A good summer so far and now for the Climax.......

.....So this is it the season's climax this weekends IRC competition in Houghton-le-Spring up in the North East where the best of the Tri Stars and Youth competitors compete for their respective regions and themselves, so in a way it is like a National Championship and as it is part of the National Super Series as well it counts for points for that as well.

Preparation as it is for everyone is somewhat disjointed for everyone due to holidays and the unwinding from school. From a race perspective things could not have been much better for me as I competed in the London and at Hyde Park in the National Aquathlon championships.

The size of the field in the docklands was a little disappointing but there was still a good few of the leading Youth series leaders competing so it made for a good race. I was really pleased with the swim coming out just behind my fellow HPU colleague  Connor, unfortunately though for both of us our lead did not last long on the bike and the early break cost us dearly, that said I still finished the bike section in a good position in 4th, the transition to the run was good and this propelled me into 3rd, till the turn I could feel the company of another runner on my back at which point he made his move but I managed to maintain close enough contact to out sprint him and regain 3rd spot and a position on the podium at the finish, which was a bit of a thrill at such a big event, especially with the presentation and the alcohol free champagne we had to open and spray around, but I really must practice how to open a bottle of champagne as I was a little left behind......

We then moved on to Hyde Park the following weekend and the National aquathlon championships. I was looking forward to this as it was both on part of next years Olympic course and it was taking part amid the Dextro ITU world championship event and that extra buzz probably helped me put to the back of my mind that this was an aquathlon and not a Triathlon and not my favoured event.

Once again I had a decent swim but this time found myself not coming out in the front as the shorter race saw a couple of others put a little more effort in than they would in a tri and so I came out 4th, still not badly placed but with a run that felt like a sprint from the start I could not see myself catching those in front. I did however catch one of those early in the run but was myself quickly hauled in by Sean Watson a HPU compadre and a couple of other London region competitors, although I did not let the later two get two far away and I started my sprint just ahead of the turn onto the final straight which caught both by surprise and allowed me finish strongly in 4th, It was  a shame I could not join Sean on the podium but I was still very pleased with my result which leaves me feeling pretty good ahead of the IRC's this weekend.

HPU is well represented with Sean Watson, Connor Delaney,  Molly McKenzie and myself forming part of the Eastern Region team and Kate Curran representing South East, hopefully we can all have a strong finishing event for the season.