2nd Place in my first 70.3 Ironman

Ok, it's finished. That's the first thing I thought when I crossed the finish line. There was no "oh that was fun" or "I'm so glad I did that" ..although I was happy and I was smiling. I actually had had a good result. I finished in 2nd place - although I was 11min 14sec behind Jodie Swallow of Great Britain, congratulations to her for her first 70.3 too. My first reactions to the1/2 Ironman distance is that it is a long way. It didn't feel like a race when I blew up and had pins and needles through my arms to my fingers. The day started off well with a nice controlled and relaxed swim and I felt like I was riding strongly. I blew at 75km on the bike! I pretty much stopped! Bryan Rhodes who was having a leisurely ride behind me actually thought I punctured by my pace change when I slowed down. I lost over 2 minutes in that short distance to be caught by the Tereza Macel from Czech Republic, going onto the run. There is no worse feeling than not being able to push the pedals around fast. My SRM power went from around 200 to 118 and I couldn't hold onto my aerobars. I was just resting my hands wondering if this feeling would pass. At transition I was totally out of it as I forgot to take my feet out of my bike shoes. When I got onto the run I was just jogging. That's all I could do. So that was fun with 21.1km ahead of me. I jogged and managed to keep that pace good enough to keep a distance behind Tereza and had the energy to push for the final 5km and passed her with 1km to go. My run time for the half marathon was 1.37.06. It's time to catch my flight back home to Christchurch. I had a great time today, the day after the race. I went on the Singapore Flyer and got my feet and hands nipped at by these crazy fish which can't get enough of eating the dead skin off you. Sounds crazy but it feels nice after a minute once you get used to it.

Almost race day of my first 70.3 Ironman

Just 2 more sleeps until I have a long race ahead of me. The water here in Singapore is as warm as a swimming pool and the humidity makes me sweat just walking to lunch. So I'm at Bobby's, my homestay, house in Serangoon resting before I head out to the race site for an ESPN interview (another first for me) and the race press conference.

Getting ready for Singapore 70.3

What must I do before racing my first 70.3 Ironman? The first part is done - my bike is converted.. Bikeright have removed the triathlon bars and changed it into a time trial bike (thanks to Aaron Billing who has lent me a full carbon set of handlebars and aerobars). Now the difficult desicions of how i'll race and how i'll keep my energy up during the race because it is more than twice as long as an Olympic distance race which I am used to. I know what is best for me, but only from trialing through my training what food and sports gels my stomach digests and what stuff doesn't. But then again, training is so much more different than competition. The intensity alone changes everything. I won't actually know exactly how much i'll be eating or drinking until during the race, so my bike will have gels and bars stuck all over it. I had a look at the start list yesterday and there is only 10 Elite females! and with only 11 in the mens field, it's a really small Elite field. I plan to swim 1.9km on the feet of anyone who is front of me, to ride as close as (but 7 metres behind) anyone on the bike course for 90km (including the age groupers on the 2nd and 3rd laps) and I plan to run as fast a pace as I can for 21km. All I know is the pace will be slower than an Olympic distance race, although I don't think it will feel easier. I travel on Wednesday from Christchurch to race this Sunday.