Goggles and Grit : Skipper Rises To The Challenge
Standard Distance Age Group World Championships 2026 - Pontevedra: Spain
Andrew Skipper
Finally, 14 months after qualifying and adopting perhaps a questionable training/rest day ratio in the build-up, the Standard Distance Age Group World Championships in Pontevedra came around. Having raced a couple of AG European Championships in the past, I kind of knew what to expect on the day albeit expected the standard of racing to be higher….
The swim didn’t disappoint and basically played out as an aquatic punch-up. I quite enjoy a gritty swim, but I’ve never got to 1000m and still be having my goggles punched off my head. A completely counterproductive way to swim quickly, but probably to be expected when you pit a load of pumped-up middle-aged men against one another. In the end it got too much, and I swam off to the side to find a bit of clear water and was able to swim a calmer final 500m, ultimately exiting the water in 6th (according to the guy at the top of the stairs).
A longish 250m-300m run to transition was thankfully covered by the famous blue carpet, and it was onto the bike (once I found it). Having saved reading the athletes guide for the flight over, I discovered a week before the race that the course involved a reasonable amount of climbing – two laps of a 10km drag out of town and back. As a fully paid-up member of the flat-track bully club and having blown-up on a hilly 70.3 course earlier in the year I was feeling pretty nervous on how to pace it. I went for a similar power as the hilly 70.3 on the basis I could comfortably hold it only racing half the distance, then pushed aggressively on the rapid descent to have a reasonable bike leg. It was great to see the course referees being liberal with the drafting cards too!
On to the run and the legs felt great, suspiciously good, which made me wonder whether I could/should have burnt a few more matches on the bike. A mainly flat course took you through parts of the old town with plenty of great spectators cheering you on (I even heard someone shout ‘Go Optima!). Despite having the legs, the lungs weren’t there to match and couldn’t seem to push any harder than my half marathon pace, eventually finishing in 29th which was the best I could hope for and more importantly didn’t disgrace the flag in a field of 103. In hindsight, I wasn’t prepared for the distance having only raced 70.3 all year and consequently had no real measure of how hard I could push myself or being prepared to suffer. A really enjoyable event though, albeit with a tinge of regret. I came thinking I probably wouldn’t race standard distance again, preferring to race over a longer distance, but left thinking I may have unfinished business.
