Wow is what I will say! Huge buzz doing something this big!! Woohoo!!
Fri morning I woke up hugely nervous, I tried taking my resting HR but seriously you could try and pick a number anywhere between 53 and 79 cos my HR was all over the place with excitement and nerves. Packed up Fri morning and drove down to Ash Vegas just after lunch. Paula and Rebecca were already there when I got there. I felt much better and less nervous as soon as I got there so that was good. We headed off to the lake to have a quick swim (the water was warm! Yay! Last year it was freezing!) then drove the bike and the run course to familiarise ourselves for the next day. Back to the motel to stuff our tummies full of food (aka carboload!), I ate so much food the 3 days beforehand! I'm pretty sure I burnt it all off yesterday tho. Nadia turned up at dinnertime (smart timing!) as our number one support crew who had entered the sprint distance race at the last minute so she would have something to do while we were out on the bike course! Watched a bit of telly, made up drink bottles etc for the morning then headed off to bed fairly early. One day Ginni will remember that I use my cellphone as my alarm clock and not text at 1030pm on a race night :) heheee, that was preferable to the trains zipping past all night!
Up at about 5.30 on race morning. Transition opened at 7am and race start was at 8am. I was feeling less nervous on Sat then I had been the 2 days prior, this was good cos it meant I could pretty much just get on and do what needed to be done. I only ate about half my breakfast tho, eating is not fun when you are contemplating such a big day ahead! Got dressed, sunblocked up, packed the car and headed off to the lake. We were some of the earlier ones to arrive, this was good cos we got to pick where we wanted to go in transition so I found a nice end of a rack and set up camp. That hour between 7 and 8 went past pretty quick, the 3 trips to the loo may have been partially to blame for that :) All set up, poured on the baby-oil so I would be able to get out of my wetsuit quickly, got into my wetsuit and all of a sudden it was race briefing time. Briefing was a bit interesting as the swim course was originally only supposed to be one lap but then it changed to 2 laps. Lots of confusion cos no-one really listens at race briefings so we made Pete repeat the course to us once we were in the water. Even then I wasn't 100% sure where we were going but I figured I would have plenty of feet to follow :)
Swim
I made sure I wasn't near the front so I wouldn't get swum over, still got bashed around a bit but I also did some unintentional bashing, thats just the way it is! I felt like I was swimming for ages and I was thinking ohh my swimtime will be crap! Oh well, nothing I can do but keep swimming. I went a bit off course on the second lap, its actually quite difficult to see a large red bouy when you are looking into the sun cos everything just looks black and I am shortsighted! So a wee detour to get back on track, after the last bouy I picked up the pace a little and caught a couple of people. Transition was pretty slick! Wetsuit came off really easily, all my nutrition etc was on my bike so I just had to put shoes/helmet on and get the hell outta there! Not 100% sure on total actual swim time but I was at 40mins when I got on my bike!
Cycle
The cycle leg was 3 laps of a 30km out and back course - we found out after that the course was a little long and total distance was actually 94km! The course is flat so that is good but it was windy again this year, a nice nor-easter this time. So mainly head/side winds on the way out and kinda tail/side on the way back. I had a plan to eat and drink straight away on the bike so I headed off stuffing food in as quick as I could. Then out onto the main road where I dropped onto my aerobars and pretty much tried to stay on them except when eating and drinking. The first lap seemed quite long esp on the way out, it was great coming back into the turn around outside transition cos there was a huge crowd cheering everyone on which was pretty cool. By the time I was coming in from the first lap the short course folk were out on the cycle so that made the second lap seem a little quicker cos there were more folk out on the roads. The guy who won the Half IM lapped me just before the end of my second lap, he must have had a pretty impressive bike split cos he passed me early on in the cycle so I must have had a quicker swim than he did. The 3rd lap was pretty tough, by now I had a really sore back from being on my aero bars so much so I was sitting up and stretching quite a bit on my bike. I could hear my coach in my head saying 'Come on Nadine, dig it in! Keep going, you're nearly there! You're doing well!' So that was good and definitely kept me going! I had followed my nutrition plan to the letter tho so other than my back aching like anything I was feeling really good. It was on the 3rd lap that it all became pretty real and it really hit me that I had done all this training and I was really going to complete a half ironman, so that was a little humbling and I nearly had a wee cry on my bike. I made sure I thanked all the marshalls on my last lap, they were great! Esp the kids at the drink station at half way.
