Our Zone3 Local Hero for 2016 is Andrew Diplock, he has updated us on his training and races.
Middle Distance Eastern Region Championships
My last race report was for Outlaw Holkham, a stunning course and my first ever middle-distance triathlon. I was feeling very tender the following week; all my muscles were aching and my body was battered.
What would be the perfect cure for that? To go and race Long Course Weekend in Wales the following weekend? Sure, why not!
So that’s what I did.
Long Course Weekend is held in Tenby, South Wales. It’s an iron-distance triathlon event, but unconventional in that it’s spread over 3 days. It’s still run in the same order, so sea swim on Friday evening, hilly bike course on the Saturday, and unsurprisingly, more of the relentless hills on Sunday.
A big group of us went over for the weekend and had an absolute blast! Tom had targeted me for the 3.8km sea swim on the Friday evening, which meant I had my work cut out! In the end it came down to a sprint finish, I got him by one second! Pretty sure my new Zone 3 wetsuit had shaved a few vital seconds off my time - it’s small margins that make a big difference.
On the Saturday was the grueling 180km bike course. At halfway, I was in trouble. I had absolutely nothing. My body was still recovering from Outlaw the weekend before and I wasn’t sure if I could carry on. I devoured 3 or 4 snickers bars and decided to push on to the end. I was pretty broken after that ride. I haven’t felt that tired in a long time! James on the other hand was completely solid. So much so, he was crowned King of Wales in the mountain climbing competition! Rightly deserved.
Sunday was time to run up and down a few mountains. Barney set off at a brisk pace and I decided to go with it. I kept hinting at Barney to slow down by reading out the splits, he chose to ignore me though and carry on at this brutal pace. In fact I actually think he sped up when I called out the splits. Strong run from Barney and I was merely a passenger! We finished in 4th and 5th respectively. Barney could have dropped me with about 1km to go but he waited for me to cross the finish together - that’s true friendship!
The crowd were amazing, especially at the finish. It was without doubt the best crowd I’ve ever experienced in a race. The spectators really get behind you in Tenby; I’m sure it makes Ironman Wales an unforgettable experience. Long Course Weekend certainly was.
I had a bit of break after that and did not race again until a few weeks ago at Monster Middle Distance in Ely, which was also the Eastern Region Middle Distance Championship event.
I entered the race last minute after deciding it would be good training prep for Mexico!
The swim went really well and I was happy to exit the water in 26.44, which put me in 4th place.
The bike course is very open and exposed to the wind, which made it a tough ride on the day. I feel my biking has really improved this year and soon managed to get myself up to second place. Sitting in first place was Simon George, who was looking strong, but he crashed round a greasy left hand bend and that was game over for him. I almost came off round the same corner, but just about managed to stay upright. After that brief bit of off-roading I pushed on and opened up a 3-minute gap, which gave me a nice buffer coming into T2.
I was cramping a bit on the run but that soon subsided and managed to fend off 2nd place Scott Wiseman who was chasing me down to finish in a time of 4.24.47. My first overall win!
Well done to Monster Racing for making the race completely stress-free. The organization was impeccable and it really makes a difference on race day when everything runs smoothly.
I’m off to Mexico soon for the AG World Champs and will post my next update soon after.
Andrew in the press: Tri247 British Triathlon Ely Standard
Well done Andrew on winning senior (20-39) middle distance regional championships! We look forward to hearing about his race at the Mexico World Championships.
Find out more about our year round wetsuit fitting and triathlon season wetsuit hire services