EUROPEAN TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS – EILAT, ISRAEL

EUROPEAN TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS – EILAT, ISRAEL

Very, very hot.  Very, very windy!

Swim was in the Red Sea and on the borderline of wetsuits/no wetsuits,so a choice.  Most of us went for the wetsuit option, not only for the extra buoyancy but more for protection against the jellyfish bites and the sea lice.  A number of people were quite badly bitten by both these critures!

My main adversary was an American/Israeli lady, Susie Dvoskin.  I had my support team out with their stopwatches and they told me that she was two minutes ahead me on the swim.  There was a very long transition, 530 metres, between the beach and the transition area.  We had to keep our wetsuits on till we were in the transition area. Not a bad transition.  Out on the bike and the majority of the course  was steep-ish uphill on the way out and into a very strong headwind.  Having done the course on the Thursday, I realised it would be OK to put 100% effort in on the way up and out because of the down hill on the way back.  I managed to catch and overtake Susie well before half way. At the turnaround point was a makeshift wooden bridge, to get onto the other side of the motorway. A number of people were fussing, as they do, about the incline and the tight U-turn. I managed to negotiate it with no problem. One of the officials shouted ‘Good bike technique GB!’ Brilliant ride on the way back – I was on a 52/12, legs going like bees wings and really enjoying it.  I guess it’s a bit like cycling in heaven, high speed with minimal effort!

Back into transition.  All went smoothly again. The run was not good.  I can’t run in the heat.  However, I stuck to it and because it was two loops of out and back I could see that providing I kept ‘cool’ and didn’t slow down I would be in first place by the end.  That was the way it panned out and so by hanging on in there and keeping going I finished and collected my gold medal in the evening presentations.

I stayed at The King Solomon Hotel.  The food was first class. I really could have done with another week there to get round to tasting all the dishes on offer. No wine till my final night!  Scary landing at Heathrow - plane nearly landed and then quite suddenly the engines roared and we went strtaight up again!  Eventually the pilot said the landing had to be aborted because he did not havegoround clearance!  I'm only a car and tractor driver but I did think it would have been a good idea to get clearance before nearly touching the ground! We then circled London for another 25 minutes till a successful landing.

One day sunbathing under palm trees and now today back to our British climate, not good!

Look forward to reports on the London Marathon from other NDTC folks.