It has been a while now since my last update on my blog. I have been training very hard this year for Ironman Austria in July but I never seemed to find the time to write my race reports due to the heavy work commitments I have with my new job at the MFA Swimming Pool. Its amazing how much work there is to take care of a whole in the group of 12m x 25m!!
Today's report is more about the National Championships which were held a couple of weeks ago. This was my 12th participation at these championships with 8 wins, 2 4th places and a DNF. Certainly I was looking forward to a 9th title but things were not as easy as they might have seemed. Coming up from 2 wins at the B'kara St. Joseph Triathlon Series I was looking set to challenge for this title. My post Ironman recovery was not brillaint and this time it too me much longer to get back to my usual training routine. It was a mixture of things I think, work, the hard effort on the marathon to get a PB (by only 5sec) and also the emotional feeling of anti-climax after such an important target which result was not as I had hoped for.
Yet I managed to get things back together in the last 4 - 6 weeks. My running legs started feeling much better and my cycling was reasonably strong. Swimming seemed to be my achilles this year, with my brother training cosistently all year with the Sliema Swimming Club in the morning and producing very fast times in the UK I wasn't so confident in my abilities, but the championship is the championship and things can go either way on the day.
The day started with a fast start from Mark Zammit whose swimming abilities are far better then mine. I kept pushing the pace to limit the loss with Keith (my brother) on my legs. I came out of the water with a 2mins disadvantage on Mark so I had a long gap to close on the bike section. With a somewhat slow transition I was out just behind Keith. I immediately over took him and started working on keeping a good tempo. The gap was closing and by lap 3 we were head to head with Mark. The race had started!
Mark keep with us for the next two laps. I really pushed myself to open a gap but there was no way I could gain those seconds on Keith. On the last lap I surrendered to the fact that it was going to be a running race. My second transition was much better, I felt very in control and felt that I could do a good run. I tried to test Keith a couple of times but he still held on until 5km into the run when he just left me and opened a gap. At that particular moment I thought that the race was over and I had to settle for 2nd but after the pen-ultimate turn around I felt a second wind. I caught up with Keith and pushed the pace, and I opened a gap. I knew that this was the moment to put my head down and go for it. The rest is history........
I would like to show my gratitude to the people who support me all year round, my parents, my girlfriend Johanna, and my club B'kara St. Joseph. A special big thank-you goes to Bill and Pam for their constant support and help when we race in the UK and much more they have done for me and my brother. It's very hard to find such friends, you have to be lucky!! A big thank-you goes to Venom Tri Club for their participation together with other UK triathletes at the National Triathlon Championships!!
Sponsors: Diadora, Gensan, Starbene, Ergomo, Powercranks, Profile-Design and the MFA Swimming Pool.
