Following on from the high from Bala, next up was Sussex Triathlon. A race I was using as training, I knew it was going to be a tough course, as I competed this a couple of years ago and it didn’t disappoint.

Coming out of the swim, I had about 3 minutes in hand, I had planned to push hard on the bike, and eventually headed onto the run with about 13 minute lead. Due to that  I ran conservatively, and crossed the line with 15 minutes in hand. Not a race where I was pushing flat out, but a solid hit out in preparation for my next big race of the season – the Stoke on Trent elite triathlon – part of the European city of sport celebration.

I knew I was going to have a hard race, as there were some strong competitors on the start line, including training partner James Teagle, and also top elite athletes Tom Bishop, Stuart Hayes and also Luke pollard who had shown his prowess in the non-drafting format of racing.

The swim was uneventful, coming out of the water in second, along with Tom and James, with a reasonable gap to some very strong bikers. After a 600m run to T1, Tom and I headed out onto the bike, and worked well together for the first 20k, but then I hit a rough patch and Tom opened up a small gap, however I managed to hold this at about a minute once he had ridden away, and I came into T2 alongside Stu.

I was hopeful that I would be able to run myself onto the podium from that place, and as such, I went hard on the first lap, and managed to open up a small gap over Stu, which then steadily grew throughout the run, meaning I crossed the line in a very pleasing 2nd place.

You can catch the highlights of this race on TV on Sunday 9th October on Channel 4 - 6:15am and Channel 4+1 7:15

With one race to go, Just a little 70.3 end of season ‘fun’ out at Challenge Peguera, I’m so pleased with how this season has gone, it has been better than I could have possibly hoped and I look forward to the last race and some much needed down time after.

On a different note, I got some great news with some new sponsors lined up for the next season – but more on that next time.