The day dawned as expected. But long before it did I was up getting ready for the start. After the bus ride out there, I had to load my bike, pump my tires and hand in my special needs bag, before changing to wetsuit and handing the swim/gear bag which is what you get back when you finish. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it always takes a while.
Then onto the beach to watch the pro's start. A ten minute gap meant a quick loosen up in the water and a goggle check (not the same as a google check, but just as enlightening). And then we were off. I self-seeded well, held my line through the 'washing-machine' and quickly settled into a rhythm. With no pretensions of a fast time, I really just took it easy, flopping about in the water, and looking for some good legs to draft off. This was a two lap course into the marina, out up the boat ramp, back down the beach and into the water. I went through in about 37 minutes, which surprised me, but I supposed when you add a wetsuit to sea water you get a lot of buoyancy and for a leg-dragger like me, that can only be good.
I was just into the second lap when the half-distance competitors started. They were soon all over me. Ironman-distance athletes are generally laid back, considerate, and respectful, and this shows in the mess of a swim start. In the shorter distances you find a higher proportion of aggressive types. I was whacked from side to side and twice had my goggles kicked from my face. Luckily I wasn't hurt, and in fact it was a good thing as it cleared the fog even if I did get stinging eyes from the salt.
I exited the swim in around 1:15, and stood for a while under the showers on the ramp - most people just ran through. I made a man-to-man joke to the dude sharing the same water stream as me. He gave a weak grin in reply. Then I remembered my hair.
Transition went very smoothly - it usually does for me when its a hot weather one. Once out on the bike I forgot my promise to take my time. Most of the course is hot mix. This is a term I learnt in New Zealand, and I discovered the Aussies don't use it either. I suppose because it is not a novelty in New Zealand and when you find a stretch of road with hot mix you think "wow, isn't that cool". For the uninitiated, hot mix is a normal tar road. In New Zealand they use a very course volcanic or gravel chip, and skimp on the tar which makes for a sealed surface but nothing you would call smooth. The difference to a cyclist is about 3km per hour, not to mention a whole lot of comfort. I use the mis-named "open tubulars". They are not tubulars at all, but clinchers made with tubular materials. They have a lower rolling resistance than any other type of tyre, although you can only really notice it on super smooth roads. The upshot was that I was having a great time at getting the roll on at around 37kph thanks to a waft of a breeze behind me. I kept trying to tell myself to slow down, but was just having too much fun.
Despite my good speed I tried not to get "half-lapped" by big Macca. My target then, was to get to the 93k mark before he got to 153km (with this 10 minute start). At 92km he came past, with two guys in tow. It was a sight to behold. He was rock steady on his bike, his legs working like pistons. The two fellas behind, in comparison were "riding". Their bikes were rocking, their cadence and spinning uneven. Macca is a true champion. It's not often you have a current world champion right there a couple of metres from you in the same race. It's only happened to me twice this year.
It was hot out there. I don't know what the road temperatures were. The forecast was for 27 degrees, but at 2pm it would have been a lot hotter out on the road. At each aid station I poured a bottle of water over me, and added two fresh ones for my bike to repeat every 10 minutes. I stuck the electrolyte bottle in my jersey. I'm used to racing with only one bottle, but I learned from Challenge Wanaka in 2008 how crucial it is to use water to keep cool on the bike when the temperatures soar like that. I must get a set of 'arm coolers'. These are white mesh sleeves, just like arm warmers but you use them to keep the sun off and retain water. It seems that water on the arms and head are the two places where cooling has the greatest effect. I say seems, I have seen no research for arms, but it feels very effective. There isn't much you can do about the head with an aero helmet on.
The bike continued to go well, and I got the heavy disc though the 10km hilly section four times without much worry. A good decision I thought. At 160km I decided to push for a bike PB. My big mistake of the day. At 170km I had a bit of meltdown. I usually like to say the wheels fell off, but every time I do that I get emails asking if I got hurt. I hung in there to the finish but was in for another nasty little shock. My speedo hit 180km and I was still 3 or 4km out from transition. Yes, the bike course was long. I think I took nine or ten minutes to do those last few clicks, even though they were flat, such was my exhaustion. Were it not for the longer course, I would have claimed a PB on the bike. Not bad since my last ride was on 9th of May, and I missed most of the two weeks before that as well.
When I reached transition I was so emotionally and mentally fatigued that I had no way of assessing my physical state. Luckily by now T2 is very routine for me. I always find it easier than T1, especially on a warm dry day. So I did what I had to do on auto-pilot, but I did sit there for a while longer.
Out on to the run. The first bit through Yorkeys Knob village and along the beach was pleasant. But then we hit the 12km pull along the main roads though the sugar cane into Cairns. The cane grows huge here - I have never seen it so big. And with it on either side of the road, there was almost no wind, and so we baked in the hot sun. I ran most of the first 10km, but after that I started to walk. Usually in that state I run or walk about 50% of the time changing every 200m or so. But yesterday I was walking for several kilometres at a time. To prevent a recurrence of my ankle injury I decided to race in my training shoes along with highly customised orthotic inserts. They are different for each foot, such as my deformities are, and what they do is force my foot into a more normalised action, thereby reducing the stress caused by the collapse of my ankles on landing. This comes as a cost however, as the orthotics "push back" on the soles of my feet. And these are feet that have had water on them for 8 hours, as my shoes tended to stay wet on the bike.
Time was no longer important to me other than the sooner I finished, the sooner I could stop. I was dehydrated and hungry. They served watermelon on the course, and I think I ate too much, but it was so refreshing, and I was so sick of sports drink. Once we hit Cairns we had three and a half laps along the esplanade, some of it with athletes going both ways. This included a little trip out along the pier, and back. It meant running back to the finish at Fogarty Park three times before you got to go down the red carpet the fourth time.
Finally however, after my slowest marathon ever (approaching seven hours) I finished in 14:50-something. As soon as I could I was into the chicken soup. It tasted good. Jim came home shortly after, followed by Jono. Victoria was there to give me my medal. A new race on foreign shores can be a lot less personal than what I am used to. And while I don't know Vic that well she is one of my favorite people. I was so pleased.
The course was a fantastic one. It was a stroke of genius to do three and a half laps of the Cairns Esplanade, and the road closure for the bike course meant for a really great race overall. The course can comfortably handle a full field of around 1500, provided they manage the other events occurring on the day. A few minor things took the gloss off a pretty good day all around. Mainly the longer bike course which really was not necessary as they could have done the southern turn around anywhere they wanted to. Apart from that the guy managing the special needs bags packed up and went hope early, or so I was told. I never got my bag, which in the circumstances was not a big problem. The massage closed at 10.30pm so the poor guys who needed it the most did not get one, and the online athlete tracker also shut up shop early meaning those following from distant shores where left to believe their athletes had failed to finish. Worse than have no tracking system at all. I suspect there were too few volunteers who were then overloaded with very long tiring days. This is not to say it wasn't a well organised race. It was.
I think it will be key to get more locals into the race. This will mobilise the community to get behind the event. Certainly the crowds at the finish were much smaller than say ironman-distance races I have done in Taupo and Wanaka, despite there being a much larger population of residents and visitors. Smaller towns tend to get behind the races more, I think.
Mr Pink didn't cause nearly as much of a stir in Cairns than he does in New Zealand. Most people didn't bat an eyelid. It's hard taking your brand offshore!
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