The ever consistent Dave Mawhinney has improved year-on-year since he started triathlon in 2003. Two weeks away from Ironman Nice, he obliterated his personal best at his traditional Ironman preparation race and won his age group convincingly. Recently labelled as the ‘TORQ TIGER’ he is certainly on form. Here’s what he had to say…

After last year’s “perfect storm” of high wind, rain and 4 degree air temperature, it was a nice to be greeted by a flat calm lake and a blue sky with very little wind. I was in the second wave and after a few minutes warm up in the cold water the hooter sounded. I was able to find some space and get into my stroke. On exiting the water after a strong swim (a new PB swim time of 34 minutes for the 2000m swim), I found myself quickly out of T1 and onto the bike.

Onto the bike I was soon overtaking people on the first hill out of Bala keeping a good pace and trying to keep my heart rate steady and not push too hard on the outward leg of the 50 mile hilly course. I was making sure I took enough nutrition onboard, but at the same time taking advantage of the fast descents. After the descent to the turnaround point it was onto to the hilly return leg with a breeze into my face which made it harder. Into transition, it was onto the run after a new bike PB of 2 hours 26mins.

It took a few minutes to get my ‘run leg’s to kick in, but I was soon settled into a steady pace (it was hard work on the outward hilly leg). After the turnaround at just over 6 miles, it was downhill most of the way and on noticing that a person in my age group was close behind I decided to really push it on the way back and with a mile to go I had pulled away. I was starting to tire towards the closing stages, so I was relieved to cross the finish line having come first in my age group and 27th overall in a new PB time of 4hrs 34mins 06 secs.

It is now a case of trying to taper and rest in preparation for Ironman France in Nice in two weeks time!

With thanks to our sponsors:

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