This is August, apparently. I thought August was sunny and hot, but not today, overcast is the best you could say about the weather this morning. Still I got to the pool in good time and set up my transition. Bike racked, fiddle with box of stuff, check stuff. Ohhhh, ohhh dear, stuff missing. No timing chip. Aghhhhhhh, what, no! Quick run back to the car, check car, no chip. Jump in car and start to drive out of car park. Blocked in. Ohhhh no. Ohhh well, have to do it without timings, bum. Walked back to the registration desk and asked them if they had a spare timing chip, but no they didn't. They did let me use their mobile to phone home though, so I phoned Sarah and had the house and shed searched, still no joy. So at 7:50 I jumped in the water with everyone else, except I did not have a timing chip.
Me before the start, see, calm, not bugged by no timing chip!
Oliver got this picture of me going off to the start.
At the start, a water start, I got in behind the bouy about 3 people back from the start line, lay in the water, as I remembered Rick Kiddle telling me to do.
The horn went and we were off. Unlike last year, when I lurked at the back, today I was in the middle of it all. I was too far forward really, people were swimming past me left and right, but not over the top. The start was like a sprint, and soon my body was complaining, 'too fast, not enough oxygen, can't carry on', I thought I was going to pull up and start breast-stroking! A look up for the racing buoy, it's nowhere in site, all I can see is white water. Ahhh well, no choice now, keep going. I saw a lot of white water, but I was on course, very good course actually and got around the first buoy, a bit of bunching, so I was strong and kept going, don't get pushed around!
The second buoy and I did a 'Rick Kiddle racing turn', ohhhhh, get me! Then back along the edge of the pool. I saw Sarah and the boys taking pictures, even managed a wave at them.
Here I am sighting on the last leg, I'm sure it shows terrible technique! But I was still going and felt stronger at this point than earlier on when I was going too fast.
More pictures of me, on the return leg
Out from the swim and into T1, (no timing), then putting on my bike shoes I found the timing chip. So T1 took a tad longer as I struggled with the timing chip and my shoes. I only have proper 'roadie' cycle shoes, so have to crank them up, not just velcro them. This takes a little longer but is OK. Maybe I should put talc in them to help me slip them on. Slipping them on is also a problem when your toe joint does not bend and quite painful.
Note nbr 44 in the background. His chip timing for the swim was 13:30 so I must have been something around that time for the swim, which would be about 7 minutes better than last year.
The bike was good, seemed like a lot of hills and seemed like I was being overtaken by a lot of people, but they all seemed to be 'guns', so I should not feel too bad about that. I had a bit of a battle with Nbr 83, who I passed and he passed back several times. He eventually got ahead on the bike. Then into T2. Not a bad T2, except I forgot the gel I was going to have at the start of the run. Out of T2 and I caught Nbr 83 again, but he got away again, he slowly drew out the distance between us.
In the final straight of the run, I had my mind on a big finish. The final straight is about 1km long and as some chap came past I fell in behind him, right on his heals, drafting from the slight wind. I started to match his stride and as we came to about 300m I came out from behind him and started to come forward, he sped up and I thought about all the racing tactics I had read about. 'You have to pass someone commandingly, so they don't feel they can stick to your heals', so I sped up again and saw him drop off. Next in my sight was the guy in front and to my right, he looked over his shoulder, saw me coming and sped up, I was still drawing him in, and as I past him I kicked again to leave him behind. He dropped off behind me and I stormed on. Had I gone too soon? Could I last the final 100 metres? I did not slow and pushed on with everything I had left, dreading him catching me before the line. He did not and I crossed the line well ahead. Chuffed and pleased!
I think I had a final time of 1:20ish, thats 10mins better than last year. Need to go get the results and check them over. When I can I will get more pictures off Sarah's camera.
Timings are in. I ranked 80th overall, (161 in total), 11th in my category (15 in category) and my time was 1:20:07 the only time I can see is the run at 24:47
