My training had been limited to fairly short stuff, longest runs had been about 12km and only one bike ride over 100k. Coupled with only a few visits into the water over the last couple of months and I was expecting a challenging day but hoping that I had enough underlying endurance coupled with a stubborn attitude that would get me through!!
We arrived after a long drive on the Friday night and on Saturday rode the bike course in the mist and rain and ran a short section of the trail run. I also had a very brief swim to check out water temperature and was then set for race day.
Swim
The swim felt terrible, by the end my arms felt like they were no longer moving! The altitude definitely seemed to have a big effect here, what would normally have felt like a relatively easy cruise around had left me pretty tired already. I was out of the water in just over 36 minutes which I thought was relatively slow for me but to my surprise most of the other guys that I would have expected to be in front of me with that sort of time were also heading up to T1 at about the same time.
T1 was a little slow as there were a few layers of clothing to put on but I was soon out on to the bike.
Bike
With a relatively clear day I was at least less concerned with the potentially slippery road surface and set about at a conservative pace knowing that there were plenty of hills to drain the legs. Whilst I found the course tough, some of the views were pretty spectacular, watching the cloud start to roll out of the valley over some of the course on the last lap helped to take away from the suffering a little!
On the plus side, the challenging terrain resulted in almost no drafting that I saw, a real positive.
I was pleased to get back to T2, and probably only 10 minutes down on where I would have liked to be had I actually done some decent training!
Run
A smooth change in T2 and then onto the run. This started with a real punch and gave you a taste of what was to come, out of transition and a right turn to then run up a steep and bumpy grass hill, once at the top of that it was back down hill, through some boggy patches to soak the feet and onwards for 20k of punishment! Highlights (!) of the run course have to be the hill after about 2k, second lap I was reduced to a walk and my heart rate still didn’t come down from about 99% the whole way! I also managed to hit the deck on the run, overtaken by a guy who then cut back onto the track which meant I did not see one of the rocks, gave it a good kick (main problem was not lifting my feet more than an inch of the floor!!) and executed a nice forward roll. I would have happily laid there and had a rest but figured I should probably get up and keep going!!
The last 2.5km nearly pushed me over the edge, I have rarely been in a deeper hole that at that point so it was really just a case of trying to keep the legs moving and get to the finish line!!
Overall time was 5.26, which upon reflection I am not too unhappy with, it’s a shame in a way that I was not in shape to give it a really good go because it is definitely a honest course where you will get what you deserve, nothing was easy. I’ll definitely consider going back again, the talk is that the running trail will be a better surface next year which would make for faster times but I am sure they will maintain some of those damn grass hills! On the plus side, we had a great day weather wise, I suspect that may not always be the case with this event which would make it even harder. Back down to earth this weekend with the BRW corporate triathlon this weekend, marking the 4 year anniversary of my first ever triathlon! For those of you who may not have known me the whole time and think I am just some freak Ironman type, here’s the proof that it has been quite a journey...
BRW 2007 vs Ironman Australia 2010
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