Run
Blimey, I was quite pleased to get off my bike but my legs didn't seem to want to run now! It was a hobble to transition. Quick change of shoes and yes I put socks on for once - first time ever in a tri for me :) I headed off at a rather slow jog busy slapping more sunscreen on my face and arms. The run course was also a 3 lap course and we went past the Lake House Restaurant/cafe along the boardwalk twice in each lap so that part was pretty cool with the crowd sitting there watching and cheering us on. The run wasn't the best run I have ever had, I am pretty sure I left my running legs out on the cycle course somewhere, I will have to go back next year and see if I can find them. I had a run/walk plan cos I knew that running the whole thing wasn't going to happen. I had the energy and the puff to run but my legs seemed to have lost the plot and my run was barely a blimmin' shuffle! When I stopped to walk I actually felt like I was going faster so I figured bugger it, I will walk but it will be a kick-ass speedy power walk kind of walk! So I headed off arms swinging, nice long strides and was actually maintaining a 7min/km time, considering that on a good day I run a 6min/km I figured this was going to be ok. I made sure I drank at every water station and had a GU every 30mins, the good thing was I never ever felt like I wouldn't make it to the end and I never wanted to stop so that is cool. At the end of the first lap when I came to the boardwalk I forced myself to run the boardwalk past the crowd. When I walked again I was almost crying cos at that point I was feeling a little pissed off at myself that I couldn't keep running, so if you see any pics with me biting my lip that was to hold the tears back! So other than running the boardwalk in both directions everytime I had a nice walk! I did get a few compliments on my speed, who knows maybe I will take up walking and be the next Craig Barrett, haha! On the last lap I walk/ran the last couple of kms and managed a sprint up the finish line!! Remembered to thak all the marshalls again, they had the nicest marshalls ever on course today, they were great! I saw Paula as I was heading up to the finish line so we gave each other a high 5 and said we would see each other at the end, that made me cry, just realising how far we had come since we decided to a half-ironman. The finish line was funny, poor Pete managed to call me Nadia which was just hilarious! We looked at each other and laughed, Pete did correct himself and apologise, its just funny that everyone confuses us so we had a good giggle at the finish which is good cos it stopped me crying. The first thing I did was sit down and kick my shoes off, at the start of the 3rd lap my feet were absolutely aching and I knew I was going to have the worst blisters (I actually thought about taking my shoes off and just wearing my socks they were that sore!). I now have massive blisters about the size of a 50 cent piece (the old 50 cent pieces!) on the inside of both heels, so I will be living in jandals for a few days!
I waited for Paula to finish and then we went and sat in the lake to cool off and ease our aching bodies a little. It was cool to catch up and see how each others day had gone cos although we kept seeing each other on course we pretty much just waved and kept going. Prizegiving was fun and I won a spot prize for Performo Altitude training, my second one this year so that was funny!
Paula had brought down a bottle of Moet for after and tell you what, that tasted pretty damn good!! As did the McDonalds we had for tea! hehee.
I am so pleased that I have completed my first half-ironman and yes there will be others! And I am now definitely going to aim for IMNZ09! Changing coaches 8 weeks out appears to be about the smartest thing I have done all year cos I know I wouldn't have been so well prepared if I hadn't made the change! Richard has been worth his weight in gold, although he may run and hide when I tell him that I need his services a lot longer! hahahaa
Thank you to everyone who has been supportive and wished me well over the past months it has been much appreciated!!
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