I was perhaps more nervous about this race than I was for 6 Foot, and it was all to do with the swim. Nothing else concerned me. A 40km ride and a 10km run didn’t worry me – technical or physical injuries aside, I could complete both of these legs. What did concern me, however, was the 1.5km swim. Simply because I am not a swimmer and the last triathlon I had done, down in Kurnell last year, I had had to resort to breast stroke and really struggled to finish. And that was half the distance compared to this race (750m).
With that at the back of my mind, I had made a concerted effort this time to prepare myself properly for the swim. In fact that was all that I had prepared myself for as I figured that the run would take care of itself and the ride would be fine, albeit slow. So back to the swimming and step 1 had involved buying a wet suit as I had read and heard from so many people that this would have a big effect on my buoyancy as I am typically lower in the water, which would then hopefully affect my speed. Step 2 then involved consciously spending at least 2 x sessions a week down at Queenscloff simply to increase the time I was spending in the water. And that was the plan.
I had only actually trained a couple of times in my wetsuit before the day but I figured it would only help me...or so I hoped!
So the day before the race, I ventured into the city to rack my bike, only to be greeted in transition by more carbon than one can shake a stick at. It was literally all over the place. So much bling, so many nice bikes, so much money…and so daunting for someone riding an aluminum eBay purchase! Oh well I thought, not to worry, I just need to concentrate on my race. Everything else will take care of itself.
Race day started very early. Pre 5am in fact. I had arranged to meet at Tim’s place and travel in together from there. We left his at about 5.30am and found a loading zone spot to park at about 6am, giving us 15 minutes to get to transition and fix up our gear, which we did with a few minutes to spare.
Now all that was left was to wait for our wave start. The first wave went at 6.35 with my wave due to start at 7.13 and Tim even later at some time after 8am!
With time to kill, we ended up watching the first few waves head out onto the swim. Soon into the first wave it became obvious that something was awry in the water as the guys went very wrong soon into the backwards leg…hmmm I didnt think too much about it at the time.
With about 15 mins to go I slipped on the wetsuit and skulked to the back of my wave for my briefing. Soon I was in the water and ready to go. We had a few minutes to kill before the buzzer – time I spent floating on my back telling myself to relax and swim my own race.
Then the horn went and we were off.
I deliberately started towards the back of the pack given my clear lack of speed. After the first few customary push and shoves I quickly managed to find open water and started to head toward the first buoy. I was surprised how many people were still around me at this stage, as during all the previous triathlons I had swum in, I had lost the rest of the wave pretty early on. Not this time! What this meant, however, was that there was a lot of chop coming off the feet of all the other swimmers which meant that getting into a rhythm wasn’t easy…which in turn had a knock on effect on my heart rate which I could feel was climbing quickly.
About half way to the first buoy I started to get concerned about my HR and how I was feeling. At this point dark thoughts started entering my head about whether I could ever finish the swim, I hadn’t done enough training etc etc.
I eventually rounded the first buoy, again with some remnants of my wave still around me (and a few who were actually behind me – now that was truly a first!) and tried to concentrate on finding a rhythm and deliberately slowing down my cadence to lower my heart rate. I needed to get comfortable quickly as I had a long way to go.
Once I rounded the second buoy I started heading back to the start line and the third marker and things became a lot more comfortable. However, as soon as I started heading that way I realised just why the earlier waves had been having such a navigation problem – the sun was rising directly above the third buoy which made sighting virtually impossible. By this time I was heading (with a couple of other swimmers) towards what I thought was the red buoy. We were wrong.
As a result, I seemed to spend most of this leg treading water trying to find the third buoy. Unsuccessfully so. The lifeguards kept waving me to head the other way, which I did and eventually once I got close to the shore, I eventually managed to locate the buoy, headed towards it and rounded it, glad to be now swimming away from the sun. The third and fourth legs passed pretty much uneventfully and I managed to get into a good rhythm, although my arms were starting to hurt from the pull and the wetsuit. I rounded the fourth and fifth buoys and started heading for home. By this time, any hurt feelings were being replaced by elation as I realised that not only was I going to finish the swim in one piece, but I had managed most of it swimming freestyle. Something I had never managed before. The last leg seemed to take a while (it turned out to be the longest leg of the swim) and I eventually reached the steps to be dragged out of the water by one of the volunteers. I quickly lapped my watch, keen to get a fix on my swim time. Once out of the water I started running towards transition and glanced at my watch. 29.43!!! Surely this was wrong, I couldn’t have just swam 1.5km in less than 30 mins. This was a dream, quicker than I had ever expected and quicker than any pool swim I had done. Before the race I told myself to be happy with sub 40 mins, but to actually get out of the water in less than 30 mins was outstanding. I was on cloud 9 as I ran into T1!
