The swim was fairly uneventful. I placed myself in the second row upfront closest to the buoys. With a bit of leap frogging we were off. As is normal in events like this there was a bit of struggle for position initially, but after about 100m it calmed down. I basically adopted a comfortable cruise tempo for the duration of the swim, keeping myself aerobic and focusing on my stroke. At times it was difficult to keep a steady pace having to pass masses of slower athletes, but experience from last year’s event made it a lot easier. I had only one minor mishap; swallowing a large gulp of lake water causing me to cough and stop momentarily. I was out of the water in exactly 33 min.
Feeling relaxed and fresh from the swim the transition was quick and easy. Compared to last year the transition was moved a bit making the run to the bike a bit longer.
Out on the bike course I settled into a good pace. Initially my stomach was fairly tight, but 30 min into the bike I had my first power bar and the tightness disappeared. My ride can be seen below. The graph reflects a fairly flat course with only a few rolling hills.
My initial plan was to race a bit conservatively on the bike to save myself for the run, but I just felt great on the bike and ended up pushing harder than planned, but enjoying the speed! The result was a 2:19 bike split, about 4-5 minutes faster than I had planned (average speed 38.8 km/h or 24.1 miles/h).Into transition again, a quick change and I was off.
The first 2 miles I felt good and kept a solid pace of just under 7 min/mile. However, it quickly deteriorated. By the first 10k my pace had slowed and I was on target for about a 1:36 finish. But even that would not hold. I simply didn’t have the energy to run faster or rather it was as if my mind/body just wouldn’t let me go any faster. When that is said, the pace I did settle into was fairly “comfortable” and felt very much like a full IM pace. Final run split was 1:42, slower than expected.
Final time was 4:39, 21st out of 361 athletes in my age group (94th overall out of 2150).
Post race I was lucky to qualify for the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater Florida. There were 10 slots in my age group and based on the principle of role down (where unwanted slots are rolled down to the next athlete) I was awarded a slot. While qualification to Kona is my main focus, I couldn’t say no to a chance to race Clearwater. If I do manage to qualify for Kona, it will be some busy months leading into Christmas.
