Llandudno Olympic race report

I had entered this event for one main reason, to get some valuable sea swim experience ahead of my main race (IM Wales) in September.  The challenging bike and run courses were an added bonus.  I had spoken to my coach leading up to the event and the plan was to ride to the race as not to miss out on the valuable long ride that I normally undertake on a Saturday.  This would of meant a 74 mile ride before competing, not ideal for a good result but it was to be treated as a long training day.  The week leading up to the event I had trained well at the beginning of the week including a 65 mile tempo ride and a hard 10k run session but as the week went on I had started to feel fatigued so decided to skip the ride to the event and have a few easy days to recover.

The race it's self had quite an unusual start time of 16.30 which was far more enjoyable than getting out of bed at daft o'clock to get in a cold lake.  The civilised start time enabled me to have a leisurely breakfast and drive down to Llandudno with the family at lunch time which pleased the ever supportive Wife.

I arrived slightly early to enable me to get all the necessary registration and kit preparation out of the way in time to watch friends compete in the earlier waves.

My wave start time soon came round and I made my way in to the water with my friend and training partner Carl.  It was a bit fresh with the usual "Ice cream headache" that comes from the sudden change in temperature, I swam out to the start line and it was soon apparent that the tide was starting to go out as I had to take several strokes just to stay in the same position.  I made sure this time I started right at the front with the quicker swimmers so as not to loose any time getting through the pack, although I knew I wouldn't be holding their pace but at least I would have clean water.

The siren sounded and we were off, I put in a quick burst and then settled into an nice easy tempo knowing the second lap would be tough swimming against the tide, so was conscious not to go off too hard.  The conditions were choppy but not too bad but the swell seemed to get worse on the second lap.  This is where my Ironman swim training paid dividends and I started to pass people.  The swim was soon over and I exited the water feeling nice and comfortable

Swim : 27.54

 The bike course was actually quite hilly, it was basically up and over the Great Orme 4 times with quite a steep climb made more difficult by quite a strong wind at the top, then a steep descent on the other side which saw me hitting speeds of 43mph on tight twisty uneven roads.  I settled into a steady pace on the first lap just so I could see how steep the climbs and descents were as I hadn't previously seen the course, I was then able to increase the pace.  In hindsight I think I took the first lap too easy but I didn't want to go to hard on the climb.  One of the differences from training for an Ironman event and racing the shorter distance events is the intensity so it was quite a shock to the system to be going hard for over 2 hours and I wasn't a 100% sure on how I would cope with this level of intensity.  I continued to build the pace throughout the bike and it was over before I knew it

Bike 1:08

I entered transition to hear the commentator announce I was in 6th place, as I racked the bike my friend Mark told me 5th and 4th weren't too far in front.  I knew the course was hilly but didn't know how severe the hills would be so decided to hold a solid pace but not go flat out. The course was flat for the first mile then it started to climb for the second and half of the 3rd mile then a steep down hill section to the turnaround point, where you retrace your steps. The first mile was solid at 6.03 min/mile pace and I could see 5th place just ahead of me as were started the first climb, I just kept the pace solid and soon went past him, 4th was now only a 100 metres in front and I had passed him on the descent and it was at this point the leader passed me going the other way, the good thing about an out and back run course is you can work out your position. The final mile to the turn was all down hill so I tried to keep the pace steady saving some energy for what would be a very tough final 5k.  As I turned for home I passed 3rd coming the other way and realised if I kept working hard I might be able to catch him, only problem being it was all up hill now and quite steep for the last section.  I was constantly fighting with my mind to keep pushing the pace it would of been so easy to back off the pace but I was determined to give it my all and come away with my first podium.  I surged as hard as I could towards the top of the hill to try and reduce the gap, it seemed to work so on the descent I went flat out to catch him.  I caught him just as the road flattened out and by now we were running into a headwind, I decided to stay behind him to recover but soon realised he was working far harder than I was so after sitting behind him for a brief period of time I upped the pace and was able to pull away.  The remaining mile or so was flat but into the wind so I just kept pushing as hard a possible to the finish.

    

  

Run : 40:20

I was extremely pleased with my performance especially the determination I showed on a tough run course and very proud to achieve 3rd place overall and age group win. One of the big driving forces to suffer so much was to repay all the support and guidance my coach has given me over the last few years and it was great to finally reward his efforts with some silver ware!  But above all else the thought of my amazingly supportive Wife and Daughter telling me how proud they were of me.  I would also like to say a big thank you to my friend and work colleague Gareth Irons for giving up his spare time and taking the fantastic photos.