Challenge Wanaka - The Race Report

Here it is, the race report. Sorry it took awhile, I kinda needed to digest the race that was Wanaka, the build up was interesting to say the least but this is about the race so here goes......

Deep down I was hoping that I could go around 13 hours, 13 and a half was my outside goal depending on what the wind was doing out on the cycle course.
Pre-race on the morning was interesting as I wasn't really feeling nervous, maybe cos I was still feeling a bit flat from my gastro bug the day before or maybe because I was remembering just exactly how much an Ironman race hurts!! Swim start was a beach start which was good cos that water was cold and I didn't really fancy hanging around in it any longer than I needed to! I think it was about 13.2 degrees when we got there earlier in the week and it wasn't a whole lot warmer on Sat am but with my swim booties, neoprene swim cap and some Vaseline on my cheeks to prevent my face freezing I was feeling ready for the cold. The first leg of the swim out to the far-away bouy seemed to take forever!! I had to focus on just swimming from one 50m bouy to the next otherwise I think I would have gone crazy wondering if I was ever going to get to the first turning bouy! The group seemed to spread out quite a bit after that first turning bouy and with a field of only about 200 individual athletes I felt like I was swimming on my own from then on. Turns out I had 2 dudes hanging on my feet the whole way round tho. Felt like I had my own personal kayaker as this one kayaker followed me the whole way round, I even stopped to check and see if I was last I one stage even though I knew I couldn't be! Swim was 1.20 which was my outside goal time, given that I pretty much TT'd the whole swim I'm pleased with my swim time.
Running to T1 I had a wee panic when I couldn't find my transition bag, I thought it was gone!! Turns out I had my number wrong and my bag was right there where it should have been the whole time!! I feel a bit bad for the poor girl near the bags who witnessed the wee meltdown I had while trying to find my bag!! Mental notes, race number is on your arm for a reason!
Out onto the bike, weather was perfect for riding, not hot, not cold, not windy! Yuss!! Had a great ride out to Hospital Flat and back, made sure I did my own thing and didn't smash it out on the wee rollers although lots of people seemed to be! Was feeling really good on the bike once I thawed out a little. Was fun coming back through town, some of the guys in the half started passing me around this stage which was cool as was able to cheer some of the lads on. Heading out of Wanaka the wind had started to pick up and I was pretty pleased to notice that it was a head wind as that meant there would be a tailwind up the far side of the lake where the going is certainly tougher! Had a good cruise down to Cromwell, watched my ave speed drop and drop tho which I wasn't very happy about! Didn't stop to pick up my special needs bag as I didn't need anything from it, turned at Cromwell to head up the other side of the lake and make the most of that tailwind. I really wasn't looking forward to this section of the ride as this was the part of the ride I struggled with the most when we tried on the course a month earlier. The tailwind and the fact that I was racing made the kms seem to just drop away, I had a quick stop at the aid station at the 103km mark to take some Panadeine as my back was feeling quite sore and I knew that it would slow me up over the next 80km if I didn't do something about it. I knew 2 folk at that aid station so I got great service while I was stopped there which was nice :) At about the 112km mark I was riding comfortably down on my aerobars going quite fast when a rocket ship passed by me by the name of Rhodesy! Bryan Rhodes was doing the swim/bike as a team so with a 2 hour head start I was only able to hold him off for that long! He is a machine!! We saw him out riding when we drove home on the Monday and wondered if he was riding back to ChCh. The turn-off to Tarras seemed to turn up quite quickly which was good and the wind kept behaving although that wee downhill into Hawea Flat was still a bit hairy! I was pretty surprised going through Hawea that there was hardly anyone out and about to cheer us on, I thought there would have been quite a few folk out but no, there was just 2 ladies out cheering all the riders through their town. Hmmm, nice head wind from Hawea back to Wanaka! Plus a few grunty wee hills which probably aren't that bad if you haven't already ridden 150km. I let my attention lapse for about half a second and nearly rode myself into a gutter and cliff on a descent so had to remind myself to focus and not do daft stuff just cos I was getting tired. I didn't mind the wee ride up and back down the road at 160km as it was a nice chance to see some other folk and say hi to a few others, esp as we were all at the same point of suffering by then. All in all I am pretty happy with my ride, I was just over my outside goal time of 7 hours and given the wind (although it wasn't too bad really) and the terrain I'm ok with that. The interesting thing is that I never noticed how bad the chip was at all during the ride yet when we trained down there it was energy sapping! The power of race day eh!
