Ironman Regensburg

REGENSBURG RACE REPORT

We had entered Ironman Austria one year before as it is up there with Challenge Roth and Hawaii as one of the iconic triathlons in the world. It sells out in minutes so we had our very kind hotel owner Jakob from our Austrian Digs at The Mohrenwurt enter us on site the day after the race the year before.  We planned to hang out in Austria for most of June training and then race Austria. Then we heard Regensburg wasn’t selling so well, so we looked at the numbers and they still had 50 slots, with about half the entrants in Austria (only 1,300). Also Woody’s girl Doro was entered so it would mean a weekend away with those guys, who had become good friends, so that would be great. We knew that it was only an easy €30 train ride to Regensburg from our base in Austria, the hotels were cheap and no car hire was required, so it would be a cheap one to tack-on, so we pulled the trigger.

The Colless's are back for redemption...or at least to vomit and shiver all over your city again

 After we had pulled the wrong rein (from a Kona qualifying standpoint) by entering IM Melbourne (under-prepared, cold swim and every fast Ironman in Aus and NZ entered) and Hawaii 70.3 (unsuitable race conditions and tough competition) when we would have had better chances of a slot in IM Australia at Port Macquarie (slow qualifying times in mine and Ness’s AG), and the Ironman Cairns  which was on the same day as Hawaii half  (in my AG 10.15 got you to Hawaii and I went well under 4.30 in the Half IM on essentially the same course last year). We have both been pretty unlucky not to qualify already, but coulda, woulda, shoulda, you got to get it right on the right day is all it comes down to.

I coulda been a contender I tells ya...I coulda been somebody

 Anyway, we decided to enter and use it as our main chance to Kona Qualify and have Austria as a back-up.  We’d both raced Regensburg the year before with both of us having shockers, Ness getting freezing and not warming up and me a puncture and then sick on the run, so we fancied our chance at some redemption.

Beautiful old town in Regensburg

The event in Regensburg is a really cool one; the town is really old with lots of cobblestones and narrow winding streets in the centre of town. We met an older Canadian guy on the train who was staying at our hotel. Turns out he has done 128 Ironmans! John Wragg was his name, “He has done them all he said, and IM Canada was his favourite – he’d done it 28 times. Most people not in the sport think wow what a super-human feat, but triathletes just think “Wow where does he get all that money”.  I googled him and he is a school teacher! Must be a good saver with no kids. He had a truck back over him on his bike a few years ago and has a big limp and he walks the whole marathon, and was planning on doing Regensburg, then IM France the week after. He ended up doing a 7+ hour marathon, but getting another finish. He reckoned it was one of his hardest races ever and was asking himself the usual questions during the race (why the firkin hell do we do this??).

If you've done 128 Ironmans you should look like this.

Due to the reduced female numbers they changed the Kona slots from last year’s 35/15 men/women split to a 41/9 split. The girls were not best pleased.  In my age group there was 8 slots the previous year and it stayed at that number in Ness’s they reduced it from 3 to 1. Damn that made it much tougher, as there was a girl in Ness’ age group (Inga Haude) who had gone top 5 in Hawaii and won her AG easily in Regensburg last year in a time Ness was not capable of.  Still the weather was predicted to be 30 and hot and we had gotten her a new wet suit made of Green Goma rubber, not neoprene which is supposedly warmer, and a titanium undershirt, recommended by Bella Z (thanks Bella !) which was keeping her warm in the practice swims, so we thought she still had a good chance.

Swim was a lot more civil this year

SWIM 3.8km 55.20 (Ness 1.07)

The swim start at Regensburg is from a narrow beach, but it is a pretty straight 1km to the first turning buoy and it is really well marked with massive buoys, so easy to navigate. I lined up off the side a bit and so did Ness, as she was really worried about the rough treatment she had the year before, and I was keen to avoid the agro too. I got a good start and lead my group of guys before merging into the main group after about 400m. It was all very civilized which was nice and I was relaxed the whole swim. The swim in Regensburg is a really honest one, aside from the sometimes rough start it is as fair as can be and times here are really legit. The top 3 swimmers (Bockel, M Raelert and Halksworth) went 45mins flat which was pretty bloody insane. I had been working on my wider arms in swimming and drafting better and was pretty happy to get out a minute faster than last year, feeling really fresh. Ness had a solid swim too, staying clear of the rough stuff, but 5-10 minutes slower than most of the girls aiming for Hawaii.

