Today was my second elite start, at Strathclyde Park in
Scotland. Before I go any further, I have to say I’m really gutted with my
performance, positives and negatives to take away and as always plenty to work
on, but the overall outcome was disappointing. The swim had been cancelled due
to water quality, and the event became a duathlon. 1300m run, 21km bike and a
5km run. The start list was high quality, ITU athletes from Canada, SA,
Australia, elite duathletes (including the current world duathlon champ) also
decided to have a go once they heard the swim was cancelled.
We (Dad and I) flew to Scotland on Friday evening, staying
in a nearby hotel until race day on Sunday at 12.30pm. Saturday gave me time to
suss out the course, do a session on the bike and run route and look around.
The bike course was not flat, a couple of hills and a rocky road surface. The
second run was pan flat, a two lap out and back along the loch. After a morning
of briefing, registration, transition set up, the 25 or so elite women lined
the start line at 12.20, and waited for our start.
The first run was ferociously fast! An all out 1300m sprint
spitting those who couldn’t quite hang on out the back. A lead group containing
the Canadian and ‘proper’ duathletes quickly formed, and I sat in a chase pack
of about 8 not far behind. As we came into T1 you had to be quick, precise,
there was no room for error. Shoes off, helmet on, grab bike – run to the mount
line.
The pace at which the athletes set off from here was
incredible, and lack of experience at this level along with slight hesitation
saw me struggle to keep my spot in the pack. An ongoing hip injury didn’t help
me, as we set off up the first hill, the pain was triggered and I lacked power
to remain with them. This here, essentially, was the end of my race panning out
how I would have liked. The athletes I had targeted were in this chase pack,
and with only myself and one other cyclist behind working together, we had no
chance of catching the 8 strong chase pack any time soon. The gap on each lap
increased, and we waved goodbye any chance of getting them, instead targeting
athetes who had been left from the chase group, who had struggled to keep up with
their pace.
Although I am yet to see times, the 5km run felt good,
working to catch up the chasers, it was frustrating knowing that’s where you
should have been. A mental battle to keep going, but I got there. Overall
finishing position is unknown, hopefully we will see some results in the next
48hrs and I will update this.
Like Blenheim, my frustrating race came down to T1. This
time in a different way, but essentially lacking the speed and precision that
these more experienced athletes have in forming bike packs quicly. I have three weeks now until London (elite
start) on the 23rd of September, which is my last race of the
season, so I hope to bring it all together, and not have the same problems as
today.
However, despite coming away pretty gutted, disheartened and
kicking myself, I guess I have to look back at my first year in this sport and
be proud of what I have achieved. The competition in elite racing is high, a
million miles different from age group, todays case, it was world-class, and it
was a privilege to be racing against some of those athletes, as you can learn a
lot from it. At the start of this year with my empty race CV I didn’t expect to
get into any elite races, I swam over 6 minutes a year ago for 400m and last
month swam 5.15, I couldn’t bike 20km in under 40minutes and now I’m racing
with some of the best elites in Great Britain.
My times are still coming down, my motivation is high, and I’m not
running out of areas to improve on! So 2013…watch this space!
@KatieJSynge - Twitter
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