Helvellyn Triathlon – The Grind! A Short Course Elite’s Perspective
Sunday 6th September saw some of the UK’s best professional and elite triathletes line up in one of the toughest triathlons in the UK – TriHards Events – HELVELLYN TRIATHLON. TriNation Podcast co-host Luke Howard was one of those athletes on the list and here he gives his own race perspective.
Luke’s Race Day Story:
Oh, how you can underestimate a course…
I had managed to get myself onto the professional/elite start list at the Helvellyn Triathlon at the last minute much to my excitement. As I looked at the start list that included Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee and many other great Olympians and Ironman athletes you would be excused into thinking I would be somewhat fazed. None of it, I don’t believe that the key to happiness is setting low expectations, but I am a realist, so I went into this race with no expectations other than to enjoy the experience of undertaking one of the worlds toughest triathlons and doing my best. Sometimes doing things with no expectations can be a relaxing break from all of life’s goals you seem to be working towards.
Swim
Pre-race this was the section I was dreading due to lack of swim time during the lockdown. Being based in Scotland there has been no pool time available and access to open water swimming was limited for me. I realise that most athletes have all been in the same position but at the same time athletes in England have had around a month to a least get some sort of panic training in as pools have already opened.
As the swim started each athlete took off in 5 second intervals so it was actually quite easy to hook onto the feet in front of you from the start. I quickly sat on the hip of the athlete in front of me, which was George Goodwin, who would eventually go onto take second in the race overall. After about 200m or so my stroke began to fail me. I just hadn’t had that lactate feeling in my arms for such a long time and I soon dropped off the pace -and found myself alone – and losing the chance to streamline. Equally, I realised that I had dropped those behind me so, it was just a case of going through the process and letting my years of swimming training do the work.
The only thing that seemed to work for me on the day was my transition and and I was in and out of T1 quickly onto the bike section.
Bike
Being a short course athlete I race on a Cervelo S5 road bike, I don’t even own Tri-bike. I did the usual scan of everyone’s bikes and realised I was one of about two or three other athletes in the pro field that had a road bike. I wouldn’t say that this completely disadvantaged me with the course being so hilly, in fact it probably even helped me at times, but on reflection the fact that I didn’t have a Tri-bike did loose me some time on the bike section. I kind of knew this would be the case before I even got to the race so by this point I wasn’t actually to fazed by it all.
I started the bike section on my own and just put my head down at the start as I knew the first few k’s were flat but at the same time I was cautious not to completely blow a gasket as the ride was still 60km in total which is a fair distance. As I hit the first hill section I still hadn’t been caught and then at that moment Joe Skipper glided past me in his big chain ring as I sat there spinning away. I didn’t even bother attempting to go with him, his biking is another level.
By the top of the first hill 2008, Olympian Will Clarke came alongside me on… a road bike. This gave me a bit of motivation to try and stay with someone who was on similar kit to me albeit with tri-bars. I stayed behind him keeping the race legal gap for about 5km. At this stage I was feeling very comfortable and decided to do a turn on the front and try and push on. Before I knew it I had actually gapped him a bit. After a few looks back I didn’t really see much of him for the rest of the bike course. Although he biked about 20 seconds faster than me in total, I had gained more than that through T1 hence coming to the end of the bike ahead of him, although I always knew he wasn’t far behind.
After some time I finally made it to Ambleside and straight onto the grind of ‘The Struggle’. This was most defiantly a struggle… I passed what would be my first and last female Lucy Gossage at this point. I tried to just keep a rhythm and the final 100m of the climb makes you feel like a rider in the Tour de France as people stand cheering you on. I did enjoy that bit. Once I reached the top of Kirkstone Pass I was looking forward to the fast decent and being on a road bike I could stretch my bike handling abilities to the limit. All that remained was to safely hammer my way back along the fast section to Glennridding. I was sitting in 15th about position at this point and my start number was 17 so I hadn’t really lost any position overall so far.
Into transiton and another good change over in T2 into the run.
Run
Onto the run, and this is the point where I really did underestimate the course.
I am a sub 15 minute 5km runner – I run regularly. What could go wrong. Well – plenty! Booking myself into a mountaineering course prior to the race might be a good piece of advise. I quickly learnt that road times do not translate on the fells – in fact you find yourself walking in many places. All my pre-prepared expectations of the run flew out the window as I knew this terrain would take time to adjust to as you run (or try too) over rough grass, rocky paths, up sheer hillside tracks and over boulders.
I put on my vest pack which was required because as the run course is so severe the organisers make it compulsory that each athlete takes adequate kit for a safe fell run including full body cover, map and whistle. I ran hard out of T2 and on the small bit of rad section before you reach the hills. I heard someone shout out “Careful now lad, theres a long way to go yet” In my head I thought “does this guy know what I can run?” What a stupid thought that was. About 200m later I hit the sheer uphill track. My running very quickly turned to jogging and then to power-walking. To make matters worse I then developed a lower back spasm making the run very painful for me. Will Clarke passed me again after about 15 minutes of running and said “Do you reckon anyone is running this, more of a power walk isn’t it!” I felt so bad, at that point, I could’t even get any words out to respond.
England’s 3rd highest peak at 950m above sea level can be an intimidating prospect when approached from the Glenridding side with the Striding Edge and Swirral Edge which are guarding the two flanks. A friend of mine and another pro athlete Fergus Roberts came along side me at this point and this gave me some motivation and I ran with him for a while. After slogging up Birkhouse Moor and passing ‘The Hole in the Wall’ and Red Tarn I headed up onto Swirral Edge. Ferg was a little bit ahead now but in sight which kept me going. I just wanted to get to the finish by this point.
The rest was straight forward really, just a long rocky decent back to the village of Glenridding. At this point things got even worse, my body began to shut down, I had obviously got my nutrition horribly wrong for this race. I race Sprint distance mainly, occasionally Olympic distance, nutrition isn’t something you have to think about much other than water, a bit of salt and maybe a gel or two. With 3 miles to go I began to really bonk and my vision started to blur, I knew I could get to the end but it was going to be a bit messy. I slowed greatly and just jogged back though the village not really able to take in much of the support that was around me in terms of clapping and cheering. About six athletes passed me on this bit alone. Thank God, a good Samaritan was in the crowd who seeing I was in trouble handed me a couple of bananas at the finish line. I wolfed them down as if it was my last meal and slumbed to the ground. I have never been in a position where I was unable to get up off the floor without a marshals support. I was well and truly knackered. Oh boy, Oh boy, did I ever underestimate a race course.
Overall
At this point a big shout goes to TriHard who put on well run event and should be applauded for doing so in such unprecedented times with all the strict Covid 19 rules attached to sporting events. Well Done – TriHard!
This is a course for the hardy, not to be underestimated or taken for granted. It is a race that should be on most triathletes bucket list. The folk of Cumbria were wonderful and very encouraging, maybe that’s why the strength in depth is so massive for cycling and triathlon in the North. I thank the organisers for giving me an opportunity to be part of a pro field like that and this is a race that I will certainly be back to in the future… better prepared!
The race outcome for me, on time, was 16th position out of the pro men with an adjusted finishing place of 19th to take account of the pro-women’s wave set off 28:03 ahead of the pro-men’s wave, in order that prize money would be based on the top 10 crossing the finish line, regardless of gender.
My verdict on Helvellyn Triathlon. This is most definitely one of the toughest triathlons in the world – “.I know ‘cos – I was there!” as the famed comedian Max Boyce use to say.
