All over in February (Geelong 70.3)

After the Two Bays Trail Run in mid January I had been barely able to run at all. I would start off very slowly, but after 1 or 2 kms I'd have to turn about walk back. Not really what you want before a Half Ironman. But like the Two Bays Trail Run I had already entered and paid for Geelong (there was a minor discount for entering two 70.3 races - so I entered Mandurah & Geelong). Elaine and I had also booked accomodation and taken the Monday off work. So it was a long weekend holiday that included a race on Sunday morning.

The original plan was that I would qualify at Mandurah, expecting a soft field and use Geelong as a backup in case my race didn't pan out in Mandurah. With Geelong being a late season race I was hoping a lot of competitors would have already qualified, meaning the slots would roll down further in the age group.

Obviously Mandurah was a mini disaster and with my inability to run, qualifying at Geelong was pretty much an impossibility. However Ironman had introduced club slots and with Bayside having the most entries of any club, we were guaranteed 3 extra slots. So if I finished I was still a chance, but the chances of actually finishing the 21.1 km run leg was very slim.

Anyway, Geelong would definitely be my last race of the season, then a complete break from all training as I let my body recover.

Geelong 70.3

Another advantage of Bayside having the most entries was a special VIP transition rack for all club members doing the race (the same rack as the pros).

The photo to the right shows that we each had our name plate and about 3 times as much space as the other competitors. What you cannot see in the photo is that we also had carpet all the way down our aisle (rather than running on grass). Just another reason why it was worth doing the race.

We specifically chose accommodation with cooking facilities. Not many places serve breakfast at 5am, and I like to have my normal cooked breakfast before a race (following the principal of nothing new on race day). Elaine bakes up frittatas (eggs, vegetables, cheese, etc) and we divide them into small parcels and freeze them. They are perfect to defrost at work after a morning training session, or as a pre-race breakfast when racing away from home.

After quietly creeping down to the kitchen careful not to wake the other guests, we discovered that the microwave was broken - disaster. A continental breakfast was also supplied, but it looked very carb based and I like limit carbs before a race.

Looking out the window we could see a McDonalds across the road. At 5am, not many other establishments are going to be open, so we decided to compromise on a Egg and Bacon McMuffin and take away coffee. Maccas was surprisingly busy for so early in the morning. Some of the customers were race volunteers getting group coffee orders, others were the type you'd probably expect to see - presumably on their home after a big night. Or maybe they were lost having forgotten where they lived.

After a much longer wait than expected, we finally got our order and wandered the kilometre or so to transition, eating the McMuffin and coffee along the way. Luckily Elaine was available to help carry stuff (she was not racing), because it is surprising difficult to carry a transition bag, pump, helmet, bento box, two bidons, McMuffin & coffee while walking.

Due to the unexpected breakfast hassle, I was running a touch late. Not great when I was in one of the early waves. With limited time I decided not to bother taping a spare tubular under my seat and instead decided to rely on a cap of pitstop in my bento box. With my legs unlikely to finish the run, risking a puncture did not seem like a big deal.

Swim

In short, my best swim ever, hitting the sand in exactly 29 minutes for the 1.9km swim. Upon exiting the water I looked at my watch and saw 28:xx and was extremely excited. But it took half a second for me to hit the lap button, so was a little disappointed to see my split start with a 29. Still my swim split was faster than Clint's, and he always makes fun of my swimming inability. The fact that he was recovering from a broken thumb had absolutely no impact on that result.

The first few hundred metres of the swim I was sitting on the feet of what I originally thought was the perfect swimmer to draft off. He was just slightly faster than me, so I was working a little bit to hold his feet, but not so much that I would blow up. Unfortunately as we moved away from the other swimmers I found that he continued to go off course. I've never swam in a better marked course than this, so I could understand why he couldn't swim straight. Then it occurred to me that I'm swimming in the Male 45-49 age group and he probably has bad eyesight. Enlightened by this revelation I left him and swam the rest by myself. Which makes me even happier with my time considering I did most of it without a draft.

Just like in Mandurah my age group was split into two waves, with me in the second one. Of the 60 odd competitors in my wave I was 5th out of the water, and 10th fastest swimmer out of the 124 in my age group across both waves.

T1

Whether just the mental factor alone, having a VIP transition appeared to make a difference and I was 9th fastest in my age group.

I would have been faster, but got caught behind some slow competitors from the wave before. I yelled out passing as we ran with our bikes out of transition, but some people like to just dawdle side by side. One idiot got annoyed at me and actually started to say 'it's not a race you know' until he realised that it actually was and didn't finish the sentence.

