London. A race that I had great hopes for coming into, as I have had some solid results recently, and coming off of the back of a good training block I was feeling strong, but a race I was nervous about as I had a poor run last year.

The good thing about London is due to the fact it is a long way to first buoy, the start isn’t quite as important, however I was lucky in that I managed to follow a set of feet all the way to the front of the race, after starting on the left hand side of the start. From there it was a case of settling into my rhythm, and getting dragged along. Surprisingly no one came past, meaning I exited the water in second. Then came my first big mistake… I ran past all the volunteers holding out bags to put the wetsuits in, so had to then try to fight against the traffic, to finally locate a bag and head into transition.

Coming out of T1 I was just off the back of the lead pack, and frustratingly, I couldn’t quite catch back on, hence I had to ride the next 10k or so on my own before the chase pack caught. I sat in to get my legs back for a couple of kilo meters, and then started working. It was nice to see a lot of the group coming to the front for a change, and as such we closed the gap slightly to the leaders, meaning coming into T2 they had about 30 seconds.

Cue my next mistake, and coming into T2, I was near the front, but hadn’t got my feet out the shoes quick enough, so it was a bit if a messy dismount, and in the panic, for reasons unknown, I decided to undo my helmet as I was running into the Excel. Quickly realising my mistake I stopped and did it back up before anyone noticed, but I had lost precious time in doing so.

After last years debacle on the run, where I nearly collapsed due to the heat, and, due to the fact it was very hot again, I decided to set out a little conservatively on the run. Soon I found myself picking off several of the guys from my bike pack and even a couple from the leaders. Last lap I was feeling strong, and coming into the finish, I noticed good friend and rival Luke Pollard up the road, so gave it everything trying to catch, and on the line I just got him to 7^th overall, and 4^th in the Standard Distance British Championships. On crossing the line, I could see that Luke was in a bad way suffering from the heat, so it was good to hear that he was OK a few hours later.

A race where I was pleased with the result, but not so much how I got there. Luckily I’ve got another chance to put those mistakes right this weekend against a very strong field in the British Sprint Championships in Liverpool.

Thanks once again for the support from Anchura Partners, Red Venom and HUUB design, without none of this would be possible.