For things I talk about and refer to in the future, it may help serve as a bit of background knowledge....
This race report is brought to you by the colour white.
When I was young I played a lot of sports, and probably the most overriding thing I remember of those time is how nervous I used to get before a match or game.
I’ve found triathlon different in that regard, in that it seems I hardly ever get nervous, although I must admit that prior to the 2008 Australian Ironman I definitely was feeling slightly anxious about what was about to unfold.
This would be my fourth Ironman, although the last one I competed in was back in 2005, in Busselton WA. Since that time I have struggled with chronic injury and illness, it’s been a long two and a half years ‘back’.
My lead-up to the race had been almost flawless, save for a bout of Gastro that struck me across the New Year period which resulted in missing out on a good size block of cycling in Northern NSW, but I wasn’t too worried about it.
Almost flawless, that is, until a chest infection struck me on the weekend before the race. A quick trip to the Doctor and a heavy course of Antibiotics later, I felt like I managed to get myself back to around 85-90% by race day, but there were some very anxious and stress filled days there!
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my best mate, who fell sick two days before the race and did not start on the day. Something that was crushing for him and almost equally so for me.
The Swim 3.8km
Swimming has always been my weakest leg, but I had been working on it very hard and was swimming really well in the pool and in the days prior to the race. I had a target time of around 55 minutes.
I have to say, this was THE roughest swim I have ever been involved in. The number of competitors, coupled with the swim course narrowing in some places, along with everyone fighting for a good line resulted in what was pretty much a street brawl. I was feeling reasonably good in the water, although I did get dropped by a small group at about the 2k mark which I really would have liked to have stayed with.
With about 600m to go I got absolutely nailed by someone to my right. Their elbow copped me flush on the bottom lip and also a decent smack on the nose. It hurt a fair bit and, as I breathed to the right, I could see blood coming out in my bubbles.
As I surfaced at the end of the swim I wiped my hand across my mouth and nose and it was full of blood. Refocused on the race clock and sprinted to make the timing mat for a sub-60 minute swim.
The Bike 180.1km
I acquired a new bike prior to this race and it is an absolute dream to ride. It’s a 2009 Specialized S-Works Transition and, well…I think the bike is most likely faster than the rider in this particular instance!
Got going out of town, up Windmill Hill which had been taken over for the day by my squad – the East Coast Cycos, so had been renamed ‘Cycos Hill’ for the day.
There was a massive group of people there, screaming, shouting, ringing cowbells..it was awesome to have them there for the day as this hill would also come into play on the run later on.
I shouted out to my coach that I had gone under 60 minutes in the swim, a bit of a running joke between me and….well the whole squad really……
In the initial stages of the bike I was trying to get an idea of exactly how much I was bleeding, as my mouth seemed to fill up pretty rapidly with blood. Figured out there was no broken or blood nose, it all seemed to be coming from the inside of my bottom lip where my bottom teeth had made a pretty decent hole on the inside there.
Through the hills out of town and onto the flat stretch out to Lake Cathie, I settled into a decent rhythm and the pace was up around 41km/h.
After 40 minutes one of the guys from the squad came past me and I figured he must have come from 3-4 minutes down in the swim at the very least. Hoped for his sake right there he wasn’t going to overcook his noodles.
The bidons I was using invariably became a little bit bloody on the top from when I drank from them and knowing that they would be recycling some bidons at aid stations I made sure to toss mine earlier than normal (at the stations) and near someone there, shouting out to them not to recycle it as it had blood on it.
Went through the first lap (60km) of the bike in around 1:44, the bleeding had stopped and I was feeling pretty good.
Out of town on the second lap and mother nature decided to make a play for things with torrential rain and a pretty decent headwind. At times I could barely see 50m in front of me through the rain and of course it started to get a little bit cold.
Heading back into town I was around a small group of about 6 riders, until we came up to the special needs station at around the 100km mark. None of the others collected anything there, so as I gathered my nutrition they rode off.
There was a bit of an experiment in the this bag of tricks, I had a bottle of Endura and also a bottle of Opti, but in the bottle of Opti I had emptied four capsules of a product called ‘Elagen Sport’. Elagen is basically a supplement that consists of Eleutherococcus Senticosus extract and CoQ10, which together help your body adapt to stress and strain, as well as assisting immune function, concentration and your energy conversion at a cellular level.
Lap two of the bike went by in about 1:45 and I was nicely on track to my target ride of 5:15 and feeling pretty good. I knew the third lap of the bike, particularly on this hilly and challenging course was going to be crucial, and was setting myself up to ride this last 60k as strong as I possibly could, knowing that others up ahead may very well be faultering.
The pinchy hills were starting to sting my quads a bit now, causing a bit of a healthy burn in the muscles. I had originally planned to ride a disc wheel in this race, but the day before the race opted to ride my 50mm carbon Shimano Dura-Ace wheels front & back instead. This rear wheel had another slightly odd thing about it, a SRAM cassette with a 12-26 stack (running 12-23 and then a jump up to a 26t cog). I would rarely use this 26t, but on the occasions I did I found it to be extremely useful, both in the big and small chainring.
