How I got to the IRC'S and what it was like when I got there.
I first, started to get involved in triathlon in 2018. In the West Midlands there is great club structure, lots of the clubs run events and together some of these form the West Midlands Junior Tri series. This is supported by triathlon England and the West Midlands Region. I completed the series in 2019 and came 2nd in the aquathlon series! After this I got invited to the West Midlands Triathlon Regional Development days, run by Andy Teagle. During lockdown I was invited to join the West Midlands development team on Zoom. Our Development days kept running all throughout lockdown and we were meeting and training about once a month. This was great for me as it kept me .... even thought we weren't training in person.
Each year the West Midlands Region invites young athletes to express interest in participating in the inter-Region-charspionships. As many you will know the IRC is the biggest event anyone under the age of 14 can participate in Triathlon. The selection race for the IRC squad is the Sandwell Junior Triathlon at Swan pool. This year this event was 1 of 3 to take place, and these formed the West Midlands junior tri series for 2021. I really enjoyed this series of events and as I entered anyway I took the opportunity to put my name forward for the IRC section for 2021.
I had a great time at this event coming 5th from the West Midlands athletes and I came 6th out of the TS3 boys. The results managed to get me a place as a reserve for the West Midlands IRC team. I was very exceited to be a reserve.
After having got the reserve place on the team, I was invited to join the West Midlands team at the Mallory Park race cercuit to compete in the Mallory park super series celebration event in August 2021. I had a great time here and it was a great experience. I did a non wetsuit open water 300m swim, a 6k bike and a 2.4k run. I also compete for the West Midlands in a relay team at this event. Just before the relay race I met Alex Yee who won Gold and Siver in the 2021 olymic games for his stunning Triathlon races. However I digress, back to the relay races. Unfortunately there weren't enough competitors from the West Midlands so one of our team was made up of 2 West Midlands Athletes and 2 athletes from other Regions. We didnt do too well in our relay but we still had a great time. Now I have to admit I thought this was going to be my last race competing with my fellow athletes from the West Midlands this year but as you know it wasn't.
It was the Friday before the big day for the IRC team and I was just treating it like a normal friday not knowing that I would be pulled into the team at the very last minute. I had just come out of Maths and got a text of my dad. I had a quick look at this and was in shock. He had just told me that Andy had called to say would it be Ok if I could race for the West Midlands TOMORROW at the IRC's as someone had pulled out last minute. I am going to be honest I went into complete panic mode at this point. This was the biggest race of my life and I had just been called up to race for the West Midlands team! So after calming myself down a bit. I got on the bus home (as it was the end of the day) and started reading the race guide and other things my dad just kept sending me about the race. When I got home it was a bit of a rush to try and get sorted ready for the next days race, and once i had done so I had a good team and had a good rest ready for the biggest race of my life.
The next day I got up at about 5:30AM to get ready and have something to eat before getting in the car and going to the race cercuit. It was a long drive to the race cercuit. Once we got
there it was a bit of a rush to get everything sorted! I got registered and started to sort my transition stuff out. We went out for our Bike familiarisation around the course and then got back. TS3 boys went off 2nd till last and so I waited and supported my fellow athletes. After this I started to get warmed up ready for my race which was in about half an hour. I did some stretches and went for a little jog. I got back and started to get ready. I made my way over to the starting area where we had a quick race briefing. I decided to do a non wetsuit swim which went well. I had a strong, quick transition and headed out onto the bike. My bike was great and I kept in touch with them field, however I got stitch halfway through my run. But I managed to finish.
I had some lunch and recovered from my first race. About 1 hour 30 mins later I started to get warmed up again as I still had my second race to come. My second race went well and although I finished bottom of the field, I had no disasters and felt I had done my best.
Overall I think that the IRC was a great experience and I had a great time.
Callum Thompson
