Bridgewater Triathlon Club member Cliff Worden-Rogers turned in a remarkable performance in the Bridgetown Triathlon's Half Ironman on August 1, finishing first overall.

 But, as wonderful as the victory was, he will be the first to say that it wasn't a race that went exactly as expected.

 Mr. Worden-Rogers had just recently returned from an eight-day European vacation during which he had, he freely admitted, done very little in the way of exercise of preparation for the competition.

 "Going into the race I wasn't sure how fit I was going to be," the Rivalus-sponsored athlete explained.

 "I had just spent eight days in France vacationing and doing very little other than some hiking. The downtime was my mid-season rest so I can gear up for racing at the 70.3 world championships in November," he added.

 The day started off very cool weatherwise and a thick fog made the swim leg interesting, Mr. Worden-Rogers said, but by the time he hit the bike, the day heated up to what he described as a "pleasant" 25 degrees.

 During the first leg of the race, the swim, Mr. Worden-Rogers found himself battling against both strong tidal forces that made the going difficult and the fact that swimming is his slowest discipline.

 "The Bridgetown River is tidal, and that made it really tough," he exclaimed.

 "I estimated I was six to eight minutes slower because of the tide [and] this put me in fourth spot overall with a large six-minute gap to first place," he said.

 But, knowing that he's not the best swimmer in the field, Mr. Worden-Rogers didn't panic and simply set about the task of making up ground during the cycling and the run.

 "I've only been swimming for three years, so it's the reality for me in triathlon - lose time to good swimmers then go out and try to come from behind," he explained. "As I get better in the swim, the less time I have to expend and thus can get into a better position."

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 The bike was an out-and-back, two-loop course with a some small hills.

 Mr. Worden-Rogers set out with a high pace with the intention of catching first place after the first lap. While he was able to close in on second place, he was still about three minutes behind the leader after the first loop.

 "On the way back after the second loop, I was now in sight of first," he said.

 But a major problem occurred on that leg - when putting his water back, the bottle fell out, leaving him temporarily without sustenance and throwing a major wrench into his refuelling routine.

 "I plan out my nutrition strategy before the race. It's something that has to be taken seriously if you want to compete in endurance sports," he noted.

 "My plan for Bridgetown would have been executed perfectly if it hadn't have been for the delayed start and dropping the water bottle - after these two things happened I started to slow down," he added.

 Instead of chasing first, Mr. Worden-Rogers was "in a state of survival" just trying to make it through the race.

 "It's like waking up in the morning without eating anything then doing vigorous work," he explained. "You do it, but not at 100 per cent. My gas tank was nearing empty."

 As he started the run, and the final leg of the half ironman, Mr. Worden-Rogers wasn't sure how his body would handle the 20-kilometre trek.

 Sitting in third place, he was able to ingest some calories and, perhaps buoyed by the support of his parents and other Bridgewater Triathlon Club members, his body responded with energy to the boost and within the first 20 minutes of the run, he had taken over first place - a lead he would not relinquish, ultimately finishing five minutes ahead of the second-place challenger.

 "Once I got into first I put it on autopilot and just cruised," he said. "Making sure to keep eating and drinking; I wasn't going to let first get away again."

 While the final time of 4:30:04 was far from a personal best, Mr. Worden-Rogers said that between the layoff, losing his water and having to combat the tidal forces present during the swim, that he was more than happy with the win and that the event "definitely was a race I'll remember."

posted on 08/10/10