Thursday, October 6, 2016

70.3 Gurye and IM Taiwan

It all started after placing 18th at 70.3 Worlds. I had a good race and knew I needed to go make good on my fitness. So another crazy double was planned!!

Two weeks later I traveled from Boise to Gurye Korea for the 70.3
Unfortunately my flights were delayed for 24 hours leaving me with just 36 hours in Korea before race start. A little less than ideal.

After a hectic Saturday getting my gear organised and orientated with the race we were lining up for a one lap swim. I felt pretty good in the water, but eventually lost Eric Watson's feet about 1.2KM into the swim.
I exited in 2nd with Antony Costes right behind as soon as we started riding I knew my bike legs were still on the plane from Seattle, but I tried to keep an even head about it and pushed as hard as I could.

I ended up losing 3:30 or so on Antony and came off the bike in 2nd, I started running knowing the runners would be coming but also confident in my running form.
As it turned out Eric Watson and Simon Billeau both caught be around 16KM, they both passed me, but with 2 KM to go I decided I was going to REALLY embrace the hurt and began running at max for the hope of a podium finish. I caught Simon with 300 meters left to run and when I passed him I felt my feet and fingers tingling due to the effort. The good news is I didn't pass out and managed to finish in 3rd place. Only 50 seconds separated 2-4th on the day.



I was really happy with the result!!

Then that night i started traveling to Taiwan for IM.
I arrived about 36 hours later after an overnight stay in Seoul.

At about the same time I arrived in Taiwan so did a Typhoon. We went into full lock down in the hotel until it passed.
For me it was perfect timing as my body needed to recover from the 70.3 and the rest was welcomed.

In refection race week went by quickly although when your in the month it seems to take forever! :)

Race day rolled around and it was set to be a hot one with the real feel in the low 40's for the duration of the day.

I had a good swim exiting the water in 5th (although I thought I was 3rd) I started the 2nd loop of the swim in 3rd and thought we'd gapped the field a bit, but we choose the long line through the age groupers and I came out of the water 5th. It didn't matter in the end as at about 90-100KM on the bike it all came together and then 50KM later a split happened and the lead group was dwindled down to 4 of use. Myself, Patrick Evoe, Jordan Bryden and eventual winner Daniel Fontana.

I felt great on the bike and was even holding myself back, I knew it was going to be a HOT run.
Once onto the run I knew it was going to be a hard day. My body temperature kept rising and my pace kept slowing. I battled on through a very hot and hard conditions determined to finish for myself, my sponsors and my athletes at GKEndurance. I came across the line in 8th.
 lol :)

The crew at IronmanTaiwan is always so good to us and we're lucky to race there on a regular basis.

Now I head to Kona to help blueseventy and my awesome sponsors out, It's always exciting to be in Kona race week.

There is still plenty of racing ahead for me this year!! I'll keep you all up to date!

Thanks team

Guy



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