On Saturday the serious contenders were myself and my two IRC partners Connor Delaney and Sean Watson and it was certainly close in the swim with just the thickness of a wetsuit between us. With the 3 of us used to doing the major national events that now see us cycle on tarmac the 3 of us found the grass bike course hard going, but after following the slipstream of Connor on the first few laps the announcement of being warned for drafting spurred me on to attack on one of the up slopes and take the race on from the front and get myself a reasonable lead. The decision not to wear cleats on just a 7k ride also helped in ensuring my transitions were quick and this left me with me in a comfortable position on the run to lead Connor and Sean home in 2nd and 3rd to claim the Eastern Region Championship Race title.
Hopefully all 3 of us will have a good summer of training and rest so we can both collectively as the Eastern Region team and individually do well at the IRC in early September.
On to Sunday and the relays as the youngest team in the race we knew that the swim and run would favour us, but could we stay in contention on the bike leg? The fact that the Captains Table team from TSE brought in a ringer to contain our threat showed that although a fun event, there was a serious competitive element to the race as well, and I found that out early on in the swim. After Adam Edwards strong first leg had us in contention at the handover I rankled my fellow TSE teammate from the Captains Table team by diving ahead of him over his shoulder on entry which saw 10 yards of elbows and legs flying( as an adult he should be ashamed of himself) as we jostled for position, but there was no way I was giving in and my youth won through. Leading us into first place, Jens also had a strong swim leaving us well positioned in first position out of the swim, but then came all the adult males on their expensive machines who somehow find enough time to do some serious training on their bikes and it did not take long before we were pegged back and overtaken by 3 groups who had 3 strong bike legs that pushed us back into 4th and even this position was under threat but some consistent runs from the 3 of us, saw us see of those behind and cut the deficit on 3rd place marginally but in any event 4th out of 90 teams was a good effort in what was an enjoyable event.
Now a little bit of a lull before the London and the Hyde Park Aquathlon
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