Albany Half Ironman

Well I am back in Perth now after spending the weekend down in Albany for the Albany Half Ironman. It has been a couple of days since my last post since Internet access down there was more hassle than I could be bothered with. As I usually do I will put together a bit of a first impressions summary of my race tonight, but then I will put together a more detailed race report during the coming week. I apologise if tonight's post is on the brief side, it is getting late and it has been a long day of driving back to down.

So how did the race go?

Hmmm, a bit of a mixed bag, both good and less good. First the good:

My time of 4:22:15 was a PB for this course (just). Very happy with the PB given the conditions we got on the day, but more on that later. I was 9th out of the open men and 12th over all (I think), which isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I can live with it. Individually each of the legs went well and I am happy with my time for each of them.

Now the not so good:

I got a drafting penalty, which cost me five minutes. I am not naive enough to say that without it I would have done 4:17:15, after all you get five minutes rest, which is worth something. But I am fairly confident that without the penalty I would have gone comfortably under 4:20, probably picked up a few places too. 

Given the penalty, I am particularly happy with the PB. Just annoyed because I know it could have been a much better PB. Still I think when it comes to penalties you can either get angry and rail against it, or you can choose to accept it, find some good points to focus on and move on. I am going with the later option.

So what are my good points that I am focusing on. Well other than the PB, I was second out of the water in a decent pro field, big thumbs up for that. When I got off the bike I was in 6th and still in touch with the pro guys, a big improvement over last year, so another very big positive. This race showed me again that in the first two legs at least I can hold my own in a good field. That is my big take home. Also I was able to regroup after the penalty. At the time it was frustrating, I briefly considered pulling the pin as I was standing around in the penalty box. But I got my head back together and headed out for the run. I am proud that I was able to do that. Finally, this race was a race of mental strength. The ride leg was like psychological warfare. Getting through that is something that I am going to take away from this.

Beyond my personal race, how was it? In three words; tough, tough, tough.

The Albany race is always tough. It is a tough course. The ride is a single 90km loop. With the small field you can spend a lot of time alone with your thoughts. On the bike this year I spent 75km completely solo, as in 'I can't even see another person' solo. The bike is not flat, but rolling with a couple of decent hills in it. Most of it is on a coarse bitumen surface which saps the watts from your legs. There is always wind, sometimes it isn't a lot of wind, sometimes it is much more. The run is two laps on constant undulations, broken up with 2.5kms of beach running and a massive hill at the end of each lap. So even on a good day it is tough. We did not have a good day.

The forecast heading into the race was for it to be a windy day, so it wasn't all that surprising that it was. That didn't make it any better though.

The swim at Middleton beach is often lovely and flat. This year it was a sea of choppy swell. There wasn't a flat bit of ocean as far as the eye could see. Fight the chop on the way out, go across the chop at the back of the course, go with the chop on the way back to shore, then dive in and do it again. I think I swallowed half the Southern Ocean. Easily one of the most toughest swim legs I have done in a triathlon.

The ride leg, already very tough, was off the chart. Huge tail wind on the way out of town, with the predictable consequence being a huge head wind on the way home. 20 to 30km/h constant wind, with stronger gusts. It was as much a mental battle as a physical one. I certainly had some moments where I really struggled with the mind. As you ground along at 30km/h, every part of your brain was asking WHY??? Just to make it extra special we got several squalls of rain too. Epic.

In comparison to the ride and the swim, the run was actually pretty tame. In fact because the big winds brought cool temperatures it was probably one of the better run legs that I have had at Albany. Not to much to complain about there.

I have done this race three times now. The first year was solid, in hindsight last year was a very nice year despite me having a mediocre day. This year's race was one of those that gets etched in your memory. The sort of day that when you meet somebody else who did it you nod knowingly to each other as you reminisce.

So, yep. Hardcore.

Now, to briefly go back to the elephant in the room. My drafting penalty. I am not going to lie and try and make excuses (well not many) I was definitely within 12m when the official came past. I have no defence and I didn't try and make one. However, let me offer up a couple of excuses. At the time I got busted we were fighting a massive headwind going up a small hill. Anyone who has raced before will know how hard it is to maintain the legal distance when you hit a hill. Bike fields naturally compress when that happens as the lead bike slows down before the one behind. Add a big head wind and the effect is only increased. I have been in races before where the officials make allowances for that. They didn't in this one. It probably didn't help that when it happened I was out of the saddle stretching my back. In fact I chose that moment to stretch my back because I knew I would have to slow down to let the distance stretch out again. However, I can imagine that to an outside observer it probably looked like I was out of the saddle pushing hard to hold a wheel. Part of me feels a little ripped off, but a bigger part of me has moved on. As I said before when it comes to penalties you can either get frustrated about it or put it behind you.

I would like to take a moment to say that I would never deliberately draft. I may not always get the 7m/12m exactly right, but I will always try. Was I trying to stay as close to Johan (the guy in front) as I legally could? You betcha, we were fighting a 30km/h headwind, the benefit you get at 12m is better than no benefit. I am not crazy. But was I trying to sit on his wheel, no way. That isn't how I race. Drafting is a form of wilful cheating that really annoys me. This is the second drafting penalty I have had out of the many races I have done. Hopefully it is the last, but I can't promise it, sometimes you just find yourself in the wrong spot.

So that is my day in a nutshell. Some bad, a lot good. A race I am very happy with, just not quite the result I was after. I can live with that.

Bring on 2015.