World Triathlon Championships 2003
By John Dickinson.
World Triathlon Championships – Queenstown December 2003
Places on the GB age-group team are much sought after and I was fortunate
enough to win one. There are a total of 18 places available for each 5 year
age group. There are a number of qualifying races held in the UK each year
with a number of slots available at each race. The final race has slots and
the additional finishers also form the reserves list.
My attempt for a place started with training in the autumn and winter of 2002.
I targeted three selection races the following early summer. The first race was
Ellesmere in Shropshire. This race seems afflicted with poor weather during the
actual race but the afternoon prize giving always seems to have a perfect summer’s
afternoon. The 2003 race was no exception, I was dryer in my wet-suit in the lake
than on the bike or run courses. I raced well but not quite quickly enough to get
a place, so on to the next race. My next race was the Dambuster based on Rutland
Water. The 5 am awakening seemed a little harsh but proved to be a blessing. The
lake at 7am was cool but an almost perfect temperature for a hard swim. The first
leg of some 700m out towards the dam wall and a large fluorescent buoy was partly
into the rising sun. Consequently the buoy disappeared and good navigation was
required to take the shortest course. The remaining 800m was easier and I was soon
out of the water, in transition and onto the bike. The bike course is a large circle
around the lake using local roads. Part of the course takes the main road along the
bottom of the lake. This has several long up and down drags and is affectionately
known as the Rutland Ripple. Driving the route the previous evening didn’t reveal
just how taxing this part can be. I had a good ride and avoided traffic, both
motorised and bunches of other competitors. The run course was out along the
lake-shore to the dam wall with four crossings of the dam before returning to the
finish. The sun was now very powerful and the dam crossing was hard and it was
comforting to see the faces of other competitors also struggling in the conditions.
I passed several people on the run and made my way back to the finish and found myself
gaining on another in my age group. I was certain that with a concentrated effort I
could cross the line first. Plan A was working well until the race commentator loudly
announced my presence to the guy in front – onto plan B. Fortunately I could do 200m
in the time it took him to do rather less, so I crossed the line a few metres ahead.
Although not yet 10am it was very hot and I was pleased that the race had such an early
start. The detailed race results weren’t announced that day, so it was some days later
that I learnt that I’d been quick enough to win one of the three slots available to my
age group at the race. I’d qualified to wear the red, white & blue!
The UK triathlon season starts in April and is finished at the end of September so I’d
to revise my schedule to extend the season by over two months and try to peak for the
December race.
Queenstown, New Zealand, is about a third of the way up the South Island and only
about 4,500km from the South Pole. London, UK, is also further away than the North
Pole! Queenstown itself is set along a lake-shore with magnificent views of the
Remarkables mountains across the lake. It is a modern town of about 12000 residents
and a visiting population that easily doubles that during peak seasons. It offers
skiing and luge in winter with walking, climbing and sailing in summer. It is a popular
holiday destination and boasts a Routemaster London bus! Patches of snow still remained
at altitude, indeed there had been a moderate snow fall only three weeks before the race
in Queenstown. Spring was late and in the days prior to my arrival in Queenstown I’d
seen snow and sub-zero temperatures at night elsewhere in New Zealand. The triathlon
race was situated some 12km out of Queenstown towards Dunedin. The swim was in Lake Hayes
and the bike route then went to Arrowtown thrice to do two loops round the Millbrook
Resort. The run was 4 laps on the road and paths in Millbrook resort, which is a golf
course with chalets, lakes and club facilities. The setting is magnificent with a
photogenic view in every direction.
