Carrying on from Malaysia 70.3
We came home, then two weeks later went and raced a non drafting Olympic in Geraldton then had our engagement party the following weekend and after that raced 70.3 Busselton... AND I was lucky enough to get a chest infection.... It was real nice!!..
I guess I could leave you with the sentence above as it pretty much sums up the month. However I feel the need to elaborate.
Geraldton Batavia Olympic distance:
They have a great triathlon community and club up in Geraldton which makes heading back up there each year an easy choice. The added bonus of a pro prize purse attracts most of the local talent/professionals. This year Robbo (Peter Robertson) came up, Robbo is probably one of the best and most accomplished Triathlete's Australia has seen.(Winning 3 ITU world championships) I wasn't sure how he was going and I'm not sure he knew either. But to save you the blow by blows of the day I'll sum it up. We swam together, I went really hard through transition to try and get a gap (should have known better) 3x ITU world champion, he's probably got me covered in the transition department. Rode together for the first lap of the bike and then I managed to get away from him on the second lap , Probably because I had finally managed to process all that lactic acid from T1. The gap got out to about 1min and I thought, "I have a chance here"!! I ran strong but couldn't flick the switch to FAST. ( I was in struggle street) At 5KM Robbo caught me and gave a lesson on how to surge some-one, I tried to go with him but it was simply to quick and after about 500m he'd put about 15sec into me. If I wasn't chewing on my own tongue at the time I would have been impressed. For the remaining 4.5KM he put another 15sec into me and I finished 31sec back. All in all I was happy with my run, I even split the 10KM which was great and I hope I didn't make it to easy on Robbo. Rounding out the podium was Alistair Caird who spend the day chasing and Thank-fully ran out of realestate.
Engagement Party:
I'll start with the Monday after Geraldton.
I woke up feeling like death warmed up. The Immune system had taken it's final hit in Geraldton and my body succumbed to the deadly "manflu" Lucky I didn't have an engagement party to plan..... hang on.....YES I DID....... To be fair Kate and Karen did mostly everything.... But I still had to be awake and activity looking busy. I Think I moved a pot 47 times before some-one said "wasn't that pot just over there?"After which I made an escape outside where I couldn't been seen.
I went to chemist for the manflu and if you've ever been drug tested you'll know you can't take cold and flu tablets or loads of other things people would deem normal to take when they have the flu (or daily for that matter) Not that I'm complaining here, I think it's a good thing!! So after a few checks on the ASADA website we were off with my immune defence system pills. (Which was good because my immune system was on holiday)
Anyway enough whinging about how bad my man flu was......... But it was BAD... ha
The Engagement party itself was amazing. We had it in Margaret River the weekend before Busselton 70.3 and I'll let some of these pictures do the talking for me. Needless to say it was an amazing day and I couldn't be happier... Better Marry Kate before she changes her mind...hmmmm.
70.3 Busselton: The week leading into it I spent nursing the man flu. I ran once or twice for about 30min. Not that Kate considered what I was doing was running!. She said my IM shuffle was faster. My friend Ruth told me the night before the race "I hope you don't die tomorrow" flooded with confidence I went and had a beer!! :)
THE RACE: I warmed up as per normal and then went to the beach and waited for the gun to go off... Why did I even start?.....Kate made me...... Just kidding.... You never know whats going to happen and I thought maybe my body will be ok or maybe today I won't make the cut off time... :(
BOOM (thats the gun going off) The first 400m is ALWAYS fast but after that things thinned out I managed to get on some feet, felt my heart rate drop and I was comfortable. YAY... Things were going much better that I thought. I stayed in about 5th-6th position for the remainder of the swim. Happiness!
THE BIKE: We got out of T1 and onto the bike and I felt terrible but over the course of the next 10KM I started feeling better and better.
Then once through 50KM Matty Burton hit us riding REALLY hard and myself and 3 others managed to go with him, leaving 10 or so guys behind. Surprisingly the legs were feeling really good. Into T2 and the 4 of us had about a 1min lead over the chasing group. I hadn't really run for about 10days and usually that would make me super cautious but today I threw caution to the wind and went out of T2 like a scorched cat. "Nothing to lose" I held the lead till about 6KM when I was passed. (apparently 3:30's Is slow) sitting in 2nd at the turn I could see the masses coming. Crowie and the others runners were on there way. As I expected Crowie and few others caught me but I wasn't to worried I was going to run as hard as I could to the finish. at 17KM I was in 6th place and beyond MAX. I could feel my body struggling with the effort and my form must have looked like I was having a seizure. I was passed in the last 3KM by 3 others leaving me to finish in 10th place with a time of 3:48:14. OUCH. Not the way I wanted it to go and Perhaps a little more run patience might have changed the outcome. But hind site is a wonderful thing. I went much better better than I thought and in the end I don't think being sick held me back.
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| Thats me on the left, On my knee's trying not to throw up. |
WHAT NOW: Well thats for asking. We are training and preparing for our over seas adventure. We will be hitting a few more 70.3's and then heading off to Boise Idaho (our second home for the northern hemisphere season)
Thanks again to the wonderful people and sponsors that help me on a day to day basis. This hash tag is for you #thebest
Guy
