Race Report IM 70.3 World Championships – Mooloolaba, Australia
I qualified for the half ironman world championships in Bahrain in December 2015. This would be my second outing at the 70.3 Worlds but my fist time to Australia so I was very excited. The Worlds are always a great race because there’s no pressure, I can actually enjoy the race. I’m not going to do anything great or get on the podium. The pressure is always on the ‘normal’ races to try and qualify. So I always go to the Worlds with one aim, to enjoy myself and have fun.
Last year I placed 50th out of 160 in my age group so I was more than happy with that. I had gone with the aim last year of not being last in my age group lol so this time it would be nice to beat 50th.
My good friend (and fellow Tri Londoner) Roz McGinty would also be there so I would have an ally.
Because the race was in Australia, I travelled a week beforehand so it would give me time to acclimatise. I didn’t want my body to feel like I was asking a lot of it in what it usually presumes is the middle of the night.
The Sunshine Coast did not disappoint, it was glorious sunshine all week and the sports facilities were great. I did practice swims in a fantastic outside 50m pool, I cycled the bike route quite a few times and I ran on the run route along the sea front and beside the caravan park. It was stunningly beautiful and the people were so welcoming and friendly. I could quite happily live here.
Race day dawned and it was a deep water start. I was pleased at this because of the big surf on the beach.
The swim was uneventful and as usual I took it very relaxed. It was quite choppy on the return leg of the large right handed rectangle but I exited in 34:04 mins,not too bad but 3 mins slower than last years Worlds (however that had been in a lake which is always faster than a sea swim with currents and waves). However, I hadn’t drowned.
On to the bike and I was looking forward to this route as it was pretty flat and rolling apart from one big hill that was really steep but only continued for about one km. I had cycled it three times though so I knew It would be tough but I’d get there.
The first part of the course was an out and back on the motorway which I’d thought would be really fast but on race day it was so windy it felt quite tough on the way out. I was looking forward to the return leg and when I got to what I thought was the turnaround point (I was following the girl in front), we discovered it wasn’t here, but further down the road. Another girl had just followed us too so we all turned and continued on further along the road to the correct turnaround point. One of the most soul destroying feelings in the whole world is when you make a 180 degree turn and think you’re going to be with the wind only to find out actually you had been going with the wind and now it was a full on ’in the face’ headwind. Arghh. How come it felt so tough on the way out then? My speed hadn’t determined I’d been travelling with a tail wind. Anyway, head down and back to the turn off the motorway. I got caught up in a massive group and it was so hard to get out of. A motorbike referee also arrived and even he couldn’t sort the group out. Eventually we managed to spread out and I just peddled very hard to make some progress out of the big group, burning up some matches.
As I approached the right hand turn into the steep hill I dropped my gears all way down. I knew my legs would spin like crazy but this would only be for a few seconds as the hill bit in quickly and there was no place on the hill to drop down. About 10m up the hill I passed a girl who had decided to try dropping down the gears there and was clunking and clicking away. I said as I passed ‘Oops, not the place to be changing gear”, and then she just ran out of momentum, coming to a halt, unable to change gears and with feet still clipped in the unavoidable, highly embarrassing procedure of falling sideways onto the ground whilst still attached to the pedals proceeded. I couldn’t help but chuckle away to myself. This sight was retained and went on entertain me at many points on the run. I can’t believe people can get so wrong at a world championships.
As I huffed and puffed my way up the hill, taking it in turns to stand up and sit down to rest various different muscles I knew there were three turns. At each turn it looks like you’re reaching the top of the hill only to turn the corner and see it gets even steeper. Anyone who hadn’t come out to look at this hill was in for a very big shock on race day. I like to familiarise myself with everything on the bike course. The good, the bad and the ugly. I always feel that it goes quicker when it’s familiar territory.
I finished the 90 km bike leg in 2 hours 57 mins which was alright. Out onto the run. It was very hot and the legs were the usual jelly legs after the bike course. Usually no females pass me on the run in an ironman run leg but here at the worlds some girls were literally flying past. It was slightly demoralising. I just kept putting one leg in front of the other as quickly as I could and tried to breathe in the stifling heat. Soon I saw my wee buddy Roz, she was looking great on the run and appeared strong. Its always nice to see people you know, I take solace in this and think to myself, ‘well if they can do it, then I can do it’. In the latter half of the run I started to pass females who’d been ‘flying’ past me at the start of the run. I know I don;t have the true speed of a ‘fast’ runner but I do have great endurance and dogged determination and I can find a good pace and just keep it up all the way. I realised I was about 2km from the finish line and then a girl ran past me with her bib to the back. I saw her name (Vasconcelas) and Knew that she’s an extremely formidable Brazilian in my age group who’s always beaten me when we’ve raced before. I thought to myself ‘I’ve been ahead of you this whole race so I’m not going to let you take me now.’ I picked up the pace, got to her shoulder and passed her convincingly trying not to breathe like a breaking down steam train. I kept it going so I didn’t have her latch onto me and just kept the pace up as fast as I could to the finish line. It was such a beautiful sight and just knowing that I’d taken her scalp was good enough for me, I know I’ve made progress this year.
My run time for the 21.1km was 1:49, not great but in the heat and after a tough race in wind it was alright. I take great solace from beating someone who I would have previously put in a bracket above me. Looking at the results, in my haste to not let the great Brazilian catch me I’d overtake another female in my age group so she finished 2 places behind me. I finished in 58th place out of 137 athletes who qualified for the World Champs in a time of 5 hours 31mins. So well inside the top half. I didn’t beat last years place but I do feel that the standard was higher here in Australia and overall I was really happy. Plus the medal was amazing and well worth the trip, the expense and the effort.