European Middle Distance Triathlon Champs Race Report: WhittleFit Coach Mark Whittle

Sorry for the delay in the writing of my race report from the European Middle Distance Triathlon Champs in Paguera, Mallorca, but here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

Challenge Paguera was always going to be my last race of the season, a nice little blow out in an amazing part of the world seemed like an ideal end to the season. Couple this with several coached athletes racing, what more could you ask for?

Preparation hadn’t been perfect as I hardly trained for the last 2 weeks before the race, for some reason I was very fatigued, so throttled back on the training and concentrated on getting to the race fresh rather than fatigued.

Myself and JimmyD were staying a few miles from the race site of Paguera, but a hire car served its purpose well. We met a few of the other guys racing, did a swim recce (the sea was very rough on this day!), registered, racked our bikes and attended the race briefing with no issues at all. Everything was going smoothly, so far.

We retired back to our accommodation, got all our race day nutrition squared away, got our heads down and mentally prepared for the race.

Race Day: As the race was starting after midday, we had a bit of a lie in and a leisurely breakfast. I had some muesli for breakfast number 1, with some electrolyte drink and cup of tea (JimmyD is more of a tea-monster than me!). As the race was starting late, I had breakfast number 2 about an hour later, which was oats that I’d taken out with me to the race, some Elivar Prepare drink and some more fluids. We then jumped in the car and made the short drive to Paguera. We headed straight to the transition area and it was at this point we realised it was going to be a HOT day! We put our nutrition on our bikes, gave our bikes a final check over, checked and re-checked our race bags, had a quick chat with a few other competitors and then headed off towards the beach.

It was a long run up from the beach to T1 and any thoughts of fast times had now gone out of the window!

It was getting really hot now, so we managed to find some shade to try to stay cool. At this point I decided to forgo a swim warm up. The beach was really busy and I was happier standing in the shade chatting with JimmyD and Big Pat (another WhittleFit coached triathlon), I hoped this decision wouldn’t come back to bite me!

The pro men and women started, then some of the younger GB age group athletes (Tom and Nadine), then it was my turn!

Swim: I headed towards the swim start. My wave were starting to line up, so just like in the Majorca 70.3 in May I made the decision to head towards the front of my swim wave, just one row behind the super quick boys. I’m not a super quick swimmer but find it easier to start up near the front as I don’t mind a little bit of “biff” at the start.

We got the count down, the gun went and the race was on!!!

We ran into the shallow waters and hurdled or waded out until it was deep enough to start swimming properly. As expected it was chaos! For about 200m it was a battle, but then it started to open up and I had some space. Bonus!

It was a non-wetsuit swim, so as I’m not a natural swimmer I have to make the most of every advantage I can. I may not be the fastest swimmer, but I can draft really well and sighting has never been an issue for me. So I moved onto someone’s feet and got a nice draft, I stayed there for a while then moved onto the next person’s feet, this continued for about 800 or 900m.

I got to the halfway point and was feeling great. We turned and started making our way back to the shore, I was still feeling good and was passing people from the previous wave (started 5mins before us). At this point I spotted 2 or 3 GB athletes about 15 metres ahead of me, I really wanted to catch up with those guys as I thought I could swim with them all the way in to shore and get a nice draft. I made the conscious decision to swim as hard as I could for 50 strokes and see how close I could get to them. I went for it! I was counting the strokes, got to 50 and looked up…….I had made no impact on them! They were still 15 metres ahead of me. OK, one more try, 50 more strokes as hard as you can, come on, lets go!

50 more strokes went by and again I’d made no impact on them! I was gutted. And tired! Looking up we probably had about 500 or 600m to go before we hit the shore so I decided to let them go and swim my own pace into shore. Except now I was tired and was really feeling that effort I had put in to try to catch them. No matter, I decided to settle into a nice easy rhythm and enjoy the final section into the beach.

I got to the shore, stood up and looked at my watch and saw 31min-something, I was pretty happy with that as I was unsure how the non-wetsuit swim would effect me. Again like in Majorca in May most people were walking out of the shallow water but I wasn’t having any of that! I lifted my legs and got out of there as quickly as I could.  

The run from the beach to the transition area was well over 300m, so decided again to work this run and not meander through, which was a good decision as it pumped some blood back into the legs and again I was passing loads of people.

I got into transition, grabbed my bike bag and entered the change tent. Race number and helmet on and I was off towards my bike. My bike was close to the change tent, but transition was massive, so I had another 300 or 400m run until I got to the mount line! 

