In London and Loving it!

Despite the rainy weather and frigid waters, our Canadian team represented at the Age Group World Championships in London, England.  We are so proud of our 4 BPR athletes that competed!
See their race reports here:

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London ITU World Championship Grand Final - Race Report by James Young

I am struggling to put an overriding impression together for this race. The combination of being back in the UK with friends and family, the relentless drizzle and grey skies, some great days out, probably too much to drink .... it's been a strange few days with race tagged on the end.

Neither of us were feeling particularly great in the days prior. Claire was a bit sick but started to feel a little better by race day. I went the other way, was ok then felt a bit rough the day prior followed by a lack of sleep and feeling really rough the night before the race. Race morning was not pretty and by the time we set up transition at 6am I had time to get back to the hotel and go back to bed for an hour. Not great.

This was never going to be an A race for me, more of an 'enjoy the moment' kind of thing. But I still wanted to get some acceptable times. This looked more likely as we dropped off our bags and saw the '750 Swim Today' signs. It had been too cold outside for early morning wave starters to spend too long in the lake losing body temp so the swim was shortened; and to ensure fairness for all it remained shortened all day.

The swim went well. We were corralled and then herded onto the pontoon, into the water with 30 seconds to go and then the siren wailed. I was in a World Championship final, in London and the sun was shining. 

Amazing! Nothing much to report on the swim, I felt fine all the way round, my sighting was great and I got out feeling comfortable. Not too bumpy, no fights. My rotation needs work though.

Transitioning to the bike was a bit of a long and slightly muddy process. By the time I had found my bike, make my way to the exit and hopped on my cleats were full of mud. I managed to click in and set off on a sightseeing tour of some of the cities major Landmarks. I decided to just go for it and see how I felt, which made for an enjoyable first half of the bike, round Hyde Park, in front of Buckingham Palace and then up along the Thames. By the second half I realized it was not going to be my day, every time I pushed a little harder I started to feel tired, dizzy and a bit sick. Exactly how I had felt all night. I back off my effort and speed to around 90% but my heart rate seemed to take ages to come down. I focused on cadence and trying to get the most out of my 90% whilst taking in some of the sights. By the second lap the wind had picked up and my average speed had dropped from 39.5kmh to 37 or so. My matra by this point was 'enjoy the race' and I was. My time ended up being reasonably respectable 1:04. I am not that light so it seems a flatter course suits me.

Back into Hyde park for the run. Great to hear the Brits affiliation with Canada as I was getting a ton of support from 'fully maple leafed to the max' Canadians as well as plenty of Brit voices. The 3.3km loop was lined with spectators the whole way, and it was nice to break the 10km into three chunks. My performance was ok, stayed at 90% with any more making me feel bad. I set a new goal of just getting a sub 40 minute 10km and started to pick up the pace in the second half to make that happen. The excitement of being near the finish, plus still having some energy from not being able to go hard, made the last loop an absolute pleasure. Not many people get the opportunity hug their mum half way round the course at a World Championship race but it was 10 seconds well spent. 

It was a shame that I couldn't give it my best shot but it was a lot of fun and a box ticked.

More reports will be added as they are completed...