At the last turnaround I could see I had already gained on some guys in front of me, I was feeling great and staying focussed easily. On the flats I was using a plan of constantly shifting gears, never riding more than 5 minutes in the same gear to avoid getting lazy. Everytime I went past someone I went past hard and gapped them as quickly as possible.
A large group was a couple of k’s up the road from me and these rabbits helped keep me focussed by concentrating on chasing them down. As I eventually caught them just before the golf course, they all started to blow up, one by one…! They were flying off the back of their own group like someone had just sprayed Mortein on them.
So as it turned out, I came past them all and lead the group up through the suburbs, up Mathew Flinders Drive and back into town to start the run.
At the last bike aid station I picked up a bidon of coke and one of water, getting as much of each into as I could prior to coming into T2.
The Run 42.2km
I knew I had ridden the 3rd lap well and figured I had to be close to some of the guys in my squad that were in a group up the road from me. Exactly how well my race and nutrition plan had worked so far was evident as I passed two of the guys within a couple of hundred metres of leaving T2. seeing that I figured the other weren’t too far, so decided to hit the first couple of k’s hard to catch them quickly. I caught another a few k’s later, but the others were well up the road and would be hard work to draw back in.
Went through the 2km marker in 7:55. Okay maybe that was a little bit too quick…
Backed off a bit and went through the next 2km in 8:24, then 8:46 and then held around 9min/2k for a while. I was looking to run about a 3:15-3:20 on this course, so was on track so far. I was using Accel Gels on the day and they were going down nicely and making me feel great.
There was awesome support out there on the course for the man in white, people were popping up everywhere giving me a shout. Least of all were the guys and girls up on Cyco’s Hill, they were ridiculously loud, cheering on everyone, not just Cycos.
Went through 21km in about 1:33. When I saw that split I was feeling okay, but knew that it was a bit too quick and it might come back to bite me.
And bite it did….. each run lap was 14km and on the 2nd lap I suffered more than I have in any previous Ironman. I was bordering on a total crack there for a short while and only just managed to hold it together and get going again. Right there I knew that the hills had taken a bit more out of me than I realised and this was going to be a tough last 18k.
Again, the crowd and fellow spectators were awesome. There was so much support out there, from friends, family, fellow Cycos and even people I didn’t even know. The support really kept me firing and once I got that 2nd scrunchie at 14k to go my legs got a little bit of life back into them. The pace started to pick up a bit but the damage had already been done on lap 2, with way too much time lost.
From an original target time of about 9:40, I was now racing the clock to break 10 hours. There were still two guys up the road I was trying to run down in particular and, with about 9k to go I got one of them. I have a lot of respect for this mate of mine so gave him a pinch on the bum and a “you’ll be ok mate…” as I went past…
I don’t think he was too impressed at the time, but knowing how tough a competitor he is and now having him behind me for the first time ever in a race, I knew I couldn’t slip up now. Running up Cycos Hill for the last time was deafening, the guys were absolutely going OFF and people left, right and centre were giving me more splits than a gymnastics class.
As I rounded the last turn/aid station, I took one last swig of coke and water and steeled myself to give it absolutely everything left in the tank for the last 4k to the finish.
The hundreds of people lining town green and then entering the finish chute was incredible, ALMOST as good as it was back at Forster. As I hit the carpet in the finish chute I was so pumped to be coming in under 10 hours on what had turned out to be such a tough day, so much harder than I originally thought it would be.
Craig Alexander was there just after I crossed the line and I thought, how good is this sport? This guy’s a legend and came 2nd in Kona last year and here he is just hanging out at the finish line giving his congrats to people. Great stuff.
[u][size=1]Courtesy Andrew Sawatske Hi-Tide Photography[/size][/u]
The Wrap-Up
Final Time – 9:56
Overall Position – 92nd
Category Position – 24th
Swim – 0:59
Bike – 5:19
Run – 3:33
Not the overall time I had targeted, but that is one tough course and my first outing on it, so next year I will be better prepared for it.
Still, a PB swim and bike and a Top 100 finish so pretty happy with that.
The run blew out a bit, but it was ‘one of those days’ for most out there it seemed, but I toughed it out to still post a respectable time so I’m pleased with that much.
Some other great positives to take from the day were nutrition experiments that worked very well. I was only fortunate enough to be using the range of Elagen products for about 4-5 weeks prior to the race and felt great even in that short timeframe, so I’m really looking forward to a full season of using their products and reaping the rewards next season. The use of Elagen Sport in my special needs bottle was definitely one of the key things that assisted me to stay so focussed on the last lap of the bike and onto the run.
Accel Gels – what can I say? I didn’t use these at all in training leading upto the event, but used them with ‘hi-octane’ effect on race day. They are far and away the best energy gel I have ever used.
Special thanks goes to my Family, Renee, Friends, Coach AP, fellow Cyco’s and Transitions members for their support and encouragement both prior to and on raceday.
Also thanks goes out to Andrew at Cyclespeed, Andy at Hi-Tide Photography for his superb photos, Dr Speed at MB Cycles, Macca and his crew at Cynergy Cycles, James at Eladon, Mitch for taking the time to sledge me on-course on his way to 2nd, most of the pro women for putting up with people cheering me and not them.…. and everyone out there who thought in the back of their mind “I hope that idiot goes okay…”
No comments:
Post a Comment