Jim'll Fix It

We are all familiar with Jimmy Saville and his marathon exploits.

Some of us, particularly those born before 1980, will remember him on our TV screens making dreams come true on his show 'Jim'll Fix It'.

I remember one show in particular where a youth football team (and when I say youth, I mean 11 year olds) were treated to a game of football against the Manchester United first team at Old Trafford in front of a large crowd. The looks on those boys faces were so memorable. I can still remember them now, some 30 or so years later.

Imagine watching, say, Brazil v Italy (maybe the two best footballing nations in the world) at a packed-out Wembley Stadium, then, when the game has finished, hopping over the fencing, onto the pitch, then playing against the winners. That's similar to what happened this weekend at Hyde Park...

This weekend saw the next round of the ITU World Championship series come to Hyde Park where the best triathletes in the world were racing. I went down there with Anne-Marie, Mitten, Dan and Stuart (and family) for the day, and what a day it was!

Alistair Brownlee is taking the triathlon world by storm by winning all of his three World Cup races so far, and all he needed to do was place top 10 to get enough points to go to the top of the leader board. But he had a pretty impressive field up against him, including Gomez, Kahlefeldt, Tim Don, et. al. And of course his little brother Jonathon.

We found ourselves within feet of the Elite men when they were being introduced to the crowd and a funny thing happened. Some guy (number 7 I think) walked up to the top guys (Brownlee, Gomez, Kahlefeldt) and tried to puff up his feathers by spontaneouosly throwing himself on the floor in front of them and doing some press-ups. Brownlee gave a jovial "boo, hiss", but it was all in good spirits, and of course he had the last laugh by eventually coming out as winner.

T'was a great day out with great company, watching some great racing (and spectacular crashes!). What more could you want?

Then on the Sunday, I came back to race the same course. It was also billed as the first-time outing for my new GB tri-suit and tracksuit.

The race was, however, a complete nightmare from start to finish.

The swim was a fist-fest. With waves of just 60 athletes, I was hoping for quite a clear run with some decent drafting but it was, quite simply, fisticuffs all the way round. Then I went off course (when will I learn).

Then there was the bike. Oh, the bike. 3 twisty turny laps, and half way through at Hyde Park corner I was off. The Stig from top gear would have been proud of my handling as the bike skidded – steering into the skid – but then before I knew it I was a$%e over t%t. Got up, brushed myself down, and off I went. But after that it was game over and I didn’t really get back into it.

The picture up top is a close up of a certain part of my anatomy which came off quite badly whilst skidding on the tarmac. I'll let you guess which part, but suffice to say I won't be sitting down much until it has healed up a bit.

The run was OK and culminated in a sprint finish against James Cracknell (Crackers to me and his mates!). I think he actually crossed the finish line just before me, with his gangly legs striding ahead of me in a Basil Fawlty kind of way. But I thought that this was a good opportunity for Jim to fix it for me to be on TV by crossing the finish line with him, so I gave it an extra surge to cross with him. Here is a link to the video sprint finish.

I hasten to add that he did actually start in the wave ten minutes later then me.

I might have mentioned previously that I had tentatively registered my interest to qualify for the Europeans in Ireland next year, and Hyde Park was the first of the three qualifying races. Well, I came 7th in the list of athletes who were trying to qualify, so actually it wasn't such a bad day at the office after all, and who knows what might have happened if I hadn't come off the bike. Maybe a top 4 automatic place?

A few pictures of the day, all taken by Stuart's ever-present wife, Sarah...






All this crashing off the bike and puncturing is getting a bit too regular now. I think it’s because I am competing at a higher level nowadays and therefore taking more risks. Thinner, more lightweight tyres which are more prone to puncturing, faster into corners on wetter surfaces. With more risks comes more speed, buy also of course more chance of it all going wrong. And that’s precisely what has happened to me over the past couple of months. But, hey ho, no point crying over spilt energy drink. Tomorrow’s another day, I have achieved my aim of qualifying for the World’s this season, so its not so bad if some races don’t go, err, according to plan. It’s still frustrating though.

Back to football and my team has now reassembled for Summer training in preparation for the start of the season in September. Now in the Under 12 age group (wow - I started coaching them all those years ago as small children in the Under 8's), we have acquired a couple of extra players who have strengthened the squad considerably. We might not have any Torres's and Ronaldo's (or should I say Robsons and Dalglish's?), but I reckon we have a good chance of quite a few wins this season.

A couple of congratulations this week. Anne-Marie and Mitten for completing the Cambridge Olympic distance triathlon. Both in training for Ironman Austria 2010, and Mitten also for the Vitruvian next month.

And also a big fat hands up to Stuart who is entering his fourth decade this week. His present from Sarah was a lovely new pointy helmet which he suitably adorned at Hyde Park this weekend, and it seemed to do the trick because he had a storming bike leg. Well done, Stu!

This week the kids are away camping, so I am on my own. Good oppurtunity to get some quality training in before I take them away next week which will inevitably be an easy training week before my penultimate race of the season at the Bedford Weekender (second Euro qualifier).

In the meantime, enjoy the sudden upsurge in sunshine and temperatures.

Cheers.

C