Half IM - The longer version

Alrightee, I have now slept and eaten etc so here is the whole day from go to whoa.

The Race Plan:

The goal was 6 hours, this was a pretty big goal as last year I did it in 6 hours 36 so I was banking on being able to carve 36mins off my time which is quite a chunk! Richard and I planned it out earlier in the week, we worked out that if I swam the same time (its hard to know how your swimming is tracking when you can't really measure/time yourself in open water) and managed to maintain hour laps on the bike that would leave me to do 45 min laps on the run and give me 5 mins to spare! Yikes, not a lot of leeway eh! Still, 5mins is 5mins! The other part of the plan was to enjoy myself so I had to smile! And Richard promised to check the race pics for smiles so there was a fair bit of pressure there!

I also met up with Catherine, my nutritionist, earlier in the week and checked that my eating plan was on track and double-checked eating rates for during the race. She had some great carbo-loading ideas including using ice-cream, yum! She also suggested having something small and sweet to eat while in T1 or as soon as I got on the bike.

The Race:

Got there nice and early as I like to do and caught up with a few people before putting my ipod on and zoning out while setting up my gear. Off to be numbered and a quick trip to the loo. Back to transition to quickly check that everything was sorted and how I wanted it then another quick trip to the loo, as I was in the loo this time they announced that race briefing was about to start, blimey I wasn't even in my wetsuit yet! So headed off to the briefing with my wetsuit and baby oil in hand to dress while listening. After briefing a quick sprint back to transition to grab my cap and goggles and barely had enough time to get in the water before we were off, no mucking around this morning!

The swim start was full on! Lots of biffo going on, I was getting punched and hit from all directions and ended up doing some of the same, its a bit difficult not too when you have someone on either side of you and someone almost on top of you! It did settle down a bit not far after the first buoy so that was nice, not sure I could put up with 2kms of biffo! Swim was 2 laps of a triangle, first lap was challenging navigationally but second lap was heaps easier once you had a vague idea where you were heading. Bit of a run into transition, T1 went really smoothly which was nice. I was puffing a bit much too eat my red licorice in T1 so put it in my pocket for on the bike and managed to lose it on the way out of transition. Oh well!

Had a quick look at my watch to see what my swim time was and could only see my HR flashing at me so realised I hadn't pushed it hard enough to start timing so hit the start button again. It stayed on my HR so I figured I had managed to change the way I view my watch or something. I had taped over part of it so I wouldn't look at my HR during the race. At this point I decided not to worry about it too much as I just wouldn't look at it and the splits would be recorded to look at later.

I was feeling quite hungry by now and was a bit annoyed that I had dropped my licorice! Figured best I get stuck into eating pretty quick so I didn't fall behind on the nutrition plan. The previous night I had carefully peeled open my Powerbars a wee bit and placed them in my bento box on my bike, as I tried to get one out I realised that of course they had stuck together now! Grrr! Serious frustration trying to get one out, I started wobbling all over the place on my bike getting really annoyed that I couldn't get one out! This is where my first self-talking effort came in, I had to clam myself down pretty quick, so was telling myself, relax, stay calm, there's plenty of time to eat, let's be sensible the race has just started! After doing that I managed to ease a bar out by lifting it from the non-stuck end, after eating some I shoved it in the pocket of my tri-suit so it was easier to get to (and ewww, I think I still have half a powerbar in my tri-suit pocket!). The cycle went really well, there was a bit of a tailwind on the way out which meant a bit of a headwind on the way back. Not enough to be a huge pain but enough so you could feel it. I had a bike target of 3 hours which meant an hour a lap, or 30mins each way, basically I had to maintain a 30kph average or it meant I likely wouldn't meet my target time. By some fluke my speedo was set to the ride average instead of where I would normally have it on actual speed, I decided this was a good idea as I don't constantly look at my speedo so its hard to tell what speed you really are travelling at. On the way out it was nicely over 30kph so I knew I had a bit to play with in the headwind coming back. Going into the wind I could feel it a little more in my legs than I would have liked so I just smiled as per the race plan and forgot about the pain. It's true, smiling does make everything feel better and I also reminded myself that it takes less muscles to smile which was good, don't want to be wasting energy by frowning! It was a bit cooler than last year so I didn't drink quite as much on the bike, only went through 2 bottles this year. Still managed to eat plenty and stuck to the plan as well as remembering to sit up and stretch regularly this year so I could get off the bike in the best condition possible. One thing I really need to practise is my turn arounds on the bike, I am such a spas and really struggle to turn on those tiny wee country roads! This year the turn around at transition was a narrow one as well, so good old me unclips to get around, I got a lovely round of applause from the crowd so I promised them I would be back twice more for their entertainment!! First lap: 1 hour and 44secs. This time when I hit my HRM it actually started! Great at least it was working now but I had no idea how long I had been going! Second lap was pretty much the same as the first, there was a little more going on with the sprint race out on course as well now so that was interesting. I quite like this course as you get to see everyone when you are near the turn arounds which is nice. It also means you can track if anyone is catching up to you or getting away from you! I seemed to feel the headwind a bit more in my legs on the way back this time so just smiled and told myself that it didn't hurt anymore than the first lap and I would be fine. Second lap: 58mins and 55secs, so a little quicker and still on track. Third lap started well and was fine on the way out, on the return leg though I was starting to feel it in my back from being on my aerobars so long so did a few more sections up on the hoods of my handlebars while I was going into the wind and did more stretching than the previous laps and then dropped onto my aerobars and put the hammer down when I came back into the tailwind. Third lap: 1 hour and 59 secs! So my cycle leg went according to plan, I had no idea if I was on track for my total time tho but figured if I stuck to the plan for the run I should be ok or be pretty damn close!

