I write this race report with mixed feelings about my race at Geelong. The reason behind this is because I really didn't have a good race, however I was only 3 min off a PB?!?!
Swim - 28 min 25 secs PB
Ride - 2 hr 23 mins 54 secs (35th Overall - 6th Age group)
Run - 1 hr 37 mins 31 secs
Total - 4 hr 29 mins 51 secs
What a scorcher Sat was with the weather, with race registration and also the race organisers declaring that it was going to be a non-wetsuit swim. This would have suited me a treat and was happy about this fact.
Well the weather being nice and toasty on Sat night made my sleep very interrupted and therefore meaning that I was not well rested before this event.
I thought my nutrition went rather well on Saturday, however I prob had 4-5 to many beers Friday night.
Setting up my transition on Sunday morn, my pump split and had to borrow someone else's, not ideal but got the job done. The announcer said that wetsuits were going to be optional, which meant I was going to wear mine to try and swim on a level playing field as the others.
With the swim start, all the ETPA boys were going to try and use each other as an advantage in the swim as we know how each one of us swim. We were all located in a good position at the start and once the gun went off we went. The swim was definitely the roughest I have been in to date and had Princess tapping My feet to let me know he was there, which suited me as if we had got out of the swim together it would have been game on in the bike leg. I was swimming at a good pace until WHACK.........copped a nice kick to the head, don't actually know where it came from as I was arms length away from the guy in front, but geez it hurt. With this, my confidence hit rock bottom and had to pull off to the side to regain some composure. I watched as Princess swam away in to the distance and then heard Pistol yell some support in amongst his stroke. I then continued with discomfort and only managed to swim the last 1/2 in proper rhythm. I swam passed Benny Rob and Komo about 200m from the finish.
I think the swim must have been short or the current was rather strong to swim the time I did with the thump to the head.
I managed to get in and out of T1 without any hassle and mounted my bike looking to make up for lost time.
Once on my trusty rig, I saw Pistol and gave him encouragement as I passed him up the first rise. Heading out onto the course proper, I "turned on the turbos" and sat most of the first 10km sitting around 48-52km/h to try and make for lost time. Once again I was able to ride passed a lot of swimmers. On reaching the turnaround marker, the return trip was into the wind. This is where the ridiculous amount of drafting occurred. I managed to sit on 36-38km/h, with this people were drafting of me and decided to go to the front......Not just one but 5-6 who were sucking wheels harder than kids suck their dummies!! Once they hit the front, the pace dropped to the low 30's and mine to 30 trying not to be done for drafting. I continually tried to regain my tempo but the same happened over and over again. 46min 47 sec
The second lap on the bike heard my rear wheel start to rub which i later found that it was the tape covering my valve hole on my disk wheel. I repeated the above, the only difference on this lap was the different group that i managed to ride to and the torrential rain that fell for the whole lap, making conditions a lot tougher. 47min 15sec
The third lap being along the same lines as above with me riding away from the group that was drafting off me and into the group in front. 47min 42sec
I was happy with my consistent ride times and heading into transition, some muppet decided to stop 100m before the dismount area and a mate of mine Rhys Davie ran straight into him and there was a bingle. I managed to avoid this and get in and out of transition without any hiccup.
Onto the run my legs felt great and got into a good tempo for the 1st 3-4 km until my stomach decided that I hadn't punished the toilet enough before the race and had to use the facilities ( a tree) to rid of the remaining crap I had. On from this I found my run was ok for me considering my big diesel frame does not like hills to much. I ran around the same time as I did at Shepparton with the courses being nothing alike....This gave me a bit of confidence for future.
I crossed the line in just under 4hr 30min, only 3 1/2 minutes behind my Shepparton time.
With everything that went against me for the day, I am happy with the outcome.
This is the way I have assessed my race:
Preparation: 6/10
Nutrition during race: 5/10
Race performance: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
This has been the first race without a PB, something I am not used to but will put behind me and move on. From here am going to Jervis Bay for the Long Course on Feb 22nd hoping to Qualify for the World Long Course Champs.
Also: Congrates to KP & Pistol for getting a spot at Clearwater and to the other Boys who achieved a PB on the day.
For now I am going to make a few minor adjustments to my bike.
X-Man
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