T2 was weird, although I knew we had to rack our own bikes which was challenging enough due to lack of function in the brain and what appeared to be a very bizarre numbering system on the racks, I did however expect there to actually be a volunteer in the tent. Not that I really needed a hand but I did want some water so I could take some panadol before hitting the run course and it's just kinda nice to see a friendly face at that point and have someone to say hi to. Start of the run was pretty good, the male pro's were finishing as I headed off, Richard Ussher won the race breaking the course record while I was racking my bike! I was struggling a bit to find my running legs and found myself breaking my run walk plan very early on which likely wasn't going to bode well. It was hot out there and seemed to get hotter and hotter, given that I started running at 3.30 I wasn't really planning on it being scorching hot! But scorching hot it was so I walk/jogged my way from aid station to aid station chugging in fluids and gels along the way. I timed myself over a couple of kms and didn't really like what I saw but didn't see how I could do much about it as I just didn't seem to be able to do anymore than I was already doing! Oh well, back to the 'as long as I am moving forward' theory! Loved the folk who had sprinklers out for us on lap 1, I did a wee dance under one near the bottom of Gunn Rd! Rest of the first lap was ok, I pretty much ran as much as I could and walked the uphills of which there seemed to be many! Who knew Wanaka was so hilly? Back down to the finish area to start lap 2 and everyone was out and about cheering me along which was cool. Was feeling pretty good at this stage and although I had worked out that I was going to miss my goal time I was still pretty confident that I could maintain my current pace and keep ticking along steadily to the end. Hmmm, 3km later everything went bad!! I felt really sick, like I wanted to throw up but I forced myself to take in some more electrolytes etc cos I knew that I needed them so I could keep going. Aah keeping going, it sounds so easy doesn't it? But no, not this day! It was still scorching hot out, by now it was after 6pm and it wasn't any cooler than it had been at 4pm! But now I was freezing, I had huge goosebumps up my arms and I was walking along shivering and rubbing my arms trying to warm up. I literally dawdled up to the aid stations quietly asking for water, whereas earlier I had been real perky and chatty at the aid stations jogging up and calling out what I needed. Hmm, this was bad. I had a wee chat to the guy at the aid station at the end of the Outlet Track and he asked me if I thought I was ok to keep going which was nice, by this stage there was only about 10km to go so I told the guy I reckoned I could suffer through 10km! Haha, had no idea how bad that 10km was going to be! I had walked the previous 4km as my legs were in agony from the sunburn that I had acquired while on the bike! So a 10km walk it was to be, this time avoiding all those sprinklers as I was still going hot and cold and being wet as well certainly didn't help. It was water only as well, anything else just made me feel well ill! It seemed we were all in a similar boat by this stage of the game tho and we had ourselves a nice wee walking group at the back end of the field, we exchanged looks of pain and sympathy with one another when we did the out and back up Rata St. Kinda made me feel better that others were in the same dark place at that stage! There were still heaps of people out cheering us on and they really wanted us to run, umm sorry guys there was no run left, it had gone! Finally I tackled the last hill and went through the last aid station, from there it was just a hop, skip and a jump to the finish line, well it was about 2km but I could see and hear it from where I was!! I'm heading down alongside the park and I could see someone walking towards me, even better, it was someone I knew! Kim had worked out that something bad had happened and knew I should have been finished awhile ago so bless her she came looking for me, I think only someone who has been there done that can know how low you are feeling at that point!! It was awesome to see her and we had a hug and a cry on the side of the road before she turned around and walked me into the finish! With just under a km to go Aynsley joined us to walk me in as well, that was pretty cool as Ayns had raced the Half IM that day as well. As I got to the last corner I summoned up those few dregs of strength I needed to run the finish chute (OMG that is the longest finish chute)!! The finish chute was kinda cool tho with lots of kids and those clapper things forming a guard of honour for you to run through.
Yay for knowing the timing guys, young Richard Brewer saw what a state I was in and ducked through the VIP area to get Geoff and sneak him through to see me at the finish line which was a really lovely thing to do! Overall time is something like 14 hours and 37 mins, so a very very long day at the office but I finished where others didn't.
In hindsight I think I could have eaten more on the bike, I felt like I was eating a lot but when I looked at the empty wrappers in my pocket I think I could have eaten a lot more, and I think that would have helped as would have being able to eat properly the day before.
Would I do it again? Full distance in Wanaka, no. I would do the half however. The full distance there is a very tough race, I'm pleased I have done it and I don't regret deciding to do it and I would certainly never discourage anyone else from doing it. For me it didn't have the excitement and the specialness that Taupo has. I have been thinking about it quite a bit since race day and I realised that in Taupo all the volunteers and everyone involved with the event made you feel really special the whole time whereas in Wanaka I felt like I was just a number. Some of that I think is due to a lesser amount of volunteers as well as less history with the event and these things may change in years to come as the event builds. I'd like to think they would do anyway.
What now? Kim and I are going to trip up to Taupo and watch IM this March, neither of us have ever watched an Ironman race and since neither of us are racing we figured we may as well do it this year! From there I will decide whether or not I will race Taupo again in 2011, at this stage I'm about 99% sure that I want to but won't commit until after I have been and watched.