Today I raced my second Olympic distance triathlon as part of the Geelong multisport festival over 10-12 Feb 2012.
I should add at this point that I fell off my bike during a training ride on Saturday morning. We walked through much of the sand/gravel before the ride and so much sand was in my cleats. We were doing a course familiarization of the ride course and when it came time to turn around at the lights, I could not get my cleats out of the pedals...there was nothing left to do but to fall off my bike sideways. Luckily there was no traffic on the roads so I fell (as gracefully as I could) on the road. The result of the fall was scrapped knee and elbow, bruises on my quads, groin and hip from the fall itself and the bike falling on my legs. I also have bad whiplash and my neck hurts!!! Will see the physio on Monday.
Throughout Saturday, the rains never stopped!!! There was so much rain that they recorded over 16mm of it but the triathlon still went ahead (BIG phew!!!) As we checked in our bikes in on Saturday, all we had to carry to transition was our bag and pump. I went into transition and took a while to set up everything as my bike was naked!! I bought some pit stop yesterday so that was something new which I added on the bike along with my drink bottle, gels, repair kit, spare tube and for the first time - my shoes on the bike.
After we watched the long course people get through T1, we got into our wetsuits ready for the swim. Not sure if the time for the start was also delayed for the Olympic distances but we got into the water to warm up and off we went.
Swim
God the swim was long...the swim is 1500m but it felt like it went on forever. The first 600m, we swam past 2 red bouys and turned at the white one then we swam past 2 more red bouys for the 500m that also took a while. The hardest was the 300m as people from other age groups were catching up to us and it was hard to see where I was actually swimming to!! I read that you swim towards the ferris wheel so that's what I did. The last 100m was also hard as it was not easy seeing where the swim finish was. During the Gatorade series, I would say that my swim is not down the bottom of the pack but I guess you wouldn't sign up for a race like Geelong unless you know that you can swim 1500m comfortably. I came out of the swim 37 out of 41. I didn't push myself hard enough in the swim. There was several moments where I was trying to swim past people but they were totally blocking me. There was even a girl who was doing back stroke the entire way through the swim (panic much!). When I got my direction and breathing right, I worked on my technique and making sure that I was stretching out as much as I could and also pulling through right. Must work on this for 2012-2013 season.
T1
Transition was good, time to put on the race belt increases transition time but everything else went to plan. Not having to put on the shoes was great and being able to run to the mount line bare feet also helped. For the first time, I also put on the helmet before the glasses which also worked as I had the glasses on top of the race belt.
Ride
God the ride was hard. I really need to work on the ride as my cadence was so low!! I drank too much on the ride and finished it at the 22km mark but thank God that there was aid stations and I grabbed a bottle of electrolytes and filled up the bottle and I had more water to survive the rest of the race. The ride through the salt marsh was disgusting....the smell was foul!! The rain had also stopped but the roads were still wet which also slowed the ride down. I wasn't too comfortable on the ride. Due to the fall the day before, my left knee was bleeding and my left elbow was swollen. To lean on the tri bars on the ride was proving to be difficult but I had to find my "good spot" to hold onto for 40km. Must work on the ride more on the Felt bike. I did ride past several people and even took over few people on the hill climb which was good. Even better, I overtook a few people on the descent too (which is a first).
T2
I dismounted well off the bike! I was very proud of myself and I didnt have an anxiety attack or shaking profusely before the dismount line. Getting into transition, it was a bit of a run through mud and wet grass. It was a matter of placing the bike on the rack, taking helmet off, putting on the shoes and grabbing my cap....off I went. Due to the rain, extra preperations were needed to keep things dry. I had several plastic bags so I placed it on top (covering) the running shoes and also folded the towel differently so the towel was keeping my things dry which worked.
Run
The run was surprisingly very good. My legs were hurting but after about 1km or so, I could get into my running rhythm and kept as much as I could at running at pace of < 6min/km. I tried pacing at 5:30min/km but there were a few hills and that slowed me down. I also walked through several drink stations so that slowed my time down. The run through the park was good and when we went through the transition area and up the street, that's when it started to hurt running. I was running out of energy bad and had to resort to my wild bean shotz gel. Unfortunately I had no water with me so swallowing of the gel was hard and thank god for another aid station before the finishing line. Yes, the run hurt and my run time was slower than Noosa but I felt good during the run. I also ran with my Newtons for the first time in a race which worked out great. I had several blisters on the back of my ankles at the end but only noticed them during presentations. No shin splints to complain about either.
Here is a photo I took post race.
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