Busselton Half Ironman – May 2, 2009 I arrived down at Busso on Thursday afternoon. I went for a quick spin on the first half of the course to test out the Zipp 808’s that I hired for the race. It was pretty windy and having never ridden on deep rim wheels before, I rode cautiously. I was staying down at Siesta Park, about 10km south of Busselton. There is a small jetty in front of the park. There had been rumors flying around about the waters being covered in stingers, so we went to have a look. I was absoloulty shocked when we got out there, there were literally 1000’s of them, a blanket of tentacles. Friday morning came and it was freezing overnight. Went out for another ride out on the course with a couple of mates who were also racing. There were heaps of people out on the bike course and had a chat to a few pro’s. The rest of the day was pretty quite, had a nice lunch and then chilled out in town for a while. I met up with the Eclipse Fitness crew and went for a quick swim. We decided that it would be best to wear out Speedo’s to keep the wetties dry for the race, but it was freezing, probably not the best idea. But it was only a short swim. We got out Red Army shirts, which looked awesome. Then I made my way over to register. Bit of a wait but it was awesome to check out all the awesome bikes around. Racked the bike in the first row about half way down. It was now starting to get cold and time to get ready for dinner and an early night. Race Day Set about 10 alarms on my phone so I didn’t sleep through my alarm. Had a quick breakfast and headed to transition to set up. Made sure every thing was working and set up, went for a quick warm-up jog and headed over for briefing. Waste of time really, couldn’t hear a word they said. I made sure the wetsuit was on properly and wondered down to the swim start. Had a quick warm up and went through the timing gates. The swim start was pretty hectic but after about the first buoy I found some clear water up to the end, made the two right hand turns and got into a group and the rest was relatively uneventful. I pulled through a few groups of stingers and got stung on my neck and face coming into the beach although nothing to serious, Swim – 26.42 Out onto the bike and I was by myself for a while then got into a bit of a train, got out onto Layman Road and continued to the turn around. The Zipp wheels were awesome! I was making an effort not to draft the whole race and when a saw the next wave starts main group I was very annoyed, there was bout 30 of them, 4 abreast and not even making an effort to stay legal. It was awesome coming back into town and getting support from my friends and family. It really gave me a boost. Got passed by a few of the strong riders from other age categories but apart form that I had a strong ride. Lap 3 was slightly slower and I lost the train I was in, which I will not do next year. I came off the bike in 3rd position in my age. Lap 1 – 47.24 Out onto the run and a started really strongly, felt fresh and managed to hold a comfortable pace. The turn around always seems to take for ever to come, but I think that was just a mental thing. Johan passed me just before the end of the first lap. About half way around the second lap I hit a really bad patch and I never really recovered from that for the rest of the race. I had to walk a bit, walked every aid station, very slowly and had as much water and coke as I could. I eventually made it to the last turn around point and finally started to see light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t wait to finish. I finally got there after a very slow run. Run – 1.52.03 Total – 4.45.25 I was really happy with my swim and bike although I didn’t end my day well on the run, which was disappointing. I am not sure whether it was because I pushed to hard on the bike, or if it was my nutrition but they are issues that I will have to address building up to my next half Ironman. I improved by about 20mins from my first half last year so I am really happy with that. I now have a few weeks off before I start training for the Worlds and Anaconda on the Gold Coast is September and then will be looking forward to do my next half Ironman (at this stage either Singapore or Geelong 70.3) and then of course Busselton Half next year. Cheers, |
|||
