In the 20 years this race has been run, it has always be been blessed with great weather, nobody knows why but the sun always seems to shine for this race. However this year a few unusual drops of rain fell. Does this mean a race day shock? Well the men’s winner Steve Worthington was certainly a shock pulling off his biggest win of his career. However Torq’s Jacqui Slack continued her podium placing dominance. This is what Jacqui had to say about the race.
The winners for the Nokia Windsor Triathlon
‘Windsor is always an early start with our race kicking off at 9am but for the thousands of age group athletes taking part they start from 6am, yikes, I can’t remember the last time I had to race at that time, us elite athletes are spoilt and generally go off later in the day!
I feel comfortable at Windsor; I have raced here twice before so I knew the course and transitions well. Before the start I warmed up by jogging along the river to make sure I was confident of where the swim course goes, it can be very deceiving here and you need to be confident of where to exit the water as its hidden.
The race
We set off bang on time, there was only 18 elite girls, so there wasn’t much “argy bargee”, the group set off and straight away we headed close to the river bank to avoid the flow, I had an awesome swim much better than Blenheim last weekend, I exited in second place in a time of 20.42 mins. I ran hard through transition (swim-to-bike) and was first out onto the bike, so it was head down and time to push on.
Six of girls soon joined me (drafting is allowed at elite level in Olympic distance races) and we worked brilliant as a team for the whole 42k. It was perfect and as a group we recorded the fastest bike split ever recorded at Windsor.
Coming into T2 (transition 2 bike-to-run) I didn’t have a great transition and exited 4th behind Lois Rosindale, Emma Davies and Ness Raw who soon pushed the pace. I was 30 seconds back after the first 3k but continued to run strong and over took Emma with a lap to go.
I finished in 3rd place, Vanessa Raw 1st and Lois Rosindale 2nd. I’m very pleased with every part of the race and my running is getting stronger all the time. I love being on the podium and now I’ve had the taste for it it’s a motivating factor.
My mid season break couldn’t have come at a better time, it’s the end of a hard block of racing for me and now I get some down time. It was my birthday yesterday, I am now 27 and into my 7th year as a triathlete. It’s been the best year ever. I can’t believe what I have achieved in the last few months and I have loved every minute of my success this season. At the moment I’m waiting to here if I’ve been selected for the World Series race in Hyde Park fingers crossed xx.
Jacqui.
British Triathlon Federation race report
http://www.britishtriathlon.org/news/article.php?id=10709
Many thanks to all our sponsors who have made everything this year possible:
Bikes: Quintana Roo www.quintanarootri.com
Wheels: Fast Forward www.ffwdwheels.com
Power: Saris www.saris.com
Delicious, natural and healthy performance nutrition: www.torqfitness.co.uk
