World Standard Distance Triathlon Championships, 24 Sep 2023

After an early morning start to fly out to Pontevedra I was feeling good on landing and picking our bike boxes up from the baggage hall. This mood quickly shifted once we got out to the car hire where Alamo had decided it was appropriate to have no cars available after we had booked months in advance for an 11am pick up. The man at the desk initially claiming people just hadn't come back to return their cars, only to later change his mind and say that they were booked to return at 4pm. Hmm I smell doggy doo doo! Eventually after a very tense and stressful few hours we managed to sort an alternative with Sixt. This wasn't without its troubles though, as the car we initially tried had a weirdly narrow section where the parcel shelf rested so we couldn't get 2 bike boxes in the boot. I had to beg the lady at the desk to let me swap the car and not charge me for both!

Finally we were away and heading to our Airbnb, which was incredible - definitely one of the nicest Airbnbs we have stayed at with spectacular views out over the bay from the living room, I could finally take a breath and relax again! Unfortunately a friend who was staying with us, due to be flying to Santiago de Compostela that evening, had her flight delayed and then cancelled. In the end she had to sleep in the airport and finally touched down at ~5:30 am the next morning. After our stressful travel yesterday I saved her trying to lug a bike box around on the bus and train network and picked her up. Not a great start for any of us, I thought at least we are getting our bad luck out of the way before race day!

That same afternoon we drove into Pontevedra to register and collect our race packs. Emily was raising concerns about how we were going to be able to get all 3 of us back there the next day with all 3 of us and all 3 bikes in the car. I was sure we would manage, even if it meant a serious game of bike/car Tetris, this concern became our main focus. Immediately when we got back to the Airbnb I set about trying to get the bikes into the car, with help from Teresa we just about managed. Very happy with ourselves we went back to the flat knowing that nobody would need to ride the 20km to the race or that I wouldn't have to drive multiple trips to make the bike drop work.

The day before race day was set to be a good one, it was my birthday! I was out in sunny Spain about to have a very relaxed day conserving my energy for tomorrow. The highlight was also going to be seeing the men's pro race that afternoon, I was so happy! The world clearly had other ideas. Once we drove to Pontevedra and got our bikes out of the car we realised that we hadn't attached our race number stickers. We had been so concerned whether the bikes would fit in the car we had completely forgotten to do this! Then ensued several mad dashes across Pontevedra begging various event marshals, officials and security guards to let us go and rack our bikes. None of our begging helped and 3 hours later we were walking away from transition still with our bikes! Feeling well worn out we decided to head back to the Airbnb and have an easy dinner pasta and a jar of sauce, though this wasn't plain sailing either, we managed to smash the jar and I had to run to the shops again to pick up another. The run home with the jar was much slower for fear the world would somehow make me drop it before getting back to the flat. I didn't and we did manage to eat in the end! What a way to spend your birthday!

On race morning I was eager to put yesterday's disastrous events behind me and focus on the race ahead. After the usual pre-race set up and loo queueing I was in the water and the hooter went - we were off! I managed get a strong push off the pontoon and I was very briefly leading the race. I settled into a good rhythm and allowed a group to come through so I could draft on some feet. At the halfway point I had been dropped from the group and was swimming solo. While I may have to work harder doing this I don't mind as I could have some space and swim my own race.

Getting out of the water and heading into T1 I had a good feeling that I had swam well and was in contention. This feeling did not last - when I got to the racking there seemed to be very few bikes left, nevermind press on and attack the bike leg.

Being a small and lightweight athlete the hilly bike course definitely suited me and I pushed as hard as I could. I climbed hard and descended fast, I think I topped out over 70km/h spinning out in my top gear. This style of bike course definitely kept me in contention with the stronger athletes, who on a flatter course would have likely been able to put more time into me.

After flying through T2 I was then able to work to my biggest strength in triathlon, the run. I knew that this was where I needed to put the hammer down and be as aggressive as I could. I was passing lots of athletes throughout, some in my age group and some in the earlier waves. I made sure that every time I passed someone I immediately opened a gap up to stop them from trying to hang onto me. The run course itself also suited my style of running, lots of people at this point of a race need an easy course so that they can settle into an even effort, the course was anything but this! It had lots of tight turns, sharp climbs and steep descents. All of this played into my strengths as a runner, I enjoy and am good at burning matches to attack climbs and then recover quickly while descending at high speed. This is something which has come from many years of running and participating in brutally hard cross country events. I really enjoyed this part of the race and enjoyed picking off my competition.

By the end of the race I had given everything I could have and was extremely happy with the execution as a whole, everything went as well as it could have in reality. After looking at the results in more detail I had managed 20th place in the swim, 19th on the bike and 6th fastest run in my age group, these results were better than I could have hoped for and leave me excited for what the next few years might hold.

David Shepherd