Today was the Gold Coast Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon. This was a 750/20/5 distance race.
We got down there early and it was quite cool and windy. We had jumpers on (I thought it was supposed to be summer!). I rode around on my bike to make sure my race wheels are all good and that everything is in order and then went and registered and racked up. There were no pre-race dramas, everything was all good.
My wave start was with quite a few of the Brisbane Triatlon Squad girls, so we all headed down together and sussed out where the buoys were and where the best spot to start is, etc. There was quite a current on the swim so we started a fair bit right of the buoys and this proved to be a good line to take. I had quite a strong swim, I was with Kay a fair bit at the beginning. I was pushed around a bit by a girl on my right hand side so I ended up swimmig quite close to Kay. It was good that we do a lot of practice at this as I coped OK with it. I didn't do too much breaststroke and kept a relatively good line. My time ended up being 13:22.
A slow transition, as usual and I was off on the bike. Ixchel was just in front of me. I could feel the wind as soon as I headed south for the first turnaround, it was quite strong. Going north was great, I was flying along! I saw Ixchel come out of the second turnaround, she looked like she was working hard. I knew why as soon as I turned around as the wind just when wham! It was a slow trip back! It was a two loop course so I just tried to tuck in low and try and keep an easy gear and get through it. I was regretting the Flashpoint carbon wheels as I thought they were going to send my bike flying, it felt quite wobbly once the wind picked it up. I managed to pass Ixchel on the next North section - I was flying again, you've gotta love a tailwind! I didn't see Jacque out there, but I knew she wouldn't be too far behind.
I got into transition and unbeknown t me Ixchel was on my tail for the start of the run, apparently she couldn't hang on and dropped back. I was running scared as I knew that Ixchel and Jacque were behind me. Jacque is a far stronger runner than me and Ixchel and I are pretty similar at the moment so I was just waiting for them to pounce on me! This ended up being a good thing as I ran scared the whole race and was just pipped at the post by Jacque! But the amazing thing was that I did my run in 24:58!!!
24:58!!!
One of my goals for 2008 was to run 5kms in less than 25mins. For me to do it today in a triathlon is unbelievable! I really did not expect to be able to run 5min/kms off the bike. I am absolutely thrilled with this result. I am also a little dubious that it was actually 5kms but that is only because I can't believe that I did it...
Mark hasn't seen me run for a while as I have been running on my own or with Robson and he commented on how strong I looked out on the run. So that's good, I'm thrilled.
My overall splits are as follows: 1:23:39 total 16th out of 32 in the 30-34 Female category. Swim split: 13:22, Bike split: 45:18, Run split: 24:58.
My transition's are still letting me down. I insist on wearing socks on the bike and on the run and also rinsing my feet off of all sand from the swim. I probably lose a good minute or so with this, but I'm not prepared to risk it yet and get the blisters, etc. I might try for the last Raby Bay where it won't matter if I take a little longer to recover blistered feet!