If Ness gets out of the swim warm....it's Game On!

BIKE 180kms 5.06 (Ness 5.39)

The bike course in Regensburg is not a fast one, but it has something for everyone, slightly favouring the climbers. There is 10-15kms flat out of transition then about 25kms of hills, mostly up, then a long downhill and flat, back to the end of the first loop then repeat. I got through the hills OK but there were a few packs of guys I went past before the hills and they went by me up the hills. Reading all the Euro names on the bibs provided entertainment. Monfort (FRA), Pavel (SLV), Thomas (GDR), Jonas (SWE), were all going by me in the familiar formation. The when we got to the point the hills were over, I started a good strong effort getting super aero, pushing 290-300 watts and went by them all. I rode past the point where I punctured last year, and soon after went right over a little pyramid shaped rock, pointed up and was sure it would have given me puncture, but the tyre and tube held strong, I was thanking my sponsors Bontrager 19mm aerowing tyres and Michelin latex tubes. My fans will be thanking you guys too.

Made a bit of a mess of my number and the ref chased me screaming some crap in German. I said OK OK and rode on......The Germans are like the Japanese - things have gotta be perfect or it's time to freak out!

The same two draft- busters controlled our area of the race, one guy and one girl, and that worked well. I heard there were heaps of penalties handed out, but I was sweet as bro. Every time the saw me, instead of sitting with Monfort’s Men I was on my Pat Malone between them and the next group ahead (Alexander’s Army). As both busters saw me a few times and could see I was riding with some balls, I doubted he would bust me if he came upon me later in a 50/50 situation. The good draft busters get an idea of who is riding with balls and who is not rather than handing out a card based on what they saw in a 5 second snapshot. I reckoned I had plenty of brownie points with these guys.  I ended up catching up and passing the group ahead too and although I had no idea how many were up the road; I thought I must have been coming top 5-6 in my age group. 10^th was the magic number I had in my mind for a slot, as I was pretty confident it would roll down two form the 8 allotted pre race....If only there was 8 in Busso I was thinking I wouldn't need to be doing this shit.

You know me mate...you know me...I'm a good bloke.

When I got back for the second loop, I had the misfortune of coming across Friendly Franck the German was just rejoining the course – “Did you get a flat” I said – “That sucks – happened to me last year here” I said as I passed him when he was still getting up to speed. He re-passed me straight away and I thought, well he might be a gun let’s see if I can work with him. Unfortunately he instantly dropped the speed to 35kph when in front. So I went round him and was keeping it at 39-40kph and he passed me straight back, not even after 5 secs. I told him as he passed that the rule is he has to wait 30 secs to repass, and to make it worse he dropped it straight back to 35kph again. So after lecturing him, I couldn’t really re-pass straight away myself, so I waited 30secs and went by him again, and the bastard did the same thing – three more times! Overtake me at 42 kph, drop speed to 35 forcing me to slow to that speed and wait the legal time before passing him again. “You firkin arsehole” I was thinking, maybe he misinterpreted my attempt at showing empathy about his flat.

Stuffed pockets

I started shouting at him from behind when he was going 35 - andre andre reeba reeba...oh shit wrong language.....so I changed it to "hop, hop, hop". Neither worked, I should have just shouted "hurry the fuck-up or stay behind me". It was costing me serious time and Pavel’s Posse was still thick as thieves and caught me at the foot of the first hill. Faaark.

Forgot about all these hills...not really a great course for the 80+kg guys

They went by me up the hill and I never saw them on the bike again. I think there were about four guys in my AG in that group so I guessed I was still just top 10. With about 30km to go in an IM bike it gets really grim and you can’t wait to get it done with. I ended up with a group of 4 or 5 all of us struggling, with me and Thomas doing all the pulls, we were all going too slow.

30+ degrees and only one competitor in a jacket.......

 It was getting hot and each aid station I was grabbing a sport drink (shouting ISO!!) and then a “Vasser”, to spray over me. At 50kms to go I was calling for wasser and they pointed me to the guy at the end, where it always was and he handed me one, I sprayed it all over my face, head and body, before I realised it was sports drink. Lovely! I did the last 30+kms with hands so sticky I couldn’t even touch the bars, just riding on my elbows with fingers interlinked.  Bloody Franck the Fucker even ended up catching me with 500m to go as well. Shizer.

