Race Day Report

Overall happy with the race, a much better result than 2 yrs ago when I last did this race by 4 mins.

It was a non-wetsuit swim wasn't sure whether that was good or bad, as wetsuit helps swim but getting it off can be tricky (its pretty new) we swam against the current for about 1km it was very choppy, until a left turn, then another left turn and finally swimming with the current, I feel that I swam pretty well - I was definitely not overly taxed - maybe I should have tried a bit harder??

Long transistion to the bike, felt good running to the bike, off on the first of 4 laps - wind was up (nothing new there) so sidewind on way out and headwind on the way back, I stopped my watch at every lap - with each lap around the same time, so very consistent.

I did not feel great on the bike - legs were complaining from the very beginning - was a bit upset by this as I have felt so good this week, but I put this out of my mind and just tried to keep the cadence up, what was good was that I didn't feel that I got worse and my lap times show this.

Off the bike and into transistion - pretty short T2 legs were complaining - they didn't like running off the bike too much. Shoes and cap on and out on the run, took the first lap (3 laps overall just over 3km each lap) pretty steady - at least that's how it felt and stopped my watch at the turn - saw the time and thought that this was ok, ran the next lap I felt faster, but the lap time shows 5sec slower, on the last lap I definitely speeded up but the time was the slowest lap, it does include the extra for the finish shute but not enough to justify the extra time!

Nutrition wise - a bit of a disaster - this is my really weak area and one of the reasons my half ironman attempts have not been great - this needs to improve if I am to do a full Ironman!!

Ate pumpkin, sweet potato, egg white, olive oil and apple sauce for breakfast just after 5am this seems to be good for me, tried this before - drank at least 1 ltr of water before the race and also took a gel about 30mins before the start of the race.

Race started at 8.15am, so about 3hrs after breakfast, out onto the bike and drank coconut water but only drank 500ml for the whole of the bike leg - also took 1/2 gel on lap 2 of the bike and 1/2 gel on lap 3 of the bike - not a great amount!

When I got off the bike for the run, my stomach was not happy and I had a minor stitch and "stomach full" feeling - but it was not as bad as I have had before and it did not affect my run - it got better as I ran which was good - I took water at every drink station on every lap 3 x 3 - but poured most of it over my head and just took a small mouthful to drink. Its the running that is affected when I eat, the biking is fine, but I always worry about eating on the bike and then having issues with my stomach on the run.

Overall I did not actually feel great for most of this race, and felt that I didn't "attack" the run like I did at the three smaller races that I did at the end of last year, but I think this was more a mental thing as I haven't done this distance for nearly two years. Not sure if the nutrition played a part in how I was feeling or whether that was just me getting used to racing again?

At the end of the race, I took Paleo Recovery Drink ate an apple and raisins + more water. Stayed for prize giving so didn't get home to eat until about 3hrs after the race - did not feel great had a headache and my body was not happy either - ended up taking painkillers and lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. Took another 2hrs for me to feel pretty good and ate dinner about 3hrs after lunch - that has made me feel sooo much better and now I feel pretty normal but its about 8.5hrs after the race.

Below are my results from today, my bike has improved enormously and so has my run, the swim I'm not overly concerned with as we swam against a strong current today and I don't see my swim improving too much - I only took up swimming when I started Triathlon about 10yrs ago.

Looking at my results compared to my age group I need another 2mins at least on the bike - which is 3secs a km - I'm sure that this is achievable with the time I have to train for Busselton.

Swim 30.05
Bike 1.12.47
Run 46.30
Total 2.31.43
Overall 6th in my age group out of 18 and 32nd out of 92 female starters
Best leg was the run, followed by the bike then the swim - which shows an improvement as usually its run, swim, bike (my bike being my weakest leg)

We stayed for prize giving and I won a spot prize of a $300 Orca wetsuit - how cool is that :) - I'm actually hoping that I can use the voucher for a couple of tri-suits instead as my wetsuit is pretty new.

Next olympic distance race towards end of March - although this race is not as important to me as this one was.