My final race week has arrived. I was excited and nervous for this race. This would be my final race before the big day, to make sure I knew what I was doing. My ‘loose’ aim for this race was to finish just under 5 hours 30 minutes, with my personal best being 5:28.

I had one dilemma this week—it wasn’t planned, and I had a 5-hour ride the day before the race. The training plan FAQs state that if this happens, you should only do half of the ride. I didn’t want to do that; I wanted to complete all my training as well as the race. So, I decided to adjust my training plan a little, doing the long ride on Thursday and pushing my day off to Saturday. This worked quite well…

I planned an 84-mile ride for Thursday, including a few hills for good measure. What I didn’t realise was that the ‘few hills’ were significantly harder, steeper, and more frequent than I had planned for. This was a really tough ride. It took me 20 minutes longer to complete than expected. The hills were relentless, and I was shattered afterward. My legs were shot—not great news for the race in a couple of days.

Race day came, and I was nervous. The lady at check-in even noted that I looked nervous. Hopefully, I won’t be this tense in Tallinn for the real thing. The location for the day was beautiful. The race was based around Cholmondeley Castle, and the weather was ideal—not too hot, but not cold either. The swim was a 1.9-mile lake swim, the bike a 56-mile hilly route around Cholmondeley, and the half marathon run took us around the castle grounds.

I was aiming for an ambitious 30-minute swim. We started in a time-trial manner, every 10 seconds. There was no official placing for swim times; it was just a free-for-all. This didn’t bother me. With the gaps, there was plenty of room. Due to the size of the lake, we had to complete two laps of the swim course. If I started the second lap within 15 to 16 minutes, I would be happy. I started and took it fairly easy. I didn’t go as hard as my last Olympic-distance tri, but I was trying. There was no panicking this time; I took the first 400 meters or so easy. I started the second lap at 17 minutes—not great. I tried hard on the second lap, but to no avail. I didn’t hit my target time, finishing in 34 minutes 56 seconds. Not terrible, but slower than I’d hoped.

After a quick 3-minute transition, which included a 200-meter run, I was out on the bike. I knew the course was hilly, so I had prepared for a slower ride. Anything under 3 hours 30 minutes would make me happy. The route turned out to be three fairly quick laps around Cholmondeley. The first half of each lap was mostly downhill, while the last half included three fairly hard hills. These hills were short and sharp, so they didn’t affect my average speed too much. I completed each lap in around an hour. On the first two laps, I was head-to-head with another racer, and on the final lap, we had a bit of a chat about the race. I got the feeling he was really trying to beat me. This was all I needed to push myself. I really gave it my all on the last lap and finished the bike in 3 hours 2 minutes. I was over the moon.

After another quick 1-minute transition, I was out on the run. Before setting a target time, I just wanted to find my rhythm and settle into the run. After a while, I was maintaining about 8 min/mile and realised I was on track to beat my PB. Feeling good, I stepped up the pace and finished the run in 1:43. I was thrilled with this result—it meant I had beaten my PB by 3 minutes, finishing the race in 5:25. Happy!