As I said yesterday, it was a good day with some tough conditions, mostly because of the big winds. From the outset I think everybody knew that it was going to be a windy day. The forecast was for wind from about a week before the race, so it wasn't really a surprise. Still it made for a solid day.
The course is brand shiny new for this year, but it has some familiar faces, which the ride leg taking place on a 20km section of the Busselton Ironman bike course. The swim and run take place in Port Georgraphe Marina, which is a new location though. The location has a few rough edges, but on the whole I think there is a lot of potential. It certainly worked very well for the Olympic Distance.
The swim takes place in the Marina itself and on paper looks like it was drawn by a drunk monkey, with more turns than I cared to count. But in practice it was fairly straight forward. The reality of the swim is that it weaves between the walls of the Marina and the boat pens, so for most of it it pretty easy to know which way you are supposed to be going (don't hit a wall and don't hit a boat). Being in the Marina it is tempting to think it will be dead flat, and I would say that 90% of the time it probably is. But when there is a howling easterly blowing, like we had, turns out that it gets quite choppy out in the middle. The other downside to being in the Marina is that you get the odd whiff of fuel, which isn't super pleasant when racing. Funnily enough our swim was not wetsuit legal with a water temp of 24.8 degrees. I always associated Busselton with colder water than that, but perhaps with the swim being in a Marina (and in Summer) the water is warmer. Time will tell whether our experience is the exception or the rule.
As I said the bike leg takes place on part of the Busselton Ironman course, and lucky for us it is made up of two laps of some of the nicest bits. For those who know the Busselton course, the ride takes place on Layman Road (hurrah) and Forest Beach Road (less hurrah). Layman road is a lovely surface, however Forest Beach Road is a bit rougher. Still a flat, super quick course. Being an Olympic Distance there are no aid stations on the bike.
The run leg is another two lap affair through the streets of Port Geographe Marina. It is a lot like the Mandurah 70.3 run course in that it is quite open, not a lot of shade. A pretty straight forward course, although the last kilometre of the outward leg seems to wind around all over the place. And about halfway through each lap there is a pedestrian bridge that goes over a canal. Very picturesque, but tough on tired legs. By the time I was going over the bridge for the fourth time on my way to the finish, I was pretty certain it was the biggest pedestrian bridge in the world (head wind didn't help). The run course had heaps of aid stations, 4 per lap, so almost one per km.
For this race I decided to give the Open Category a shot. I am a big fan of racing Open when it is available since it gives you a chance to start (and race) amongst the true pointy end. Having said that though, I was a little nervous lining up. I don't race Olympic Distances that much, and at the moment WA has a real quick crop of young short course specialists. I had my concerns that I was going to be left in the dust.
Still, putting those thoughts out of my head, I headed down to the start line and warmed up.
Right before the start we had a bit of a scare when a some of the Open competitors were told they couldn't wear their swimskins unless they did the whole race in them. That led to a few nervous moments where we weren't sure what we would be allowed to race in, however, that was soon clarified and it turned out everything was okay. With that sorted we lined up on the beach and got ready to go.
After a very brief wait the gun went and we were away.
The start of the swim was a beach start, so it was a bit of a run down the beach followed by a few dolphin dives. Once we were up and going I got myself into position nice and quickly and tried to hold on. We were going at a pretty solid rate and I was only just hanging in there. After the first buoy I realised that the pace probably wasn't going to slow (not like a half Ironman) and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to hold on, not if I wanted to finish the race alive. I gradually dropped back off the lead pack and found myself in clearish water and things stayed that way for most of the outward leg of the swim. It wasn't until later that I realised that although I felt like I was in clear water, I was actually at the head of the second pack, with a number of swimmers on my toes. Oh well.
At the far end of the swim we turned towards into the wind and the swim became a lot choppier and lot less pleasant. With the tougher conditions I managed to pick up somebody else, but I wasn't able to make any headway against the lead pack. I got to the end of the swim leg glad to see the end of it. I was 8th out of the water with a time of 19:46. Usually I would be ecstatic with a sub 20 minute non wetsuit 1500m, however, to put it in perspective, the lead swimmer was out in under 18 minutes. Amazing. The ITU guys really are something else.