Sticky fingers, hair, chest, bike...yeck

RUN 42km 4.14 (Ness 3.38)

I had been hoping to get a sub 3.30 run and Woody thought I had a 3.20 in me, which I guess is possible looking at my run times at other distances. I had done a heap of run training recently with about 6 x 100+km weeks. In the race in Hawaii two weeks ago, my motto on the run was “don’t dip into the pain well”, in this race my mantra was “Send yourself to the hospital”, I was prepared to really suffer like never before to get the Kona qualify. My plan was to start out at 4.30k pace for the first 5ks and then hold a steady 4.40-4.50 pace as long as I could, hopefully not dipping over the 5min pace until the last few kms, if at all.

So far, so good.

In the first km or two a guy was running on right on my shoulder. I was thinking to have a bit of a chat as had enjoyed the run in IMWA running with my now mate Gavin for 30kms. Only 1km in we passed a guy walking already, poor bugger I was thinking, I hope he's 40-44. The guy who was running next to me shouts out at him like a teacher to a naughty student “No, Newer Valk, Keep Running!”. "Right, don't think I'll be having a good chat with this guy" I thought. I then looked over and I'll be blown if it wasn't Franck the Plank! He had already displayed definite strong wanker tendencies thus far and now he wa categorised. I'm sure he was not 100% wander but what I had seen of him made me put him in that 100% box. “Easier said than done sometimes mate” I said. “You never Valk” he spat back at me “Even slow run but newer valk”.  If he had shouted that shit to me during some of my low periods on the run I would have found enough energy from somewhere to give him a flying head-butt – "How’s that for valking vucker?".

Vast valkers

The whole ‘never walk’ thing is one of those wanky myths that everyone knows is bullshit but they try and pretend it’s true to seem tough. Like in Niseko people go on about – “You can’t have too much powder – it’s never too deep”, even though some days the snow is so deep it’s almost impossible to turn on the way down and you get stuck wading out for an hour in flat bits – that was radical dude!  The real truth is about 95% of people walk at some stage of the run – even Pete Jacob who did a 2.41 in Hawaii last year (3^rd fastest of all time) walked a few aid stations. Still understood some guys are proud of how they never walked, and fair enough, but some who boast about it do a 5 hour marathon. you're better off running 4.30 then taking a walk for a minute and going back to 4.30 pace, than 'running' the whole thing at 7 min k pace.

Let's twist again......

Anyway I was going along really strongly for the first 18kms and felt like I could run all day. I had some new spongy shoes ‘Hoka One One, Bondi B’s’ (really!) which were super light, with no support, but lots of shock absorption- designed for the ultra-runners, I had read good reports of heavier guys finding them really helpful in the Ironman run as after 30kms the impact on the bones wears you down.

Hoka One One....Time to Fly?? Well......

 I was already a fan of flipping the conventional shoe philosophy around and doing almost all my training in racing flats to strengthen the soft tissue and toughen the bones and then races in more spongy shoes, so these seemed perfect to me. The did feel really good apart from hem being ½ a size too big and requiring me to wear thicker (highly water absorbent) socks – not ideal when dosing yourself with water all day, and post-race my toes reached even greater heights of completely smashedness (no I didn’t think it possible either), but here I sit, five days post-race with my toes in a bucket of ice.

Anyway I had run away from Franck and Thomas and two other 40-44 guys so I thought I might be about 5^th in my AG. When I saw Woody he just said I was doing great and I was right up there, about top 30 overall and to keep it up. He also told me Vanessa was having a storming day and that gave me a big lift too. Then about 20kms in a friend called out “Go Bevan, you’re coming 10^th in your AG!”  It was a bit disappointing, but I still felt good and thought ”Righty-o, all I need to do was hold this pace for another 18kms and I’ve got the Golden Ticket”.  Turns out if I had run 3.25 I would have got a slot, and it rolled down to 11^th.

