European Long Course Championships 2009; Prague

Not a good day in the office!

Cycling to the event was great it managed to give me a chance to focus. However arriving at the site to find them still setting up transition with the race starting in 2hrs was not a good omen.

A two lap 4k swim of the strong flowing river had me exiting after a tussle in 01:04:33 (54th) I was waiting for the cramp to ease slightly before helping myself 2ft out of the water whilst the main field were dragged out. I had managed to catch 6 female pros' by the end of the swim and put a good lead into the rest of the field who would exit another 10 minutes down in cases.

A quick transition in under 90secs without any cramp and I was out on the bike to begin the first of 6 19k laps (this makes 120k apparently). 03:50:33 (113th). Very hard, every lap there was a 4k climb of 165m. Not much really but in the heat and wind this soon took it's toll as lap times increased. What also did not really help was being stuck in the 11 with the only change happening at the front between the 53 and 39. This a before the shot obviously, I now have trees for legs! I managed to hold Jase until 45k and Sam just over 80k

Back into T2 and slowing alot more in the heat and suffering from the bike I felt dejected and walked out on to the run course managing only to run the first 10m to a feed station before walking the remaining 11k of the lap. With very little shade and 2.5 between feed stations my body had hit the wall. It would continue to hit it every so often as I contemplated quitting. Soldiering on I managed to run lap 2 with other competitors and leave my self unlapped by Jase and Sam on the run and 3k in front of Granty. The last lap was reduced to a walk run as the wall returned and this time I carried it the full 11k with Granty passing me with 3k to go. 03:34:45
(161st).

08:29:51 (139th) is a very slow time for me and I know it was hard but I should have been at least 1hr quicker. 24th In the 30-34AG is not bad. If I managed to go under 7:30 I would have only just got 16th I would have had to go under 7hrs for a top 10. With the winning time for the 30-34 AG being 6:02:38. However a shadow has been cast over the event as many reports have come back of people cutting the course short, missing bouys on the swim due to the current, cutting laps on the bike and even mising whole laps on the run. Great line up of talent coming through and even a chance to see the likes of Scott Neyedli and Fraser Cartmel racing and mixing it with the big guns of Hemming and Johnson even if it was briefly. Full results here

Anyhow well done to the young un's Granty (5th), Jase (6th) Sam (7th). The thing I will take away from this is I swam a top 50 and exited the water slow. With 27 of them being Elite thats a top 25 AG swim!

Give me some EROX love!