Few Weeks ago I raced my second Half Ironman Distance race,
this one was a IM Brand event as compared to Challenge Brand.
This one was held at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast in
Queensland. The road to Sunshine coast started back in June with the build to
Run Melbourne. I have raced Run Melbourne every year for the last few, doing
the Half Marathon Distance is always fun. This year was no different a cold day
with little wind. The race while fun was uneventful, I completed the distance
in 2hr + change mark. While not my quickest half still left good. After Run
Melbourne I started to up my training blocks around all swim / bike / run.
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| Finish Line Run Melbourne 2015 |
Swimming 3 times a week, 2 with Coach Anna and one on my owe
but a program Anna set for, trying for 2 bikes sessions a week, one squad, one
me. Running 2-3 weeks keeping the distances around minimum of 10-12km mark.
Build felt good I felt good. No cold, flu or sickness issues.
As IM SC 70.3 came closer I started to look for a warm up
event, Hazelwood was on the radar. I came 3rd their last year in the
sprint, the only downside was it was 1 week out
from the IM SC 70.3 I decided to race the event but as a roll through
not as a race. Going through the processes so to speak. The Sunday before
Hazelwood I changed the tyres on my Race Bike putting on 2 new Michelin P4
tyres and do a little check general service. My bike had recently only just had
a major service, this was more a clean, oil the chain, etc.
On the Saturday I got up earlier and did my normal pre-race
stuff before heading down to Hazelwood. On the way down it rained a bit and it
was cool, after racking my bike and doing the rego bit I went back to my bike
and setup the whole transition area. I decided that as it was cool I would race
with a short sleeve compression top under my Trisuit. Being the first race of
the Victorian season and lead in race for Ironman Half on the Sunshine Coast
and there were a few Melbourne Triathlete who where racing Kona. Always nice to
see familiar faces.
Those who where racing the Sprint/Mini watched as the
Olympic distance went off and after they were out on the bike I went dropped
off my Tri bag and changed into my Wetsuit and got ready for race start. While
in the water I noticed I could not see the past my hand and the water was
cooler than I thought it would be. They gave us the race briefing and sounded
the horn and off we went. I felt great in the swim, as I ran into transition
got the wetsuit off on with the helmet and sunglasses grabbed my bike and then
headed out. There was light windy but not too, the roads where open not closed
(i.e. cars on the circuit) I kept telling myself to race at the Half Ironman
place, next week is the big one. The cycle went off without too effort after
the 2nd lap I came in racked my bike removed my helmet on with my
socks and runners and headed out. Hazelwood has a nasty little hill about 2 and
km’s in. As much as I do hill training I hate them, this hill is about 180-200m
rise over 1km then it’s a downhill run to the finish line. I crossed the line
with a time of 1 hr 29 mins and 59 secs. After a bit of a cool down and shower
I checked my iPhone to see where I finished, turns out I was 4th
some 22 seconds off 3rd. I
had to tell myself my race plan was to race for the Half. It was hard to accept
but a needed, during our team’s long run the following day catching with the
Ollie the Head Coach It was the right call not to push. That afternoon I
cleaned and pack my bike and starting packing some of my race gear for the
Sunshine Coast.
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| Heading out on the Bike |
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| Finish Line |
Thursday morning I chucked my bags into the car and headed
out to the Airport for the trip up north. I thought I’d be smart and doing the
ye-old check-in from home the night before that way all I needed to was a bag
drop. At the Virgin checking the Bag Drop queue was a mile long. Another
Triathlete and I were in the queue when a Virgin Check-in Assistance pulled us
both out and took us over to the Virgin International check in. No problems
they checked us both in and we dropped out bikes off at the oversize bag area.
After doing the security check I found a coffee shop and had
a hot chocolate while waiting for the plane. As it came to 9am the plane was
there but no bags had been loaded no panic, then about 9:15am there was an
urgent amount of workers and bags showed up right before boarding. I saw my
bike go on, then place then my suit
case, right I half way there. My seat was right next to an oversize Dad and his
young kid, lucky for me the couple opposite got moved to the Emergency Seats
and I was told I could move over to their seats if I wanted too; I took that
opportunity. After takeoff and plane leveled out I put on my MP3 player and
went to sleep. After landed and collecting my bags I checked in with the my
transport and headed south to the Hotel. After checking in they me that my room was not ready, so they stored my bags
and I headed out for a look see and some food. After 2pm I headed back to find
out my room is ready and I could check into my room. After collecting my bags I
got to my room, after changing to my shorts first job was to unpack the bike
and ensure it was ready to ride. After that I changing into my swim gear
grabbed my wetsuit and headed down to the beach for a practice swim. Being a
true surf beach I wanted to make sure I knew what the beach was going to do and
see if I got tossed around. I did a few in and outs and felt good. After
changing again time to go to Coles do the shopping and think about dinner.
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| My Bike and Bag somewhere in there |
On the Friday I did a little ride up to the Airport and back
and drenched in the rain and then a 3km run off the bike, it felt good. In the
afternoon we did the ye-old Expo and Athlete Check in, no matter how many times
I go through this it always seems the some old process of long lines and not
enough staff to process people. Worse bit is the timing belt where not included
in the rego pack, you had to re-queue a 2nd time to collect that
which made it worse as the 2 queues crossed over each other.
