UK 70.3 – Wimbleball 2011

Antwerp 70.3 last year was my first WTC event so after the race I wandered along to the “roll down” ceremony to see what it was all about. Although well pleased with my time of 4:50:38, that was only good enough for 58^th in my age group so I was under no illusions. However, the experience did plant a seed in my mind: it would be pretty damn cool to qualify for the World Champs. But with typically only 6-7 slots up for grabs in the 40-44 category, was it remotely possible?

Three things suggested yes. One, I was only two seasons into triathlon so my trajectory was still upward; with focused training more gains were for the taking. This was a major motivation behind signing up to the Endurance Coach. Two, strategic course selection: Antwerp is pan-flat so I got hammered by all the uber-power bikers. As I’m only likkle, outright power isn’t a strength but when it comes to hills it’s all about power to weight, and that’s fine by me! The Wimbleball bike course is renowned for being killer hilly, so UK 70.3 would play to my strengths. And third, the vagaries of the roll down process means that even if you don’t qualify for an automatic slot, you might just get lucky.