3rd in London - Kris Gemmell
18 August 2009
Well my little visit to good old London town went as well as I'd hoped for…Great day at the office for myself with getting up for 3rd. And also a lot more positives from the day. Which means everything is right where we had wished it to be heading into the Gold Coast.
You all know this series keeps on rolling. I'm actually typing away to you here from my hotel room in Yokohama, Japan. No sooner had I done with the race and drug testing. I was back packing my bike again, and heading over here to get settled in as early as I could before this weekends penultimate race around Yokohama. The weather is certainly a lot warmer here than in London was over the weekend, so I’ll enjoy just sitting in my room trying to recover for Sunday.
Heading into London I felt really good. Everything has gone well through that hard period of training I’d done. And the balancing act with all the racing had seemed to pay off. I was still a bit frustrated to be so close in both Kitzbuhel and Hamburg when I knew I had great form. But Chris told me it was all part of the plan for the year, and just tough out the best result I could do at the time. Over the last three weeks my training volume had been cut right back. But with the lack of volume comes the increase in intensity. Its always nice, but its like the good with the bad. So more rest and TV time, but my body sure did need it!
Racing in London of course allowed us all to get our first look at the course for the 2012 Olympics. It will change quite a lot from what we raced on yesterday, but the centre of it will remain, and the flow will be similar.
Being a non wet-suit swim I had to make sure I stayed as close to the front as I could. This part of our sport has changed so much lately. A few years ago the best swimmers were generally not the best runners. But now nearly all of the fastest guys in the water are also the fastest on land! For me that means swimming my butt off during a race to be near the front. And training my arms off in between them to make up the ground.
I did have another great swim for me on Sunday. If I look at where I've been over the last years it’s a massive improvement. But still it's not fast enough to make the front group every time comfortably. And that’s where Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez sit nine times out of ten. So exiting the water I was in the middle of the front group of 12 guys and the main pack of 30. I worked hard with 4 others for two laps to try to get to the front group of 12. But we were fighting a losing battle. Also the big pack of around 30 were closing fast. On the next lap they caught us and so it was just the 12 in front still.
They had the gap out to about 40 seconds at one stage. But soon it started to come back, and before you knew it we had them in our sights. So it was going to be another mad dash on the run, It's always fast now there is never any question. But being in London, and Alistair in the form he his at present, nothing but fireworks were expected!!
I had another great transition as normal and made sure I was not in the middle of the group in case anything could go wrong, which it usually does! I have to admit I was running with my bike and I heard a lot of screams! A cold shiver went down my spine as those cries felt very familiar.
I threw on my shoes and got to work quickly. I knew they would be coming for me and coming for me fast. It thinned out pretty quickly at the head of affairs. And after the first lap there was only 8 still in contact. Heading back out on the second lap of three the pace went up again and everyone started to feel the pinch. Alistair was the main aggressor, and he was making everyone hurt early.
As we turned at 5k there were only 5 of us left, and Alistair surged again. This time he put 20 meters into us before we could recover from it. At this point there were just 3 left to chase. Myself and my two German training mates, Stefan Justus and Sebastian Rank. I know both of these guys really well and one thing is they both can go on the run. Ranki has always been someone with a huge amount of talent, but he's been through a rough patch with some injuries and illness. Stefan on the other hand is just getting better and better every time he races. I knew I was in a dog fight now and Alistair was still just 10 seconds in front.
The mind games started... Do you try and go and risk blowing up or hope that you can hold a sub 3 minute per k pace for the next 3 kilometres and survive here. I found my answer quickly when Stefan attacked us with 2k to go. It wasn't much of a change of pace but it was enough to shake both me and Ranki. Now I was really in the box mentally and physically. I've been in this position many times before, 3rd or 4th? and more than not its been 4th because 4th is good too right!. I've been thinking about this a lot this year, and know I've got to work to my strengths more often in these kinds of situations. Too many times I've waited for the other guys to make there move, and its not worked for me. So I had to go first, that was number one in my mind. And so with 200 to go I started to sprint. It wasn't a full out sprint but it was enough to get a small gap with the surprise and try to hold it. I knew Ranki would come back at me, as he has a ton of gas. And so he did! We fought all the way to the line and both hit the ground not long after. It was a great race, and to finish like that with two close training buddies made it seem like a bit of fun in the forest back in Saarbrucken, Germany.
In the end all good signs at the right end of the year for me. I have climbed to number 6 in the world now and with Yokohama this weekend I'll be looking to go some steps higher. Con-grads to Alistair again he truly is changing our sport and I think its wonderful as an athlete and fellow competitor. I always want to be better than I was the day before, so this guy is just making me work even harder right now.
Hope all is well back home with everyone.
Regards,
Kris
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