Second Olympic distance race.
Having raced 13 days prior.
Honestly, none of that discommoded nor rattled me.
What did, however, was trying to comprehend the fact I was about to spend a whole one thousand, five hundred meters on the absolute rivet against the best triathletes of Australia and New Zealand from this generation.
It's hard to tell yourself that you will be fine and that you can swim ok, when you know full well that a quarter of the field is capable of sticking it to the best in the business.
And that's completely disregarding the following 2 thirds of the race.
48 hours before the start it was absolute mayhem inside my big cranium.
BUT! 24 hours before the start, after a few minutes of confabulation I was set straight by the master.
Once down at the race area and in preparation I felt as if an internal coruscating beacon of confidence was burning holes in my skin.
Being one of the "big boys" was an incredible feeling.
I knew lots of people would be avidly watching every second of the race so I wanted to get out there and perform like I haven't before.
Keiran wasn't there pre race due to an emergency so I was left to fend for myself and pick the ideal start position.
I had a fair idea from days of practise prior to the race so it wasn't all bad. Following a short wait, introduction then walk down the beach, We were away.
Bounding through the shallow waters of Devonport, fending off those who were headed right, eager follow the better athletes I was aimed slightly left of the buoy like I'd practised.
I was where I wanted to be and had positioned myself well on the start line. I was quick to react and therefore toward the front of the pack at the beginning of the swimming component.
Not long into it an athlete came past me. Certainly to my surprise (possibly not to his) I later found out none other than @kerrballs had lead the horde.
Also to my surprise, the first lap was relatively easy. Until the seven hundred and fifty first meter.
I'd dropped back a few places shortly after rounding the buoy that lead us into lap 2. I had found myself tussling with Aaron Royle, following this I like to think I dropped back to his feet deliberately. Truth be told, I was just about getting dropped.
At this point I looked up and noticed a gap was forming. Even though I knew there were swimmers on my feet I didn't want to risk narrowly missing the front pack by a second or two so I dug deep. Real deep. And caught back up.
I'd barely managed to hang on. Then before I knew it, I was in transition un-racking my bike.
I'd mucked up the process and heard
"HELMET MATT!"
Oh damn. I'd forgotten to clip it up. Rookie.
(Ps thank you spectator)
I stopped and lent my bike against me and saw a Technical Official out of the corner of my eye and knew I'd have a penalty to serve later on.
Urgency at the beginning of the bike meant I completely forgot about the muck up.
I was out just behind Fisher and a few others and wasted no time catching Aaron who was just ahead. I saw him impatiently looking back, and looking back, waiting for a pack to form around him. Once I caught up I expected a turn to be made from him or someone to come around me as I just pulled a few of us together but this did not happen and Aaron was rapidly looking back and flailing his right arm signalling to pull through along with shouting the instruction.
Naturally, I wanted to ignore him and do what I could to preserve what I had in the tank.
But the intimidation factor sunk in quick and I did my part.
A fairly large pack had been formed, we got to the hill and within seconds a few had already been dropped. North street really sorted things out quickly. One hill down, five to go.
During the second lap I hadn't taken many turns. Which was unusual, but those boys were strong.
About to hit the hill on the second lap, I was preempting it and decided to get into the little chain ring early.
Baaaad idea!
Chain = dropped...
After many futile attempts at getting it back on with the shifter it was still dangling unhooked on the teeth of the chainring.
My fingers were pressed hard against the lever periodically loosening and tightening the tension on the cable. I could see and feel it trying to catch on.
Nothing.
I'd shifted all the way down to the 12 tooth cog in an attempt at having more luck with slight positioning of the chain further to the right.
Yet another futile attempt.
The last resort was getting off and that was what I had resulted to.
Finally all was good and I jumped back on only to find I had a 52-12 combination going on. Certainly not ideal when you're at the base of North Street hill! To make matters more aggravating, over the days leading into the race, I had spent time trying to drop my chain. I threw every possible recipe for disaster at the mechanics and she held up fine. Not poor maintenance. Just bad luck I guess.
Anyway! I got going and once I had a second to look up, I saw the boys were at the top of the hill.
Panic had well and truly set in and I went as hard as possible up the hill, rounded the bollard hoping to pop over the crest and see the group taking the left hand bend at the base.
Unfortunately they were not in sight. By the time I'd descended they had come past me and were headed back to transition area. All extremely optimistic hope I had left of catching them went out the window.
Adrenaline and frustration were rampaging though my veins and I was still fighting a losing battle. Finally I became cognisant of the implications of chasing a ceaselessly building gap. So I eased off and spent what felt like forever waiting for the next group.
Finally they'd caught up and I'd resumed effort with them.
Shortly I became frustrated once more. I had never been in such an unorganised pack. Everyone was reluctantly pulling half-assed turns, peeling off to the wrong side, trying to sit on the back and hoping to go unnoticed. It was absolute chaos.
Eventually we bridged to Brendan Sexton who had been victim to the pace of the lead pack.
Around the 4th lap I noticed Ryan Bailie and Jake Birtwhistle had also struggled with the power of those boys.
Our pack got things sorted around the 4th or 5th lap.
We had about a lap and a half of semi organised work then it all fell apart again. We were still slowly catching Ryan and Jake sheerly because of power in numbers but we weren't organised enough to make it happen.
Heading into transition one of the kiwi's that bridged up to us was trying to get any advantage he could but it was pointless. We were all going to get off together, everyone was fresh enough from inadequate consistent efforts to hold his wheel.
Running through T2 I was conscious of not going too hard. Jake Montgomery followed Brendan Sexton out of transition at a blistering pace but I remained complacent with my initial effort.
Before the first turn around on lap one I had caught Jake Montgomery but Brendan was still flying ahead.
Toward the end of lap one I glanced up and saw the penalty box. A big two and a nine were first up on the list and I thought, oh that's me, I've got a penalty to serve. Forgot about that.
Apparently Keiran was yelling take it when you need it. I certainly needed it later but I didn't think ahead so I just did it straight up to get it out of the way.
I kept things consistent for the next two laps. Holding it together was more important than chasing and undoubtably popping later into the 4 lap run.
Coming back into the transition area with two and a half kilometres to go I could feel my right quad struggling with the already hour and fifty minutes of thrashing it had endured, and it was beginning to cramp. I became aware that it was only doing this on the return trip of the laps because of the extra effort into a headwind so I just thought get to the turn around and worry about it when it hurts again.
Pete came past me in the 3rd lap. I wanted to hold my own but also wanted to give a little more so I tried my best to minimise the time he was putting into me. By the return, and final, 1.25km he was a fair distance ahead but not as far as I was expecting given his pace when catching and over taking me.
I could feel my quad beginning to fail me again. With no further laps to be done I told myself to worry about it when I've finished. That kind of worked. But I was struggling hard in the closing 400m.
Not a bad result for my second Olympic Distance, or Standard Distance race I should say.
I finished 9th overall and was the 3rd u23's athlete to cross the line.
As Declan Wilson tweeted, it was an honour to grace the dais with Jake Birtwhistle. And for me, Declan also. Don't mind a third to very quality athletes.
Onto Mooloolaba Continental Cup. See you all there!
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