I’ll keep this one brief! After my last epic report from the Nove Colli double marathon, it was back to triathlon in beautiful Dorset in the South West of the UK. The Saturday night before the race was stormy, bouts of torrential rain and full on gale winds. We went for a quick dip in the sea to try out the six foot swell – it was more like body surfing than real swimming, but was very good fun. The point of this was to try out the new Aquasphere Icon wetsuit in real open water conditions. Having received it earlier in the week, I’d not yet swam in it in earnest.

Race morning was a gift. It seemed like we were in the eye of the storm. It was relatively calm and blue skies above seemed very temporary in the face of banks of grey clouds around us in all directions. Fingers crossed that the weather would hold.

Swim start came around quickly enough. Confident that the new Aquasphere would do the job, and seeing the flat water ahead, I started at the front of the elite wave start. Despite the buoys drifting a little (the swim seemed about 400m long), the swim was comfortable, and I settled into second place sitting behind a swimmer who seemed to be going for it at the front of the pack. We lost the rest of the pack and gained a substantial lead. At the final buoy, I moved past the guy ahead – it turns out he was a relay member, hence why he was going full pace, and exited the water in the lead.

Onto the bike I remained ahead for a fair way. But I wasn’t feeling very strong on the bike. In the TT position, my legs were still feeling the double marathon from a fortnight before, and it felt like my engine had dropped out. To add to this I accidentally jettisoned a powerbar and a couple of gels in a rather uncoordinated attempt to eat on a corner, so I knew I was down 400 kcals for the remainder of the ride. Unable to push past a hard cruise, I had to let a few of the other elites past, unable to respond. Coming off the bike I was in 7^th place, and dropped to 8^th within a few kms of the run as one of the Optima guys ran past. By the second lap of the run, I had warmed into things, and was running well, managing to pull back to 5^th for the finish. Overall I took 6^th as someone from a later wave put in a fast time.

All in all, not a bad half IM effort for a couple of weeks into base and after a heavy few weeks. It gave me a chance to try out the new kit – the Sugoi team race kit is fantastic and the Aquasphere Icon is faultless.