6th in age group British Championships

Hi Everyone,

Last Sunday I took part in the Autoglass National British Championships which were held in Bedford. Obviously it was a very high profile race as the best of the GB Athletes like James Ratcliffe and Carl Shaw took part in the race. The race consisted of a 1.5km in the river, 43km loop around Bedford and a 3lap 10km run around the river.

I started very fast than usual and was keeping the pace with the first group. However the same thing happened in blithfied as I was slowed down by the swimmers of the previous wave thus loosing contact from the leading group. The first 800m were all against the current and this hampered my performance in the swim. However I still managed to register a good time of 22minutes.



After a very fast Transition, I went to tackle the 43km bike course round the town of Bedford. The course was quite flat, with a hill after 10km. It included a lot of roundabouts but this did not affect me from keeping an average speed of 40km/hr thus covering the distance in 1.06.42.



I started the 10km with a good pace. Since the run route consisted of a 3 lap flat course of 3.3km each, I ran in negative splits. I tried to run one lap faster than the other. I managed to do so and ran the 10km in 36.19 to finish the race in 2hrs 7minutes. I placed 30th overall from 600 athletes and 6th in my age group category.

I am very happy with my performance. It was a good race and I am happy with each discipline and even with my transitions which were fast as well today. It’s a pity that the bike and swim course were longer than the standard distance because today I was in a very good shape to go under the 2hrs but never mind I am happy. The placing is great considering that I raced against the best British athletes and the first 3 in my age group came first, second and third overall, so yes, it is a great result”

James Ratcliffe and Catherine Pickthall beat all opposition at Bedford to be crowned 2010 British Triathlon Champions. My next commitment in UK is the Nottingham Sprint Triathlon on the 22nd August.

Will Keep you updated

Keith.