After finishing the Tauranga Half Ironman my next goal, (which was a massive ask) was to prepare for and race the Elite Oceania Sprint Distance Championship three weeks later. The following few Sundays consisted of traveling to Kinloch for the day to get some vital high-speed training over the course. These few sessions definitely gave me a boost, however it was too little to late and the inevitable occurred - me opting to race the Erin Baker (standard distance) over the elite sprint distance.
Race start was an early 6:50am, and to tell you the truth I am not a morning person, so it’s always a struggle to roll out of bed and get fully pumped up for the race. After having my season goal achieved and behind me I felt ready, with no pressure, and my main goal for this race was to have fun. I wanted to get a clear lead in the swim, have a steady and solid pace on the bike and build through the run, (this is a new tactic I am trying with my racing, as I normally start at a fast pace and just try to hold on).
Standing on the start line I picked a spot, which was smack bang in the middle of everyone on the line. I don’t normally do this, as I am generally a slow starter, but I felt confident I could get clear early.
With the hard training I had been doing over the last 3 weeks I had an awesome start and jumped straight to the lead, from which point I kept the swim pace high and held on. After lap one of a two-lap swim I had a nice little gap and it grew to 10sec over the remainder of the swim. While I achieved my goal of first out of the water it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped and I felt somewhat flat.
During T1 I was not as fast and fluid as I normally am. My wetsuit didn’t peel off easily and I lost half my 10 sec lead, this didn’t really help the feeling of being flat, however I safely left T1 still in the lead, and was off for a testing hilly bike leg ahead.
As many of you will know, the age group bike course is pretty much 10km uphill, 10km downhill, times two. As I headed out of town I was caught by 2nd place (Brett). He pushed the pace very high for the following few km and this just confirmed that I was not feeling as good as I needed for todays race.
Getting to the 10km turnaround seemed to take forever, the hill continued its presence and even on the very few short descents you never really got the rest your legs wanted. But coming home was fast and fun. With long periods of time sitting above 75-80km/h and even moving through the flatter sections at 50+km/h this was an added relief my legs were asking for.
Lap two on the bike was very similar to lap one the only difference being Brett managed to open up a little gap on the descent, which added up to almost 30sec.
It was a tough ride and my split of 1:09:21 is a good indication of how tough this course really is.
The run started slightly faster than I wanted, I was 28sec off the lead and I had no idea how Brett would run; I had no time to waste. I didn’t start ridiculously fast but I wanted to limit the loss in time through the first lap while building into a sustainable rhythm and pace.
It quickly became clear to me that I had been out classed by a faster guy as we approached lap 2 and I had lost 30sec to 1st, what was more concerning however was the 30sec loss to 3rd who was now only 1 min behind with 3 laps to go.
Lap two hurt a lot, I had to lift my pace and hold it, it was not much fun. Mentally I was confident but physically my body didn’t want to play the game. Lucky for me though I managed to lift just enough to match the guy in 3rd. Mentally, as the laps ticked by and more people entered the run course, it became easier, with more bodies to pick off, but physically I couldn’t wait to stop. Finishing the run in 38min 24 was cool, it may not sound super fast but when you think you are running 41-42min it was a nice added bonus to later see this time.
Crossing the line in second was awesome, especially on a day where my body was feeling so flat. It’s nice to finally be getting the results that reflect my day-to-day effort in training. It was also cool to be able to spend the rest of the day cheering on and supporting my fellow Tri Tauranga club mates.
Thanks for the fantastic support throughout the race - it was awesome. Also thanks to my parents for making the special trip down from Auckland just to support me, and my coach Carolynn for organising accommodation and all the training sessions in the build-up.
Next up for me is Sam Warriner’s race in Whangarei in a couple of weeks, another standard distance race. Should be fun!
Thanks for reading.