The swim went better than I had expected. The swim is a 1 lap of 1500m and it does feel a long time in the water. I found myself at the front very early on and decided to swim it at my pace and if someone overtakes me then at least I have feet to draft off. At the halfway point I made a concious decision to be 1st out of the water; I thought with the amount of work I had put in, no way can anyone take my lead. I dug deep and probably put myself into some oxygen debt, but made it out the water first and first into transition.
Out of transition and I was straight into my cycling. The slight oxygen debt cost me Stu Hayes's wheel, but a pack of about 8 athletes were right behind, so I decided to fuel up and wait for them and hitch a lift to the front. The lead pack was formed after 5km and I decided to "hide" in the pack. I have not done enough riding to pull my turns and with a 10km run left, I was not sacrificing my race for some hard riding. The bike was over in no time and with the expected surges and failed attempted breakaways, we rolled in as a group ready to run the last stage. I hit the run as hard as I could and for a km I was flying, but the lack of race experience got to me and the last 9km was slightly slower than I had hoped for. I crossed the line in a respectable 14th place feeling satisfied and relived that I was back to enjoying it all again.
No comments:
Post a Comment