Did it! Finally, the age group World Triathlon Championships arrived and we got it done. Much of my fear and worry was based in just starting and completing this race. I’ve had bike problems, the roads were wet over the weekend and there had been crashes on the roads and slips and falls in transition, and there’s always the worry that you’ve forgotten something that will knock you foul of the ITU rules or that something will break or go wrong before you even start. It has a been a tough year of competition just to get to London. But all was good.
On race morning the air temperature was lower than expected and the organisers shortened the swim to 750m for all waves in the standard distance race. It was a bit of a shame, and the Serpentine itself wasn’t that cold but it wasn’t a problem from my perspective. My age group was one of the last to start the race, so I had a 5:30am start to go and set up transition and then went back to bed for a lie down rather than a snooze, to chill out before going back to the start/finish area at about 9ish.