Yarrawonga, in short; beautiful little place. The missus and
I immediately regretted not taking the boys down, or at the very least, Eli.
Small wading area concreted off from the lake, a thousand
little playgrounds, fishing spots, ice cream shop, lolly shop… then 2 x jumping
castles and a BBQ at the race compound… all perfect for 3 or 4 days with the
kids.
We will definitely be going back there, if not next year to
defend my 2nd place, then the year after J
To the race:
Transition opened @ 6am, I arrived at 6:15am… easy to park
nearby and I strolled straight in. Beautiful… no stress.
Numbered spots in transition… even better. No need to worry
about where the best place was to put my bike and plan my entry / exit
strategy. I always prefer the pre-numbered transition; it just removes another
thing to worry about… set up camp only to second guess yourself while walking
out…
I committed 2 rookie errors here though. Nothing major… just
rookie.
1. I didn’t bring 2 pairs of footwear… or even thongs to
exit with. Wore my runners, which I inevitably have to leave in transition…
then had to exit in bare feet. Pet hate of mine… as a good soccer coach once
told me “Your feet are the tools of your trade… there’s no excuse for cutting
your feet on glass, sticks etc… anyone seen not wearing shoes won’t be playing
that weekend”… so I have worn shoes ever since. I have thongs but rarely wear
them. Shoes. The missus tells me not to be so silly sometimes… but… shoes. End
of story.
2. Secondly, I re-tied my runners… elastic laces yes… but
they were now infinitely harder to get on as I do like a snug shoe to begin
with. I tried a couple of times to get the right tension back but I eventually
pulled the pin and left them tight. When it came to the run, I got them ¾ on,
then a quick stomp was all that was required and I was off… slight delay only…
but rookie none the less.
I also left transition is one question… the guy 2 spots down
from me had two small cylindrical pieces of wood on his towel… about the size,
maybe a touch smaller, as the toilet roll cardboard when you get to the end of
the roll. There was nothing more or less to them… just two pieces of wood. No
handles, no dimples, markings etc… just wood.
Why?
The swim
Herded down to transition after the race brief. I had heard
the water was 16.8 degrees the afternoon before so I was a bit nervous to get
in. Foot in… fine… Dive in… not fine. Freezing.
Freshwater, very feint current… murky, but not dirty like
Lake BG in Canberra. If it were a horse race track I would have rated it
“dead”… no buoyancy from the salt of the sea, freezing and no current… all arms
and kicking required here seeing as my technique is not even close to that of a
swimmer! Can’t swim and got no assistance?... Bring on the brawn.
I swam, I tried to concentrate on technique, I concentrated
on sighting, I tried to stick on toes where possible… but at the end of the day
blunt force doesn’t match good technique so I still got out of the water with a
slow time. The Garmin for a brief moment had declared my swim was a disaster…
but after that brief moment I remember I had started the timer 3mins early in
order to avoid wasting time when the gun went off. Start the Garmin, put the
wetsuit sleeve over it and I’m good to forget about it until the ride. That was
the plan.
27mins 30secs or thereabouts… as I said… slow. Not 2011
Vegas slow… but slow.
Out of the water and up the boat ramp… feet freezing.
Wetsuit off pretty smartly, race number on, helmet on and
I’m good to go. I’m happy with the transition as nothing went wrong apart from
a slight fumble getting the race belt done up and I made a last second decision
to put my socks on as my feet were frozen! No way would I normally do that for
an Olympic Distance… All else went to plan including my rarely tested rubber
bands on the shoes tactic. For the uninitiated, I used 2 rubber bands, one per
shoe. Threaded through the loop at the back of the shoe, one band goes around a
bolt on the front derailleur; the rear goes around the quick release skewer.
Make them tight enough to hold your shoes horizontal (so you can slip your feet
straight in)… if they are tight enough, they then simply snap when you get on
your bike, feet in and start pedalling.
Worked perfect. Thanks Youtube.
The ride
After driving the course the day before, I scrapped the
recon ride. Fast, flat, low rollers… pretty uncomplicated. On the way out would
be the tougher section so the plan was to put the Power on for the first 20km
at least, and then look to maintain on the way back… albeit I expected Power
numbers to drop on the way back with more downs than ups.
