Racing at the Triathlon World Championships 2008
by Debbie Cooper (Personal Trainer, Aerobics Instructor and Swim Teacher at the Wildmoor Spa and Health Club)

In order to qualify for the Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver I had to race other women from all over the UK in my age group (40-44 years) and come in the top 5. I chose the sprint distance, which is 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run, (the standard distance is exactly double this distance). I had a choice of 3 events in 2007 to qualify from.

The first and nearest event was Birmingham, NEC, (yes we swam in the lake there!) and I qualified at this first event. This was back in August 2007.

I spent the whole of the winter building a good steady aerobic base which involved weekly training of; 2 x hour and a half swim sessions, 2 x 50mins – an hour runs and one 4 and a half hour bike ride per week, plus teaching my 14 exercise classes! As the season progressed and the race approached the training became shorter and more intense. Brick sessions became more frequent. This is a bike followed by a run and repeated 3-4 times. For example cycle for 20 minutes then pull on your run trainers and run hard for 1km, repeat 4 times.

As an age group athlete, (an amateur athlete competing for GB) I had to pay for the full cost of the event myself. Luckily I was funded by the local cycle shop, Coventry Cycles and also sponsored for insurance by one of the members here at the Wildmoor, Brian Weetman who runs Heartland Insurance. I even had to buy my GB kit!

The event was on Friday 6th June so I flew out on the Monday before leaving a few days to get used to any jetlag I may experience. Race preparation included swimming the swim course, cycling the bike course and finding out where the run started and finished and where we wracked our bikes. We’d expected the ocean in Canada to be cold but none of us where prepared for the severity that we experienced. (Normally in the UK we swim in waters of about 16-18 degrees, we always wear a wetsuit, but this was about 11 degrees, it was so cold that it hurt your head when you dived in!) The bike course was much better; 3 short laps of Stanley Park with one large climb and a great descent each lap. The run course also weaved around the park but was mainly flat.

The weather was dreadful in Vancouver, the worst on record for June since the 1950’s. On the day of the race it was lashing down with rain and cold! My race started at 6.50am, which meant getting up at 5am to eat breakfast of muffins and bananas. I then had a 25-minute walk down to the start of the race. Before the race I checked that all my kit was laid out in transition (the area allotted to you to leave your bike, run shoes and any other kit you need for the race). At 6.45am I was lined up at the edge of the water along with 100 other women who were about to plunge themselves into the sea! It was a beach start so when the horn sounded we ran as far as we could into the ocean then dived in when it was deep enough to. I was off and determined to do well. I knew that I had a chance of a medal so wanted to get a good start on the swim. The swim ended up being much longer than was advertised, 1100m rather than 750m. This was very unfair as it is my weakest discipline in triathlon but I was out of the water in the first group.

It was freezing cold getting out of my wetsuit, my GB kit underneath was soaking wet. It was a real struggle to get onto my bike and my fingers were numb, I could hardly do up my cycle helmet strap! The bike is my best discipline so I knew that I needed to make up some time here but I found it hard to get myself going and I needed to be careful on the descents, as they had become slippery with all the rain. As I progressed through the ride I knew that I was doing well as I was overtaking many of the younger women in the age group who had set off 10 minutes before me!

Still freezing cold I jumped off my bike and back into transition where I pulled on my running shoes and was off on the 5km run. I could hardly feel my feet they were like blocks of ice. It was still lashing down with rain but luckily some GB supporters where out, sheltering under umbrellas and as I ran around I could hear calls of “Come on Debbie”. This spurred me on and I ran home in style picking up a small Union Jack from the GB Race Directors near to the finish before I crossed the line. I finished in 1-hour 27:16. A very slow time for me on this distance triathlon but the conditions had made everyone’s times slower than normal and the swim had ended up being much longer than the standard distance. I had won the Bronze medal, in the 40-44year women’s event, I was thrilled.

I have set up a Triathlon Club at the Spa, which caters for members of all levels who would like to know and learn more about triathlon. For more information call 01789 299666 or contact us online.

I also do one to one instruction on swimming and personal training so if you are interested in please contact me on Tel. 07879840530.