I was excited last friday night knowing I had made it through the last 7 days straight of heavy training and after the race today it was all down hill. I was lucky enough to enjoy a one day taper day yesterday with just a massage, stretch and easy swim in the afternoon. I spent the day wearing my compression socks and skins everywhere as I tried to prepare the body as much as possible for the race.
Sunday morning, as per usual, I was up before the alarm. 4.45am, toast was cooking, I was unlocking the gates, feeding the cats and so excited about getting out there and racing. Bring it on! Every race is a great opportunity to test the body and learn something new. Today was going to be another one of those chances.
I arrived in the dark and was having a nice giggle with the girl next to me in the transition area as we discussed bringing a torch would probably have been a good idea.
I was well organised, enjoyed a good run warm up (although the legs were not awake yet!) and stretch and even had time to warm up for 15 minutes in the water. I was ready to go!
For the first time there were wave starts and mine was second to leave. At the gun we were off and I found myself in a nice little pack. I have been working on my swim lately and know it will take time but I am confident in the direction things are going. In a year, it will no longer be my weakness!! One girl was off and left everyone for dead, she was first out of the water in our wave by over a minute. After a 500 metres our little group I felt was slowing down so I went solo and swum the rest of the way on my own coming out of the water with a 30 second gap on the second pack. In no mans land really. I felt comfortable in the swim but was a little frustrated because it was obviously a slower wave compared to others and hopefully with some slightly faster swimmers and good feet for me to hang on too.... I may have been able to go a little better.
Onto the bike and the head tail wind was going to be a nice challenge but it all even itself out in the end. I really enjoyed the cycle and with over 900 competitors on a 10km loop you can imagine how crowded it was going to be. We were the second wave so I had no issues at all until the last lap. I think anyone in the waves after us was going to have to deal with a lot of traffic. Especially once the guys were on the course.
From bike to run unfortunately I was a little slow in transition, I need to work on getting those run shoes on quicker!! But felt okay from the start. It was again a head, tail and it was easy to break the run down into sections. I did not know how the legs were going to feel after the last couple of weeks and was afraid as they had actually felt like S***! during the warm up but they were there to some degree and I concentrated on keeping the cadence up and running consistently for each lap. I had set myself a target of 39 minutes or better for the 10km. 13 minutes a lap. Knowing I had done no track work or speed intervals since my stress fracture I was not expecting to better my run time from last year (although I plan on doing that very soon!) so I was very happy to finish the run in 38.56 and feeling quite alright.
Thanks to all the local support out there. It is only the best feeling to race at home and have so many people cheering you name. No only spectators but fellow athletes out on the course yelling "go kate" as you run in the other direction. It is just amazing and a reminder there is no place like home! Congratulations to everyone who raced today, there is always at least one thing you can learn and take away to may yourself a better athlete next time you race. What was that for you today?
So yah! to me I am the 30-34 Australian National Champion for 2009 and I am confident that after today's race my fitness is finally back after everything that has happened over the last 6 months and hopefully after an injury and stress free Ironman Australia in 3 weeks I can return 100% to the program that has served my so well in the past and look forward to an exciting 2009!
Tomorrow I am off to Margaret River for a full week of recovery and R and R! Just what will I do with myself? Don't you worry, I have plenty of things in mind and this week they don't revolve around swimming, cycling and running. Although there will be a little bit of that!
