I was pretty relaxed pre race and thought I had a good chance of going under the 2hr mark if the wind behaved. The forecast was for light winds, but the easterly was a bit stronger than expected.
Swim
The gun went off and I remained calm and relaxed. Settled into a pack, but started to really struggle heading into the chop. I couldn’t find my rhythm in my new blue seventy wetsuit and it looked like a pack moved away. Not great, but I started to get it together as I headed back into shore and the end of the first lap.
On the 2nd lap it was still a struggle into the chop and in hindsight I wasn’t adapting well to the conditions. I had increased my stroke rate into the chop, but I wasn’t getting a good catch. The new wetsuit is a better fit than my old one and felt a bit different, which probably distracted me a bit on the day.
I came out of the water with Richard Yeo who hadn’t been training a lot (I’m thinking I’d swam poorly), but just ahead was Johan Borg who normally swims similar to me so maybe it wasn’t so bad. T1 went well and was onto the bike and plus 40 pretty quick.
Bike
I waited until the long straight until I put a bit of power through the pedals and took off in search of the leaders. Over the next few laps I took over plenty on the lapped course and got a call from the sidelines of 20 seconds. Figured that was the gap to Guy Crawford and continued to chase. Was surprised when Matt Illingsworth came by and then Michael Kent as we caught Guy and 1st place. There was no sudden increase in pace, so I took the opportunity to get in a gel and some fluids.
Two laps to go on the bike and I was confident I had Matt and Guy covered on the run, Michael Kent has had some hot form and I knew I need to make a gap on the bike. Made a move and up past Matt for the lead….. maybe had it for 3 seconds before Matt came back through. Must have made him angry, but it might help open up a gap.
No luck in creating a gap and lost time to Matt through the tight corners and he was gone. It was going to come down to the run. Finished the 40k averaging 42.2kph, so pretty happy with that. T2 needs some work as I lost ground straight away.
Run
I moved past Guy pretty early and then Matt, with Michael a further 100m up the road. I wasn’t feeling great, but was moving ok. As I got onto the boardwalk it was pretty obvious I wasn’t catching Michael as he was out of sight! I focused on holding my form and running my own race. Moving through the first lap, I was feeling better and knew I had at least 100m over 3rd and 4th. Thankfully no challenge came and I was able to keep my pace relatively comfortable to the end and sneaking under the 2hr mark in 1:59:46.
Pretty content, now just for the big one! I am feely pretty relaxed as there is not much more training I can do now. There is still a few descent sessions, but all easier than what has been done. This week will include plenty of visualization and going over and over nutrition for the day.
G-Pop
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