The object of our desire

 I missed one aid station and on the next one grabbed some sports, drink, red bull and also coke and downed them all. About 10 seconds later they all came back up, a huge chunder. I felt myself get sweaty and a bit feverish, and I was shitting myself too. Almost every shocker I have had on an IM run it has involved extensive vomiting. And the only times I’d run OK was when I never spewed, at least until after the finish line, so I was dreading it. I kept the pace up but then next aid station spewed again, and I was walking. Spewing and walking for 15kms is not much fun, and that was pretty much my life for the next 2 hours. It’s ironic that the German word for run is Lauff, as most of my runs in Germany a far better word would be Krai.

No lauffing matter

I was looking at families lying on the shore of the lakes sunning themselves and wading in the water – damn – I gotta give this shit up – I wish I was one of you guys instead of walking along here like a chump hoping that my heart will stop beating and I’d drop dead right there, just to end the pain. Where is Franck the Plank when you need him, a well deserved headbutt would cheer me right up now.

The simple pleasures are often the best

 I eventually managed to keep stuff down, but I need to get better at digging myself out of a low hole when I go into one on the run.  When you have a shocker on the run, everyone wants to tell you why it happened, but the truth is no one really knows. “You biked too hard, dude”, “Mate, you ran the first 5kms too hard”, “Bro, Not enough calories” “Too many calories, buddy” “Too little training, comrade” “Too much training, homeboy”, you are asking all these questions of yourself too and it drives you fucking nuts. I went past Woody at the 36km mark having just had another spew I was hoping he didn’t see and managed to shuffle a bit by him I was embarrassed as hell. He shuffled along with me for a bit and told me how good Ness was going and just to try to run as much as I could.

Struggleplatz

It did give me a lift to hear Ness was going well, but it made me do the math in my head. She must have swam say 1.05 at best, Woody said she rode 5.35, on her best run day she could do 3.35 I was thinking so I had 10.20 to get to the line ahead of her. It helped me pick up the pace the last few kms as I was thinking “She couldn’t run sub 3.25 could she…shit I’d better keep shufflin’. In the end I was counting down every last 100m totally spent thinking “It’s only a lap around the bay”, it’s only a 20min easy run I’ve done that a thousand times”, right down to “It’s only 400m Cathy Freeman does that easy so keep running”. I enjoyed the finish chute as you always should, and the post-race area was really cool.

Kona Qualifier! That's what Im talking' bout!

I eventually found Ness and she had been told she had finished anywhere from 3^rd to 7^th in her AG. They eventually posted to results on the wall of the finish area – she got 2^nd! We gave each other a big hug, but knew there was only one slot in her AG for Hawaii. After I missed a slot on some dodgy calculations in Busselton last year – only 4 slots in my AG of 400 compared to women 35-39 having 40 people and 4 slots, and the race organiser had basically admitted to making a mistake, I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I told Ness to find the guy and ask how he worked it out. She tracked him down and he was pretty ruthless, German style, brushing her off. I went up to him after and was asking to see the calculations the next day before the Kona ceremony. He didn’t want to saying it was an “internal document”, but when I said “We would have never entered this race if we knew there was only one slot in the women’s 35-39 and we’ve spent a lot of money and come a long way (about 30 Euro and 200kms….)”, but eventually he relented and offered to go through it with us the next day.

Ness on stage! Dude that won the 35-39 is an Austrian ex-pro cyclist has risen Le Tour....before he was thrown out for doping....damn dopers one strike, life ban for all sports I reckon.

We got there an hour early for the ceremony and spoke with a different guy (the main Race Director) and he said he would look into it and get back to us. I thought we’d put enough pressure on the guy without following through and standing over him while he showed us the details, so we decided to leave it at that and keep the fingers crossed. Turned out no women over 60 finished and they gave an extra slot to Ness’s AG so she was in. Happy days! We thanked the guy we had been moaning to and he gave a little smile as we did. I still think something strange went on as by my calculations there were 9 slots so:

18-24 – 1

25-29 – 1

30-34 – 2

35-39 – 1+1

40-44 – 1+1

45-49 – 1

50-54 – 1

55-59 – 1

           = 9/11

….but supposedly to no lady older than 60 finishing the 35-39 and 40-44 ended up with 2…so 11 slots to the girls rather than the reported 9, we’ll take some credit for our bully boy tactics in getting it over the line.

Found this on the bridge in Regensburg before the race - cheesy I know - couldn't resist!

