Sigh of relief

Okay phew, race is done, now I can breath a sigh of relief.

The great news is that both of my athletes racing at Ironman Cairns made it to the finish line. They are now both officially Ironmen. I have spoken briefly to one and not to the other, so I am not 100% on how their days unfolded, but they both finished which is a major achievement in my eyes.

The athlete I have spoken to, Laurent, had a good day out. He crossed the line in a touch under 9:44 and secured 11th in the very competitive 35-39 year old category. On his way to the finish line I have noticed that he also knocked over a number of high respected age group athletes. Pretty solid achievement for his first time out. 11th may or may not be enough to secure a slot to Kona for Laurent. It is not his A priority, but he would not knock back the opportunity. 11th is an outside chance to qualify, however, 35-39 men probably have the most slots out of all the age groups and so he will have plenty of opportunity. Cairns is also late in the season and so many top age groupers have already qualified. It is certainly not a chicken that I am counting, but at the same time he will be going to the roll down. You just never quite know.

In terms of his race, it looks and sounds like he had a good conservative day out. Looking at his splits I would say he raced to plan and it came together for him. He didn't really have a fade across the entire day, just tapped along, gradually making up places, particularly on the run when others faded around him. Really well put together and a result that he should be very happy with (and he is by all accounts).

For Leanne it looks like it has been a harder day out, coming across the line in a touch under 14 hours. That is a solid day out. I haven't spoken to Leanne yet, but I am hoping she is happy with her result. Getting to the finish of your first Ironman is a pretty big deal and so hopefully that is what she is feeling. I will talk to her in the coming days and find out more, but that is certainly what I will be telling her.

I know Leanne had reservations about her running preparation and by her splits it looks like the run was indeed a tough time. However, none of her legs really fell apart with the splits looking fairly even across the day, a bit of a fade in the last 15km of the run, but that is pretty normal. Anyway, I will know more once I talk to her, but hopefully she is feeling good about her day out.

And with that Ironman Cairns is about done for me. It has been a lot of fun and a bit of stress coming into the race and tracking across the day, but sitting here at the end of the day I think I am pretty happy with how it went both for my athletes and as a coach. For me it has certainly given me lots to think about and learn from heading into the future Ironman events. Still a long way to go, but I think I can take a bit of confidence from today.

Onward and upward.

Oh yeah, there may or may not be a post tomorrow. I am travelling for work tomorrow and I will be away from home until Thursday. I think I will be able to get posts done while I am away, but they could be a bit intermittent, particularly tomorrow. Just a heads up.