I’ve been very slack with updates over a busy last two weeks. so here goes

On Sunday the 6th I headed back to my parents for the Concept Sport’s Dorchester triathlon, it’s the first race I ever did and also the first place I ever won, so it was really great to go and catch up with some old friends.. I Competed over a 400m pool swim, 15mile bike and 4 mile run the aim was to develop some speed for the coming season during a relatively hard block of training.

In an event that always attracts a decent field, a late change to the starting times meant that I raced in the final wave seperated from many of the other top seeded athletes including my training partner Peter Freedman. This was a real shame as I had been looking forward to a head to head with Pete. I exited the water in around 4.40 with Chris Rhodes, we stayed level through the 15 mile bike coming into T2 together, I had a brief argument with a cricket net blocking the entrance to transition which allowed me to practice some acrobatics but fortunately the only damaged was a bloodied toe and a little time lost unwrapping my bike. I soon passed Chris and was really pleased with what felt like my best run off the bike this season.

The results showed Pete in 1st place and Harry in 3rd with former national series time trial rider and traithlon Grand Prix winner James Gilfillan in second. I was a bit gutted to get beaten at my home race, but congratulations to the other guys who rode very strong, i’ll be back next year to try and alter the podium. Many thanks to Roger at Concept Sport for putting on a great race as usual, if you’re a novice triathlete the Fastwitch series is a great place to start.”

Some of the Team TBB athletes also had awesome results over the weekend, Nicola Spirig was flying in the Portugal World Cup for an 8th place which was great to see, Stephen Bella and Hilary all went well at the Brandon 101 race in the states with Stephens result looking particularly spectacular. Julie Dibens my fellow drivento tri coach won in st croix to back up her 3rd in st anthonys the week before and Flora Duffy who trains down at Kelly took 5th in the World Cup. Also a mention to Ollie Freeman who really stepped up with a 5th place finish at the Portugal World Cup.

I wanted to back up the triathlon with another big run so entered the Dorset County 10km road champs on the wednesday night. I had a solid run despite some pretty nasty weather. I finished 3rd behind Willard Chinhanhu of Zimbabwe and Ceri Rees. Willard had run 29.20 a few weeks back, something I wish I had known at the start as it might have stopped me trying to run with him over the first 3.5km. After a mid race blow up I was caught by local legend Mark Heargreaves and we played cat and mouse over the second 5km, I was able to just out kick him on the line. I’m waiting on conformation, but depending on how long the first two guys have been living in the area I might have been the first Dorset athlete across the line which would make me Dorset 10km champ.

On Friday I attended an interview at Bisham Abbey for 25 days work over the next 12 months as a Triathlon talent identifier and coach for the South West region, I’ll write more on this if I am offered to job, but it was quite good fun to sit infront of an interview panel again, particularly with Ben Bright (triathlon Legend and Tim Don’s coach) and Heather Williams (performance director) posing the questions.

For the last of the local races I travelled with Pete and the kelly college triathlon squad to Tiverton for the Exeter Triathlon. The pool based event was held over 400m/20km/5km in what proved to be atrocious conditions. Swimming next to each other both left the pool in 4.24 and headed out onto the bike where caution was the name of the game in order to avoid pot holes floods and falling trees. On a flat bike course pete and Harry stayed together but were joined by bike beast and kelly triathlon coach Richard Brady; the run leg was no differnet with Pete and I running side by side for the whole run before I managed to out kick pete in the last 50m to win by a second.

Elsewhere Nicola Spirig had another blinder in the World Cup finishing 5th for her highest ever placing, the Thailand miles must be paying off!!! Ollie Freeeman did it again this time finishing fourth to proove that he really has stepped up a level.

Next up is a trip to Cyprus for an ITU points race and the championships of the small states of Europe. I’ve booked a weeks package holiday in Pathos as it was really cheap at the last minute, so i’m looking forward to seeing Cyprus for the first time and getting some training done away from the rain again.

After the race it’s back to Dorset for a few days before heading to Strathclyde for the National Sprint Championships. After that i’ve got the Normandy Champs with Gonfraville then the National Olympic champs in Wales and hopefully out to Switzerland after that.

Hope everyones racing is going well..ciao for now