So form here we have the IM Austria left in two weeks. Ness is unsure if she will race the whole thing but will do the swim and start the bike as the swim is her weak pint and the swim there is supposed to be the most famous of all IM swims – finishing down a canal with thousands of people lining the narrow canal. I’ll give it a go a try and sort out my nutrition, got some advice from Woody and Brett Sutton (old hard-arse Aussie try coach) more real food this time methinks.

The race in Austria is like Roth, a big 2,000+ filed and a really fast course with lots of guys going sub 9. The last few year’s spots in 40-44 have stopped at about 9.05 with a slowest run of 3.10, so I don’t hold much hope for getting one there, but will give it a crack and see. We’ve got our apartment booked in Hawaii and I’d always said if Ness qualifies and I don’t I would still be a very happy-chappy to go to Kona and take it all in…without the heat and pain of the race. Still if I keep chipping away, my time will surely come.

Hawaii Half Ironman

These bladdy race reports are getting harder and harder to write. I’ve been letting more races slip through the to the keeper without writing one recently – I actually had a decent day in the Sydney ITU; but couldna be arsed doing a report. 

When conversation turns to triathlon with friends and family, it’s not uncommon for people to say that they’ll find out all about it on my report.  I’m never quite sure if they are genuine or are thinking – ‘I’m sure you’ll be shoving it down our throats soon enough’. A bit like if you wear a slightly different article of clothing that you’re not sure about, and everyone you meet comments on how they like it – most of the time they are actually thinking ‘that’s pretty weird / wanky’ so it’s just at the forefront of their mind, and they can’t help bringing it up. Anyway these reports are especially hard if you have a shitty race, which for me these days seems to be about 50% of the time this race included. Anyway this was kind of a big race and in an interesting and significant location so I knuckled down on the long flight from Tokyo to Europe and  here ‘tis.

Hey man, how you going....ummm..cool hat.

 

As most will know Hawaii is central to the core of triathlon, especially the ‘Ironman’ (longer distance) triathlon world. The Ironman world championships (full ironman distance) are held here every October and it’s the race everyone who is into long course tris want to do, and qualifying for it is tough. The birth of Ironman was in Hawaii, where over a few beers a small bunch of guys were having a debate about what type of athlete is the fittest: swimmers, cyclists or runners. So they decided to have a race to see who would win and put the three big Hawaiian races in each discipline back to back. "Whoever wins that race; we’ll call him the real Ironman”, so the legend goes. The races were, (I think) The Maui Rough Water Swim (3.8kms), the around Oahu Ride (180kms) and the Honolulu marathon (42.2kms) all done in a day, and those distances still prevail as the official Ironman distance, and naturally, the Half Ironman distances came directly from those distances too. 

Original Ironman homemade trophy

Although the Hawaiian Ironman World Champs are massive, the Half Ironman (70.3 if you must) in Hawaii is a pretty new event. It started as a very low key shorter race 8 years ago, but has gained momentum every year, and is now a really big race with almost 2,000 this year and Lance Armstrong (who owns a house near the course) was one of them. He ended up winning this race pretty easily. It pains me to say it but if it is as windy in October as it was on this day, he could well win the big one. Here's hoping for a calm day.

Lance crushed the bike leg

 The course has a different swim and run from the Full distance, but the bike course is almost the same, being the middle half of the full Ironman course along the famous ‘Queen K’ highway on the Big Island, starting about 50kms north of Kona, north to Hawi and back – it is the hilliest and windiest part of the full distance ride, which is famous for its heat and strong cross-winds. 

I was also looking forward to going back to America for the first time in a few years, as since Obama has been in, I’d been liking the people and culture more and more. I used to have some sort of weird pride in never having been to the U.S despite having traveled to lots of places. It’s a bit strange that a head of state could do that to you as the people had not really changed. I’ve mixed with lots of cool Americans in Tokyo over the years and we’re all well aware of their culture, sure they are strongly obsessed with guns, you’d have to go to the Middle East to find a country that has such a hold on and they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time being suspicious and fearful  but their brashness and out-there persona did not bother me anymore, in fact I kind of like it. They certainly were not boring, and the TV is good. Well at least it’s in English. And there’s no doubt it is an awesome country. For sure we really enjoyed our time there; the people are really considerate of others we noticed, a lot like the Japanese. 

