out, so went to check in the timing tent... Otherwise times would have been thrown into the mass pot at the finish line.

All in all in it was a good local race and I finished in a time of 2-25 which was enough for seventh place overall. I was happy with this position as the top athletes were pros at this distance.

Thanks to all my sponsors for making this another great race:

Tony at A1 Multisport, Gary at Solo Supplements, Niccy at ProHealth, Charlie at Bonk Clothing, Tony at Larkfield Cycles, Tim at Compressport and of course my coach Ben Ward.