So onto Athlone, with an impressive line up of the top pro's in the country out to win the National Sprint Championship Race.
Gavin Noble lined up with his specialized a couple bikes up.
He was in my swim wave too so good to compare exact same conditions done by a pro!
The swim was changed to an all downstream one but there was no current to speak of.
I started reasonable but felt myself fade a bit from my main bunch in my wave. Out of the water and a little run up to the timing mat to show 14.5 mins, not what I was hoping for especially as I swim 750 in the pool at sub 13. Anyway, something to work on now into transition. I dropped my hat and goggles on the way up to timing mat so had to run back to grab. I take these off and hold in my right hand as I pull my right hand out of wetsuit. This normally means the goggles and hat then stay in right arm of wetsuit but not today.
No harm anyway a few seconds is all, transition was ok and out onto the flat out and back bike course. Gavin Noble was in my wave and I wanted to see him as I neared turnaround point to gauge how far back I was. I missed sighting him so just kept my head down.
The bike was quite flat with a headwind going out.
I enjoyed this and made good progress. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed the bike on closed good roads. Into T2 and a good transition. With the run a 5k I left the socks out and set off. The run was a few laps through the streets with massive crowds the whole way. This made for a great atmosphere and a nice run.
I set about applying my mid/fore foot technique where possible and stuck to 4min km's.
Quite surprised then when I ran past 5km and still had a bit of a lap to go.. The run ended up being 5.75km and I was happy with it. I finished in 1hour 13mins and very close to my club mates. I felt I had made progress here in my run mainly and raced pretty hard.
I finished somewhere in the top 90 or so and a good 15mins behind Gavin Noble, race winner.
This race is a must do. Great atmosphere and well organised.
I they got the run distance correct to 5km it'd defo be the fastest race I've done.
It's a fast flat course and my favourite so far.
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