Ollie Turner – Triathlete

Jersey triathlon (Olympic distance)

After the success of last weekend in Eaton I headed into this race hoping to mirror my performance.
As it was an Olympic distance event I knew I had to make some big improvements on my performance in the Island games. I decided not to set myself a finishing position goal. My plan was to go as hard as possible and make everything count. I decided to race with my Garmin for the first time as I was interested to see how my heart rate and performance records over the 2-hour long event.

Swim: The swim was a straight forward 2 laps of 750m. Unfortunately due to the ever growing problem of green sea lettuce on the beach it made the swim feel like we were swimming in a bog. I had a good start quickly hopping onto to the feet of Commonwealth swimmer Tom Gallichan (relay racer). A small group formed as we raced out to the first bouy which included Olympian Simon Millitas whom was also racing in the relay in addition race winner Dan Halksworth was also in the pack. Dan kicked early and I made sure I jumped onto his feet, which lead to us breaking off the front of the pack and posting a sharp swim time of 20:30 minutes.

Bike: I felt nervous about the ride leading up to race day as I had had a bad ride in Gotland.
I stayed positive and smashed it from the word go. I managed to have a good bike split posting the 2nd quickest time of the day. This could be due to the fact that the course suited me as it included long hills and several sharp technical corners all of which are my strengths on the bike.

Run: I kept my head clear and managed to have a fantastic first 2.5k, it felt like my legs were moving themselves with minimal effort, I really struggled on the 2nd lap but this would be due to bad pacing of the first lap. I managed to redeem this lap pushing the last 5k hard and posting a huge PB of 36:51 for the 10K run split.

Conclusion: I was mega pleased with my performance over the weekend and my time of 1:59:29. It’s my 3rd Olympic distance event and I’ve managed to break the 2-hour barrier.
Its now onto an easy week before starting a large block of training to get me going well for world champs in September. I cant stress enough the fact that none of this would be achievable without the support and help from my coach Andy Kemp and my sponsors, so a massive thank you to Fairway Jersey who provide my travel, accommodation and my running kit. In addition Pedal Power who provide me with all the latest top of the range gear and bikes. TYR sport who provide me with leading swim equipment and suits. Finally SportsHub who continue to branch out my social media channels and provide me with 5* recovery treatment courtesy of Hotel de France.