British Paratriathlon
Championships, Liverpool 10 August 2014
At the race briefing the
night before the race there was the warning of possible 40-50mph gusts from the
impending storm and the possibility of the race having to be altered to
aquathon or duathlon. It was expected though and we had enough warning of
weather problems all through the week so wasn’t a surprise. The transitions and
water exit was a surprise though, just ridiculous for my category there being
both leg and arm impairments it changed the race completely! It was the way it
was though and myself and Phil who was helping me in transition had a look over
everything after the briefing and completely changed the planed transitions we
had practiced. The morning of the race as with most of my races no nerves, just
very calm and calculating.
Swim 12:53 Including getting up stairs after water exit
After getting in the
water and making my way over to the swim start I made sure to position myself
by two of the fastest swimmers so I could get a drag off them on the start. I
didn’t stay with them for more than 20m and dropped back into a smaller pack
that I just sat on the heal of the front guy till the last 200m or so when I
put a big effort in to get myself a good position coming into the water
exit handlers. On the exit the two water
handlers got either side of me and I hoped up the steps to pre transition where
I had decided as it was such a long way into T1 to put my running blade on
rather than the cycle leg as normal, it was just to fare to run on cycle leg.
It wasn’t the smoothest of wet suit removals but was okay and got my running
blade on okay.
T1 3:55
Phil ran in with me to
T1, it was such a long way though through corridors down steps and seemed to go
on forever, it was under the building and think it was the car park normally.
When I reached my bike I put my helmet on grabbed my bike and rather than
putting the cycle leg on ran to the mount line which was up and down more
slopes and outside on the road. I crossed the mount line, my brother had run up
with me holding the cycle leg and cycle shoe, I put them on and was off.
Bike 33:23 Included taking off run leg and putting on cycle leg and
shoe after mount line so happy with time
Out and back two lap
course so really good to try and chase down people and felt so strong on the
bike and have only been riding this one for about two weeks. I was making up
time on the guys in front but not as much as I had wanted. Although wet surface
the weather had held off just enough and just had some light shows and was just
really loving being on the bike!!!
T2 3:04
My brother, Phil again
was a star and had stayed at the mount/dismount line ready with my run leg and
extra sock I use for that leg socket. I was worried coming to the end of the
bike that I hadn’t told him to stay there and would have to run down the ramp
in the cycle leg. I swopped my legs over in pre transition, gave my brother the
cycle leg and we headed down into transition, Phil allot faster than me! I took
it a little steady running down the slope with my bike into T2 but still
managed to pass a couple of age groupers. Dumped my bike with Phil to rack, run
shoe on while Phil took helmet off and I was off back up and down through the
car park and out onto the run.
Run 20:59
The run was okay but
still need to be allot quicker, the technique felt allot better and more
relaxed than it has done in previous races though. I didn’t appreciate the
cobbles on the course and just wasn’t running blade friendly, it was just a
case of dancing across them rather than running and was glad we only crossed
them twice for a couple hundred meters. A bit of cat and mouse with another BK
amputee, Steve was fun though and definitely getting stronger every week, I
just kept injecting pace out of corners.
Well done to all the
other competitors across all the categories, it was a tough oneJ A massive thanks to my
brother Phil, for driving up there and for being my handler in transition, just
make a brilliant team. I was aiming to medal but more improvements still
needed, 6th out of not sure how many with the new category but okay
and I gave it all I had on the day, I will get there!!! A big thanks also to
Ashford Tri Club, my coach Paula George VO2 Coaching, sponsors Blatchfords,
ALT, Lankelma, Podplus, CAF and British Triathlon.
adrianheathfieldparatriathlete.webs.com
