Retaining My Age Group World Title

ITU World Age Group Triathlon Championships. Chicago, September 2015

Chicago Standard Distance Race report

Happiness is…..

…….Winning my age group at standard distance World Triathlon Championship for the second year running. Having been defending champion in my age group 75-79 the pressure was really on.

It was after a night of impressive thunder storms that caused the race organisers to change the time of the elite women’s race and cancel the eve of race, age group bike check in, as well as cancelling the World Triathlon Sprint Championship award ceremony that race morning began. 

The start pontoon was a little un-stable when the older women’s wave went off, and also when what my husband calls the 'Old Gits' wave, left ten minutes later.  It was actually during the later wave starts, that they altered the swim course and cut it down to half distance for the half dozen AG waves that were left to start. The reason being, that the start pontoon had all but broken away from the harbour wall. 

The swim was more challenging for the Standard Distance Worlds with a slight chop and a quite strong current running that was pulling swimmers out toward the open water away from the shore and the shelter and safety of the harbour wall. I had a really strong swim that I was very happy with and after exiting the water there was a long barefoot run to transition1, of around 360 metres during which time you were only allowed to take your wetsuit off down to your waist. There then was run almost as long again through the sand and grass transition and out to the mount line for the bike section.  

All week long everybody had been dreading 40km the bike because much of the two lap route was on underground sections of a three level city main road. There has been endless talk about what glasses to wear because of the sudden changes in light and gloom. I found the route to actually be very good; it was like a time trial event or a race track. It was most disorientating without daylight to tell you what direction you were travelling in. There were quite a number of turns to left and right and some dead turns too but all the turns had plenty of room and my own two laps of the course we pretty much the same only dropping a few seconds on the second lap. My husband and I both had very good bike times. Another 300 metres back into T2 after the bike and again back out to start the run 10km proper. This meant that there must have been well over a kilometre of extra running due to the long transitions. 

The run was over the 10 km distance. Well over, and I was glad when the multi lap course was over. Comparing notes afterwards, most competitors agreed that the run was about 10.7 km. Feeling that I had given my all after the run and feeling complete rubbish, I held no hopes of a podium position and so did not check the notices on the way out of the post finish recovery area. 

Actually we had ambled back to transition to collect our kit, ridden our bikes through the hazards of the city traffic back to our hotel, run a bath and made coffee, before Steve looked online for the results. I was just rinsing off my conditioner when Steve let out a noisy whoop and started singing; ‘We are the Champions’ (That was not very good because he is no Freddie Mercury). He then danced into the bathroom in his birthday suit to congratulate me on retaining my World title. Unbelievable. 

I think it was the swim that handed me the gold medal in my age group and gave me a roughly 6.5 minute lead over the other women. 

Swim: 34.31

T1: 7.20

Bike ride: 1 hour 22.01

T2: 4.58

Run: 1hour 22.13

Total time 3.31.00 

The next morning we had a lovely swim in the pool that was the training centre for Johnny Weissmuller when he was an Olympic swimmer, years before he became better known at Tarzan. Very inspiring. 

We celebrated and relaxed in Chicago, including enjoying a 'Trump Mojito' at 'Sixteen', the 16^th floor terrace of the Trump Towers. Meanwhile my feet floated slowly back toward the ground. Mine was the only gold out of nearly 300 on the GB team in the standard distance. There was one silver and a couple of bronze medals on the team too. 

One very happy bunny here... No, two happy bunnies because my coach/husband Steve is overjoyed about it.

 

Chicago World Championships 2015

When we arrived on Monday, it felt as though we had landed in Hawaii rather than Chicago; the humidity was totally draining. Checking in for packet pick up for the Aquathlon for Steve that would be on Wednesday 16th September and the Sprint event for me on Thursday it was baking hot around the race venue with little shade anywhere. Steve can cope with hot weather a lot better than me, he loves sunshine, where as I have suffered skin problems from sun exposure and get to feel faint in any prolonged period in the sun.
On the flight out our seats were right at the back of our BA plane and those little directional air vents were not working in our section of the plane. When I started to sweat buckets as if I was under a shower, I got up to try to make it to the toilets where I intended to try to cool my face and hands but before I got there I passed out and found myself on the floor right at the back. I got up onto all fours but blacked out again. Surprisingly nobody noticed or came by. Finally by climbing with my hands up the wall I got myself up to a standing position and slowly made it to my gangway seat that, thank heaven, was just one seat away.
I slumped down into the seat next to Steve where he had been sleeping with such sack of potatoes fall that he woke with a start and saw that I was not well. He called for cabin crew member and told them that I was unwell. They brought cold flannels and then realised that that was not enough to cool me down. Steve was asked to help me get along to the galley where it was cooler. We sat there together for more than an hour, where I sucked copious amounts of ice cubes and Steve dripped ice over my head and neck and chest. Gradually I recovered a little but still felt rotten. The pilot turned the temperature of the whole aircraft down for my benefit and eventually I was able to return to my seat.
This was not a good start to the week ahead with two World Championship races coming up so quickly.
On landing, the hour plus getting through immigration was not a great help and Steve decided to get a taxi in to the city. This alone was not easy since we had as luggage, two huge bike boxes, two suitcases and our carry on bags. In the end we found a taxi large enough to take everything and without further ado made it to our hotel in the 'Magnificent Mile' of the downtown area of Chicago.

