I had a good week leading upto the race with training and massages etc… I got to Canberra on Friday and drove over the bike course. Saturday was hot, about 25 degrees. I had a 40 minute ride in the morning and then went to registration and briefing in the arvo.
Race day was interesting…it started hammering down with rain as I was about 300m into the swim leg and I had 212 people in my age group wave too which made it a bit interesting. Lake Burley griffin is extremely muddy and visibility was very poor, though the water temp was 19.4 degrees which was alright. I was a little slower than usual in the swim with a time of 37:42 for the leg.
There was about a 300m run then from the water back to transition. I jumped onto the bike and it was still raining for the entire first lap (30km) The course was challenging with some good hills and rough roads on Coppins Crossing Drive. I really focused on nutrition through the bike legs having carbs every 20 mins and getting through 75gm of carbs per hour with gels and bars.
My bike leg split was 2:57hr which I was happy with. I’ve never held an average above 30km/hr in a race of this length. The 2nd and 3rd laps of the bike were hot and steamy and the road dried up which was much safer to ride obviously.
The best part for me though was the run leg. Previously, I have never got through a 21.1km run in a triathlon without having to stop and walk several times. I headed out from transition and took the first 2km rather steady, sitting on about 6:30min kms. I found my running legs and started to get into stride. I managed to run the entire way and my run split was 1:57hr. I was stoked with this because previously my fastest run leg has been 2:10hr and that was at Huskisson which is only a 20km run. I felt strong the whole run and the final 3km of the run it started bucketing down rain again which wasn’t a bad thing!
So overall time was 5:39:17 with my previous half ironman time being 6:12hr in Port Macquarie last year, so a 33 min improvement.
It was good to see that all the brick training you have had me doing has really paid off.
If you want to check out all my splits and positions etc…. jump onto www.multisportaustralia.com.au and search for ‘Eastwood’ or number ‘257’.
The next race for me now is Huskisson in February which is a long course 2/83/20.
