I’d just like to start by saying that I was born and grew up just outside of Liverpool so it’s ok for me to take the p*ss out of Scousers 
Ok, so entering Liverpool Olympic was never in the plan for the year. I toyed with the idea of swapping Chester for Liverpool earlier in the year, but with Chester (2 weeks before liverpool) already booked and paid for I couldn’t really be bothered with the faff. My result from Chester though, Changed that. I was disappointed, thought I could have done better etc so immediately after Chester checked to see if Liverpool was still taking entries. It was, I booked myself in, and convinced myself that I could beat 2:25 and the £72 would be worth it.
The cost was the other reason I hadn’t entered – not because I’m a skinflint or anything, just because I resented paying over the odds just because it was now part of the 5150 series.
Anyway, being a last minute decision and therefore not an ‘a’ race meant I had no taper in the run up to it. In fact I had quite a heavy week of training up to it. My first mistake came in the form of a 10km run that I did on the Friday, 2 days before the race. The Sunday just gone I ran my best ever 10km at the Runforall Leeds 10k (40:23) so a sub-45 10km on Friday didn’t really bother me. The only time I could fit it in was during my lunch hour, on the treadmill of the gym around the corner from work. Not really thinking about it I set off at 14.5km/hr and kind of zoned out – that was until about 6k when I realised I’d been running the whole thing so far in my forefoot. I tried to get used to the pose technique of running a while back but could never do it for more than a few kilometres – calves, feet, shins – you name it, they would hurt. So 6k of it didn’t do my legs any favours at all. I went back to my normal running style for the remainder but it was too late. For the rest of Friday, all day Saturday, and waking up on Sunday morning my calves felt like they had been tied into a knot.
Didn’t bode well for the race! But then I was up, I had spent the time fitting my new tubs to the bike so I figured I’d just give it a go and see what happened. Plus I didn’t want to see my £72 go to waste!
So after a 5am alarm for the 3rd Sunday in a row (why do I do it to myself?!) I packed the car up and headed over to Liverpool. Having registered I racked my bike. I didn’t know anyone else doing the race but a friend of a friend (Ben) came over – he was setting up a few bikes down from me. We had only ever met on very drunken nights out so to see each other in this situation, neither of us knowing the other was into triathlon made for a funny conversation! You’ll hear more about Ben later.
Rant #1- I was amazed to find that there was no race briefing. At all. I guess the organisers just expected everyone to have read the race info beforehand. Luckily I had, so I knew how many laps of the bike and run course I had to do. I’m sure there will have been a fair few who got it wrong though.
Being part of the 5150 world series, the race had attracted some big names – Stuart Hayes and Fraser Cartmell to name a couple – and some very, very nice accompanying bike kit (insert obligatory thieving Scousers joke here). The elites set off in the pro wave at about 8am. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people swim so fast in a triathlon – we got into the water about 17 minutes later as the elites were exiting! The water was surprisingly warm (compared to Chester) – I hadn’t thought about the fact that it’d be salt water because it was in the docks, but it turned out not to be an issue. Neither did the jellyfish. I didn’t come across a single one which was a nice bonus! The narrowness of the swim however did cause me problems. I accidentally found myself starting at the front, in the middle of the pack. Not the place for a relatively slow swimmer like me! Of course I therefore got kicked, punched, swam over, even what seemed like a grope at one stage, albeit a pleasant break from the violence! In the few open water swims I’ve done in the past the pack normally spreads out after a couple of hundred metres. Not here. It seemed like literally the whole way around I was in contact with people or they were in contact with me. Anyway, all things considered I felt strong – I couldn’t really notice my sore legs, and it was over before I knew it.
Swim time – 27:32 – a new PB and a minute and a half quicker than my swim in Chester!
Rant #2 – The run to transition was ridiculous – not because it was long (which it was), but because it was over stoney, gravelly ground. Surely a few mats wouldn’t have been too much trouble?!
My bike hadn’t been stolen – bonus on the downside I got cramp in my hips as I put my bike shoes on. I can’t ever remember getting cramp in my hips before so I had no idea what that was all about. I remember thinking yet again, this doesn’t bode well for the rest of the race! I got into my rhythm fairly quickly on the bike course. It was 4 x 10km laps and it was about 2km into the first lap that I accidentally dropped my bottle of slightly diluted gels. Bugger. Oh well. I was also slightly anxious about the fact that this was my first race on tubs. Not only that but I had relied on my own ability of gluing them to my new wheels properly a few days before, and was also relying on not getting a puncture as I forgot my spare! The bike course was pretty dull in all honesty. Flat, straight, nothing interesting to look at. A one point I found myself counting the number of M-dot tattoos I could find on people’s legs.
Rant #3 – it was a non- drafting event. Well, on paper it was. In reality the laps were so short relative to the amount of people on the course at once that it was impossible not to get backed up on occasion. What made this worse was that a good chunk of the lap was too narrow to safely overtake if there were more than a couple of people in close vicinity (which there often where).
Rant #4 – I got to the end of the last lap but the ‘in’ marker had been moved / hidden / fallen off meaning that I missed it, along with a handful of other people. Annoying, but only costing a few seconds.
Bike time: 1:08.47 – another PB but I could definitely have gone a couple of minutes quicker with less congestion.
I set off on the run at my usual plodding pace. Legs refusing to work, my calfs hips and quads were toying with the idea of cramping up. I adapted my running style to support my knackered muscles as best I could. I’m not quite sure how I did that but it seemed to work! About 3km I saw Ben heading the other way – I reckon he was about 2 minutes ahead of me. I recalled him saying before the race that running was his weakest discipline. I of course made it my immediate goal to catch him! It was starting to get really hot now, and I found myself needing to poor water over my head to stay cool. Most times I either completely missed my head or the water was so cold it took my breath away! Anyway, about 9 km in I was now only about 10 seconds behind Ben but I wasn’t going much faster than him now. It was going to be a close one! I caught him up and sat behind him until he noticed me. At that point the only word muttered was ‘bastard’ before he picked the pace up to try and drop me. I stuck with him and we had my first sprint finish! He had apparently been holding something back though as I just couldn’t stick with him in the last 20 metres. He beat me by 3 seconds – I’ve already told him we need a rematch:). Having something to focus on during the run obviously helped my time though, as I posted another PB for a triathlon 10km.
Run time: 43.47
Total time: 2:23.15 – PB
So mixed feelings really. For the cost of it, and given that it was part of a prestigious world series, various aspects of it could have been much improved. I was however Chuffed to have not only beaten my PB but also gone sub-2:25 which was one of my goals for the season. given that my legs were knackered before I’d even started, i have now inevitably convinced myself i can go under 2:20. So with no other Olympics lined up this year I think I’d better go and find some!
