London Olympic Race Report Aug 2008

I am writing this the day after the race and I should be happy. All I can feel is anger. I am so annoyed at myself for making silly mistakes that cost me time. I know I can go faster and the reason I didn't was because I haven't been training enough and silly avoidable mistakes I made on the day.

The race was good, but as always there is a lot of room for improvement. I got down to the Excel centre in London around 90 mins pre race start to get myself organised, walk transition and meet up with The Flying Dutchman who had been out training in the morning. My first mistake had already been made on the Saturday when I racked on the far side to bike exit, close to run exit but running in bike shoes is much harder than run shoes so silly mistake. I set everything up and headed over to swim start to find TFD. So easy to spot him in a crowd as he is a head above everyone else :) I stayed with him for 20 mins or so whilst I got into my wetsuit and then got into the pen with the other girls to head to the water. At the start of the race they always make you do this OI OI OI shout out. I was laughing at TFD as I have been teaching him some Australian such as 'OI'. I have no doubt he will use that on my friends at some point and it sounds hilarious in his sexy Dutch accent:)

Anyway, the water was cold and murky. I have been spoiled swimming in Hampstead Lido with its nice clean silver lining. I couldn't see my hand when stretched out in front of me. I got into the front of the pack on the line. I have worked hard on my swim and also on being jostled about so not worried if I get a bit battered. The gun went off and I went off at a fast pace to out swim the 'start sprinters' who keep up a cracking pace for about 50m and then drop back having to breastroke when the adrenalin runs out. I used to be one of them so know what they do :) It was hard to see where I was and just really focused on trying to swim in a straight line. The out bit went really fast and I was there in a bit over 12 mins. I wasn't drafting as I was finding it hard to sight and stay on feet and people were crashing into each other and swimming all over the place. I did get kicked under the chin by someone and bit the inside of my mouth.

The stretch back in seemed harder and I suspect we were going against the current. It was also choppier so I was having problems getting air despite breathing every 2nd stroke. About 2 out of 3 breathes I was getting water over my head and no air. I could feel my heart rate going up but kept pushing on knowing I was over halfway. It was also much calmer in terms of the people who were around me as everyone started to speed up so I jumped on some feet and went with it. I got out of the water feeling pretty good in 27.31 which is a new PB by 3 mins over 1500m. Very pleased with that but I need to learn to wim harder in the 1st half of the race, I am still being to cautious. TFD reckons I was in about 35th position coming out of the water. T1 is always interesting at London Tri because you have to get your wetsuit off and then run up some stairs. The volunteers are great however my guy handed me a bag upside down so I struggled running and trying to get my wetsuit into the bag and then slipped on the stairs and banged my foot. I didn't feel it at the time of course but certainly know about it today :)

So mistake number 2 of the day was running down the wrong isle to get my bike and it cost me 10 seconds. Got onto the bike and went for it....straight into a head wind! I was actually starting to get a bit worried when my heart rate hadn't started to go down at all after 10 mins because I was pushing so hard but didn't want to let up. I was overtaking a lot of people but wasn't feeling great for the first half. I was forcing myself to drink knowing I wouldn't be drinking in the last 20 mins because of the cramp issues I have been having running off the bike this season. I managed to drink about 600ml of energy drink and 2 gels over the course which is probably about right for that distance. I find it really difficult to get my nutrition right for olympic distance racing, I suspect I proably over do it.

TFD has been playing around with my bike position to get me more aero and we decided to be quite aggressive given it was only 40km. I liked it, but have an aching neck today so it is going to be moved slightly for training. I did feel it gave me extra speed and made it easier to push hard but wouldn't like to do a long ride in that position. London tri is pretty much flat except for the tunnels. I don't have a speedo on at the moment but must have been doing 50km plus in there as I was really flying past people in my largest gear. It was hard to know who I was chasing because there was other people out there from previous races, and it was a lot of the stragglers weaving across the road. I was shouting at people to get out the way and everyone was great and did jump out of the way. I had 1 girl overtake me 250m before the tunnel on the 1st lap and I let her go knowing I would fly past her, which I did. No one else went past me on the bike. TFD was on the corner and shouting at me each time I went past. I was busy overtaking 3 people on a corner on my last lap so couldn't look at him but certainly heard him which was great, made me smile.

I came off the bike in 3rd place according to Terry, I think I may have been 4th at that stage in a time of 1:09:54. I got into a bit of a tussle in T2, as I was running back up between the racks these 2 idiots were casually walking with their bikes, having raced earlier that morning and now collecting their stuff from transition. I started shouting at them to move as I was running towards them, 1 of them jumped out of the way and the other one just looked at me and sort of halfway moved to the side. I crashed into the back of him not being able to stop at the pace I was running with my bike and the redhead temper came out to play. He copped a mouth full of abuse until I realised I was wasting valuable energy on him and took me another 10 secs or so to untangle myself from him. Jumped into my running shoes now absolutely fuming and hit the road.

I heard Corinna, Marilyn and Bronwyn up on the bridge as I came down the ramp and around the turn around to head back up for my first lap. I looked for them but couldn't pick them out. I went past the pub and then TFD was in a great place just up from there. Terry was another 50m along and then Daz so that stretch was great and I calmed down a little and let the rage subside. First lap was rubbish and I got this sharp cramp pain in my left shoulder 2km in and had to walk 10m or so swinging my arm, 2 girls I had just gone past came past me so had to spend more energy chasing them back down again. 1 of them it took me 3km to catch her again. I hooked up with a Serpentine girl for the 1st lap on the way back and we kept each other moving, she sped up towards the turnaround as she was on her last lap from a previous race.

My 2nd lap was faster but because there were so many people out there it was impossible to know where I was. I had 2 girls charge past me and there was no way I could have stuck with them at that stage but I kept them in my sights. Turns out they were in my race. I picked it up for the last 2km home but couldn't pull them back in. My position was 6th having lost my 4th place position by a mere 9 seconds, the time I spent looking for my bike in T1. My run split was 42.42 which is rubbish. I can run a 41 on that course and the reason I was so slow was because deep down I know I have been neglecting my run training. I always put so much faith in my ability to run that if I have to skip a session it is always the run. I paid for that yesterday and wont do it again. I finished in 2:24:58 and was truly spent when I crossed the line. I had a few moment of panic looking for somewhere to throw up but managed to keep it together. It really isn't a good look.

The good news is that I will now work harder than ever to prep for Arizona. It stings getting 6th place when I was capable of 4th easily and 3rd with a fight, and I really do enjoy a good battle in a triathlon :) Olympic racing isn't my distance but that doesn't mean I am happy to settle for anything other than a 110% effort on my behalf and I don't feel like I gave that in the preparation and training leading into the race. Lessons learnt with plenty of time to fix them over the next 14 weeks in time for hopefully a win at Arizona.

It was great having TFD, Corinna, Terry, Marilyn, Bronwyn all there. It makes a huge difference having people around you and people to meet you at the end. After I had managed to a) not throw up and b) not fall over I started to feel a bit better about the race and had a brief moment where I was actually happy about my performance. As Terry pointed out I still have an Ironman in my legs from 4 weeks ago. He also pointed out that the holiday is now over. He wasn't kidding, this week is a killer programme of 17 - 18 hours of hard core training. Excellent, bring it on.

Cxx