Why, oh, why?

It all began many moons ago in the late 1990's when, after a long lay-off from all sports, I decided to ditch the pipe and smoking jacket in favour of a bike and pair of swimming trunks. After a couple of months cycling to the local pool in Dunstable each morning it was suggested to me by my work colleague Jason Bennett (experienced Marathoner) that I might want to tag a run onto the end and do a triathlon.

I thought that sounded pretty cool and so entered, and finished, the London Sprint Triathlon. The race wasn’t the big commercial affair it is now and I enjoyed it very much. I caught the bug instantly.

The ensuing years saw me competing at very mediocre speeds at all distances – Super-Sprint, Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman and Ironman. This culminated at Ironman Switzerland where, behind the finish line, I sat quietly on my own and wondered where to go next. I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve and felt deflated. I needed a new challenge.

I was becoming less and less interested in the 100 mile Sunday bike rides, preferring the all-out eye-balling Sprint races which were done and finished in just over an hour. It was at the start line of the 2007 Northampton Sprint (which was a BTA Age Group qualifying event for the 2008 World Sprint Championships), where I smelt the anticipation in the atmosphere. There I was, ready for the off, against the best Age Groupers in the country and I thought ‘this feels good’. It was precisely then that I knew I had found my next challenge - qualification for the GB Age Group Team for the 2009 World Sprint Championships in Australia - and re-kindled my waining interest in the sport in the process.

Ok, I might not be the fastest, but I looked at the results from that day and saw that, had I ‘registered my interest’ to qualify (apparently, this is something you need to do prior to competing for a GB place), I would have actually qualified by the back-door 'roll-out' method (that is where others who were faster than me had not taken up their spot, leaving me next in line).

The qualifying events for the 2009 World Championships are the Big Cow Sprint Triathlon - 6th/7th June 2009, the Grendon Triathlon - 10th May 2009 and the Blithfield Triathlon - 25th/26th July 2009. From now until then I have a lot of training to do.

Join me in my quest to train for those races, ultimately (and hopefully) leading to a place on the start line against the best Age Groupers in the World in Australia in September 2009. The high-energy, glamorous spectacle of the World Champs might seem a million miles away from that first low-key race in London all those years ago but I want, I need, to experience that unique smell of anticipation once more.