arrived in busselton on wednesday and straight to registration. the expo is pretty much non-existent. as usual they make you walk through the merchandise tent and it is a TRAP. for the $1100 entry fee i received another cheap chinese back pack (or as ironman refer to it - the athlete 'gift') and a small red bull. the ugly finisher man shirt would come later along with the pretty but thinner finisher towel.
my nerves were nuts. you would think at this point in my illustrious triathlon career i would be cool as a cucumber. i know that it is just a swim, bike and run and yes this is not my first. however the common sense brain cannot control everything. so i spend wednesday through friday feeling like shit. however i am sleeping well and by saturday i am starting to feel better especially when i am busy.
i am very good at tapering. thursday i rest, friday open water swim and saturday ride down to the jetty. morning tea catch up then finish packing the bike and run bags. drop the bike off, pick up pizza for dinner and home for an early night.
the only thing i hate about the 70.3 being at this race is they start before us but we still have to arrive early to get a decent parking spot. the time seems to go quickly and not as many toilet trips. the nerves are pretty bloody GOOD. get the new wetsuit on and it feels awesome. weather looks okay but it will be windy. cant control it so just let it go.
this swim course is just awful. swimming around the jetty was iconic and just fucking special. there were probably always sharks out there. we just didnt know. so i suffer through two laps of a lumpy course with people swimming all over the place. garmin has me spot on at 3700m but it felt like i swam further and at 1.20 it was slow (5th in age group so maybe we all had a shocker). i thought i kept missing the swim buoys and was always trying to get back on course. never found any good feet to stick with either.
transition was pretty ordinary. keeping to one outfit certainly helps.
the bike was fucking HARD. crosswinds all day and every now and then some relief in protected parts. but otherwise it did not stop. first lap felt good. the roads really are not that smooth and too many out and backs. on the second lap i started to think that i had taken a wrong turn and was heading the wrong way. wind induced hallucination. at some point i realised i was going okay and if i maintained the effort my time would reasonable. my back was good, my legs okay and my shoulder better than expected. i was starting to miss my good cycling bibs though. i think from the splits my second lap was just as good as the first. 4th in age group.
transition was slow. i took my time. on purpose. i knew the run was going to be long and tough and i needed a moment to get it together.
the longest i ran in training was 10k so i just had to do this four times. was it hard, yes. but the people i saw out on course made it just a little bit easier and in a way fun. did i have some low points - absolutely. my feet got all messed up as the socks i had on were too thin and my feet just not prepared for 42k. however experience paid off and i had put a thicker pair in my special needs and that saved me. i was lucky that at each end of the course there were people i knew and in between the huge crowd around the finish line. the encouragement was the right kind. positive and not condescending. running a marathon after a 180k bike and 4k swim just brings a different vibe from people. i focused on the same approach i had at NZ and that was to maintain the same average pace over the 42k. i remember fiona giving me my requested shit comments of encouragement - loved it. stopped and spoke to brett but no idea what i said. alex played my favourite song (go faster - black crowes) and i did for about 500m. my nutrition was all over the place and i need to think about that. i was very happy to finish and loved that the song playing as i tried to look impressive and sprint the finish line was nutbush city limits. very age appropriate.
so the medal was awesome and chatted with a few people i met at the pre-swim while eating the best hot chips and icecream ever. managed to get all my gear together and loaded the car. nice hot shower, cold choc milk with left over cold pizza and then bed. finish time was 14.10 so not my best and not my worst. not great for busselton though. bike was 6.12 so based on the wind factor that was a great effort. this gives me some good confidence going forward - especially if i do the full training required. but my love and enjoyment for the sport is coming back and that makes me happy.
