This is a race that was in the planning since about the turn of the year when I was mapping out the Ironman program and dates surrounding the wedding in April. Ideally I should be doing longer races to get up the distance, but travel and money can take a toll... and so can all the long hours in the saddle or hitting the pavement. So the Sparke Helmore Olympic Distance race was seen as ideal. Only an hours drive from home and relatively cheap made it the perfect outlet to get some match practice, or race experience in.
In addition to this, with one eye on the ITU selection criteria for NZ 2012, I thought a good result at a reasonably popular OD race might help my cause. I cant actually do any of the official races this season due to 70.3 conflict, the World Champs in Vegas and getting married the same weekend as the Sydney leg, but it would be nice to still be in with a shot as to be honest, ever since my good result in Nepean earlier in the the season I have felt there may actually be some damage I can do in OD races yet. Do the Sparke, get a good result, then send a letter off to Tri Australia for consideration... not sure I can even afford to go in the long run, but it's nice to know you can do it.
Anyhoo... I digress.
The week leading up to the race... as has been the case a few times now... I fell victim to a virus. I went running on the Saturday (weekend before the race weekend) and had my best training run yet. 36km in 2hrs 43mins was 2 mins faster than the week before and this time I did not stop the watch for anything... no stopping to drink, go to the toilet, traffic lights, people in my way... nothing... so in reality, it was probably about 5 or 6 mins faster than the previous week. I got home and all was well... I felt a little tired and weary but I felt ok. as the day went on though, I started feeling sore and quite tired. Next morning I got up as normal for the Sunday ride and cruised out with my good friend Zim over towards Ourimbah for some efforts of fun.
Something wasnt right though... I was struggling to keep up just while heading out..
Long story short, I peeled off from Zim (as planned) as he joined Brett the Animal 1.0 Stewart for extra efforts and went to meet Allen (Angry Little Man) Pearson before joining back up with Zim and Animal 1.0. Anyhoo, after a struggle of a ride through some hills, I finally stopped where I was to meet ALM and it hit me. The plan was to ride back to Ourimbah to join in with some efforts, but I just didnt get there. I was struggling to keep up with ALM on his Road bike, when normally it would be no problem and I was cold... damn COLD! Shivering all over and feeling quite weak... so passing near my house, I decided the right thing to do would be to ignore manly toughness and bravado and go home to bed.
Good decision... I went home and crashed... then had Monday off work. I would have had Tuesday off too, but I was ok enough to move, and having a day off at home with a 1 year old, isnt really resting anyway, so I may as well not waste my sickies and get to work!
Good taper! I didnt train that week until Thursday now... until I was sure I was as close to 100% as possible. I ditched swimming for the week and just touched up my legs a bit with some runs and rides. By Saturday arvo... I actually felt really good, and ready to tackle this race :)
The morning of, I got up nice and early in order to wake up properly for the drive and to have some breaky. I'll save time and put my kit on before driving as well I thought... too easy.
Rego opened at 5am, Transition closes at 6:55 for a 7:30am start... I aimed for 5:45 arrival.
Bang on time, I parked the car and walked about 1km to rego.
Did I mention it was cold and windy... with a little rain? Well it was.
I get to rego and check in... the wind is picking up. Fantastic I thought... I've got my race wheels. Should be ok, but I'd rather not.
Rain stops, although there's plenty of dark clouds around, but the wind keeps going and it remains cold.
Over to transition, I set up camp pretty much where I want... the area looks confusing so I go the neutral zone and go bang in the middle. Too easy. A few copy my lead and make it a little cramped, but its all good. I've set myself up next to a bright yellow bike, so assuming I exit the water first, I'll have no problem seeing my bike!
I'm done and its only 6:05am or something like that... NEVER have I been ready early... and NEVER will I be this early again! What to do... its dark, windy and cold! I walk over to the local surf club, as this race is right on the foreshore in Newcastle, I find a little nook in the building and sit down and play games on the phone and put some tunes on :)
ok, now here's where it gets funny... I guess I must have been thrown way out of whack from being early, or maybe I was in some sort of payback mode toward the gods of being early, but I ended up sitting there oblivious to the race raucus going on around me until about a minute or 2 before race brief! I still had to strip down, get my wetty out, vasso and sunscreen up and put my bag in the gear tent!!! I get up and run back over to rego which was about 500m... stopping half way to get the wetty on half way. I look at the clouds and decide sunscreen can pass and I forget the vasso. I nearly throw my gear in the tent until I realise I still have to get my goggles out... and my race issued swim cap... not my training cap :)
I throw the bag in and bolt back to the race brief in transition.
All good, if it hasnt started, I'm not late... its a mantra I live by and I'll stick to it... why stand there in the cold for no reason? My way was much more exciting and I utilised all my minutes as effectively and efficiently as possible!
Race brief done, its down to the race start... a 1.2km walk away.
I dont know anyone at the race, so its a contemplative walk... hammer the swim and bike and give what I have left on the run. dont be stupid though... I've been sick, and this is only an Olympic distance race. It's not the big picture.
