Beating a Tri legend is a great job done
JOSH LEWIS’S tough lessons from previous outings helped him win the Outlaw Half Nottingham and beat a triathlon legend in the process.
The weekend prior, he was fading on the run in an otherwise excellent Dorney Triathlon outing, attributing this to insufficient fuelling on the bike.
And so when faced with his first Ironman 70.3 – 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run – he made sure to put that right.
He ultimately clocked 3hrs 55min. 14sec. to win from Andrew Horsfall-Turner and, better yet, Tim Don.
That is the same Tim Don that set an Ironman 140.6 world best in 2017, in his younger prime representing Great Britain at the Olympics and winning the 2006 ‘Worlds’ in Lausanne, Switzerland. He clearly still has competitive hunger at 43.
The Holme Pierrepont Country Park-based event operated on a wave start and due to his late entry, Lewis set off near the back and had to play catch-up on such classy rivals.
The Sarnian swam excellently to slice through the field, and coming off the mainly flat bike leg, he was well-fuelled and able to close down the big guns on the run.
He maintained a steady pace and rallied at the end to cover the mixed-terrain half marathon in a quite impressive 1-15-41.
That put him third over the line, but first on time, although the organisers had erroneously announced Horsfall-Turner – whose time was 1-33 slower than Lewis’s but 1-06 faster than Don’s – as the winner.
This they swiftly retracted.
‘I could not really be happier,’ the Ravenscroft-backed Lewis said.
‘Since Llanelli [36th place in May] I was a bit down, because it did not really represent my fitness.
‘My coach decided the way to rectify that was to race, and learn to race, get better at racing as a skill.
‘I have raced a lot in the last month or so and I have learned a lot in each race.
‘I was finally able to stick a race together that was representative of where I am.’
And beating Don? ‘It’s such a privilege to even be in the same race as someone like that,’ he added.
‘He has so much prestige behind him, so it’s amazing being able to beat someone of that calibre, no matter what age – he is fantastic athlete and still trains at a very high level.’
