Well, what a season it has been. My first year of racing over here in Ireland and my first as a Predator. My season has been long, perhaps too long in hindsight, it started at the Irish Duathlon Championships in April and finished in the sunny city of Gijon (pronounced hee-hon) in Spain with the World Duathlon Championships in September.

I had qualified for the GB Age group team in March, an achievement that I still see as the highlight of my year as it was such a tough race. It meant I had a full season ahead of me to stay injury free and maintain my early form. I soon realised as I started the race in Gijon that perhaps this was a very big ask, but more about the race itself later.

So me and my bike set off at 6am on a dark and ‘soft’ morning to travel the 14 hrs to the race....or it should have been if I hadn’t left my passport at home on the way out...oops. So with the passport driven up to meet at Dublin, a new flight, an unexpected stay in Madrid and a 6 hr bus ride later I arrived…. just the 25 hr trip.

The buzz at an International event is very different to that of a normal race and what with race briefings, registrations, route familiarisation and transition orientation it is quite hectic. I had planned to arrive well in advance to get myself settled but the slight detour in my travel plans meant I was on a tight schedule. Note to self….not the best way to prepare for a race!

The course looked tough with a 4 loop run on a mixed surface (10k), two very hilly loops on the bike (39k) and a final two loop run (5k). At the team briefing we had been warned about the killer squirrels, numerous peacocks and deadly conkers… that we were warned, could all impede our race. So feeling really relaxed now I headed back to our apartment to get some food and rest before the big race.

The day was warm. A novelty. I cycled down to the race early to soak up the atmosphere. The sprint races were well underway by this point, and I stood and cheered on all the athletes before heading down to transition for the final bike check and to memorize where by bike was racked. Those of you at the Loughrea Tri this year will note I find this a big challenge!!!

Our race was due to start at 10.20am and we were in the second to last wave. It was a long and nervous wait before we were finally on our way. My plan was to try and run 9.30s splits for the first 10K run to bring me on around 38 mins but that soon went out of the window with the heat and I only managed 41 mins. The bike was next and as I hadn’t had chance to reci the route I was in for a big surprise. Now I normally love hills as Tommy Morrissey well knows, but a combination of the heat, my tired legs and the gradient I was not feeling great. But two loops later and lots of shouting and encouragement from my ‘support team’ I set off on the final 5k. This is the only part of the race I actually felt I did ok and posted the second fastest split in my age group, second behind the overall winner of the whole race. So those 5k runs all season finally paid off.

And then it was all over. 2011 was done and I think overall I was pleased. I think the biggest achievement for me was qualifying for the actual GB Age group team rather than doing the race itself. I had gone from watching Mairtin at the Worlds a year earlier to actually qualifying myself. The hard winters training had paid off and I finally started to feel like I was heading in the right direction. That wasn’t to say it was an easy year what with back to back months of racing and training, tears and tantrums it was a long season. But one that was worth all the hard work. So roll on next season with the new challenges and races but for now its time for a well-earned rest…although I have ran or swum everyday so far, so so much for the rest!