The Hard Way

Wow, what a day of spectating. Sounds like Cairns was true to form and threw some nasty weather at the race today resulting in a very tough day out at the Ironman and 70.3. Tim Green who lives in Cairns has said to me in the past that the weather in Cairns is absolutely lovely at this time of year, except on race day. Certainly seems to have been true for the last three years at least.

The men's race in particular was spectacular to watch with a number of chops and changes in the lead before Tim Van Berkel made off with the win. For me though the real action was in watching my friends in the rest of the field. For my friends the day was a real mixed bag. Sounds like punctures were the order of the day, with a number of my friends have numerous punctures. For BYL President Tom Kroyer puncture number 3 with 5km left on the bike was enough to end his day. Tim Green also suffered two punctures, which is a tough way to do your first Ironman, but to his credit he stuck it out to reach the finish line. A couple of crashes ruining a few days too with Johan Borg and Gary Couanis going down. I really feel for Dr Gary Couanis who went into this race in great form but had his race effectively ended by a crash halfway through the bike. He managed to make it through to T2, but his day was done. Gary has just had one of those seasons, where he has spent 10 months in great form but just hasn't had a chance to demonstrate it. A back injury before IMWA took that off the agenda and IM Melbourne took care of itself. The stars appeared to be aligning for IM Carins, particularly with the rough swim, that definitely suits Gary, but I guess it was not to be. It is easy to say the old 'Well that is Ironman racing'  but that is a bit of a cop out and I doubt it would be much consolation to those who have had their days not go to plan.

Still, for every sad tale there are numerous happy ones and there appears to be plenty of them too, I am eagerly waiting to see Lucy Thompson finish her first Ironman, which she is about to do. It is great to see the stories of triumph gradually appearing on social media.

Looks like Japan 70.3 was an exciting day too with Guy Crawford putting it all on the line to lead the race off the bike before being run down, still holding on for 4th though and Kate Bevilaqua putting together a great balanced race for 2nd place in the women. Unfortunately not a good day for fellow Daryl athlete Stef Puzka having to pull out of the race during the bike leg due to a mechanical failure. I am not sure how the new course went, but it sounds like it was still a unique and interesting course which I am glad to hear as I think that is part of the charm of this race.

Whilst my day was not as exciting as all the races going on, it was still a good solid day of training. The long run this morning was as enjoyable as I was hoping it would be, just a good steady session, getting miles in the legs. I also managed to fit in a very chilly swim in the river with a mate of mine from the Swim Smooth squad. Getting ourselves in the river was a bit of an effort on the grey, windy day we have here in Perth. Still we got ourselves in and going slogging out a couple of choppy kms. It might have resulted in some numb fingers and lips, but over all it was an invigorating and enjoyable session. A very nice way to end what has been a great week of training, a week in which a lot of things have started falling into place.

Now time for some sleep before getting up in the morning and starting all over again.