Alex Fairman

When you think of Florida the things that come to my mind are Disney, flat open roads and crystal clear water the Great Floridian however has none of these things.

The swim start was a shallow beach start allowing the field to spread earlier limiting the inevitable brawl that occurs in all openwater swims, especially when the water resembles Newcatle Brown. I found myself leading the first pack which is a new experience for me as often within my wave I am playing catch up,  I pulled the group along for a while and when I realised that nobody was going to come through, I slowed down and sat on the feet of others all the way back into transition conserving energy for the bike and run.

Starting in the final wave means that you have to work your way through the field on the bike this can be especially difficult on undulating roads where the speed differential between athletes can be quite considerable, this combined with incessant American chatter which acompanies most of their activities made for a hard initial half of the bike. Once completeing the assault on sugarloaf mountain (an 11% road with the straightness that a Roman would be proud of) the field spread considerably and resulted in a lonely remainder of the bike with only a few riders infront.

In the week leading up to the race the temperature and humidity had been almost comfortable and with rain forecast for 12 o'clock on the day of the race which would be optimal for the run, alas mother nature did not take pity upon us and delivered the hotest day and highest humidity that we had seen all week making for a very uncomfortable and once again lonely run where i was to finish 4th overall winning my age group by around 20 minutes which is a very respectable result giving a good end to the season and hopefully inspiration through the cold and wet winter months ahead.

This year, because of my university commitments I had to limit the number of competitions but was pleased to be selected for the ITU World Long Distance Championships representing GB in Almere Holland.

As with most races the mass start swim resulted in a confused first leg with bodies everywhere, I was delighted to have made the first main pack , the swim however took 15 minutes longer than anticipated due to choppy tidal conditions as a result of flood gates being opened upstream. I emerged in 8th position to have a strong, uneventful, if hot, bike leg.

By the start of the run I was in fifth in my age group but the temperature was well in the thirites. This is the area in which my coaching has focussed on. I had a consistent, strong run with little fade thanks to my preparation and plan. At the 5km point I passed a Brazilian competitor and at the halfway I took the Fin, who was unable to respond. I pulled four minutes away from him in the end and was delighted to podium in bronze medal position.

This is a very encouraging result giving me the confidence to step up to the full Ironman distance and potentially challenge for a Hawaii slot next yer