Race day dawned dry, sunny and with some wind from the south. A south wind in
New Zealand only comes from one place – so its cold and dry. As I was to discover
later the weather was most unusual by UK standards. Wind cold through a fleece but
the sun hot enough to burn severely through factor 30 cream. The start was in waves
of about 100 at a time. The wind turned a previously mirror lake into one with a sharp
short chop which I found hard to swim in. The swim course was an open box, a long out,
short cross and long back to make 1500m. The short cross directly into the wind was only
200m but I put as much effort into it as a 1600m swim in a pool. Watching previous waves
of competitors also showed how far they were drifting in the wind, so I picked my start
point accordingly and took many sightings to keep on course. After a hard swim the exit
was up a 1 in 4 banking for 200m and on the top to transition for another 200m. It was
compulsory to keep wet-suits on until you were in transition – just enough time for them
to loose water and be harder to remove. I learnt later that a number of competitors
retired on the swim leg and some were stretchered out of the water. I was very glad to
be on my bike and heading for Arrowtown. The swim and lake exit had taken their toll as
my legs
The long drag into Arrowtown was filled with spectators and supporters. Indeed my
experiences of racing in the UK is that supporters are usually only around transition
and the finish, so that once out on the bike or run I’m largely in my own world. However
there were people all around the bike and run courses and calling you by name, gleaned
from the race programme. It’s a great boost when working hard to have such support.
On my last visit to the hill into Arrowtown I was closing an Aussie and discovered that
the Aussis and Kiwis have a needle match going. The vocal support from several hundred
people lifted me up that hill and yes I did pass him at the top! (Didn’t mention the Rugby
at all – well only once).
The race had 1800 entrants and the location meant that there were two transitions.
So preparations had to be made in advance. My bike had to be racked the day before
in the lakeside transition and running shoes placed in the resort transition, some
miles away. This is always worrying as you are almost convinced that something has
been forgotten. The weather forecast was not good, predicting wind and rain. So shoes
had to have your race number written on the instep and then be placed in a plastic bag
to keep them dry. Race marshals would sort out shoes on the day should the wind move
things during the night. The resort was preparing to construct some sort of ornamental
thing with several tonnes of large pebbles. This conveniently placed heap next to
transition was extensively mined for weights to keep shoe bags in place. The evening
before the race it rained very heavily for over eight hours and ceased around 4am, but
amazingly the roads were dry by 9am.
In the days before the race we were allowed to practice on the course. The lake was a very
pleasant 16C, which is very warm compared to Welsh and Cumbrian Lakes or the Irish Sea
off the coast of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. Many Australian and South African competitors
were heard complaining about how cold it was, they usually race without wet-suits in 25
to 30C waters!
felt dead. I concentrated on spinning in preparation for the long drag up into Arrowtown,
a vista that I’d traverse three times. Practicing on the bike course proved to be very
helpful as there were a number of closely spaced turns at road junctions and racing line
was all important. Every time I visited Arrowtown I managed to take a good line and thus
pass several other competitors. The roads were in a very good state with the usual
gentle undulations. However the standard chippings used are much coarser than in the UK
so it makes for a vibratory ride, especially on high-pressure race tyres. The bike course
had some tight turns, short sharp hills, long drags and long flats and was thus quite fair
to all. The long straight along the back of the resort had the full benefit of the head
wind. I managed 23km/hr and would have expected to do 35 normally without the wind. At
the end of the straight the course turned off into a little gorge with an S bend half
way down before hurtling out onto a plain and a 120 degree corner back towards Arrowtown.
My bike computer recorded 84km/hr down the gorge.
Transition two was very welcome. I saw someone in front of me loose their bike due to
the roughness of the grass surface, so I picked mine up and carried it. I was very
relieved to find my shoes where I’d left them the previous day and dry. Four laps of
the run now beckoned. It followed the road and paths round the resort with a mix of
surfaces, hills and flats. Past some of the buildings it was a little tight with sharp
corners so that really only one at once could progress, a minor failing on an otherwise
excellent course. There were two drinks stations on the run course and I drank at every
one, eight times in the 10km. The weather was so dry that I still de-hydrated. I was very
glad to see the finish and managed to collect a union jack on my way into the finishing
funnel to cross the line in 2hr 56:50. All finishers were checked over by the NZ Defence
Force medical team and I was helped away to re-hydrate in the medical tent, which seemed
to be full of GB kit wearers. I had the unusual experience of shaking with cold under two
blankets and a duvet with the still air temperature nearly 30C!
The course was slightly over distance on the bike and run sections and the weather
conditions added their own extra dimension. Almost all were 15 to 20 minutes down on
their expected times for a race of this distance. The setting is fabulous and the course
was fair to all. The athletes with a disability did exactly the same course. It was tough
enough for the able bodied.
It’s the hardest triathlon race I’ve ever done, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would do it
again and I feel very proud to have worn national kit and raced for my country.