The race went okay, not great, but okay. I certainly learnt a lot from it.
So first, the result. This year I was racing in the open category which basically means you are allowed to race against the pros without holding a pro license yourself. You are eligible for prize money, but are not eligible for age group awards. The results aren't out yet, but I think I came 6th in the open category. I got beaten by a few people in the age group categories and so I think I came 9th overall. I did a time of 4 hrs 22.49. My time was quicker than last year by about four minutes and my place was about the same (last year I came 8th, but I would have come 9th if Matty White hadn't been disqualified).
So what are my impressions of the race. Starting with the pros was daunting at first, but I know a couple of them so that made it easier to relax. By about half way through the swim I had stopped thinking, 'hey wow that guy there is Matty White' and relaxed and got on with it. So that was a positive.
I was very happy with my swim. I was third out of the water, just. I led Matty White, Courtney Odgen and Matt Burton out of the swim, so how could I not be happy with that. I don't have a split for my swim yet, but I suspect it was under 24 minutes, which I would be pretty chuffed about.
The low point of my race was the ride. I am still trying to put my finger on what went wrong there. It wasn't nutrition I know that. I suspect it was pacing. There was a pretty solid wind blowing yesterday morning in Albany and so we were working our way into it all the way out to the turn. I was 4th on to the bike (Matty White passed me in transition) and I got passed pretty quickly by Courtney Odgen. My plan was to stick with the pros as long as I could and I backed my ride to be able to do so. With that in mind I was working to make sure Courtney didn't get too far in front. I think doing so just used up too much. I was working up a hill at about the 30km mark and thought, 'wow my legs are toasted' and we haven't even turned yet. When we did turn, the tail wind I was desperately hoping for was never quite there. It wasn't a head wind anymore, but it wasn't a clean tail wind either, sort of a squirrely, side wind type thing. So my hoped for easy cruise back to Albany never really happened. I was hurting on the way home and I got passed by a couple more open guys and so mentally I was very low. More than once I decided that once I hit transition I would pull out and register a dnf, I kept thinking I just wasn't there on the day.
It was frustrating because the bike is usually where I feel most at home, and it is the leg that had been feeling the best during training, but during the race it never felt good. Taken on it is own it felt like a bad leg. I lost time and positions which frustrated and demotivated me.
In hindsight, if the ride is taken in the context of the whole race, then my ride leg doesn't look too bad. I lost time and positions, but a few of the guys who passed me on the bike then suffered on the run and I got those positions back. I was moving slow compared to the pros, but it may just be that I was moving at about the right pace for me. I still think the pacing of my ride was off, I think I pushed too hard early and suffered late and so I probably could have done that better, but overall the ride may not have been the disaster that it felt like at the time.
As a number of people have pointed out to me, another factor in the ride may have been the fact that I finished IMWA 4 weeks ago today.
Considering how my ride felt, the way my run felt was a minor miracle. I rolled into transition pretty depressed and telling myself that I didn't want to run 21km. But as is often the way with these races, while your mind is busy thinking your body is busy doing and while I was thinking about pulling out my body was completing T2 and starting the run.
At the start of the run I felt like I was shuffling along and so I was surprised to see the pace of my first km. Not the quick start to the run that often happens in this sort of race, but not that bad. What surprised me more is that the pace held as the kms rolled past. In fact by the 3rd or 4th km the pace had improved. The Albany run is nice and easy to break up into pieces, 2.5km to the aid station, 2.5km to the turn, 2.5km to the beach, 2.5km along the beach, up the hill, down the hill, do it all again. Before I knew it I was on the beach for the first time and realising that some of the guys who had passed me on the bike where just in front of me and looking like they were hurting.
I picked up one of the guys at the end of the first lap and the next on at the beginning of the second. On the second lap I was still feeling good, but it was starting to hurt. I was working to make sure I didn't get passed again and to chase as good a time as I could. It ended up being about a 90 minute run, which is pretty good for me, especially considering the run includes 5km of beach. I was amazed at just how quickly the 21km went past and how good it felt, especially considering how I had been feeling in training and how I had been feeling on the bike.
It turns out that a bad leg doesn't necessarily make a bad race.
It hurt though.
A lot of people are saying the conditions were better than last year. I am not so sure. It was quite a bit cooler this year, but last year was hardly that hot. It was around 30 last year, so not really hot enough to be a big factor. We had a horrible headwind on the return leg of the bike last year, which we didn't have this year. We had a miserable headwind on the way out instead. One difference though is that on the way out last year the tail wind was lovely. The trip to the turn last year was very rapid. The tail wind on the way back this year was nowhere near as friendly. I actually think the ride this year hurt more. Opinions probably vary depending on who you ask, but for me this year was a tougher race.
If pushed I think I would have to honestly say that this was a good race for me. If nothing else racing against the pros was great and doing so taught me a lot. Not everything went to plan, and when that happens it is always frustrating, it is that which stops me from saying it was a great race. But it wasn't a bad race.
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