My first learning experience was rather stressful. When I attempted to change over the wheels on my bike to my race wheels my rear derailleur fell off. How on earth did you manage that I hear you ask. I have no idea. I have taken out the rear wheel of my bike many many times and never encountered this problem. Anyway. I consequently found myself at 8pm the night before a race with my derailleur detached and with no knowledge of how to fix it. After 5 mins of running around in circles frantically wondering who I could call to fix it I decided to have a look and see if I could do it myself. It turns out that rear derailleurs are attached by two small screws which must have come loose. I managed to find the screws on the floor and after sourcing my smallest allen key (these screws are tiny!) screwed my derailleur back on. There's nothing like facing a race with no bike to teach you how to fix it!!
I then hurried off to bed in anticipation of my 4am wake up the next morning. Race day dawned and I woke with a sore throat. Hoping it was just dry I got up and got ready anyway but it didn't go away. When Clare arrived at 4:30 to pick me up I decided to pull the pin and just go and watch. It wasn't worth running myself down only 6 days out from Devonport. It was a tough decision but I'm glad I made it.
Unfortunately I had come down with a cold. I felt a bit below the weather but not too bad so decided to train lightly in the hope that it would help clear it out and I wouldn't lose too much fitness before the weekend. That seemed to go ok until Wednesday when I started feeling really retched and it threatened to turn cheasty. Worried that my race was over I took Thursday completely off training and slept in. The sleep in worked and I woke feeling the best I had all week with slight remnants of a cough. Thursday morning was spent at uni then it was time to pack. Having learnt my lesson when packing for Geelong I started early to make sure I had time to pack well. Miraculously I managed to pack everything I needed for the weekend with my bag weighing in at just over 23kg - 13 kilos less than last time!
As the race was to be a wetsuit swim, I did Tuesday nights swim set in my wetsuit. I usually spray oil my legs before attempting to put my wetsuit on to help it slide on as it is rather tight. Stupidly I decided to avoid getting oily and just used plastic bags to help get the wetsuit over my feet. Plastic bags do work wonders but they only go so far up your leg. When it’s a humid afternoon and you sprint to training on your bike because you're running late major stickage can occur. I was able to get the wetsuit over my feet but then I struggled to pull the plastic bags off my feet as they were stuck to my legs thanks to the sweat. I ended up tearing off the plastic bags and ignoring the plastic still trapped under the wetsuit legs. That's the hard part over right? Wrong. I then had to pull (or should I say wrestle) the wetsuit up my legs and as it kept sticking to me this was a rather long and painful task. I finally got the wetsuit up to my waist. Relieved, I gave it one last pull to make sure the crotch was high enough to give me full leg movement and I felt a rip... I had torn my wetsuit. Panicked I consulted the others at training as to the severity of the rip and was told it was not too bad and I'd be able glue it back together with some special neoprene glue.
Another super early morning saw us flying out of Brisbane at 5:30am. After a long morning of travelling we arrived in Devonport just after lunch. That afternoon we went out for a spin on the bike course followed by race briefing and uniform checks. The course was super windy with a strong cross wind blowing Dan and I all over the road in some spots. N.B. A fully carbon bike with 50mm race wheels doesn't need much of a cross wind to get blown...
Race briefing was exhilarating but still a little intimidating with some of the best Aussies and Kiwis racing. I think it's going to take a while for me to get used to mixing it with the big names!!!
Similarly to Geelong, the women’s race did not start until 1pm with the men at 3:30. Race day began with a sleep in (until about 7 haha). I then had a big breakfast and attempted to ‘relax’ for the morning until heading to the race venue at 11:30. Nails painted and hair done I rode over to transition to register and rack my bike. I made sure I did my run warm up nice and early to ensure enough time for another wrestle with my wetsuit. Fortunately with the aid of my every trusty spray oil my wetsuit slid on a treat.
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| Lined up to enter the water |
The swim start was different from any I’ve done before with us all lining up in the water holding on to a barricade. When I entered the water I chose a start position in about the middle of the start line; my first wrong decision of the day. In the first hundred meters or so a group formed to my left and to my right leaving my trapped in the middle on my own. As we approached the first buoy the two groups came together and I was somewhat sandwiched in the middle. I’m not used to swimming in the middle of a pack as I’m usually out the front leading the swim. Because of this I’m not practiced at fighting to get around a buoy and was hit, kicked and pulled under losing about 5 positions going around each of the first 2 buoys. I field spread out a lot more after the second buoy as we headed back towards the beach for our second lap but the damage was already done. My goggles had been knocked and one side had completely filled with water. This combined with the fact I hadn’t listened to my own advice given to Dan and touched my goggles with oily hands after putting on my wetsuit meant I couldn’t see a thing. Completely out of my comfort zone I lost my mojo and longed for the swim to be over. I made up a few positions on the second lap of the swim, exiting the water in 12th position, 45 seconds down on the leaders.
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| Finishing the swim |
I came out of T1 just behind a couple of other girls but was unable to bridge the gap to them. Charlotte McShane and Ashleigh Bailie rode past and I stuck on with them for a kilometre of so before dropping off the back of them too. After being run down with a cold I was not ready for the fast paced first couple of kilometres of the bike and was also scared of going out too hard. My last Olympic Distance race was the Noosa Triathlon which did not end well for me. Dehydrated and overheated I collapsed in the last couple of hundred meters and was not able to finish the race. That experience scared me and I am in no hurry to experience that again. As a result I was a bit apprehensive on the first lap of the bike, not quite willing to give it everything after being sick. I am truly not proud of this but at that point I wanted to pull out of the race. I seriously considered stopping but did not. I asked myself what sort of athlete I wanted to be and the answer is (and hopefully will remain to be) one that carries on to finish the race and doesn’t give up no matter what happens. Too many times I have seen top athletes call it a day and pull out when they’re having a bad race. That is not what I want to become. Towards the end of the first lap I was caught by Laura Wood from NZ. By this time I had got my head back in the right place and we worked well together for the remainder of the bike, catching Alessia Orla mid way though the bike and Kiwis Penny Hayes and Rebecca Clarke on the final lap. Thanks to Bronny for cheering so well for me and keeping me going! After 8 windy laps on the bike with 6 speed bumps per lap (that’s 48 speed bumps total) I was very grateful to get off my bike and run.
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| On the bike |
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| T2 |
I went out fairly conservatively on the run, still a little nervous about completing the 10km. By the middle of the 2nd lap I was feeling good and a bit more confident. I was able to increase my pace a little and catch the girls I had finished the bike with who had gone out harder than me at the beginning of the run. I ended up finishing in 14th position.
I was really disappointed with my race, more so with my
application than my result. It’s so easy to let things get to you when they go
wrong. I won’t be racing like that again. I learnt that day that I really need
to have more faith in my training and not worry so much about things that may
have happened in the lead up to the race! Despite the disappointment I still
had an amazing weekend. Going back to Devonport brought back many good memories
of the last time I was there. I love racing, and travelling and staying with
the Triathlon QLD squad has been an unforgettable experience.
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