Despite an interesting start, plenty of
positives came out of today.
From the beginning, 5am start and hitched a
ride with Sunny out to Box Hill. We made
our destination 40mins before the start and were greeted with near perfect race
conditions, cool (but not cold) and cloudy (but not overcast). After 20min queuing for the toilet and 10min
at registration, I had 10min to change myself and the flat tire on my
bike! Cutting it close, yes.
As everyone was lining up for the start,
Sunny and I were just entering transition to rack our bikes. Just before going in, Sunny broke out with,
“oh, no, I forgot my helmet.” Really?!? My only consolation was for him to check at
registration, I had my own issues to deal with.
Bike racked and changing into my gear, the
gun went off! ‘It’s ok, just focus, get going as soon as possible, but in a conscious
rush.’ A couple minutes later I crossed the start
line and was on my way.
After about 10mins, I started to catch the back
of the race. Passing people left and
right, one guy decided to go with me. We
trailed each other for a bit, then brief chat, and I continued on (love the
openness at these races, meet lots of cool people). Pushed the run, but not to my limit, I’d leave
that for the bike.
8mi run in just over an hour, not bad. On the bike and time to go. Focus on not letting people pass me and push
the climbs. Throughout the three laps
only a few people passed me (check) and I pushed each climb. When hit with the urge to shift up, ‘what would Chrissie do. Over-gear, push yourself.’ So, I would take a breath, refocus and
downshift instead, ‘chasing pain, in with
the positive and out with the negative, push and pull.’
Post lap 3, back to the run. ‘Well,
only 8mi left, then rest and recovery, let’s give it everything. Chasing pain.’ With that I took off, rolling through the
mantras used on the bike and focusing on the four technique points taken from
the run coach in Feb. Passing people
like crazy again, wondering if I’d have enough left at this pace, I ignored it
all and kept pushing. Hit the hill, push
harder.
Cross the line exhausted (more so than
usual, but still standing and not yet painful).
Looking at my watch, ‘that can’t
be right?’ 54min, wow, blew away my
expectations (with room to push harder next time).
Final time 3.24.43 puts me 76 out of about 300 people. Not bad for starting a few
minutes late and no structured training.
I bettered last years time by 7mins coming from the bike and 2nd run.
Takeaways
Positives
- Mentally pushed myself hard
- Overcame desire to up-shift on the cycle
climbs and in some cases down-shifted instead
- Maintained focus on the run, superb 2nd run based mostly on technique
Improvements
- Didn’t reach pain
- Need to work on cycling downhill (still
hesitant on fast downhills)