Ride went to plan apart from one small section about 3/4
into the leg. I had 2 gels strapped to my top tube and one wouldn’t come off… I
lost concentration and I don’t know why but it threw my rhythm for about 5mins
before I regained composure…. Remembering this isn’t Ironman, so 5mins seemed
like a long time at the time!
I passed a boat load on the way out and only a couple passed
me on the way back… so I am going to give it a pass mark. I would have liked to
have gone just a couple of minutes quicker but overall I rode to pretty much
what I thought my ability was.
Approx 1:02hrs for the 38.8km. Cadence was over 80 easily
and Power was 243w. First 20km had the Watts @ 255w… which I was very happy
with… as I said though, more downs than ups on the way back so it was harder to
keep the high number… and possibly above my current ability anyway so it’s
something to work off going forward.
T2
Very funny. I dismounted perfectly… not quite a running
dismount but fast enough, it wasn’t until I started running though that I
noticed something very weird… I couldn’t feel my feet!!! At all. If I were a
blind person I would have sworn I was running on stumps! I noted it to Amanda
as I ran past her on my way into T2 and got the laugh it deserved.
Racked bike, couldn’t feel feet so I struggle a little to
get my tight shoes on… grabbed my hat and sunnies and ran. As practiced many
times at Adcock. I think the official T2 time was quite poor but there was some
running involved and no, I still haven’t mastered my T’s so it remains a work
in progress. I was reasonably happy with this one though.
The run
Out onto the run and something dawned on me immediately…
these clowns around me are all SPRINTING out of T2! Seriously, I was being
bumped and barged by whippets all going around me right at the start within the
first 100m or so…. what the? I ran out at 3:45 pace so I wasn’t exactly
crawling… ok, this could be an interesting run coming up if I am this slow
compared to the folk down here in Victoria!
Not to worry… a Pro or Open runner ran past me at the 750m
metre mark (on his 2nd lap); he was running 3:10 pace and I thought
I’d have a crack. I grabbed his heels (not literally) and ran with him for the
next 500m just to pick up my pace, find my rhythm and see what everyone else
was really doing once settled in. Most people don’t think of drafting on the
run… it could actually just be a psychological tool I use to find my race pace…
but I don’t mind giving it a go every now and then though. 500m with this fella
was enough though and I let him go as it was just too fast for me… I was happy
enough though, I was able to slot in and hover around the 3:35 – 3:45 pace
range quite easily after that exertion.
Lap 1 done, I still couldn’t feel my feet but I had managed
to overtake everyone from earlier except the fast fella that I’d drafted off…
From here on in its just a matter of holding form and speed
and counting down the distance and time… it hurts for sure, but that hurt
period has a finite end in sight and it’s one that isn’t far away when you
really think about it. Seriously… 5kms to go… I’ve done 1000 efforts longer
than that in training and every single one of them has been uncomfortable… and
I had lived to tell the tail… so it’s just a matter of doing what I do. I run.
Fast feet, lift knees, keep core strong, keep head up… hold it. Hold it. Hold
it. Pick a bloke up ahead… run him down… pick another bloke… run him down… so
on and so forth for the last few kms.
6.5km in… I can finally feel my feet! Beautiful I thought…
now I can think about the way my foot is landing. It may seem pedantic to some…
but I know I can’t swim to save myself so I may as well be able to run! :)
The last bunny I chose to run down was a little more
stubborn to catch, I passed him with less than 500m to go and broke him. He
ended up about 200m behind at the end… perhaps he stopped to hug a loved one? I
crossed the line and the line announcer (to my great surprise) said I was 3rd
in the age group… and he was 4th. Wow, didn’t expect that.
I turned around to him and said with a laugh and pat on the
back, sorry mate I didn’t realise we were that high up the list… he asked what
I meant so I told him I was 3rd and he was 4th… he looked up…
“ahhhh you bastard!” (or a word to that effect) he said with a laugh…
All’s well that ends well though; Line announcer got it
wrong. I was already chuffed with third, but it turned out it we were 2nd
and 3rd… I’ll take that.
High 37mins for the run... officially 3:45 pace average.
Done. As predicted.
The real reason Amanda came to the race...
Fun for all. Enclosed waterside swim area and fun area for the kids
Friendly atmosphere at race HQ
Lake Mulwala... very eerie as you drive into town. "Man made lake". Formed by putting a dam in.
Ready to roll.
Thanks Peter Robertson.
Big Sexy Racing gets its cheesy podium shot!
