I entered the Canberra Ironman 70.3 in September, before I had completed any triathlons. It was always going to about experiencing what Triathlons were about.
I have never really been a swimmer. Even though I have grown up on the coast, swimming has not been my thing. The concept of swimming 1.9km was pretty daunting, and in fresh water. Everything I had read said that the swim in Lake Burley Griffen was pretty horrible. Oh dear...
My target is to do an ironman distance triathlon which has a 3.8km swim so I needed to get over the 1.9km swim.
I had dinner on Saturday evening with a group from the Illawarra Triathlon Club. I joined the club just after taking up triathloning. One of the best things I did. They are very friendly and keen to help beginners. We all had to predict what time we would do the event in. I predicted 6:05. In reality, I had no idea. How much would the swim tire me out, would I get timed out in the swim?? how fast could I run after getting off the bike. All questions I would have to get answers to.
This was all new to me. Bikes had to be checked in on the Saturday with the race starting Sunday morning.
Sunday morning dawned with overcast cloud, hot, with the promise of winds picking up later in the morning.Transition set up and pre event nervous chat filled the first part of the day before heading down towards the start.
The lake looked daunting, but at least it was not choppy. The buoys were a long way away. To get to the start there was about a 200 metre swim. As I was walking down the narrow finishing chute with all the 'pink' caps I head someone say it was only 4 minutes to the start. Oh dear, at best, it was going to take me that long to get there. So head down, tail up, I was off - swimming as hard now as I would in any part of the race. I got near the start line and identified a spot to head to and stop. Got there, bobbed up to look at where the first buoy was, and the horn went off. No time to compose, just go for it now.
This was ok, for a short while, then I got this real panicky attach. I could not do this. Who was I kidding. Can't do it. Get out of the water. I had to stop a couple of times - even looked to see how I could get out of the water, but no chance. On we go, let's have this conversation later. I have a personal rule in Audax riding. Never pull out by going backwards, head onto the next control and then see how you go - unless you're too injured or your bike is broken.Same person, same rules, go forward.
A short while later I was in my rhythm and slowly churned through the course with only a couple of arms to the head. Apart from the first leg, navigation was pretty good.
I was out of the water in 48mins. Slow by most standards but I was stoked. 50 mins was the best I could have dreamed of at this stage.
Transition 1 (T1) was going fine, until I tried to get a tight tri top over a wet body, with very tired arms and shoulders. Next time wear the top under my wetsuit or have a full zip tri top. A few minutes wasted (which gave me the opportunity to show Hugh where his bike was as he was running back and forth looking) and I was off on the bike.
90km on the bike. Not far by Audax standards, but this was a race pace, not riding all day. A different experience for me. The course was changed to 5 laps as there were considerable road works on part of the course. This had two impacts. First, the major hills were removed. Second, the drafting distance had to be reduced to 7 metres instead of the normal 12 metres for this distance event. Both would not worry me as I didn't really know any different. Each lap the wind got stronger and stronger. It was a headwind in the first quarter (and a bit of the last quarter) of the loop. Largely the leg went without incident. Bottle changes occured without issue, some people were getting done for drafting. Some were going slow, some were going fast.
What is it that has people overtaking and then sitting up to have a drink?!?. You have to slow down, move out of the draft zone before you can overtake them. This happened quite a few times.
T2 into the run went without incident.
By now it was pretty hot and the three lap run went along the edge of the lake. Directly into the wind for half the lap, then a tail breeze. Very little shade.
I was surprised at the number of people walking. Clearly a lot were using a run/walk strategy - just as I had planned to do. What I had not planned on was the outside of my right foot getting really sore about 5km into the run. I stopped to adjust my sock in case that was causing it - no. Sometimes it was very painful, other time not so much. Very puzzling. Anyway, I was going to finish so I slowed a bit and focused on the finish line.
People were cheering from the side lines and an added bonus on having your name on your bib is that they could call out your name - even though they did not know you. Very cool. Also very cool, was the fact that the Carillon (bell tower) was playing Christmas songs on the bells. I wonder how many other competitors noticed that?Run/walk/run and at 6:08 after the starting horn went off, I was finished. Picked up the Ironman finishers towel and Ice-cream and Fruit Salad. Only three minutes off my made up time.
Loved it. A great experience and will certainly consider coming back next year.
