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| Racing as a junior in 2010 |
Upon arriving we were greeted with uncharacteristically good weather (beautifully clear skies and not a breath of wind) and my recollections of the course did not disappoint, looking even more stunning in the sun.
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| Riding over the course on Thursday evening; the hill |
Race day dawned with wind and overcast conditions leading to a cool race.
The swim was held in the Wellington Harbour, at a chill 17 degrees - definitely a wetsuit swim. As the junior men and women started 30 and 25 mins ahead of us respectively we were to be finished our swim warm-up and out of the water half an hour prior to our race start. Not wanting to cool down too much prior to starting and debating the benefit of a specific swim warm-up more than 30 mins before swimming, I opted to do a cycle/run warm up combined with some arm drills to get the blood moving closer to start time. It seemed to work.
We lined up in transition for introductions, jogged the long way down to the end of the jetty and lined up along the pontoon ready for the start. Without too much ceremony or waiting around the starter went off, we dove into water and the fun began.
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| swim start |
I've been in some pretty messy swims before but this one would have to be one of the worst! I had a good dive and so started towards the front of the pack, expecting to clash arms a little as people jostle for positions and the pack spreads out but then settle into a comfortable swim stroke. Not so this time, it felt like everyone was trying to swim on top of each other. I had girls grabbing my arms, legs, head, tugging at my wetsuit, kicking, pushing me under, pulling me back... And it didn't calm down, continuing until the first turn buoy 350m out! I'm just glad I'm used to people pulling my legs while I'm swimming so it didn't phase me, but it did make it hard work! After the first buoy I swum up the side of the pack moving up a few positions to sit in the front 3 of the pack and had some clearer water to swim in. Heading back towards the swim exit I moved off the feet I was following believing I was taking a better line (which I probably was) but instead of gaining any advantage and moving ahead I slipped back a few places when I dropped out of the slipstream. I realised my error and moved back into the pack sitting in 7th where I stayed for the rest of the swim. It probably didn't cost me anything this time but could easily have meant missing a break out of the swim. Lesson learnt.
Exiting the water on the pebbly beach it was a long run up to transition, but just as well as I had difficulty undoing the unfamiliar Velcro on my new wetsuit. I wouldn't usually use equipment I had acquired only 3 days before a race but having ripped my old wetsuit in Devonport, I didn't have much choice! Thanks again to Huub and Micheal Wise for getting me my wetsuit at such short notice in time to take to Wellington! It was great to swim in.
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| My new Huub Aura wetsuit |
Kate McIlroy had the fastest transition establishing an early break on the bike. By the end of the first lap of 6 the main pack of 9 had formed and we were 30 seconds down on McIlroy. The pack was not working very well from the start but with some encouragement from Sam Warriner most girls pulled their turns and we started to make up ground. Frustrated with the pace but not wanting to try for a break so early I did more than my share of turns at the front to try and help bridge the gap. The second time up the hill I lead the pack and unintentionally opened up a gap on them. I could see McIlroy only 100m or so ahead so decided to try and bridge the gap, bringing it down to 9 seconds at the start of the 3rd lap. With the added motivation of 2 riders out in front, the pack worked and caught me before I was able to catch McIlroy who we then caught before the end of that lap. In hindsight if I had been more aggressive up the hill I may have bridged the gap and we may have gotten away but I hadn't been expecting to open up the gap in the first place.
As soon as the catch was made the pace dropped and girls refused to take their turns at the front, wanting to save their legs for the run. Being a strong swim-biker, getting stuck in a pack that refuses to work on the bike is not ideal; in fact its really frustrating. I continued to try and make the girls work, hoping to tire their legs by increasing the pace, but probably only tiring myself. In a pack of 10 the draft advantage is so great that it's pretty hard to do damage to someone sitting at the back of the pack without going extremely fast at the front. Once at the front the others didn't not want to roll around me and a couple of times I actually had to sit up, move right over and stop pedalling to get off the front - not a great way to keep the pace up! A few others were getting frustrated with the Sunday morning coffee ride we were going on and attacks came from McIlroy, Abram and myself but no breaks were established. I dismounted my bike at the end of the 40km having expended a lot of energy trying to get the pack to work and trying to get away but with nothing to show for it. Sometimes it's probably just best to sit in the pack and do the same work as everyone else, and this was probably one of those times.
I had a quick T2, out onto the run in 2nd but was quickly overtaken by the others in my pack as they all ran out like a bullet. I stuck to my own pace, not wanting to blow up at the 5km mark and hoping to run a consistent pace for the 10km. I didn't run as fast as I had wanted, finishing in 9th position and 3rd in the U23 category with a 38 min run but it was still a 10km pb and a decent result. My efforts on the bike took their toll; my race tactics did not work but I learnt many a valuable lesson! In the end I enjoyed myself and that's what matters most.
We had some time to kill on Sunday morning before flying home at 4 that afternoon. We rode up Mt Victoria for the view over Wellington before breakfast.
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| Opening of Wellington Harbour; Wellington airport; Wellington Harbour; Huge gulls at Oriental Bay |
After packing up we headed up another hill to the botanic gardens, this time on the Wellington cable car and got views from the other side of town.
I have one more Oceania race left; this time in Mooloolaba on Sunday. After that it's time for a break before working out my overseas racing calendar for the year!!!
Gillian
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