ITU Age Group World Championships – Máirtín Coffey
My experience at the Triathlon Age Group World Championships
I really enjoy racing in Ireland in national series (NS) races. You can compete against your peers and score points for your club. You get points for each race depending on your result and your best 5 races culminate in your overall score. Although the format changes year on year for 2013 you needed to complete 2 Sprint distance NS races and 2 Olympic distance NS races and a fifth of your choice. The selection of races and rules for scoring is located on the TI website (although its difficult to find it was on http://www.triathlonireland.com/races-and-scoring.html)
Through racing national series you get to travel to wonderful places in Ireland and meet like minded triathlon obsessed people, I was happy with my lot! But after a chance conversation with a friend of mine last June the idea of the Triathlon Age Group World Championships in London on 15 Sept 2013 really stuck with me. The chance to race a standard distance triathlon in Hyde Park at the same location as the Olympics in 2012 was too good an opportunity to miss. So I checked out the qualifying criteria on the TI website and realised I could still apply. The selection process was based on my 2012 national series ranking and I was selected to race for Ireland in the standard distance race. So having completed my 5 national series races on 06 Jul 13 my preparation and training for London began in earnest.
The day to travel arrived pretty quickly and although I had suffered from a bad head cold in the weeks leading up to the event I was confident that the work I had put in would pay off. I arrived in London on Fri morning 13 Sept and made my way to Hyde Park for registration and race briefing which was very efficient and informative despite there being over 4000 athletes racing in different events over the weekend. Luckily I was staying with a friend of mine near to Hyde Park which made a huge difference from a peace of mind point of view. I had also made the wise decision to ship my bike over with a company called shipmytribike (http://www.shipmytribike.ie/) who ship your bike assembled to all mainstream events in Europe for a similar price to an airline. So everything was going well and I racked my bike on Sat for my early 07.35am start on Sun morning.
The weather on Fri and Sat was pretty miserable and wet which meant a lot of crashes on the bike course for the Sprint distance and the women’s elite race (Well done Aileen Reid). However on Sun morning it was clear, cold and most importantly dry!!!! The swim in the Serpentine Lake was cut to 750m as the air temp was quite low (the Mexicans and most warm countries were delighted!!!!) and I have to admit as my swim training was interrupted due to the head cold in the previous 3 weeks I wasn’t complaining.
So here I was at the start line having been up since 0430am, struggling to keep warm but happy to be there and the hooter goes……I took off like a bat out of hell on the swim (in my head anyway) and by 200m I remember thinking “slow down you numpty, or you’ll drown” so I eased back and after a further 300m realised I was getting spat out the back of the main group which wasn’t good but at this stage I realised I wasn’t going to make up huge time in the last 250m. I finished my swim in 13.38 and was disappointed as I know I can swim faster!
The transition area was huge and as a result transition times were quite slow with most athletes being anywhere from 5 to 7 mins combined time for T1 and T2. I had no issue in transition and was happy to be on the bike.
At the risk of sounding like a surf dude…the bike course was AWESOME! Closed 2 lap 20km circuit around London city from Hyde park via Buckingham Palace along the Thames toward Westminster and turning at around London Bridge on a dry, flat, technical course……Although there were some tight turns it was the best bike course I have ever ridden and I was chuffed having taken 4 mins off my PB with my time of 1.05.40. I did work hard on my bike from July and the addition of new deep section wheels (Roval Rapide 60mm clinchers from Cycleways on Parnell Street http://www.cycleways.com/store/) really paid off.
Again T2 was reasonable and I exited for the run course both determined and confident of making up for my swim time. The run course was 3 laps around the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park and again was mostly flat and fast. Normally on a run course for a triathlon there are few people passing me but I did notice a lot more on this course as obviously the standard was a lot higher, but the support was simply amazing and at times it was like entering a tunnel of noise with people shouting your name in Irish, British and all types of accents. It really spurred me on and I was satisfied with my run time of 38.43 and really happy to have finished and experienced the whole occasion. So my overall time was 2.04.11 and I finished 7th out of 19 Irish athletes in my age group.
One of the best things about our sport and in particular the Age Group World Championships is its accessibility for normal athletes. It gives the likes of me an opportunity to compete on the same course as athletes of the highest amateur level. It really struck me the range of standard at the World Championships, you have the top individuals akin to a professional standard competing for the top spots and normal athletes like any of us in Pulse who are striving to do the best we can whilst fitting everyday life, family and work around the sport we love. The Age Group World championships are in Edmonton in Canada next summer and although this is out of the budget for me the European Age Group championships are in Kitzbuhel in Austria next summer, TI are taking applications for both now (http://www.triathlonireland.com/age-group-2014.html). These events are open to all to apply for once you’ve raced National Series in 2013 and it’s worth putting your name in the mix now as Ireland have a lot of slots at these events and at times struggle to fill them.
Report by Máirtín Coffey, September 2013.