It appears to be somewhat cooler than you think Brazil is going to be. Race day at the moment shows rain and temperature starting on the bike about 17 celsius rising to about 19 celsius before starting to cool again around 3pm. Sun sets early around 5pm.
The swim is one lap but with two loops side by side and an Australian exit in between where we exit the water after the first bigger loop (about 1km straight out to sea, 250m swim across and then back in), on to the beach, run about 70m before heading back in the water for the second smaller loop. (about 650m straight out to sea, 250m across, then back) It’s also wave group starts with 5 mins between each group. All the females go together being the last group to set off at 7.30am. I like this later start as it means no uber fast men on bikes flying past me at the start of the bike leg and also the air temperature will be warmer by the time I get on the bike. (Although if I could choose, I would have a rolling swim start with a constant trickle of athletes into the water).
The bike course is two loops and 150km out of the whole 180km is flat. There are two hills on each lap and some undulations. We ride in the ‘fast’ lane of a two way motorway road with cars driving in the ‘slow’ lane. No closed roads but there are cones in between us and the cars.
The run course is very strange. One large loop of 21km with two massive hills in it. Ken Glah has advised to walk on a really steep section. I think I will see how I feel when I get there but the idea is that if running down it, we will be forced to run so fast down it, we’ll pay later. Or the legs will give way. Unfortunately we go over these hills twice. After this large loop, there are two smaller loops of approx. 10km then 11km. These loops are flat and on the map they appear to go all over the place so I think at this point I’ll have no idea where I am as the brain tends to shut down in the latter stages of the run for me normally. All I know is that I need two wrist bands to run down the finish line.
I hope my tendonitis doesn’t flare up. It hasn’t really been tested as I haven’t been doing any long runs since South Africa but I have packed the pain killers in my run bag.