T2 was pretty smooth, put socks on which is an unusual event for me but figured it was a smart move for that run distance, grabbed a handful of gels and bag of sweets and headed off into the distance.

Here's where things would either go really well or completely fall apart as they did last year. I headed off running fairly comfortably considering I had just spent 3 hours on the bike, the plan was to at least run all of the first lap. This plan changed pretty quickly, for what reason I'm not even sure now. I walked through the first drink station then picked up the pace again, had another bit of a walk then ran to the next drink station. I had been wanting to go to the loo for awhile by now, I tried to pee while swimming but that didn't work out so I figured it would be sensible to stop at the loo on the way past, I worked out that the time spent there would make up for time I would lose while being uncomfortable running. Just so you know, it takes 1 min to pee in a race! Tri-suits are handy, because I wear a sports bra I unzipped my tri-suit and had it down near my hips by the time I was at the loo and pulled it back up to there when I left the loo and pulled it up properly while running along! Heading into the cul-de-sac near the end of the lap Andrew Black caught up with me (he was on his 3rd lap!) and asked how I was tracking, I told him I had no idea and asked how he was going, he was on target for a PB and let me know he had been going for 4 hours and 13mins. Sweet, finally I had some idea of how long I had been going and worked out that I had an hour and 45mins to do 2 and a bit laps of the run which meant that I was tracking really well for my target time. I went through the first lap in about 43mins so right on track! I decided to move onto drinking coke on lap 2 and went with the plan of walking the drink stations with a little walk in between, I was kinda sorted now on landmarks to run and walk too and gave myself some quite strict guidelines to follow which was good and meant I ran considerably more than I walked. Lap 2 was just on 45mins so still tracking well. When I ran past Kalina and Geoff near the end of the lap they were yelling at that I was doing really well, it was really nice to just smile and say 'yep, I know!' Lap 3 started with the same plan of attack, however by now the wind had really picked up and was pretty evil running up along the back of the lake, it was really hard going against a wind that strong which meant an extra walk, mainly cos I could walk faster with less effort that I was running! Once I got of the stop bank and was heading around the road the last time the big self talk moments started, by this stage I had 20mins to run 3km, I told myself there was no wind and that running was easy! I gave myself a target where I was allowed to walk too and had a pre-set target of where I was running too. As I got near my made up run start point I was talking to myself saying, ok here we go, you're a good runner, off you go! And yes this was all out loud, lucky there wasn't really anyone near me at this stage, they would have thought I was stark raving bonkers for sure!! That worked really well, so I did the same thing again, which took me up to the last aid station. Then onto the cul-de-sac for the last time and there was the 20km marker across the road, so I told myself that I was allowed to walk to the end and then I had a tailwind to blow me home and that it was a nice easy 1km to then end and that was a piece of cake, it was going to be easy! And of course I was smiling the whole time! It was a great feeling hitting that boardwalk for the last time, it's great when you can literally smell the finish line!! I was feeling pretty good about making my 6 hour target although I figured I had cut it pretty fine, so wasn't surprised when I got to the finish chute and someone yelled out 'you've got about 30 seconds!' I managed to crank out a good sprint to get me over the line in time and then fell on the grass to catch my breath!

Wicked day out! The weather was fab, not much wind till later and nowhere near as hot as last year! And to come in at 5 hours 55mins which was 5min under my goal was awesome! Turns out I didn't need that spare 5mins which is great!

Bring on Ironman, it's only 14 weeks and 6 days away in case anyone is wondering!