This is not a bad place after all.

Another reason we decided to do this race was because we were traveling from Australia to Europe at this time anyway so Hawaii was on the way and there were some cheap one-way flights from Sydney to Hawaii and also Hawaii to Tokyo, so we could then link up with a return flight to Europe from Tokyo. It is one of the few half ironman races that is a qualifier for the full IM world champs in Hawaii, but I did not hold much hope of getting one myself, as there are very few slots (28), the course doesn’t really suit me and the secret about the ‘easy qualify’ is well and truly out now and the standard of athlete is very high, including many ex-pros racing as Age Groupers, who don’t want to do a full distance to get to the World Champs. I did think Ness had a chance of qualifying if the winds were low and it was hot, as not many Age Group girls can match Vanessa in the run on a hot day.

Another one bites the dust..

 

 She had a good race with the fastest run split in her AG by a fair bit (one of the fastest female run splits of the day including pros), but the winds howled on this day and she got a bit lost on the swim and  they slow the little ‘uns down too much on the bike and she had too much to make up on the run, finishing 12^th in her very competitive and tight Age Group, but 18^th overall female and in the end,  only a few minutes off a slot. 

Ness biked strongly in non-suitable conditions too  - she lost her chance for a slot in the swim

SWIM 1.9 kms 30 minutes

This was a non-wetsuit swim, which is not good for non-child swimmers (crap technique) like Ness and I - we get extra benefit from wet suits over pool swimmers with good technique because they put you in a much better position in the water. The winds were predicted to be high and they had been blowing all week and the practice swims we did were very choppy, and we were practicing the advice from Coach Woody to ‘Karate Chop’ the water, especially on rough days, and swimming with more of a straight arm on the breathing side. Surprisingly on race morning the water was glassy smooth and remained so for the first 600m until we got to the second buoy. It was like the washing machine ticked over from soak to wash cycle, and Madam Pele / Huey started to weave their magic and the big chop started.

Like calm waters eh? Well get that in-da-ya.

 There were not enough buoys and they were too small and the wrong colour (red) so sighting was really tough over the waves. People started swimming in all directions. I am not the best navigator and had no idea which direction I was going, but just kept following the group ahead. I think I was in the tail of the lead group and they turned right at one buoy and I followed. Then the stand-up paddle guys surrounded us and started shouting that we had all missed a buoy and had to go back. So about 30 of us turned back out to the last buoy, which I think may have moved. It was a bit farcical really, but that’s the way it went, a few of the first guys in the Age Group ranks caught up to the pros and got out without having to turn back, and there was a pretty big gap between those guys swimming 24 minutes and the rest of our group who swam 30.

Long enough straw or what!?

BIKE 90kms 2.30

This was the first time I had done a longer race with a Power Meter, so it was an interesting experiment to try a different way of racing, as previously I had mostly gone on feel, and maybe with my over-competitive nature was not the best way….. A Power Meter is a (bloody expensive) device on your bike to measure how much ‘work’  you are doing or how much weight you are putting into the pedals, with the idea being you know how much ‘power’ you can hold for a certain time and try to stick to that level. When it comes down to it in cycling the amount of power you can hold over a certain time is the key to the sport. Of course aerodynamics give you some ‘free speed’ and weight is very important, especially for climbing but testosterone and racing dynamics can make you go too hard at times and affect the rest of your race.

 Early on in the ride, I let a few guys pass me while I was already pushing above my target watts which I was happy to do. After about 20kms three guys passed me and then I heard a motorbike come up behind me. I was soft pedaling and stopped pedaling when I heard the bike, it was a draft buster and he gave me his first card of the day – I think he was a bit pumped up to start his day. A tough call as I don’t think the guys had passed me for 20secs, and I let the draft buster know that but I had to cop it. Better today than in an A race I thought. So I got to the turnaround point in Hawii and did the 4 minute penalty, was pretty relaxed about it and had a chat with the guys in the penalty box. It was ironic to get a penalty on this day as I was focusing on my power, and not other riders at all, so I hardly did any of the ride in a pace-line and rode by myself for 95+% of it. Compared to many other races where I’ve done almost the whole thing in a pace-line and pushed the envelope of drafting and not gotten a card.

Just hang on, to what you got.

