This is WAY overdue, so I’ll (unusually) keep it brief!

Challenge Barcelona is an ironman distance race and was held for the first time this year in the first weekend of October. And it ROCKED! With a deep European pro field, and a flattish but windy bike course, this was going to be a lot of fun.

The swim was steady and pleasant. A bit of time out of the pool due to injuries from Trans Rockies hadn’t been the end of the world: rib was absolutely fine on race day, and ankle flexibility returning well. As ever, the Aquasphere wetsuit was a joy to swim in and easy to get off in T1, so I have no excuse to explain how I spent nearly 3 minutes in transition, except to say that the volunteers were very friendly! I’d managed to finally work out what was up with the bike at IMUK, and having fixed the brake/dodgy tire side wall combo (with a rather overdramatic but well timed ‘BANG’ at the doorway to the CMR bike shop a few days earlier), the Trek TTX was riding like a dream again. The aid station drinks were a little weak, and there was no evidence of coke, so I was riding a little light on calories and caffeine free, but put in a solid 4:46 split. Into my Newtons and onto the run (again caffeine free!) I put in a 40min 10km on the first loop, but then started to slow up a little… 42 mins on the second, I’ll not go into the next two – needless to say, I had to walk a couple of aid stations towards the end to get in food and fluids and ended up finishing a little disappointed at being a couple of minutes over my 3 hour marathon ceiling.

8:53 put me 19^th in the pro race (over 40 MPROs), but its good to be consistently seeing solid times again. Other pleasing things about the race: I got over my issues with two piece tri kit – the Sugoi two piece fits me perfectly so no tan belt/burn at the end of the day J ; Octoberfest tent was right next to transition… perfect planning from the organisers!

Thanks to Chris and Wookie (and Carli) for being great travel partners!

Next up: IMArizona!