My Cross Triathlon Triple Crown

Sometimes its good to keep things focused and not get pulled in too many different directions. Two years ago I concentrated on the Xterra European Tour and really felt the benefit of setting my stall out early and having a race shedule in place. This year the planning started early but due to the races I had identified and the qualifying critrera things remained quite fluid until an email on 21st March from British Triathlon. “You are receiving this message because you have qualified for the 2012 Shelby County ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships” followed shortly by another “You are receiving this message because you have qualified for the 2012 Den Haag ETU Cross Triathlon European Championships”

Well that was the World and European Championships confirmed and so why not add the British Champs in Coniston on 10th June which sat conveniently in the middle time wise. There was the backbone of my racing season all coming together nicely. There will be some other races to add, already confirmed is the Hitchin Hard Half Marathon which I last raced in 1984. I will probably also defend my podium place at the Brighton Big Dog 6hr MTB enduro in August.

I sit here now in Pelham Alabama USA and the first race in my upside down season is the biggest of my life and it is only 2 days away. It would be normal to race regularly over the desired distance before such a big race but, perhaps unsurprisingly winter open water triathlons aren’t that popular in the UK. So in at the deep end so to speak. I will have a week or so to aclimatise pre race in the US before doing battle with the Worlds best off road triathletes.