World Triathlon Championships Chicago Pre event blog

The week before I leave for a journey like this, is always a nightmare since at 76, I am still working in our family antiques import/export business up until the last moment. Although I gave up doing the heavy lifting involved in packing containers full of furniture, decorative things and small items a few years ago,  I am the main stay of the office; I must finish all the manifests for the current work before we go. It does not end there since I will been attending to all business emails etc. whilst we are away in the USA, so there is not a lot of time left to sit around and get too nervous about the important event coming up next week. 

This is why all of my training is done at silly o'clock every day (yes, every day) after the alarm goes off at 5.20am. My husband Steve is also my coach and training mate and has been for the 26 years since we fell under the magic spell of a life in triathlon. I have lost count of the number of times that we have been on the GB team together going to World or European Triathlon Championships. Last year in Edmonton was the first time I had won my age group at the Standard distance since most of my previous first places were at middle, long, or 'Nice' distance. The best I had done in Standard were a couple of bronzes and a few silvers. The fact that there are roughly double the number of little old ladies in my 75-79 age group this year, I feel is totally my fault for winning last year in Edmonton on a freezing cold, wet day, and rubbing salt in the wound by finishing 54 minutes in front of the next woman. I am not kidding here, when I tell you that I have spies amongst my FB friends who have been noting my training, but of course the elite women cope with that as a daily matter of course and if I have set myself up to be chased down; that has to be a good thing doesn't it? Motivation is key. So America will be defending its honour on home ground in Chicago. All of my opposition are American and I fully understand that. I had been hoping that it would be as cold as Edmonton 2014, where there was a dump of snow just a day or two after the event. That was a big advantage to a Brit. This year the weather in Chicago has been very hot, so no thermal blankets needed there.  

Having seen the elite series race in Chicago last year on TV the whole race looked very inviting. However, we now know that a large part of the bike ride will be underground on the lower level of a triple level main road… along eight blocks in a tunnel to a u turn and back, on ramps, off ramps, laps, and not much chance of crowd support. Well ok that doesn't sound like it’s very scenic. What we all have to bear in mind is this; it is what it is and it’s the same for everybody. We are not there to look at the scenery; you can do that when you are not racing. Get your head on straight and knuckle down. The swim looks good and run looks like a spectacular city run and the finish will be hopefully noisy and welcome. And Over!  

Competing as part of the Great Britain Age Group Team is a real feel good thing to happen in anybody's life. How wonderful. How proud you can feel. What an honour. However, as a note to all the many first timers on the squad……. It’s an honour that you have earned. Enjoy. Another piece of advice to the newer team members is to always have another race on your calendar beyond your BIG race so that the end of the important event doesn't end up being the end. Always be looking at the future. 

Steve is doing the Aquathlon on the Wednesday.

I have the Sprint distance on Thursday.

We both race in the Standard on Saturday. 

Then we are on holiday and going to explore the Michigan Upper Peninsular for a week.

This is a strike off THE BUCKET LIST!

Steve and I are both life long cartophiles, if there is such a word, love maps, have hundreds.

Shoreham Air Show crash

Bridge of Tears 

 A Tiger Moth takes to the clear blue skies

Crowds hoped Red Arrows were booked

Then there are ooo’s and ahh’s and sighs

 A Spitfire passed and up we all looked

Who could say, who could know

How the turn of events would go

A sunny day out at a local air show 

Looping the loop a Hawker Hunter plane

Watchers below take barely a breath

Then a fireball turns the scene insane

When innocent crowds there met their death

Nobody thought a tragedy could occur

Waiting for the lights to change as they were

As suddenly life and death was a blur 

A main road we have all travelled along

 A hundred or maybe a thousandth time

Car radio blares as we sing a pop song

Did somewhere unheard a death knell chime

Who could say, who could know

How the turn of events would go

A sunny day out at a local air show 

The old wooden Shoreham foot bridge stands

Smothered side to side and end to end with flowers

Floral tributes brought there by shaking hands

Local grief growing with the passing hours

Nobody thought a tragedy could occur

Waiting for the lights to change as they were

As suddenly life and death was a blur

 

This poem holds my own thoughts and feelings about this terrible event that shook the community hereabouts to the very core. In the days that have passed since this horrendous event we have found that everybody knows somebody who was close by in the traffic, either just a way in front or behind, travelling in both directions. So many close calls when old Hawker Hunter plane looped the loop and crashed into the bust traffic on the A27 trunk road at the northern end of Shoreham airport. Eleven people died. It has pressed us to see that life if a precious gift that can be taken from us at any time.