World Triathlon Championships Race Report

It has taken me a long 5 days to look at my race last week in London objectively an to analyse what went right and what went wrong. In this post, I am writing an account of what happened on the day. The main purpose of these posts, in addition to your reading pleasure of course, is to make sure I learn from my experiences for the future, and hopefully help some of you along the way as well. (Photos at end of post)

Egyptians & South Africans (Opening Ceremony)

Pre-race:
On Sunday 15 September, my day started a bit earlier than usual. I had to have my transition set up before 06:30, which meant getting up at 4am. My race start wasn't until after 10, and I used the few hours in between to sort out logistics for later in the day, mainly driving back and forth between home and Hyde Park, as well as get a quick breakfast.

I gave myself good time to get ready, put my wetsuit on, do a final toilet stop, take in nutrition, and do my warm-up, then got to the swim assembly point.

The Swim:
While waiting for the swim wave to start, I found the fellow Egyptian, Mahmoud Abdelhakim, who was racing at the same wave. While chatting, he mentioned that he heard the swim was shortened from the usual 1,500 metres to 750 metres due to the extremely cold water temperature! I wasn't very happy about this, since I see the swim as an advantage, so the shorter it is, the less of an effect it would have on my overall race time.

Anyway, I double checked with the marshals on the start pontoon, who confirmed this shortened distance. I had to quickly work out in my head how I was going to tackle the swim, as I would have normally gone slowly the first 750 metres then stepped up my pace in the second half.

The swim start was absolutely fine, and I felt relaxed; maybe a bit too relaxed. One negative part in the swim was that there were no marker buoys between the turning buoys, which meant having to sight buoys that were at distances of over 300 metres away at a time. Analysing my swim distance, I have actually done 885 metres instead of the 750, and I put this down to me not getting the sighting right.

The additional distance, my inflexibility in changing my game plan to treat the swim as a sprint, and my being scared of getting a pain back in my left shoulder (which is something I have suffered a couple of weeks before the race and just recovered from), I ended up doing the swim in over 3 minutes above my normal time!!! Extremely angry with myself at the end of the swim would be an understatement of how I felt when I looked at my watch.

T1 and Bike:
While I was angry, I made my way through the 1.1 miles inside transition (yes, it was that long). I made the other rookie mistake of missing my bike and had to turn back to find it when Mahmoud called my name to tell me that I overshot... I went back, got out of my wetsuit, took my bike and out of transition I went.

The bike mount was right after a left hand turn outside transition, and as I was jumping on the bike, I misjudged the turn and ended up crashing into the pavement and onto the run course. Thankfully, runners were in front and behind so I didn't crash into anyone. My left foot, though, got cut badly, although I didn't realise until I was done.

After the little mishap at the bike mount, my bike leg went more or less as planned. I heard my name being shouted a couple of times along the course, which was rather nice and encouraging, and I even saw a friend who waited for me at the turning point on the second lap by Tower Bridge (thanks Tobias Lindemann)! I went back towards transition feeling absolutely fine, thinking I could recover the 3 minutes I lost in the swim and the early crash on the bike. As I came back to transition, I saw Lisa and the kids cheering very loudly, which really gave me another boost 

T2 and Run:
A huge mistake I have done on the bike was that I didn't take in all the nutrition I was supposed to take, especially the salts. As I dismounted the bike and ran through the 1.1 miles inside transition, I started to feel the effects of this stupid mistake. Another thing I felt was my frozen toes!!!

I put on my shoes and started running, not feeling my toes at all. This was to be the least of my worries, as I just did the first 500 metres of my run, and huge cramps in my thighs and calf muscles started hitting really badly. A short uphill section exacerbated the problem, so I stopped at the top to try and release the cramps, but it was one of those that whatever I did, another muscle cramped up and I was in agony. Quitting was never an option, and I knew that if I could endure the first 15 minutes, I would be able to finish, although any dream of a good time was now gone, and it was survival mode (yet again).

I went into a slow jog to try to release the cramp pains, and I started looking at the faces of spectators and take in the scenery a bit to take my mind off the pain. I saw fellow Arab triathlon blogger, Tarek Badawi (www.arab3athlete.com), who was cheering for me, which was really cool, as he lives in Germany and came over to watch the race!

A few more cramps, stops, walks and wobbles later, I finished the run in a dismal 53 minutes (over 12 minutes from where it should have been) but I finished the race. At the finish line, fellow Egyptian, Moustafa Fawzy, who finished his race in a respectable 2:13, was waiting for me, we waited another couple of minutes for Mahmoud, took some nice pictures and went out from the finish area.

The day ended on a very nice note though, having had dinner with Tarek Badawi and the one and only Arab triathlon champion, Lawrence Fanous, and his family.

All in all, looking back at the day, I still have a lot to fix. This was my 4th triathlon just this year, and the mistakes I have made were really mistakes even an absolute novice shouldn't have done, which makes it even harder for me to be cool about it, although it emphasises a few points:

1. I have to treat every single race as if it's my first, in the sense that I have to go through my checklists over and over again.

2. I have to be more flexible with my race strategy, and be able to adapt and change on the go, and not just follow it to the letter if there are changes.

3. In a race I need to be racing, and not just worry about a potential pain I might have if I push harder. I wasn't injured and my shoulder was absolutely fine, so I shouldn't have held back in the swim.

4. I need to sort out my open water sighting and be ready for such spread out marker buoys.

5. I have to stick to my nutrition plan and never skip any quantity that was pre-planned. Cramps aren't fun, and the last time I did a 10k in 50 minutes I was coughing blood, which was a better excuse than just sipping my drink rather than actually taking in a mouthful. Very stupid!

2013 is now over, and in terms of my triathlon goals, I have achieved most of them, so I am happy with the overall result. My next post will be a reflection on the year gone and my plans for 2014, including training and racing plans.

For now, I'd like to say a very big well done to all the Egyptians who participated, as well as a huge thank you to all those who have cheered for us, including my wife, Lisa, and kids, and of course Tarek Badawi, who made the trip all the way from Germany!

Thanks to everyone for the great support!

On the bike (taken by Tarek Badawi)

Running with a very cramped calf (taken by Tarek Badawi)

Left to right: Mahmoud AbdelHakim, Hassan Afifi, Moustafa Fawzy

With fellow triathlon blogger, Tarek Badawi (www.arab3athlete.com)

Dinner with Arab champ, Lawrence Fanous