Bike: The first part of the bike is through the town of Paguera on a cobbled street, with speed bumps! Masses of people were pushing the pace here, but I decided to get out of town before starting to ‘race’.

Once out of town you come to the hilliest part of the course. It’s not that bad really, but it would be easy to overcook this early section.

And that’s exactly what I did! I was feeling good and passing quite a few people, but I could see from my power meter that I was way over the effort I should be putting in. After 15km of this I decided I HAD to throttle back my effort otherwise I would destroy my chances of having a good day.

You could now feel it was getting hotter out there, not that hot as the air-flow cools you down but you could certainly feel it. And even if it didn’t feel overly hot you know it is as your thirst goes up. I must have been drinking quite a lot as I went through my water bottles quite quickly. This wasn’t a problem as there was plenty of water and nutrition on the course.

I got to the 30km point and checked my bike computer, did some quick maths and realised that if I continued at that pace for the whole of the bike ride it would be a super quick time! Yes, I had definitely gone out too hard in the first 15km and knew I couldn’t keep that pace up!

The bike ride continued, it was a nice course, but quite tricky at times going through small towns with speed bumps, some tight turns and a few rolling hills.

I was a little disappointed with the drafting out on the course. There were large packs going past (mainly German and Spanish competitors I must add) and the temptation is strong to jump on the back of one of those packs, but I can say with a clear conscience that I raced fairly out there.

I got to the 60km point and started to feel quite tired. I thought I was paying for going too hard in the first 15km (which I was), but we all later realised that the heat was now playing a big factor on the day. A GB guy rode up to me and passed me, but he was only going ever so slightly faster than me. I decided I was going to try to stay with this guy, riding legally of course, all the way back to T2. This guy was a godsend. We rode together for the next 20km or so, each taking turns to control the pace and giving each other a few words of encouragement. Without this guy I know I would have dropped off the pace and had a slow ride into town.

With about 10km to go we hit a small hill, my new best friend dropped off the pace and was gone. Looking at my GPS computer I could see that I had a few more miles to go before T2, so I started to spin the legs out a bit and finished off the last of my nutrition.

A quick dismount led to a long run through T2 to the change tent. I donned my trainers, visor and sunglasses and was out of transition pretty quickly. Then the heat hit me!!!

Run: The run was 4 laps of 5km, with an extra bit tagged on to make it up to the required 21km. The course was described as flat and fast, so I was hoping for a good run.

As soon as I started running along the beach-front I knew it was going to be a very tough day at the office! It was so hot and I had no energy at all! It didn’t help that as I joined the main run course a female pro went past (she was in 3^rd place). I ran with her for about 500m before realizing that it was probably not a good idea to run with her today! 

I hit the first aid station, took 3 sponges and walked through the rest of the aid station taking water and energy drink from the superb volunteers. I started running again and then hit the first hill. This course was not flat and fast!

I got to the 3km mark of the run and was shattered! I was so hot, I couldn’t cool down and I was running on fumes. At this point I did something that I’ve never done in a race. I was thinking of ways in my head to get out of the race. I was contemplating faking an injury. I just needed to get out of this race!

I told myself just to finish the first lap (5km) and then I can stop. More hills came on the course and my mood hadn’t changed, the only thing that kept me going was the amazing support from the British crowd. There was no way I could stop with that support!  

I was now running from aid station to aid station, that was my plan. I would walk through each aid station taking on sponges, water, energy drink and towards the end orange segments.

After I passed the half way-point I realized that I was going to finish the race. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was suffering out there and I was now suffering slightly less than most of the others around me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy now, but I was moving ok, and my pace wasn’t as bad as it actually felt. 

I battled on with the amazing support of the British crowd, Team Foster (Tom's Mum, Dad & friends), Team RaceForce, club NEWT and too many more to mention. With just over a km to go, I dug really deep. I wanted to finish strong! I kicked and pushed with everything I had, passed about 15 people, joined the red carpet, took a GB flag and finished with a big sprint! 

I looked at my watch, saw 1 hour 48 minutes for the run and a total time of 5 hours and 9 minutes. I was done!

Summary: Personally this was the hardest race I have ever done! The reports had the temperature at 36’C on the run! It was a real mental and physical battle to continue on the run, but I’m so glad I dug in and got through it.

Overall, I finished 15^th in my age group in Europe which I’m very happy with! 

A final thank you to my wife, family and friends for supporting me through the last few months of training and on the race day itself, I couldn’t have done it without you!!!