A bunch of us went into T1 together and I was second out just behing Matt Burton. In a frustrating moment that I am now regretting I fumbled with my number belt, dropping it and having to put it on all over again. A very minor thing no doubt, but something that cost me a little bit of time. Say around 15 seconds worth of time perhaps...
Out onto the bike and we were straight into the wind. From the start it was obviously going to be one of those rides where you had to keep the mind strong. But at the same time, the potential was there to gain a good chunk of time if you could keep your head in the game. With a weaker run, my race plan relied on such a bike leg. With that in mind I tried to settle into a groove of working hard, but not blowing my legs out of the water in the head wind. One of those rides where the power meter really comes into its own. I was also concetrating very hard on staying upright. Running a disc on the back and a 808 on the front meant that the handling was fairly twitchy in places. Still having said that, I am happy with my wheel choice. It required a bit of focus, but I have no doubt it was quicker. If I was 10kg lighter I might not feel the same though.
At the beginning of the bike I noticed that I hadn't started my watch properly at the start of the swim and as a result I didn't have a record of my total time. Annoying, but it did not strike me as a big deal at the time, Plan B was to start it for just the run, which is where I really wanted it anyway. It was a small mistake that would have annoying consequences later.
Back to the bike and I got out to the far turn of the feeling better than expected, then it was time for fun. The return leg with the wind behind was a blast with speeds reaching 50km/h or more, great for spinning out some lactate. Through the first lap I picked up a couple of places so that when I turned to head out onto my second lap I was sitting around 5th or 6th.
Heading out into the second lap I had fears that I would have pushed too hard on lap one and I would hit the wall into the wind the second time around. However, keeping the focus on cadence I found that the trip out to the turn went easier than expected and in no time I was heading home again. The ride back with the wind was just as fun the second time around and before I knew it I was in T2, narrowly in 4th position.
I ran out of transition just ahead of Paul Mackay. However, he quickly caught me and I realised early that I wasn't going to stay with him (he ended up with the quickest run of the day). I felt okay for the first kilometre, but by the time I got close to the turn around on lap one I was starting to feel the ride. Heading into the race my run had been going well and I had been hopeful of attacking the run. But by about kilometre three I was back to survival pace. The situation wasn't helped by the run back to transition being into howling the wind.
I got to the end of lap one struggling a bit only to be surprised to see my family waving to me from the sidelines. Unknown to me they had driven down from Perth that morning (nearly three hours driving) to surprise me. It was the moment of my day. I am not sure if is was the distraction of seeing my family, or the lift I got from it, but the second lap didn't seem as bad. It certainly still hurt, but I had slowed to a more sustainable pace.
The last kilometre seemed to go surprisingly quickly (that would have to be a first) and before I knew it I was down the chute and across the line. 7th overall with a time of 2 hours and 14 seconds. A PB and agonisingly close to breaking two hours.
Looking back at the race with the distance of 24 hours, I am very happy with how it went. I would have loved to have been 15 seconds quicker, but at the same time it is great to have another 2 hour Olympic Distance to my name. A few little things could have gone better, a better T1 for instance and having a total time to judge my race by, but they are minor things. Over all the race went well. I am mostly happy with how the pacing went and how I executed the race, not many things I would have changed. It was great to have mixed it with what I feel was a solid open crowd, especially given that the distance isn't my forte. Combined with the Albany Half, it is a good start to 2015.
I mentioned earlier that the race has a few rough edges, but they are little things that I think time will heal. Whilst Port Geographe Marina has been there for a while, it is still a developing area. As such there wasn't much by way of shade, or lawn to sit on, or really anywhere to just relax post race. The area aroudn transition is either carpark, or limestony dirt. That is really the only complaint I have, and as I said, that will improve with time. The course itself is great. Yes it was very windy on the day, but so was everywhere in the South West region. In the end that is part of racing in WA in Summer. The course was a fun and fast one that was great for spectators.
This was the first year that this new Busselton course was used, but hopefully it isn't the last.
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