What a day! Pretty much sums up my Saturday last weekend. We all have our fair share of drama's leading into an Ironman and on the day and that is exactly why Ironman is so special. I couldn't believe it had been so long between Ironmans. Unfortunately with all the sets backs this year then returning home with a problem with my left hamstring, the little running I was doing was now even less. But I didn't care! For the first time I was going to race knowing I hadn't done the work, wasn't ready but wanted nothing more than to have the opportunity to race at home, in front of friends and family and just be back out there again! It was awesome!
The week leading up to the event fellow Pro Scott Neyedli (who had a fantastic race to finish 2nd!) and I spent a couple of nights in Margaret River before heading to Busso on Wednesday. It was pretty low key from then leading up to the race expect on Friday morning when I went for a short swim only to rip a nice hole in my new Blue Seventy Wetsuit! Thankfully Guy from Blue Seventy came to the rescue and I was all ready to go on Saturday morning.
Can you believe this was taken at 5.30am in the morning! It is so nice not having daylight savings (just because I am a morning person!)
The nerves were running on overdrive but just like any other day, it is all about doing the best you can on the day and I planned on doing exactly that!
I was confident I could swim and bike well as these had both been going well in training but unfortunately this was not too be!
After positioning myself wrong at the start it wasn't long before I found myself solo for a least an entire 3.4km! What a nightmare! I couldn't believe I had stuffed up and it was going to cost me big time! As you headed out further to sea the swell picked up a bit and I was all alone! Sometimes a paddler would come by to check I was okay but things got so bad I can even remember taken note of the number of fish I saw and the "VB" can on the bottom! Not good Kate!! Will have to work on that one!
Once I finally made it out of the water and my parents realized I hadn't drowned I had a stern talking to myself and reminded myself what Ironman racing was all about, a long day!
Onto the bike and after the disastrous swim I there was no one in sight for the 30km until the first turn around. The first lap I was a little on the conservative side as I felt like a rookie again. By lap two things changed and I was determined to try and make up for the horrible start, plus who knew what was going to happen in the run so I would go all out!
With the heat and wind increasing nutrition was going to play such an important part and I was concentrating on getting everything in I was supposed to! This is an area I know I can improve because normally I get a bit slack the last part of the bike and middle section of the run then pay big time for it later! Thanks to some great work with Ben Greenfield I feel like I got it pretty good!
Off the bike I heard Simon who was commentating say "give us a wave Kate, if you are all right!" I was fine so gave a wave wondering what all the fuss was about but was later to find out apparently I had fallen off the bike? This was news to me!
Here we go! Onto the run! How do you do that again? This was exactly how I was feeling! My longest run prior to the Ironman had been 1 1/2 hours and I knew once I hit that point...? In New Zealand in 2008 I ran the entire marathon and it was a PB but on the weekend I knew for me to survive it was going to be an aid station to aid station then walk type of marathon. Thankfully it worked and again with a focus on nutrition I was able to hang on to finish in 5th and absolutely loved coming down that finish line, high fives to friends and family. It was like I had won! For me, I had! It was a huge victory.
Check out these unbelievable posters! I can't thank every one enough for there support out there! Especially my family mum, dad, Blake, Robbie and Michael who drove down for 3 quarters of the day due to work. To Kerry, Shannon, Taneqa and Ash for being everywhere and the awesome posters! The Cockle family and to everyone who just yelled out "Kate" or "you go girl" you will never realize how much it is appreciated.
Thanks Jeff for getting me to the start line! There were moments this year where I thought it would never happen again. Now I can't wait to do another one!
And finally to my amazing sponsors! The sport of Triathlon, in particular Ironman racing is hard enough but I am so so lucky to have an unbelievable team that have stuck by me through thick and thin. This is the beginning and I thank you all!
K-Swiss, Novatron, GU, Nunn, SKINS, Ryders Sunglasses, Computrainer, Blue Seventy Wetsuits, Tony Bence Sports Massage, RFID Race Timing, Swish Website Design and to John (who qualified for Hawaii on the weekend!) and Mike at SportsMed Subiaco!
Time for some R and R, quality time with friends and family and apparently some christmas shopping that I have neglected to even start yet!! Yikes!!
