Richard Allen Windsor Race Report
15/06/2010
Windsor was a race I was very excited about and I certainly was going to give it my all. Unfortunately with drafting races the tactics don't always go your way and although 6th place was a solid result I was not that happy with how it turned out on the day.
I started the race with a shocking swim! All the good swimmers started on the far right and I opted for the far left as there was simply more space on the start line. I did have a great start but was then stuck in the middle of the river swimming up stream. I had to try and cut across to join the lead group and lost valuable time doing so. It was a gamble that didn't pay off and I ended up exiting the water in the second pack some 50 seconds down on the leaders. I wasn't expecting to be up with the lead swimmers and was well prepared to work hard on the bike to catch up. I was actually looking forward to hammering the bike!
On to the bike and the second pack contained 10-12 athletes with very few of them prepared to work. This made hard work of closing a fairly small gap and I had to do the majority of the leading. I basically pulled the second group up to the lead group! On catching the lead group there were some 20 athletes up front. The pace slowed to a rather embarrassing 18 mph and this is when drafting races become a bit of a farce. An easy bike plays right in to the hands of the very fast runners. Towards the end of the bike I had basically had enough and thought that I would at least be at the front of this big group going out on to the run. I attacked with another athlete and lead the field in to transition racking with the fastest bike split of the day.
A rather poor transition and I was on to the run in 3rd place. I moved in to 2nd for a while but was then passed by a group of 'fresher' runners. I certainly paid the price for having working fairly hard on the bike. I had a solid run but not a fast run. I really feel that with my running and swimming I could keep going all day at a certain speed but I am just off the pace lacking the top end speed.
6th was a solid result but disappointing seeing as prize money was top 5! On a positive note I am mainly training for Ironman 70.3 races this year and lacking a little speed is to be expected. I feel strong and look forward to the next 2 races which are over the half Ironman distance.
