Pre race day the sun was shining, athletes were in abundance and there was not a negative facial expression to be seen for miles.
It was widely known that there was going to be a slight weather change that afternoon and leading into the next day but it didn’t seem to bother anyone… Especially me!
The surf conditions were set to worsen. At first, yeah I was worried. After some typical earnest discussions with the man in charge I’d come to realise, I wouldn’t be the only one in the terrible forecasted conditions. Also, my open water swimming has proven not too shabby in past reputedly tsunamic seas.
The morning of the race was pretty gloomy. 6am and the wind was already flowing strongly on shore, the thick and dark shady clouds in the distance were rolling in quick as well.
At this point it wasn’t raining, before long however only the brave and loyal parents and spectators faced the windswept conditions as their kids took to the beach for their early wave starts.
Not too much time after I found myself on the shore, wetsuit on for warmth, and rushing through the warm up procedures. I had deliberately left it a little later than planned mainly because I had, had sufficient warm up out of the water and wanted to push into the final seconds of allocated swim warm up time. All gone to plan and a mere 5 minutes after walking around I had taken off the jumper and wetsuit and found my way to 25th position in the line ready to shuffle onto the starting position.
Walking through the arch and onto the start line, my insides were itching to begin, nerves and adrenaline were galloping through my body and my heart was racing just as fast. On the outside I was placidly swinging my arms and jumping up and down to keep warm.
I couldn’t get to where I wanted on the start line so I hesitated for half a second after the horn then shot off to the left and executed my dive and subsequent dolphin dives perfectly and before I knew it I was in the lead. Eventually Dan Wilson emerged from the right and got in front of me. So of course I moved over and got on his feet. By the time all this happened we had less than 75m till we turned.
First and second buoys were rounded and I was expecting people to begin coming around us. About halfway back in no one had yet come around so I decided to do a quick roll to see what was going on, surprisingly there was a 10m gap between us and the main group of swimmers.
I rolled back over and for a second there I think I had a smile on my face.
Anyway, into the final 100m. It was time for business. I don’t remember it but I was told that I got a little wave and stopped moving my arms to ride it in. I suppose that’s a good sign, it’s just become automatic. I knew it was too deep where we were to stand up and dolphin dive so I just kept swimming into shore. Dan tried to stand up and soon realized the same thing. That split second allowed me to get in front without any extra effort, I stood up right on the shore line and ran hard up the beach. I heard Keiran say calm it down (mentally) so that I did, whilst maintaining speed, and began thinking about the process of T1.
Unfortunately, a vital mistake on my part, I ran past my bike. Luckily I wasn’t in a situation where every millisecond counted.
As I was running through transition I saw that Ryan Fisher had gotten in contact with Dan and I. Slightly behind but in a position where he could catch and ride with us. I jumped on the bike and without a moment to spare Dan and I were into it, as I rolled back for the first time I saw that Ryan had caught up. "And then there were 3…”
I wasn’t sure what we were going to do and if we would be able to hold of the large pack behind us. All I knew was that we had wasted no time getting stuck into it and these guys wanted to do everything they could to stay away. I wondered whether they were prepared to sacrifice the energy in the beginning with every chance we could be caught over the next 20km.
Either way, I wasn’t going to be the weak link. They’re giving this small opportunity everything they had, so that’s exactly what I was going to do.
10k’s into it at the end of lap 1 we noticed a larger gap had been formed, thus adding fuel to the fire. Nothing was said but we all knew they were looking at each other wondering who was going to chase.
The end of the bike saw us with, as I’ve been told, a minute and fifteen second gap. Everything was going well… Almost too well!
Then it happened, as I dismounted I was coming in too quick and started to lose control. A mix of strong wind, slippery surface and a bit too much speed resulted in my bike meeting the asphalt and I found myself grinding and slipping and to a halt, a solid 5m later I’d turned and ran back to where it had fallen. This resulted in Dan and Ryan creating a small gap. I ran through transition quickly, but slowed it down as I was trying to find my spot so I didn’t run past it again. By the time I got my shoes on I'd noticed they were already on their way out of transition.
I ran through all the twists and turns and hit the pathway, Keiran was there and I heard him say run controlled you’ve got 1:15.
I know you all may be thinking, are you crazy? Smash it and catch them! Well they were my exact thoughts as well.
There is always method behind the madness though. I didn’t question the coach’s orders, I hadn't done so yet and I didn’t plan on doing so then.
As instructed I ran controlled. The distance between them and I was maintained from the start to the turn around point, approximately 50m. As soon as I turned it felt like I hit a brick wall, the wind was incredible!
Here’s the kicker. I stayed strong, maintained form and built through the remaining 2.5km. Going out controlled really paid off!
Of course there is the "what if’s”.
What if I had caught up?
What if I had the opportunity to sit on them into the headwind?
What if I did then came to a sprint finish?
What if I did catch them but got dropped on the return trip with an added headwind?
What if I didn’t make it to them by the turn around and had expelled too much energy?
What if I tried, blew up, and didn’t make the podium?
Post race discussion left us asking these questions. But we both came to the conclusion that what was done was the smartest option. Because hay, for my first proper seniors race I got on the podium. And it was a quality field.
I played to my strengths and had an fantastic race, I am now looking toward two Olympic Distances races within a month. It is going to be a huge challenge but I don’t want to miss the opportunity to race against the best in the country.
See you all soon!!
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