I am very lucky, I am very lucky to be surrounded by a great group of athletes but more importantly team mates. I am very lucky to have the great support of those team mates but even more important our friendships.

Team Spirit: Team Friendship: Team Belief – GoTri

I got very lucky in Nenagh, it was just one of those days. Everything worked; my stars we aligned on the day.

Looking back on the race and how it unfolded, going through the emotions of being back racing with friends. The only thing I can say is I didn’t think I could win, but I didn’t want to lose!!!

The swim went well; I got a great train ticket with Mike Yelverton and Ross Higgins as lead out men. I believe in and practice triggers words, words that help me to refocus during racing I’m only using 3 words these days, but as I look back on the swim and think about when my goggles fell off with 250m to go, I can clearly remember saying the word Calm. That wacky book I bought really helped in that moment 😉

Onto the bike, I had a terrible transition. I spend so much time coaching others to the perfect T1 that I was a little ashamed when I saw the splits.
The bike was out into a head wind and home with the wind. The course is relatively flat on a good road surface. Throughout the bike leg I was convinced that there was a bike rider up the road, I don’t know why but I thought John Riedy was ahead.

I’m not doing much riding at the minute but I really believe the quality sessions I’m doing on my fixie are really helping with the power. I’d recommend them to anyone.

Into T2 and I heard the call “leading” bike rider, a great little rush to the ears that was but as a swim/biker it’s a case of holding on for dear life.
Hearing the encouragement from the team and GoTri coach Mike Jones brought a good smile to my face and even a bit of belief.

My running these days is 2 sessions per week with 2 doggy runs as well!
1xlong 60% run of 55mins
1x fartlek session and then Darci Drewlingstar and Pepper Pissingpot drag me around on recovery sessions!

Out on the run I could see the athletes from the previous wave and used them as markers to keep me going. I was expecting GoTri leading athlete Davy richardson to come up to me by 2km and when that didn’t happen my target was 3km, which I think was the water station.
Once there I took my first look back and starting to pray, but once again to come back to trigger words, and Believe was all I said.
Everything else happened so fast from there; I kicked as hard as I could on the downhill. On the final climb in the town I could hear the footsteps as Davy came up-to my shoulder just as we were about to enter the gates of the school and onto the running track.
I used my last trigger word Go, and ran as if I stole Gods coffee jar

Did I expect to win? No,but I didn’t want to lose.

So many people are defeated before the racing starts. For me racing is a gift. All that missed racing and competing while being injured has made racing fun for me again. We are lucky, very lucky to be doing something we love, make the most of it. GoTri !!

Train smart: Train happy
Stl