I went down to race in the youth race in leeds the day before the pros in may. It was a 200m swim, 9.5km bike and a 2.5 km run. It was a very well organised event as there were numerous cover protocols in place and I would like to thank the organisers and helpers for making the event happen. It was a staggered start (3secs apart) to limit close contacts and I was in the first third of the field going into the start. It was a very hectic and choppy swim as there were always people in front and behind. I didn’t feel too smooth in the swim but i was overtaking lots of people and I was going quite quickly, in the end having the 3rd fastest swim, which i was very happy with. I came out the swim in about 5th (but the people in front had started in front), and then there was a really long run to transition. Once onto the bike I started quite hard to try and catch up to the front which I almost did, but after the first lap i was about 10 seconds behind the front 2 guys it stayed like that for most of the bike, as there was also the girls and GoTri event on at the same time so overtaking was difficult. I went into transition just behind the leaders with someone just behind me.
I took the lead (in the race position, not sure based off time) in the first 50m of the run. I went pretty hard at the start of the run because i didn’t want anyone sticking behind me, and it worked. After a couple hundred metres i was in front alone, but almost immediately after that there was a short hill, which after my fast start seemed harder then it would have normally been. I had a great run though, extending my lead through the run. There was a u-turn with 100m to go, but there was also one about 75m further on for the GoTri race happening at the same time, and as I reached my turn point I was instructed by a marshall to continue, and I didn’t know exactly where my turn point was I continued on to the second one where I was instructed to continue further on, and although I didn’t know exactly where my turn point was I knew there was one near the end so I stopped and asked the marshalls if they were sure I was to carry on. In the end i ran back as I knew there was a turn but unfortunately it was the wrong one. The guys in second and third unfortunately followed me and in the end I was 5th. The guy who was sitting in second and I asked the officials if there was anything we could do about it, but at the end of the day it was our fault and we should have just know the course exactly and ignored the marshall. I would like to thank the volunteers and organisers for making it happen. Finally, well done to everyone who raced and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I certainly did.
The day after my race there was the WTCS event for the pros, so we stayed and watched that with friends that were down with us, which was a lot of fun and a great experience. It was amazing to see Alex Yee take the win on home soil. I even managed to get a selfie with the winner of the previous event and later the winner of the olympics-Kristian Blummenfelt
After Leeds all my focus was on my first ever British super series event- Lochore aquathlon. I’ll update on my preparation before it on the post for that race
Alex Robin Triathlon blog 