Waht I was doing 6years ago

I thought I would post a blog today because I was reminded of what I was doing 6years ago, I was working as a bank clerk in Kingston, Surrey, UK(this was the biggest endurance test of my life, working fulltime in a job I pretty much hated and surrounded by people I had nothing in common with, well my next job as a call centre operative for a DIY store was possibly tougher!).

I was training in any spare time I had and dreaming of winning races and being a fulltime triathlete.

Now I’ll be honest, I was a long way from winning any money in any races, maybe the odd 10th place every now and then in a bigger race or a gift voucher for winning a local race.

So to now be a proffesional triathlete actually earning enough money to live on, and working towards achieving goals I have only dreamt of, which are now becoming realistic! Well that is a dream for me and to be doing this with Bella. Well live doesn’t actually get much better than that!

3rd at Singapore 70.3

So this time I had a good swim. I was leading at the first turn bouy, which is always a good sign, I then sat on Reinaldos feet and annoyed him alot for the rest of the swim, sorry buddy:)

Onto the bike and I just wasn’t going anywhere, i felt a bit better on the bike towrads the end of the ride, but in total the bike ride was a bit crap!

Then onto the run and I was atleast 6mins down on the 4 guys ahead off me, so I thought I would have to run pretty good to just hold onto 5th and get some money.

I did what the boss said and enjoyed my run in the sun:) I went under the humidity for the first lap then tried to push a bit harder, with about 6km to go I could see 4th place, which gave me a boost, I went straight past him. Coming into the stadium with 1500m to go I thought I had 4th and was fairly pleased, but I heard that AJ wasn’t far ahead so I kep pushing, then I could see AJ, so I gave it all I had and just pipped AJ who I believe was seeing stars due to the heat.

So I cam in 3rd place overall. Not bad and a really great day all round for Team TBB with 1st and 3rd in both Mens and Womens races!

Now on to Bor Saen for 2months traing up to IM Florida.

2nd at Ironman UK

A Cold and Windy day in the UK was what greeted us come race morning, but at least it wasn’t raining!

Well I had a crap swim, I am blaming the cold water for my poor start, but anyway my swim wasn’t so good and I ended up coming out in 4th but then with a super fast transition was onto the bike in 2nd and 2mins down on Bryan Rhodes!

On the bike I felt ok, and rode solid but knew I probably wouldn’t see Mr Rhodes again on the bike but hoped I may see him on the run!

I came off the bike as I started it in 2nd with 3 guys just behind me.
Another quick transition and I was out and running 12mins down on Rhodes. I was running with Scott Neyedli, and we were running quite well together, after about 6miles the gap was down to 8mins and we then knew there was a chance of chatching Bryan.

At this stage I thought I could out run Mr Neyedli, as I have in all races previously, he was to surprise me though, with some very strong running on the uphills, that really sapped my strength, I had a little blip with running out of fuel a bit and struggling for a couple of miles untill the gels I swallowed down kicked in, once they had the gap was over 2mins, bugger!
In the end I finished just over 2mins down, who knows with a bit better fueling I could have pipped mr Neyedli, but very well done to Scott, he really raced very strongly and took away a great win.

I am very happy with 2nd, and I know, with more time and hard work I can swim bike and run alot better.
Next race is Singapore 70.3 then some solid work towards IM Florida on 3rd November:)
Thanks for reading.StephenPosted in General Comments Off