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The Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series is made up of 7 races worldwide and allows the sport’s top athletes and age groupers to compete. 2009 saw Alistair Brownlee win 5 races back to back including London and winning the Grand Final, held on Australia’s Gold Coast. The London race is held in Hyde Park and covers the same course that will be used for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Age group places are limited to 3000 and sold out in March. I only watched the race on TV last year so I had been looking forward to this Triathlon for a while.

My wave start was at 8.20am so having racked my bike up, prepared my transition for the race and bumped into some familiar faces it was time to warm up and get started!

The 1500m Swim was comfortable. I got a good start and managed to get some clear water for the first turning buoy. My new TYR Hurricane 3 wetsuit definitely made a difference allowing much more shoulder movement and stability. The back straight was mentally tough, seemed to go on forever with the white buoys in the distance never appearing closer. At the 2nd buoy I passed some back markers from the previous wave, only 400m to go. I came out the swim 5th and started the long run to transition.

David Bird Dextro ITU Triathlon
The 40km Bike course was tight, 5 laps with 2 hairpins and 3 90° bends per lap. On the end of my first lap I reached for my energy gel only to see it slip out my fingers and into my rear wheel spraying the chap behind! Mildly amusing but this meant I now had 50mins cycling with only water. The morning’s rain hindered many of the age groupers and I witnessed some nasty crashes. Luckily I wasn’t one of them and set my fastest 40km time – 01h: 05m: 03s.

2XU Compression Calf Guards and they definitely worked. As I came round to the finish line Sam hollered “Sprint for sub 25” so I did. 02h: 24m: 42s a PB by over 12mins so I was well chuffed. Big thanks to my support crew on the day (Mum, Dad, Jimbro & Kate).

I saw the Elite Men and Women’s race later in the day on BBC2 and what a great effort by Wiggle athlete Stuart Hayes, leading the bike breakaway an first part of the run. I was wondering though, I weigh approx 25kg more than Stu and we’re about the same height, so how quick could he do an Olympic Tri with a 25kg backpack on……?!

Thanks for reading,

Big Bird