COURTNEY ATKINSON TRIATHLETE

HY-VEE DES MOINES WC RACE UPDATE

Another week and another podium! Placed 3rd yesterday behind Tim Don (UK) and Kris Gemmell (NZ) after coming home well in the run. Funny thing is in the last 3 ITU races it has been different athletes every race that have come in front of me? Consistant at least!

Early on in the morning of race it was touch and go weather the race would even go ahead as some severe storms where expected. But as the day went on the weather held up and it was confirmed we would start @ 3.30pm after Emma Snowsill ripped the women’s race apart.

Good news is that my swimming arms are back to usual and normal. You may have noticed over the past few races I have really struggled in the swims….your guess would be as good as mine as to why, but when i jumped in the pool for pre race training last Thursday on my first stoke suddenly things were different and from then I was confident swimming would come easy again! Good start in race and settled into 5-6th and did catch-up rest of the way.

Ride wasn’t much more eventful. Flat, straight and boring course with no-one really wanting to ride, so this was going to be a wet run if there was ever one. It showed as well, cause at 5km there was a bigger pack than normal still running for second so it took longer than normal for the hurt to kick in and the field started to spread out.

Tim Don was on fire. Ran out fast and got rid of all challengers. I tried to start at that pace but quickly realised that I couldn’t run that type of race today. I settled and recovered before slowly building throughout the run and started pegging back the lead and ended up getting run over the top of right at the finish by Gemmell.

Unsure as to what effect racing Madrid had on me as majority of the guys I was racing had skipped Madrid to concentrate on this week. Either way I say you have to ‘be in it to win it’ and I was happy with the result but more happy to finish of this block of racing without missing a podium!

Heading back to France today for a 5 week break from racing. Plenty of time to top up the tank with some training plus also have a few relaxed tourist activities planned to keep sane. Have enjoyed my time in the States…just service, service, service….but always hate the tipping!

Tags: Courtney Atkinson, Des Moines WC, Hy-Vee, ITU, Tim Don