D Day, my biggest race for 2011 was to represent Great Britain in the age group (35-39) Triathlon at the World Championships in Beijing. There were around 2200 athletes from 16 - 80 years, both men and women, abled and various degrees of disabilities. (To watch the Paratriathetes in their wheelchairs was amazing to see, and also the speed those guys get. I thought my TT bikes was fairly bling but in a practise session I was behind a guy doing around 27mph on the flat, he had dual Zipp Sub 9 disc wheels, and a sweet looking custom carbon wheel chair. VERY nice to see. Later that day, a friend and I cycled (sneaked in) with the pros as the police had closed off the roads just for them to check the course out, so that was fun (lots of people taking pics of us thinking we were pros ha ha).
The event was constructed for the 2008 Olympics thus the Chinese had not been tight in building a first class course, the road was like a race track and super smooth (however even though the 10km loop had barriers all the way around it still did
not stop stray dogs running out onto the course as a top under 23 woman who was leading her race, hit a dog and went flying....).
The event started with an opening ceremony 2 days before the race which was cool.
My race started at 6:50am in rainy, 10'C, 10mph winds and dam was it cold hanging around in our tri suits waiting for our wave to start (It was typical British April weather which the Ausi's and Brazilians did not like..). I made an amateur error and did not fix my google correct, thus after 2 swim strokes they filled up with water which is not good, thus I had to stop twice to clear the lenses and resulted in my worst timed swim all year. I looked forward to the TT part as it my stronger point and managed to over take a few guys (working off the anger of my poor swim). Going around the corners was super scary due to the slick surface and especially over the white lines in the road (a few twitchy moments). Some people were not so lucky and kissed the ground....
The run went well and as such posted my best run time ever, with no one over taking me. I finished 5th in my age group (around 35 starters from 8 different nations). Next year is New Zealand which would be cool, but as you need to self fund it yourself (although a lot of athletes were sponsored) I may give it a swerve and wait for London the year after.... I was very happy with my result and feel with a normal swim there was even a good chance to grab Bronze (but as with all races there is always the "could, would, should" debate after).
After the race, the pros showed us how to race. Their race is a little different in that the bike section is draft legal, thus they race like the guys on the Tour D' France i.e in a pack.. Ours we are not allowed to draft thus have TT bikes. GBR pros did well (best season ever) and as it was the final race in the Triathlon series, the GBR men were crowned overall 1 & 2 (Brownlee brothers) and the GBR woman (Helen Jenkins) crowned number 1. What put the cherry in my cake, was after the pro awards, World No2 walked towards me and I asked for a pic and he was joking that the award & bottle of Champagne was too heavy, so I offered to hold it. I nearly dropped his trophy, thus in the pic he looks worried...
Overall a great experience, but I am sure looking forward to ending this years race season after a little half Ironman next weekend, then hit the beers and come out on more shop Wednesday MTB rides!
Well done Gary.
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