- Morning registering procedures
- Swim start and safety
- Medical issues
- Bike leg procedures, rules and safety
- Volunteer and Police support
- Transition procedures
- Run leg issues
- Finishing
After the briefing met up with a friend and went for a short run to loosen up the legs. Then back to the motel and prepared my gear for the race in the morning. For this HIM as apposed to the GCHIM I would do some things a little different. Particularly on the run where I did not use a fuel belt and utilised the aid stations a little more in providing hydration, I still carried my own Hammer Gel. The other thing that I learnt from the GCHIM was to eat something a little earlier before T2. At GCHIM I had a portion of a Powerbar a little too close to the run and suffered stomach cramps throughout the first part of the run.
It was race day and we were up and over to transition at about 5.15am local time. Spent time setting up transition and then it was off for a stretch and put on the wet suit before race start.
At around 6.15am I entered the water for a bit of a warm up. They had published that the water temperature was approx. 23degrees. It felt more like 13degrees...thank goodness for wetsuits! The start was a little different to the ones I have been use to. It was a mass start with athletes seeded according to the time they thought they would do for the swim. After the national anthem and getting everybody on the correct side of the bouys at 6.30am we were away.
Swim: Going into the swim, I had a number of goals in mind; to stay relaxed, focus on stroke technique and tuck in behind swimmers in front of me. Initially it was all a bit full on, very difficult to find some clear water but after a couple hundred meters I got into a rthymn and focused on the goals I had set myself. At the turn it again became a little hectict but again after the turn people found their own water and it was back into a rthymn. The confidence was building as I was regularly passing blue cap who were athletes in the faster zone in front of me. The swim exit was in site and I was still feeling strong. Standing up on the shore I looked at the official clock and it was just a tick of 28minutes. I was wrapped!! This gave me a real boost of confidence going into the ride leg of the race. The official time for the swim was 0:28:36.
Cycle: Onto the bike feeling confident. Well that was until I went to mount my bike and in doing so knocked on of the rear bottle off my bike. Thanks to the spectator yelling out I wouldn't of known this happened. After going back for the bottle I discovered that the whole weld had snapped off the cage and therefore I was unable to carry it, so it was left in the gutter. I wasn't that concerned as I still had 2 other bottles and the aerobottle. Once this little hurdle had been overcome it was on with the job ahead. Having driven the course the previous day I knew what I was in for so therefore work on a strategy to conteract the undulating hills throughout the bike course. At about the 20minute mark of the cycle I got caught in the big ring going up a hill and found that the chain was slipping and not changing back down into the small chain ring. I ended up getting off the bike to change the chain back down to the small chain ring. Through the hills and down onto the flats. Once onto the flat part of the course it was onto the bars and it was there I would stay for quite a considerable time. Competing the first lap it was back out again through the hills and onto the flats. It is when I got onto the flats that I began to struggle with a knee niggle I had been struggling with leading up to this race. At this point I turned back the intensity, giving myself some time to recover. The official time for the bike leg was 2:47:07
Run: Now out onto the run. Again I struggled with the first 5-6km just to get into the rythmn. In fact it wasn't until about the 12km mark that I began to feel comfortable...if that was possible. The knee issue was causing me a little grief, however, I continued on working through the pain. The legs just didn't seem to have the strength in them leading into the 2nd half of the run. The official time for the run leg was 2:05:26
Total Time- 5:21:10
Overall I was very happy with the time and found it a very worthwhile experience. A great learning experience for the challenge ahead.
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