11 Global Cape Town, South Africa

So the first race of the season has come and gone, great to get out there for a hard hit out!! I was invited to the 11 Global event in South Africa by organizer Ryan Landy. It was great opportunity to escape the freezing winter in Europe and also help out the race by doing some promotional events. We held a swim clinic for a group of kids from various inner city areas; the clinic was aimed at teaching them about triathlon and doing some open water swim practice, finally ending the day with a aquathlon race for everyone!! As you can see from the photo they have some great facilities out there!! In the evening we had a question and answers session held at the Big Bay surf lifesaving club for local triathlon clubs to attend. I really enjoyed both these events and certainly added to making it a great week!!

Ryan Landy is the brains behind this new Olympic distance race series and has had a great start with the first 2 events taking place in South Africa. This race took Place in Cape Town with an incredible setting, the race started at Big Bay on the west coast, overlooking both Robin Island and Table Mountain!! The swim took place in rough and chilly sea which made for an interesting start, the bike was over a flat course but the wind in Cape Town ensures no ride is ever easy, the race then ended with a great run, very bumpy for the first 2k as we ran to the coastal path then out and back towards Table Mountain with a nice 1k climb from 8-9k!!

My instructions from coach Vinnie Santana were very simple, GO HARD on bike and see what happens on run!! Training has been going well over the winter and definitely feeling very positive about everything so I was excited to get out there and race.

The race started at 7am and we were out into the waves, I sat on the feet of Dann Brook until the first buoy where I got a little tangled up and lost some time, the rest of the swim I was alone a little down on the front group but nothing serious!! I missed a couple of waves coming back in but eventually caught one and got a nice ride to the beach!! Leaving T1 I was around a minute down on leaders and had to put the hammer down on the bike to catch up, biking felt great and I was moving through the field and had caught all but Kent Horner on the first of 3 laps, I pushed on the second lap into the wind to try and bring him back but was not happening, he had a great ride out there!! Continued to ride strongly for the rest of the bike but was struggling a little over the last 10k after pushing a little too hard at the start!! I entered transition with Dann Brook and Erhard Wolfaardt for the start of the run, from the first step of the run there just was no speed there. I worked on maintaining a nice fast leg turnover that I have been working on over the winter, this was nice and helped a lot, will be a big help once the race fitness develops!! First race in the bag and a great way to start the season, ended up 5thacross the line in 1hr 54.

Back home in Hungary now after a great week in the African sun, the weather here is improving and spring is here at last after one of the coldest winters I can remember (been training indoors almost 100% of the time since January)!!

Austria 70.3 is my big goal for the first half of the season so its back to the hard work now, just awaiting the game plan from Vinnie!!!