Even though I wasn't able to train, I did find time to setup the bikes ready for the race. Unlike the Duathlons I competed in earlier in the season, I decided to carry a spare tubular type for this event - you can see it taped under the seat. Tubular tyres are the tube and tyre all in one and unlike the standard clincher tyres, tubulars are glued onto the rim. I also have a Bento box attached to the top tube just behind the headstem and 2 water bottles - one of the frame and one between the aero bars. This is the setup I plan to use for Ironman Melbourne, so the Geelong race is being used as a full dress rehearsal.
Elaine's bike was given set of race wheels and also had a Bento box on the top tube. Changing wheels means readjusting the rear dérailleur so that the gears still work and changing to carbon wheels also means changing and realigning the brake pads. A carbon braking surface needs a different brake pad (usually cork) and the race wheels are usually a different width requiring a realignment. During all this work I also gave both bikes a mini service.
The weather in Melbourne was not too bad over the weekend, but it poured almost non-stop until Sunday lunchtime in Geelong. We were only staying for 2 nights so I didn't take many changes of clothes and nearly everything I brought got completely soaked. Luckily the temperature was still relatively warm and most of the stuff was able to dry out before I needed to wear it again.
Due to my knee injury this was my first triathlon of the season and as always happens, I was a little rusty in my first race. Usually the starter gives a 30 second warning before the gun goes off, but not this time. I was casually chatting to a friend and wasn't even wearing my goggles when the gun sounded. Luckily I was able to get them on as I rushed into the water, but did lose some ground in the process. There were at least 400 people in my wave and in hindsight I should have placed myself much closer to the front (and had my goggles on). My swimming has improved quite a lot recently, but for the whole swim leg I was hemmed in by slower swimmers. I tried unsuccessfully to break through a couple of times, on one occasion receiving a nasty kick to the face (I still have bruises on my nose 3 days later). In the end I decided to simply stay in the pack and have a very easy, if somewhat slow swim. My swim time for the 2km was 36mins - I believe I could have swam at least 2 minutes quicker without tiring myself out.
Once on the bike I realised that my power meter was not working. I decided to use my Garmin FR310xt computer that can be transferred to my wrist for the run instead of the much larger Garmin Edge 800 I had been using in training. But for some reason my power meter was not configured on the FR310xt - things like this always happen in the first race of the season. Unfortunately the first section of the bike course is the most technical with several small hills and lots of tight corners, so trying to go through the menus on the watch without crashing took a bit of effort. Finally at about the 5km mark I had my power meter working and now I could try and ride to a specific power wattage.
I found myself in a rather large group of bikes. Drafting is not allowed in most triathlons (including this one), so in order not to get penalised by the draft busters (Marshalls who ride around the course as pillions on motorcycles), I decided to make my way through the pack. This resulted in a slightly higher wattage than I had planned, but it was not that much higher so I figured it wouldn't matter too much, especially seeing as the bike leg was only 80km.
My main goal for the race was to see how well I could run 20km off the bike. This would be my first long run off a bike for the season and would provide a lot of valuable information for the Ironman in regards to how good my pacing and nutrition was, as well as testing out my injured knee. If I struggled to run 20km off an 80km bike leg, how would I handle 42km after a 180km ride.
I successfully made my way through the first pack and was starting to pick off other riders ahead. My heart rate and power wattage were still about 10% higher than my planned Ironman pace, but way below what I would ride for an Olympic Distance race with a 40km bike leg (and 10km run).
Elaine's Olympic Distance race started about 90mins after mine. It had been raining all morning and this made me worry about punctures because the rain often lifts the glass back up to the surface. I didn't pack a spare tyre for Elaine, she just had a can of pitstop (air & foam which hopefully seals the puncture as well as re-inflating the tyre), but it generally only works about 50% of the time. Several riders had already pulled off to the side to fix punctures and I dreaded Elaine might suffer the same fate.
As I approached the far turn-around on the first lap (about the 25km mark) I could see another pack coming back. They were only about 500m ahead and I figured I could easily bridge that gap. Just before the turnaround the road widens from 2 lanes to 3. When you add the u-turn section in the middle of the road, this equated to a turning circle of about 7 lanes wide. I figured I could take this corner with a bit of speed which would put a bit of gap between me and the riders behind me - I didn't want to drag them up to the next pack as well.
I turned into the corner and was looking where I would exit on the other side when suddenly I was sliding along the ground. It was mid corner that my front wheel slid out and everything had been tracking beautifully till then, so I think it must have been an oil patch on the road that caused my crash. Medical staff immediately rushed over and helped me. There had already been a few crashes at the corner so the Medical staff were ready and waiting. It took them 5 minutes to patch me up, in which time another rider took a big slide in exactly the same spot. Once the medical staff were finished I gingerly hopped back on my bike (which was luckily not damaged) and continued riding for another 55km. My hip especially was very sore, but it loosened up a bit as the ride went on. There were no more packs left, so it was quite a lonely ride from then on and the wattage and heart rate dropped back to Ironman pace. My official bike split was 2h27m, but without the 5 min stop for bandaging it would have been 2h22 - and if I hadn't of crashed I'm confident I would have gone well under 2h20m.
As I rode towards transition I was not confident how my run would go, but figured it was worth a try. Unfortunately as soon as I dismounted I discovered that I must have wrenched a lot of muscles in my upper leg around the groin and hip flexor and running was absolutely impossible. So I simply walked back to the finish line, handed in my timing chip and then proceeded to the Medical tent to get my wounds redressed.
I lost skin on my wrist, elbow, knee and hip and had gravel rash on my shoulder and back. By far the worst injury was to my hip which was not only missing a lot of skin but also swollen up like a softball.
At least this gave me time to watch Elaine finish her race. This was her first Olympic Distance since 2008 and while she was a fair way off her PB, she still managed a good time and after a little deliberation was happy with efforts.
It is Wednesday night, most of my wounds have started to heal, except my hip which still looks very nasty. The swelling has gone down considerably, but has been replaced with a lot of bruising spanning the size of about a volleyball. At the moment I still cannot run, but I'm hoping this situation will start to improve by the weekend.
On the bright side, my knee is actually feeling pretty good - I crashed on the other side of my body.
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