Timaru Tri '09

I actually really really like this race although after today I am kinda scratching my head wondering why! It was hard and I mean really hard!

We headed down to Timaru yesterday and did all the registration stuff yesterday as well as showing Al round the course as he was doing the multi-sport race and hadn't raced down there before.

Up bright and early this morning, we had found out that transition is numbered for your bikes which was good cos that meant we didn't have to be there super early to get a good place in transition. It was almost a sleep-in really getting up at 7am on a race day! We decided we would leave at about 8 as we were only about 5mins away and although race briefing was at 8.30 our race didn't start until 9.30 (they started the 3:9:3 race at 9am tho so we needed to be out of transition by then. So got all set up and ready to go, its almost second nature setting up transition these days. I was trying a couple of things out today to be prepared for IM, one was to put my compression socks on in T2 so last night I figured out the best way to roll them so they would be easy to be put on, the other thing of course was trying out the flash new aero helmet, I worked out yesterday that you have to put your sunnies on first or you can't get them on!!

At 9 we headed off down to the beach to watch the first races do their thing and have a quick swim before we started, before long it was 9.30 and time to go. The guys went first and we went 5mins after with the teams and kayakers going 5 mins after us. The water looked relatively flat until you got out a bit further and then it was a little bumpy but nothing major and it was easy enough to sight, helped by the fact that the buoys are a decent size and colour! Timaru is quite a shallow beach and its a running start from the beach so you end up running quite a way before you can stop running/duck-diving and can start swimming. On the way back I could touch the sand with my hands only several strokes after rounding the buoy! I always get lapped by the guys and this happened about 2/3 of the way through my first lap, geez they go fast! Still I managed to catch some guys, I passed some and chased some others up the beach to T1. It is such a long run up the beach to T1, honestly its about 1km with the tide out like it was this morning. T1 was pretty slick, the other girls are swimming well tho and my bike was the only left on that section of the rack when I got there. Never mind, it was on with the knob helmet and off I went. Only change to T1 was just making sure my helmet was on at the right angle etc to get the best advantage out of it. I made Geoff take pics of me on my windtrainer with it on so we could work it out, I need to make sure it is about 2 fingers above my eyebrows or it sits too high on my back. I was feeling a bit jittery about the bike today as I crashed out in my last race. I managed to suck it up and just get on with it tho and used my aerobars far more than I have been doing recently in training so that was good progress. Spent a lot of the time focusing on what I was doing with my head so I could get the best advantage out of wearing my helmet, at one point when I had a big head wind I tried turning my head sideways and tipping it down to see what would happen, boy oh boy did I slow down!! Now I can use my head to brake instead of using my brakes! In general it was pretty comfortable to wear, except it was so hot out there that my head was roasting and I really wanted to take it off at one stage! If it is that hot at IM I don't know that I would wear it, the discomfort of being over hot for 6-7 hours compared with the gains are pretty negligible. I will wear it again at the Canterbury Classic and see how that goes. It was a little weird feeling the point on my back from time to time but it was a good reminder that at least I probably had my head in the right position. Other than that the cycle was tough!! It was really really hot and pretty windy as well. No real tailwind at any point, more head or sidewinds constantly! I must have bumped my rear derailleur in transition as when I hit the zig zag (evil hill!) I tried to go into my small cog so I could spin up most of it only to find that it wouldn't go, so I had to grunt up there in a bigger gear than I would have liked, not much fun halfway through the cycle leg. Never mind, I made it and thats what counts. T2 was ok considering I was trying new things, putting on my socks probably cost me a minute, partly because I had to sit down to put them on and that doesn't bode well with me! Still they went on pretty smoothly so that was good to find out. Next race I will try the black socks as they are slightly harder to get on for some reason. Run was hot and hard! Bless the Timaru people who have sprinklers out for us to run under! That was heavenly! There was also a lady along the piazza area with bottles of water to tip over yourself, that was fantastic!! The water was great on my socks to help cool my legs and me down! Al caught me on the last lap and was quite the gentleman staying with me and encouraging me along when I didn't want to run anymore, with luck we managed to get a team photo taken with us running up the hill from the beach (shame I'm not in Complete Performance kit!!) and he held back at the end so I could cross the line first, I was trying to make him go first but he wouldn't!

Overall my time is the same as last year which given the conditions I am ok with that, esp as when Nicky Samuels was on the podium she reckoned she was slower than last year as well so we shouldn't worry if our times are slower too! It was much tougher out there and even tho I had sunblock on I have new tan lines to prove how hot it was.

It was also a bit of a sad day today in that the Timaru Tri was Chris McAteer's home race, the Timaru Tri Club have donated a Chris McAteer memorial trophy which goes to the quickest male swimmer in the standard distance race, that went to Bryan Rhodes today so that was pretty cool. After the race we headed up and put some flowers on Chris's grave, it seems quite fitting that the cycle leg actually goes past that particular cemetery.