Winning is starting to become a habit I like!

1st Darren Treadaway 02:00:43
2nd Andrew Forth 02:06:08
3rd Steve Osborne 02:07:53
4th Howard Wimpory 02:09:50
5th Mike Jubb 02:10:33

277 Finishers

This one is long over due after having to run around like a mad man sorting out all my loose ends before heading off to sunny Texas (more on that later).

The plan here was to have one last run out before the big one two weeks later. I changed my focus before hand slightly towards my swim which to be honest ive neglected a bit this year as the focus has been geared more towards Ironman and i'm pleased to say it worked nicely.

The start was a mass start of around 277 athletes which I prefer because its a simple race in that first past the post wins. With quite a wide start I managed to get clear water and off to a good start. I managed to stay on the feet of the leaders and in sight of the lead canoe until the turn around point where I lost contact but I exited the swim around 40 seconds down so this was a job well done.

A swift transition and out onto the road, I managed to slip my chain off so had to stop and put it back on by hand, no big deal a few seconds lost. I managed to ride through to 2nd place by the end of the first mile and felt strong, the current leader took me a little longer to catch but by the end of lap 3 just before half way I had taken the lead. By this point the wind was getting really strong and riding the disc wheel was a mistake as I nearly got blown back into the lake! I backed off a little on the next few laps so as not to make any silly mistakes with the wind getting stronger and stronger.

Into T2 and I couldn't find my running shoes! school boy error number 2! by now the 2nd placed athlete was into T2 but I was off and decided to put the boot in for the first lap of the run and see what he had in the tank but he didnt respond so once I knew it was in the bag I ticked over for the rest of the run hoping not to tax the legs too much with the big race in a couple of weeks looming. In the end I won by just under 6 minutes so a nice confidence booster. Fellow tri force athlete Mike Jubb is clearly coming into form again running into 5th place with the fastest run split of the day. I was off to celebrate with a large slice of chocolate cake and coffee with training buddy Jez Cox who had just won the Maidstone Duathlon on the same morning.