Paul Stuart and Nick Beardow competed in the European Middle Distance
Triathlon Championships in Paguera , Majorca representing Great Britain
(Age Group). The middle distance event included a non wetsuit sea swim (as
the water temperature was 24.5 degrees). The race started at midday, the
ambient temperature was 30 degrees so we new we were in for a tough
afternoon ! T1 was a 200 metre uphill run from the beach, the bike course
was hilly but fast and both Nick and I made up a lot of ground after
suffering a bit on the swim. The run was 4 laps of a loop through Paguera
town and the sea front.I had worked really hard on the bike and was not
best pleased to see that the run course included several flights of steps
from the promenade to the road and many more short sharp climbs around the
town. There was loads of fantastic Team GB support out on the course which
helped keep us going as the temperature soared. I managed to maintain a
steady but consistent pace on the run as I had hydrated well on the bike.
Nick suffered a fair bit on the run as he had raced Chester Marathon a
fortnight earlier. A great experience representing GB hopefully we will
get the chance to do it again in the future.
Paul |