Matt Ryley - Eaton Middle Half Ironman - 1st age group and 3rd overall!

Matt Ryley:

Eton Middle Distance (half Ironman distance) - 1st age group and 3rd overall

"swim started ok, but found myself not on any feet, so swam hard for 2 minutes or so to catch some feet and stayed there. Only when i got out did i realize that i was in the lead group and 4th out the water!"

Bike was 10 x 9km laps! Rode to power, stayed aero and didn't follow 2 people who over took me. (1 later got a puncture), overtook 1 and was in 2nd.

Distance to 1st place stayed constant at turnarounds when i could see him. Lap times were very consistent - apart from 1 when I had to stop for water. The feed station only had cups of water - no bottles!

T2 I wanted to treat it as a dress rehearsal for Ironman Roth in a few weeks and left T2 in 2nd, but 1st was about 1 minute ahead, so all to play for!

On the run - started quick, too quick, but settled nicely to 4:15kms, a bit faster than i had planned, but felt ok and managed to keep the pacing constant. 1st place at the 1st turnaround and then at each turnaround, i could see he was running well and slowly increasing the lead, so didn't bury myself trying to get P1 which was also unrealistic.

Dropped to 3rd, but 2nd place ran 7mins faster than me and again when he ran past i knew i couldn't keep his pace so let him go and concentrated on my race.

Pleased with how it went, good splits, everything worked well, felt good. Ready now for Ironman in July!"

Matt's PCG Coach is Mark Tickner