First race since Cairns and I am freaking excited.
I couldn't have been more ready for this race mentally or physically and I was very happy to let anyone who asked know about it.
For those that do not know Forster it is a small town that is buzzing with an abundance of energy.... NOT... haha. put simply it has everything you need and nice people but I couldn't live here, I love the non-stop nature of Sydney and its bright lights.
Race Summary
Swim - 00:34:24
T1: Swim-to-bike - 00:02:10
Bike - 02:10:13
T2: Bike-to-run - 00:01:42
Run - 01:53:33
Overall - 4:43:03
A great result as I am stoked with my 6th placing and a good test leading up to IMWA.
Here is a bit of a summary of what happened.
Race Day
Up early and headed down to transition to register, this bit annoyed me as I just like to get bike sorted and do my warm up. I see Ben Judd at registration and set about trash talking him and getting a bit of laughter from those around me.
Got my numbers and went about getting set up in transition.
My instructions from my coach where to make sure I do a 15-20min warm up run and a warm up swim, so I got about getting this done. I only saw one other athlete running and that was the overall winner of the race.
Wetsuit on and into the water I go to warm up and get ready for my wave.
Swim
I watched the first wave take off (this includes Ben Judd undertaking his first long course and a few other friends), 3 minutes later it was my wave. I positioned myself at the front and waited for the hooter. The hooter bellowed and we were off... instantly I am moving along nicely. I had instructions to not flog myself early so I grabbed onto some feet and powered away... after a few hundred metres I made my move and upped my rate, we were moving through green caps and I could only see 3-4 blue caps in front of me, I swam onto a set of feet and let him pull me along, we turned at the far buoy and he upped his stroked rate so I did the same.
The first lap went by very quickly as we started the second lap a few of the guys were working together so I jumped into their whitewash and let them pull me along we made the final turn and head for home. It was here the group went wide, I felt they were heading to wide and going off course so I made the decision to stay close and swim on the racing line everyone else was. This meant I was swimming by myself and working a bit harder. as we turned for shore the group that went wide caught me, in hindsight it may have been better to stick with them but I am comfortable with my decision.
As I was running into transition Bec yelled my time, at 35mins I was like ok so be it. chatter in transition was the swim was 2400-2500m, as I do not where a watch I cannot confirm but other data I have seen backs this up so I cannot be anything but happy with swimming sub 1:30/100m pace. The work I have put into my swim appears to be paying off
After the swim I was ranked 3rd in my division.
Bike
The bike course is undulating but not too tough but the roads suck like they do in Ironman Australia. I had some power numbers that my coach and I agreed on but I will keep these to myself. What I will say is I rode below these numbers and maintained these numbers over the course of the race. Whilst perhaps not my fastest bike ride my power profile was the best it has ever been. I am stoked with the result but I still have some work to do.
One thing I must keep working on is my cadence and not grinding away in my bigger gears and just as importantly my nutrition. For some unknown reason I just wasn't drinking and this would mean I would hit the run dehydrated and would suffer for it.
I was very surprised that after the bike I was ranked 4th in my division.
Run
Out of T2 and focused on tapping away and executing the plan. Anyone that knows me knows my run is the weak point of my racing, I have been working towards a good results for a while now and was confident I could run well. I knew early that my failures on the bike were going to hit me hard. I tried to refuel myself and get hydrated but we all know once you are in the red it is very hard to dig yourself out of it.
I set about getting after it and getting as much fluids into me as possible at every aid station. Bec was passing comments to me and for once I was responding in a positive way, when things do not go to plan I usually am very negative but today I was like "I am not hitting my numbers but I am not giving up", I am proud of the work I have done mentally to able to be this way on race day. When you remove negative forces from around you it pays dividends.
Now the brochure for this race said a flat run to be enjoyed by all... flat my bloody arse, this run had mountains to climb and I will admit I suffered for it.
I told myself run each hill tall and proud, I did walk on occasions but you know what it simply doesn't matter, it is what it is and this race was nothing more than a glorified training day for me. it will matter in 7 weeks time when I am racing in busso trying to better myself and having a red hot crack.
Is my run where it needs to be for busso, hell no but it doesn't need to be either.
I also learnt some solid lessons, some of which where rookie lessons but thats ok by me too.
After the run I was ranked 6th in my division which is my highest ranking yet.
Support
A huge shout out to Elite Energy team for putting on the event, Jay Luke who was on the microphone and gave me a shout out and to all my friends who raced, it was a fun day and I enjoyed racing with you all. A huge shout out to my pregnant wife who as always goes above and beyond to make racing so easy for me. To my coach it wasn't a perfect race but onwards and upwards and I am looking forward to ripping my legs off in Busso.
Where to now?
It will be straight back into training for me albeit I will enjoy a few lighter days before the weekend ramps up again. Training jumps up a gear as we get me ready to race in IMWA.
My next update will come in a few weeks time once I have complete a training camp with my crew.
It is starting to get really exciting now.
