I love following Simon Whitfields journey:)  He’s an inspiration, especially in times like this…see below! One thing that interests me about his career is its not at all Peaches and Cream all the way and he goes through a lot of bad times to get to those great times and he has the biggest prize in the sport and the 2nd biggest in Beijing!

http://simonwhitfield.blogspot.com/

Where am I now!? Still in bloody Dulles airport amongst the Ben and Jerrys cafe, Heat and the b%$tard USA Custom officals, Airline check in guys and security officers who took away my last Olympic Games water bottle!

We left Des Moines at 5:00am.  Arrived in Washington to be picked up by our legend Homestay Travis.  Thanks for putting up with all our crap dude! You walk on water! We spent a nice day with him before he dropped us at Dulles Washington Airport.  Checked in fine…ish! Then boarded the plane and sat there for 3hrs while they tried to sort the problem with the Pressure in the cabin. After 3hrs they realised they couldn’t fix it and the flight was cancelled till TOMORROW EVENING!!!! We queued up with the rest of the cattle for another 2hr to get our hotel allocations then proceeded to drag 45kg of stuff across Dulles and go on to our hotel. Finally, got my head down at 12pm exhausted from the day and still the race!  We are about to head to the airport to try again now!:)

I hate these set backs.  Especially when it delays my training another day I don’t have.  Kitzbuhel is around the corner, to be honest I dont really want to race yet.  I don’t feel ready!  I look forward to those 5 weeks of work to move my form up where it needs to be!

It’s done and dusted!

I finished 11th in a very strong field feeling weak as the whole way round!

I’m not over the moon with my result but my head hit the pillow last night safe in the knowledge that I did everything I could on the day. It was a really tough race for me, In the week leading into it I battled with extreme tiredness after giving it my all in Washington (6 days recovery wasn’t enough for me) and a bit of insomnia the nights before coupled with a bit of a dodgy stomach during the race did not help matters.

I’m actually quite excited though… So far this year I have been a bit greedy with how I planned my race schedule. I did 6 races in 8 weeks, the problem is there are so many fantastic races kicking about and not enough time to prepare for them all. I realise I have to prioritise a bit more than I am which means I probably won’t be able to turn up at one of the races I have wanted to do for AGES - The London Triathlon. This way I can get in an undisturbed 5 week solid training block which I know will push my form forward enough so I am finishing with or very close to the best guys in the world.

The race itself was a dream. The organisation was flawless. Everything from the stadium, to the carpets to the spectators. It was a great day for the sport and an amazing photo finish by the top 3 guys below:

Personally, I had a decent first lap in the swim but I could tell on the 2nd lap that I was in for a bad day. I struggled to hold the feet on the 2nd lap and in our chase group on the bike my legs felt like they needed to go back to Loughborough and put in some training! We eventually caught the lead group and on the run I built into it and actually ran quite well on the last lap but it was too late. I was happy to have had a nightmare and limit my losses to under a minute behind the winner though.

Will Clarke finished 11th in Hy Vee Triathlon.

1 S. WHITFIELD (CAN) 1:49:43

2 B. KAHLEFELDT (AUS) +0:00:01

3 J. FRODENO (GER) +0:00:01

4 K. GEMMELL (NZL) +0:00:02

5 J. SHOEMAKER (USA) +0:00:04

6 J. GOMEZ (ESP) +0:00:08

7 B. MCMAHON (CAN) +0:00:24

8 T. DON (GBR) +0:00:38

9 D. SAPUNOV (UKR) +0:00:43

10 R. YAMAMOTO (JPN) +0:00:49

11 W. CLARKE (GBR) +0:00:57

Bravo!

Write nice words to Will on his Facebook page or on twitter @Theclarke.

More will follow…