Arrive at the race start and we all get filed into the water... the men first, then the women to follow... just two big waves. Not how it was advertised, with wave starts, but thats what they decided to do based on the weather and the strong current in the water. I get in, and I dont feel it.. the current that is. I just mill around, do a few laxadazicle waves of my arm in an attempt of some pathetic warm up... its either the warm up of someone who thinks he's the sh*t and doesnt need to warm up... or that of someone who is being terribly blase about the whole affair... for those that know me, it was definitely the latter today as I never think I'm all that and a bag or patato chip when it comes to Triathlon. I'm not small fry, nor am I large... I'm medium fry out there having a crack :)
The gun goes... without much warning I might add and I miss the jump... dammit... I missed the fast swimmers feet!!... worse still, some of the slower people get the jump on me too and I have to really battle to get through some of them... all flailing arms and bodies rolling all over the place... it would have been easier to just duck dive and go underneath if it were physically possible. Tactic I decided to eventually take was strong arm... get stuck in and bump and hit a few people... and MAKE the roll in another direction so I can pass through!
I dont know what happened, but soon as I passed a few people, the seas seemed to part and I was in open water :) It sucked a little as I had missed all the fast feet I thought, and I was out swimming on my own with people visible on either side... which was just as well... as I couldnt site the buoys at all due to their being a little chop in the surface and wind about. I just aimed at a land mass in the distance and it seemed to be the right way to go.
I pretty much hit the buoy straight on... pot luck! :) I turned tight and headed to shore... having a little race with a couple of people along the way as we battled for bragging rights of positioning of exiting the water... in all likelyhood it was the battle for 40th or 41st I reckon! Not being a great swimmer, I usually lose these battles... and so it came to pass, I relented.. as I nearly always do.
Not to worry, there was a run into transition to negotiate yet and I ran past a few people up to the bikes.... and the timing mat :D keep swimming boys... I'll get you on the run!
16:26 was my swim time for 1.5km... crazy fast! I guess there was a current after all! Not sure where that had me, but there was plenty of bikes still around, so not that bad.
Out on the bike I went and it became apparent almost immediately that this was not the course for my wheels :( Sure they were great in the dead spots and with wind ant front or behind... but this course follows the coastline for the majority of the trek and constant side winds were buffeting me everywhere on a tight and winding course. The were spots I really had to hit the breaks and hang on otherwise I'm sure I would have blown off if I had stayed aero!
And so it came to pass... I passed everyone in the no wind zones and on the climbs (which there were a few)... and I got slammed on all the fast downhills as they were conveniently in the wind areas!!! PainInTheArse.com
Bike time was easily maybe 3 or 4 mins slower than it should have been and I even averaged under 30km/h for the trip which is just unheard of these days.
Lesson learnt.
In actual fact, my bike time probably wasnt that slow, but there was no separate transition times, so part of the swim to bike, and the ridiculous bike rack to bike ride run was terrible.
As I finished my ride leg, I dismounted the stead and headed for transition and just as I was about to enter I was pointed to go to the left of the compound... actually, everyone was. Shambles... you had to do nearly a full lap of the compound running with your bike before you could enter... why? I dont know... perhaps it was just to confuse people to make you think that all spots in transition were fair? I seriously dont know... would be keen to post a map up so I can work it out!
Anyhoo, bike racked, socks on, as I was keen to avoid blisters (purely so I didnt disrupt my ironman training) and as I saw Crowie do in Vegas (thanks Amanda for the great shots of the great fellow leaving T2).. I grabbed my hat and sunnies and put them on while running. Not a bad changeover and I ran well... 3:41 for the first km, 3:37 for the second...and from then on I easily just sauntered along between 3:42 and 3:57 at the tougher windy end... all the time though, I ran every km under the 4min mark. Forget the official run time of just a tick over 40mins as this included some transition running again, I know I ran about a 37:30 - 38min run. It was a good solid hit out without busting everything I had. It was solid though, dont get me wrong, and I felt it by the end.
The run was good, the only hiccup being when I entered the finish shute I grabbed my belt to bring my number to the front and I actually snapped it right off... so I stopped, went back and got it and carried it over the line, holding my number in front... looking slightly stupid, but regardless, happy with my run.
Conveniently the bag tent was right next to the finish, I got my things and after sitting and eating a few pieces of fruit I headed off to get changed and get my bike and go... I didnt give my result a second thought as truth be told I thought I had blown the race on the bike and wasnt too enthused to hang around too long. I ambled through the expo, pined over a P4 being sold by some Pro on the cheap and got on my way.
2 days passed before the results were posted.
1.5km swim - 16:26
40km bike - 1:24:00
10km run - 40:38
Total time - 2:21:04
Cant say I was too enthused at the official times... but they were a victim of the transition running and the wind on the bike and I knew that.
What I didnt know... and had no idea of... was that this time was the 13th overall across the finish line, and I was 2nd in my usually tougher 30-34 age group :)
Quietly chuffed to say the least and the race was now deemed a successful hitout!
I'll leave this report here as I really do have to get back to training for Ironman, but suffice to say 2nd is a great result. It's given me a boost to the confidence and while I still wont be swanning around in the water before the swim thinking I'm all that... maybe I'll have just a little bit more confidence than usual?
oh, I also have a 2nd place medal that is going straight to the pool room... should I ever get a pool room...
