It has taken me a little while to get here today, but I am now back in Perth and at a computer. To be honest I have been back in Perth since about lunch time, but I have been busy this afternoon being a dad, so have only really managed to get on the computer now.
Sooooo Busselton 70.3...
To use my favourite phrase, it went pretty okay.
For those who have read this blog immediately after a race before, I am going to follow my usual routine, ie get some of my initial thoughts etc down about the race now and do a proper race report over the next couple of days. For those who haven't read this blog immediately after a race before, refer to the previous sentence. If you want a full on multipage race report, come back on Tuesday.
So how did it go?
The stats are:
I am a bit of a mixed bag about the results. Obviously I am pretty chuffed with the time and the Age Group result. I have had something of a broken prep for this race and so going in I really didn't know what to expect on the day. I was hoping for something in the region of 4:15 and 5th or better, but mentally preparing myself for a 4:20 in the event things didn't go my way. I knew I could be on the podium if things went right, but I also knew that the 35-39 year category was a strong one. In the end it was causing me some stress so I just put all that out of my head and concentrated on the process, bike hard, run hard, the results will take care of themselves, which helped me relax a bit. So given the above I was particularly happy to be so close to a PB (4:10.29 from Mandurah last year). In fact if I am honest, this race felt like a PB. If it wasn't for the super current assisted swim at Mandurah and the slightly short bike course, yesterday would have been quicker. Mandurah felt like a 4:10 with some help, yesterday felt like a true 4:12 (albeit with perfect conditions). So I am very happy with that. I am quietly confident that if I had had the same lead up that I had before Mandurah, yesterday would have been quicker. You can only play what you have on the day though, and in the case of yesterday, I am happy with that.
Without wanting to sound ungrateful, the only thing that would have made yesterday better would have been finishing further up the overall results. It is about the only thing that niggles. If anything though it just shows how much of a quality field turns up to Busselton 70.3. Some truly awesome age group results there. I said to a few people going in that to be the top age grouper at Busselton you have to go close to cracking 4 hours, and once again that proved to be the case, with the top two age groupers doing 4:02. Scorching.
So how was my day? It was a day in which nothing went wrong. That might sound a little anti-climactic, but in the world of long course triathlon, a day in which nothing goes wrong is exactly what you want.
First the conditions were close to perfect. Hard to describe just how good the conditions were. I heard several people say, 'Well no excuses today, if things go wrong, you can't blame the weather', and they were right. The water was a slightly chilly 18 degrees on race morning, but it was at that temperature where it was invigorating without being cold enough to make you lethargic. Some wind on the bike, but really not much. Temperature started off somewhere around 10 degrees before working its way up to around 18. That sounds sort of horrifying, and we were all expecting to be freezing for the first half hour of the bike, but I have to say I never really felt uncomfortable. The legs took a little while to get going on the bike, but once they did I never felt chilled.
I spent most of the swim by myself, and that is one leg that I think could have gone quicker. I did about 25 minutes 30, but I felt great the whole way and I am fairly sure it could have been quicker if I had had some friends to work with. Oh well.
The bike went close to plan. My bike time was about 2:15.39, or something like that. I had thought it was a PB for me, but the bike leg at Mandurah was marginally quicker (about 10 seconds). However, the Busselton bike leg actually is 90km, so as such I am very happy with the time. It is good to finally nail a 40km/h ride. With the bike I had a planned power output and I stuck to it. It is the first time in a race, where I felt like I was using my power meter properly. My splits for the bike leg were 1:07.43 and 1:07.56. I am immensely proud of that. I have to say it hurt a bit, but it was good to be able to keep pushing when the going got a bit tough. I would love to be able to ride a 2:10 (or quicker) and that is where my goals lie, but for now I will take that 2:15 happily.
At Busselton, the focus of the day was the run. The plan for the whole day was simply, 'Go Hard', and that was particularly true of the run. My plan was to start quick and not back off until my body forced it. That is pretty much how it went. I was really worried that my body was going to force the slow down by collapsing into a puddle, but it didn't. The first 9km were nicely quick (for me), the next 9km I slowed down, but not disastrously, and the last 3km I built steadily for the line. Looking at my splits I am happy with how the run evolved. It was a run PB for me and it felt good doing it. Despite the slow down I never really had a flat spot, just slower spots, even during them I still felt strong. When I slowed to 4:14 pace at around 11km my first thought was 'Oh that is a bit slower', but then after a quick bit of reflection I realised that I felt like I could keep holding that 4:14 the rest of the race if I had to. It wasn't the beginning of a slippery slope. In many ways it felt a lot like the run leg at the Albany Half Ironman. I wasn't fighting the run the whole way, I was just running. Hard to explain. I guess what I am getting at is that running has always been a struggle for me. Yesterday, because I was running, rather than simply trying to survive, I could concentrate on doing it a bit quicker. There came a point around the beginning of the last lap, where I was waiting to fall in a hole but instead realised that I was going to be able to finish strong. It was a good feeling. It was a good leg.
I guess the best way to sum up my race yesterday is this, in age group terms I was second out of the water, I was second off the bike and I was second across the line. That is a solid day in my books.
Now, where did I put that bed...
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