Well it has been a long day of travel, but I am back home again and almost settled in.
Whilst it was a long day, the travel all went fairly smoothly. I had a few nervous moments at KL airport while I was queueing for the better part of an hour. But in the end I got through all the waiting and got to my flight with a good 15 minutes to spare. I am sure glad I had a book to keep me entertained though.
I have had 24 hours to get some distance from the race yesterday, but in that time my first impressions haven't really changed much. I am still very satisfied with my result. I say satisfied rather than ecstatic because if I am honest there are some things I would change if I had the chance. But at the same time I can't really complain about a top 10 finish.
Based on my experience of the day, and talking to a lot of other people, it really was a day of attrition. Struggling on at least one of the legs seemed to be the norm. Having said that not everybody had a terrible time. Those that didn't though tended to be in winning positions. The interesting questions start coming up when you ask why some people struggled and others didn't. To be honest I don't have an answer for that. If had to do the race again tomorrow, I am not sure I would do much differently. I was happy with how the pacing on the swim and ride went. I am not sure what else I could have done to hold on in the run. I didn't cramp or anything, I just overheated. That is something I am going to have to go and spend a bit of time thinking about. I may not be able to think of ways to do it better at the moment, but it doesn't mean that there isn't an answer.
Because of my computer issues yesterday I haven't really given a run down of what the race was like, beyond really hard. So below is a bit more of a detailed break down of my race yesterday.
Well, it was really hard. The swim was always going to be tough, in fresh water and without wetsuits. But it was made just a little bit more unpleasant by the water temperature, which was around 30 degrees. It really was one of the more unpleasant swims I have done. Feels strange to say that because it looks like it should be perfect, dead flat water, easy to navigate course. But really the water temp just made me feel unwell and uncomfortable from about the 800m mark. If you look at photos from the event you will notice that a lot of pros came out of the water without their caps. That wasn't an accident. People were just doing anything they could to cool themselves down.
My swim went fine. You could say I led the third, or second group around the course, depending on how you define a group. Basically I was 6th or 7th out of the water. I had settled into that position after a couple of hundred meters and then just stayed there for the rest. At the 300m ish point I lost Fredi Kronenberg's toes and so I settled in from there. I led my group the whole way around the course and tactically I wonder if that was wise. But speed wise I felt comfortable there and so was happy with the position. No big regrets about how I did it.
Compared to the swim, the ride didn't feel that hot (strange thing to say I know). That is until you poured water over yourself and you realised how warm you were. Heading into the race we all talked about how fast the ride would be and to be fair my main memory of the ride is flying down long hills at 50km/h. However, the average speed for the ride was actually quite slow, so whilst there are lots of nice downhills, I guess the heat and the uphills must have taken their toll. It didn't really feel like a slow bike, and it didn't have any big hills (about 550m of elevation gain) but the times certainly weren't quick (most weren't anyway). I should say too, that whilst there aren't any big hills, the small rolling hills are more or less constant. There isn't much flat ground on the ride course.
My ride went okay. I came out of transition with Domenico Passuello, David Plese and Frederic Limousin. I couldn't hold onto Domenico or David but I was able to put some distance into Frederic. Once I lost touch with David I more or less spent the rest of the first bike lap on my own, trying to get my heart rate under control. At the end of the first lap I came past Viktor Zyemtsev and shortly after that Eric Watson. At that point I was happy with how controlled I had kept the first lap and so headed out on to the second lap feeling pretty good. That feeling stayed for most of the second lap. My back started giving me some issues, but mostly I felt the bike was quite a balanced leg, with not to much drop off. I passed fellow Daryl Stanley athlete Tim Green just before the end of the bike and so headed into T2 in 6th.
Moving on to the run, and the obvious thing to say is that it was hot. But not all of it was a sufferfest. Most of the run is actually quite pretty. If you weren't in a race it would be a very pleasant route. It is dead flat and is always next to the water going through an interesting variety of scenery. When it was shady and there was a breeze it was almost enjoyable. The other areas though, where it was open, it was just plain hot and for me at least, not a lot of fun. There was a 2km or so section at the end of the lap that seemed to just go on for ever.
My run started out okay. From the word go I was running conservatively. Tim and I were running side by side for the first three or four kms and I was feeling okay. After the first kms we saw Josh Amberger walking back to transition and so for a little while there were in 5th and 6th position. After the second aid station Tim got hit with some nasty cramps and so then I was alone. I stayed that way for the next 6km or so. For much of that 6km I kept feeling quite comfy. I really felt like I could keep on ticking along nicely at that pace all day. Around the 9km mark though, just before the end of the first lap I started moving further and further from the comfy zone.
At the end of the first lap my heart rate was 170 and not coming down and my internal thermometer was starting to sound alarms. It was at that point that I made the call to walk the aid stations in order to make sure I was getting the cooling I needed. Doing this meant that Eric Watson came past me after about 11km and Frederic Limousin at about the 14km mark. I suspect they would have come past me anyway since they were running well, but it may just have happened a bit later. Still I don't regret my decision to walk the aid stations, since I seriously suspect that my choices were between doing that and finishing, or not finishing at all. Walking the aid stations allowed me to maintain decentish running between them, which I suspect I would not have been able to do otherwise. Any way you cut it though, the run was a bit of a soul crusher.
So that was my Putrajaya 70.3 experience in a nut shell. Tough day with a good, if not entirely satisfying, result.
As usual I will write a proper detailed race report later this week. But this gives a flavour for what my day was like.
Rest week this week, so I am looking forward to getting some sleep and having some enjoyable cruisy sessions.
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