The cross-winds on the day were really crazy, the strongest I’ve ever experienced on the bike. After the turn around at Hawi, we had more of a tail wind and the cross winds picked up even more. It was a fun challenge to see if you could stay in the aero bars going 70kph with the bike leaning 70 degrees to the side to counter-act the wind. With my Hed 3 spokes catching a chunk of the wind (not recommended in Hawaii) I was pretending I was riding a bucking bronco and wrestling with the Steed accordingly.

Me and you both Wazza

  I was glad I had my new cassette with an 11 tooth sprocket at the back (recommended in Hawaii) as it was fun to keep pedaling at these speeds and pass guys who were doing 65kph, who were not expecting someone to be passing them. I saw a guy with a full-sized American flag and pole attached to the rear wheel of the bike….maybe it wasn’t just George W skewing my opinion on them after all.  But at least their flag was cool, not having two significant emblems representing a 35 year old man still clutching his Mum's leg not wanting to leave home and a weird belief that a constellation in a plus sign is a sign that we are somehow special. I finished the ride pretty fresh, but very glad to be out of the winds.

Peter Allen pulled it off....

RUN 21.1kms 1.50

I had done a block of run training over the past 6 weeks, with the goal of putting the sub 3.30 IM marathon I need to get a Kona slot, but had picked up an injury in the last week before the race. My last two runs I literally had to walk home from as my hamstring was getting more and more painful. It was, in part due to my bad lower back, I knew that, and sometimes you can run through them (as opposed to a vanilla muscle tear which you can’t run through) but I tried to on these training runs and it was just getting worse. I went into this race thinking I was not going to finish this run, and raced all day with this mindset. After 3kms the hammy was screaming, but I was already a way from the hotel, so I thought I’d take it easy until I got back towards the hotel and pull out then. I was just running at an easy pace and walking through all the aid station, taking plenty on board. 

A tough run to take easy

 My main goal is Ironman Regensburg, which is only two weeks away, and I knew smashing myself on the run could take a long time to recover from, so was trying not to dig into the pain well much at all and make sure this race would not take long to recover from. Normally 3-4 weeks before a full is the earliest to do a half and some conservative types thing even longer. The wind on the run was pretty insane too. At some stage it was so hard into your face people were running in pace-lines, taking turns in front.

I was surprised that the hamstring seemed to free up by the time I got back towards the hotel and did not want another DNF so kept slugging away, shuffling along getting passed all the time but not too worried about going fast. With about 3kms to go the hammy was actually feeling fine but I was still shuffling away and then a…..larger lady (no I didn’t say fat chick) came up beside me, damn everyone has been passing me on the run today but I can’t let her beat me I thought, so I picked it up and ran the last couple of ks harder.

About 500m to go I was probably running 4.20 k pace and a guy comes up beside me going all out, breathing as loud as he can (a pet hate of mine as I always imagine they just start breathing like that when they have an audience), and he got in front of me. His race belt had www.trisports.de on it. Damn an attention-seeking panting German, I don’t fancy getting beaten by him either, so I tailed right behind him for 300m which only made him breathe louder, then with 50m in the short finishing chute I went around him and just got over the line ahead of him, at full sprint. He screamed with frustration. So did my hamstring. Damn you idiot I thought, and I was limping around the post-race area, the guy avoided me afterwards – I wanted to say ‘Don’t worry mate - we were only going for poofteenth anyway’, but he did not seem to fancy any interaction.

Done, not very well, but done.

Anyway I still felt pretty fresh and it was a really good event that we enjoyed and the hammy seems to have rebounded quite well. Getting the bike and car back to our hotel was a challenge and when we finally were lifting the bikes to load them into the back of the car was a struggle as once the bike was lifted off the ground you had to hang on for dear life to stop it blowing away like a plastic bag in the howling winds. After the long walk to the car Ness was almost in tears and by the time we were finally shut the door of the car the calm inside felt like Brittany Spears finally getting away from a pack of hungry paparazzi,  in our own little safe haven away from the wind.

Another race done and dusted, so it is onto our big goal just ahead Regensburg, on June 18 and we both hope to make amends of our mutual shockers there last year. We might race in a 5150 (Ironman brand for Olympic distance) in Klagenfurt Austria on the 11^th, for a freshen up, we’ll see how we feel when we get into Austria. Well done for getting this far…if you did.