Bike

Looking at the bike data from Mandurah, I decided I probably went out too fast. So I took a conservative approach to Geelong and decided to start conservatively and look to build. The fact that I knew a good result was impossible made it easier to hold back.

My bike split was 2h26m, 7th fastest in my age group. Not a fast time, but the Geelong course is not fast. In peak condition I could of shaved off a few minutes, but not on this day. In fact even with the conservative start I still faded a little on the second lap.

T2

As I ran into T2 I saw 5 times World Champion Craig Alexander standing next to his bike. I later discovered he had a bike mechanical. Not such a good thing considering he had just changed bike manufacturers.

Despite my VIP spot, my second transition was quite slow ranking only 36th in my age group. At this point I think I was placed 5th or 6th in my age group but knew it was all about to fall apart on the run. So the motivation to race through transition was not really there.

Run

First kilometre felt great. Being an early wave I had actually ridden past part of the female pro field and was now on the run with some of the pros. It was great to feel like you are at the front of the race, just a pity my legs were not in any condition to make use of this opportunity.

As expected I felt good for the first few kilometres and then things quickly deteriorated.

It was surprisingly hot. Every aid station I walked taking several drinks, throwing cups and buckets of water over my head and ice down my top and shorts. This obviously helped as I whilst I felt it was hot, I never felt affected by the heat. But I suspect the bigger reason was that I was simply running too slow to be greatly affected.

Every lap I felt like pulling out. But it was like I was too lazy to stop and walk off the course and somehow just continued my slow progress.

The final run split was 1h49m47s (5m14s per km), 42nd in my age group. At least I ran under 1h50m.

My overall result was 4h51m47s, 18th out of 124 finishers in my age group and 221st overall out of 1237 finishers in the race. Still under 5 hours which is something I suppose, remembering that my first Half Ironman (on the same course) back in 2009 was 5h12m.

Worlds 70.3 Rolldown Ceremony

9th place at Mandurah did not get me a World's slot (it only went down to 5th), so even though I expected more roll downs, 18th place was no chance. My only chance was a club slot.

Andrew, Ray, Siim and I sat on the lawn for the Ceremony. Ray (8th in M45-49) was a good chance and Andrew (12th M40-44) an outside chance of an age group roll down, but Siim and I could only hope for a club slot (Siim doing his first ever Half also had a slow run).

The Age Group roll downs took forever. Andrew missed out by only a couple and Ray missed out by 1.  During the ceremony, there was a query over the M75-59 results. The winner had passed on the slot, so the second placed competitor (of 2 in the age group) was asking why the slot had not rolled down to him. They finally worked it out in the end, because although he had finished the race and received his medal, he did not finish it within the time cutoff, so was not eligible for a Worlds slot (a little harsh for someone over 75 finishing a Half Ironman). I'm not sure what the cutoff is, but he took just over 7.5 hours. Anyway, this meant there was now one more slot to roll down. Because M40-44 was the biggest age group, they got the roll down. Whether the competitors ahead of Andrew had gone home or just didn't want the slot, it rolled down to Andrew who got the very last age group slot.

Now the Club slots. Important to note that the ceremony didn't start until 4pm. The majority of competitors had already left to drive back to Melbourne. With the age group roll downs taking well over an hour, the crowd was even thinner now. Andrew had left with the slot, but Ray, Siim and I still lay on the grass (with Elaine) in hope.

Bayside were awarded 3 slots. One Male, one Female and one junior. The male slot went to another club member in a higher age group - he was much slower than us, but closer to the time of the winner of his age group. Numerous female names were called out until they came to a delighted Moira who happily snapped up the slot. Then when it came to the juniors, none were there (you have to be present to collect the slot). Ray, Siim and I though it would roll back to the males, but instead they rolled it on the next club. Disappointed Siim left, but with nothing better to do Ray, Elaine and I hung around to see what happened at the end.

It was around another hour before they had gone through all the clubs. There were a lot of names being called out, but not many present to collect. When we thought it was all over, the announcer said "That is all the clubs and we still have 3 slots left. So we will go back to the start - are there any members of Bayside present in the crowd?". Despite being too sore to move for the last 3 hours, Ray and I shot up and raced to the stage. Another club member (who we had never seen before or since) also turned.

Three club members - three slots

70.3 Worlds at Sunshine Coast, Mooloolaba, here I come.