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| Local Swimming Pool |
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| Things you see on your run; Yeap thats a leather Couch to watch the surfers |
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| Great views on a run |
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| Transition Area |
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| Finish line |
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| Expo / Finish area |
On the Saturday I did another swim, followed by a ride to
the freeway start and up the run course and little run off the bike again. I spent the rest of the day feet up,
stretching and doing the ye-old bike check-in.
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| About to head off to Rack the bike |
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| My Transition Place |
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| Close to an End - Lucky me |
Sunday – Race day!
I didn’t sleep well Saturday night, I got up did my normal
Sunday morning routine checked all my gear, etc. and headed down to transition
to do my setup. I stuffed up and forgot my transition mat and had to head back
to grab it. I had heaps of time so no panic. When I got back to the hotel I
changed into my wetsuit, I also dropped off my bike pump as well, grabbed my
mat and headed back to transition. Checked everything again and then headed to
the bag drop and then to beach for a warm up swim. This event was a rolling
wave start, it took forever to process everyone. During this process I bumped
into Drakie (Stephen Drake) a team mate, we had a bit of a chat as we waited to
be processed into the swim. Once we got going the bay was mostly flat with a
little roll to it, the sun came out as I hit the turning Cans to head back up
the beach to the swim finish. I did a little bit of a body surfing into the
beach and run up the beach into transition, off with the wetsuit on with the
helmet and Sunglasses a quick chat during this process to Technical
Official who was right next to my bike
and then I headed out on the bike.
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| Swim over with |
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| Heading up the hill towards the Freeway |
There are a few rolling hills on the bike course until you
hit the freeway but once on the freeway it was flat and fast plus there was a
Southerly wind blowing as well pushing us North. Out on the bike course I kept
my head down and powered on. At the first turn around you could feel that
southerly wind coming back into town, as I was coming back you could hear Ambos
racing to crashes. During both laps I count no less than 10 accidents or bikes
on the side of the road. As I came off the freeway and back into town I heard
someone call my name still not sure who to this day, past transition and out
again for the 2nd lap. The 1st Lap was 25km out, and the
2nd was 20km out, at the 2nd Turn around you had to be
careful of people still on their first lap. As I came towards the end of the
freeway I started to think about the run. Lower/slower gear to keep the legs
fresh. As I passed the finish line on the bike I heard the leaders finishing
their run always a little disheartening but on well. I got back to transaction
racked my bike, off with the helmet on with the shoes and socks, time to head
out for a run, but first a bathroom stop.
First part of the run is up a hill to Alexander Headland I
could feel something was right but not sure what. Around the 3km mark I started
getting a real pain in the ball of the foot. It felt like I had run a long way
on concrete. I kept on going but the pain got worse and worse. During the run I
ran across a Facebook friend Kristy we had a bit of chat but I had to swap from
running to walking for a bit then back to running. I wanted to stop and take my
shoe and sock off as I knew that would probably be the end of the race. I kept
on going with my run walk run walk process for the rest of the race. Coming
down the hill for the first lap and collecting my lap wrist band and headed out
for my 2nd lap. I was hurting but determined to finish. At the turn
around on the 2nd lap I spot Drakie, I had not seen him all day
until now. I kept on running and walking around about 3km of home Drakie caught
me we walked for a bit and chatted and off he went. The final climb Alexander
Headland then down to the finish. I crossed the line with a sense of relief. I
stopped my Garmin and looked down at the time just over 6 Hours. I got my
Finishers Medal and Towel, then headed into Athlete recovery area.
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| Digging Deep on the run |
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| Almost home |
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| Number 2 completed |
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| The After Party |
I got my Tri bag and took my shoe and sock off for a look.
Yeap a Blood Blister bigger then thumb, I changed into different shoes, and
chucked a T-Shirt on. I was thirsty and hungry so I headed out of the change
tent and got some water and food and bumped into Kristy and had a chat about
our races. I collected my finishes T-shirt then went to collect my bike and
gear. I walked back to the hotel for the transitional finishes beer and food.
While having a shower it was clear that the Blister needed to be popped. Lucky
for me I always take Compeed Blister Packs when I race and the Medium size
patch fitted perfectly. So after having a shower and cleaning the area was time
to pop the blister. After popping the blister draining and cleaning the area I
popped on the pack to dry out and protect the area. After a BLD (Big Lie Down)
and a few more beers and more food I
started to pack up. My Hotel Room had a Washing machine so I made use of the
it, packed the bike and started to get ready to fly home. My transition mat
which had to be chucked out had a heap of muck and gunk on it. In the process I
found small stones in my sock, My Transition area was under a Morton Bag Figure
Tree. My conclusion I picked up something in T2 which caused the blister.
The Times?
Swim 34 mins12x secs
T1 3 mins 4 secs
Bike 2 hrs 55 mins 08 secs
T2 3 mins 5 secs
Run 2 hrs 26 mins 56 secs
Overall 06 Hrs 02 mins 25 secs