Judging by my finishing time I spent a lot of time in T1 messing around. I think I had a large grin on my face the whole time to be honest and didn’t really care what time I did from then on. I seem to recall having trouble getting on my shirt and also with a banana I tried to stuff down my neck.
Anyway, once I was decked out in my bike gear I unracked and trotted towards the bike exit to start the bike part of the race. I quickly got into a pace on the bike and started to pick up a few of the slower riders in front of me. Unfortunately, this was more than compensated by the number of faster rides who started to pour past me. This basically basically continued for the whole ride leg.
The ride course comprised 3 x laps and involved looping up to Macquarie Street, down onto the Cahill Expressway and then up the corkscrew on ramp, before darting back down to Darling Harbour and then back (up!) onto the bridge for the most spectacular part of the whole race across the bridge. Once across the bridge, the course then looped back down onto the Cahill again before retracing back down to Mrs Mac’s chair and back onto the second lap.
The bike leg was fairly uneventful overall, I pushed in places but also held back in other areas, attempting to hold something back for the run. I was very aware of the number of bikes that seemed to stream past me in places, but I expected that to happen given the lack of any serious bike training and the state of my bike. In fact I hadn’t ridden further than 20km since Christmas. And even then, only once! I also passed Tim during the bike leg (I was on my third lap, he was on his first), and he seemed to be struggling with the pace…
Once into transition, I glanced at the watch again, a 1.15 bike split – I was happy with that. Again, before the race I had calculated that a 1.20 bike leg would be about par for me. What I hadn’t factored in was the fannying around I seemed to have done in T1!
After a quicker turnaround in T2 I was soon out on the run and heading towards the cathedral before heading down to the turnaround and then back up past Hyde Park and down to the Opera House and back. I quickly noticed the heat of the sun and I could feel myself starting to sweat a lot. Tim had forgotten his bike water bottle and so I had lent him my bottle, but this had meant that all I had had during the race was hydrolyte. I therefore made a point of stopping at the first aid station to fill up on water.
The run wasn’t the nicest of routes to be honest and the pull up from the Opera House was particularly painful on the second lap. What was encouraging, however, were the number of ‘K’ runners I seemed to be passing during this part of the race. K was my age group and every competitor had it written on their calves which meant that everyone could see what age group those ahead of us were in. I must have passed a good 20 or 30 during the course of the run, which itself was particularly satisfying. I even managed to outsprint one of them as I ran for the line. Although the final run time was some way down on what I know I can run for the distance, I am some way short of where I want to be speed wise and so I wasn’t too bothered really.
The finish shute was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed crossing the line in 2.42.39. Before the race my aim had been to finish sub 3 hours with a sub 2.45 being my ultimate goal. And I had smashed that with an Olympic distance PB! All that was left was for me to wait for Tim to come home in 2.54 – he had a great day too, although I think he struggled on the bike a little bit.
On reflection, this was a superb event and one I would love to do again. Even setting aside putting my swim demons to bed finally, I had such a great time on the bike and the run. That being said, I do need to keep doing more work in the swim and also the bike, which was the one disappointment of the day. I also need to stop messing around in transition. Over 5 mins between getting out of the water and mounting the bike is too long, even taking into account the long run into transition. That being said, I think I can now confidently look to enter a Half Ironman within the next year as the swim is only 400m longer. Maybe Canberra, or even Husky for next year??!
Splits:
Swim (out of the water): 29.43
T1 (including run from water to T1): 5.21
Bike: 1.15:48
T2: 1.07
Run: 50.37
Total Time: 2.42.39
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