First of all I would like to thank everyone for all of the great support and comments (here and on
FB). I wanna start by saying I had an AMAZING day. For those who already saw my result, it wasn't a fast day, but I had an awesome experience.
I'll start this race report with a quick recap of the last few weeks. I have basically been in a taper since nationals. I had an amazing race there and was hoping to keep the momentum going here in Australia. That being said, I told my coach that success in Nationals was important to me, since that is a race that I have done before, and it doesn't involve 8000 people and a 16hr time change. I figured that once I got here, anything could happen and I shouldn't worry about it too much.
This whole week has been crazy. I have been laying low like I should, but I knew something was amiss when I would do a 20 minute run or ride and be really sore after.
In fact, during a run where I was supposed to do 10 minutes steady effort, I found it almost unbearable to hold a pace that wouldn't even make me sweat at home. Swimming was similar, in that I was struggling to hold 1:30 for 6 hundreds. 6! Never mind the 20 that we do at home at 1:27.
Any who, you know where this post is going ha ha ha.
Race day
I get up really early. No point in trying to sleep any more. I got on the bus at 5:19, just as most of the party goers were going home from the bar. Pretty scary ha ha. Got to the site nice and early and set up transition. Followed my successful
pre-race plan exactly (even the shot of espresso 1 hr before). I caught up with Richard and we walked the 1.5km to the swim start, as it was a point to point swim. The swim ended up being wetsuit legal. The water
temperature would swing a couple of degrees each way every day. Today it was 20.0, two days before it was 22.0. This whole course was fast. If you were on your game today, you would smash your PB. The water was incredible
buoyant. With a wetsuit and the salt water, I could
literally just lay in the water and float. We were also apparently swimming with the current, but that was
negligible.
In the moment before the start, I have never been so nervous. I wanted to do well for everyone supporting me here and back home.
The gun went off, and we all jumped in the water to kick and pull each other for a few hundred meters.
Unfortunately, there weren't many guys that were 22-24 minute swimmers like I was, so I found myself alone pretty quick. It was a lonely swim. The other waves started 7 minutes apart, so there wasn't anybody else out there to draft. I just concentrated on swimming as hard as I could, even following the Bree Wee strategy of going hard for 20 strokes at a time ha.
I got out of the water in what must have been close to last in my heat. 25 minutes or something. I wasn't like at the
Sri when I felt I had a good swim and was shocked by my time. I was pretty sure it was going to be like that. My arms were like lead. O well, off to the bike to potentially make up some time.
I must make a quick note about transition. It was HUGE! Imagine
Kelowna Apple transition times three. Upon exiting the water, it was a 25m run straight up a thick sand dune (so
painful!) and then a 50m run to the right of transition, a 50m run back to the left side, and a 100m run with your bike to the road. Pretty vicious. I managed to get out on the course without too many problems, but I knew my time was pretty slow.
The bike was not as well as planned either. It wasn't horrible, but I now know the feeling of my legs when they are on. You know the feeling when you are going up a small hill and you just
accelerate into it, feeling so strong? Yeah that wasn't here today. In nationals, it was. Can you say DRAFTING?
OMG. I was warned there was some drafting, but it was a bit
ridiculous. We are talking close packs of 15-20 riders blowing by you. Not "pretty close" to each other. We are talking tucked into the person in front of them. There were 10 officials on the course, and to their credit they did pull a lot of people over for penalties.
When someone passed me and just sat in front of me, I didn't worry about it too much. The officials had more blatant offences to take care of. But I never really latched on to any packs. Not trying to preach the gospel here, because I had good friends that rode in packs. I don't blame them in the least. It was part of the day. You did what you could. If I was in contention I wouldn't be too happy
seeing a group of M20-24 guys blast by me in a pack either.
There was lots of crashes. A bit of sweet justice to a pack of drafters that passed me and then ate the pavement. It was also getting hot. I started to have stomach issues on the bike. Uh-oh. I have never had issues on the bike before. I can usually eat a steak dinner on the bike and be fine. Not today. Still you couldn't help but enjoy the beautiful course that went along the ocean for 10k and looped back. The
temperature was now around 25 degrees out and hot. The sun was direct.
I got off the bike and headed out for the run, still hoping to post a great time. As soon as I got out on the course, I got a really bad stomach cramp. I could barely move. I contemplated stopping for a second to double over and regroup, but screw that! The run course was lined 2 deep with people cheering "go Canada" and "go
Janes" . It was an amazing moment. I had so much fun. Around 3km I decided to not worry about my time at all and enjoy the fact that I am doing a triathlon on the other side of the world! Let's just say that it was an experience I will always remember. I was hitting high fives and enjoying every minute of it. People were dropping like flies, with ambulances all around.
It sounds corny, but the entire run I contemplated my season and the successes I have had. All of the amazing workouts with amazing people, the highs and lows, the 4 top three
OA results, and Nationals where I shaved almost 9 minutes off last year's time.
I finished running through the finish line in the obligatory sprint, beaming ear to ear. Jasmine could tell on the run that it wasn't my day. She saw how tired I was. Still, she was there for me right at the finish line with my mom and Lisa to congratulate me.
Looking at what happened, I don't really know or care. Maybe it was too much to ask to taper for nationals and then keep it going for worlds. Maybe I peaked a little too early in the year. All I know is that I am at peace with my result, am happy for my teammates and their amazing results, and am ready for a break from working out.
You know we went out hard last night. Although I had been up since 4am, we hit the
Bundaberg rum, as well as some other Aussie beer and hit the town. It's 7:30 am the next day ( a sleep in for me), and I just had my first coffee of the day and am ready to go to the beach. More partying tonight and then time to travel this amazing country.
I know this is a long post, but I want to say some thank-you's
To my coach Dan. Thank you so much for all of the support and great advice over the year. There is no way I would have seen this improvement without you. I look forward to getting back to it in January.
To all of the other Lifesport peeps, thanks for the amazing year of training. I still think of Cooper telling me to go "faster by smoother" when I race.
To my friends and family. You have put up with a lot this year, and have supported me every step of the way. Thanks doesn't even cut it.
To Jasmine. I can't even start this without a little tear ha. Wouldn't be here without you. A boyfriend that works out for 3 hours a day isn't much fun. Can't wait for the next 3 months!
I will post pictures as the come.
Thanks for reading,
Mj
