It was the day after my birthday and I was all smiles going into the race. I felt ready on the start line and I had nothing to worry about at that stage, my start was fine. I led the swim to the first bouy alongside Jenna Shoemaker USA and along the back straight, as we were dragging off each other Maxine Seear AUS passed us on the inside and took the lead. Maxine reached the sand first and I managed to wade her down to jump on her feet for the 2nd lap. Then as I reached my bike, stepped on (haven't managed to jump in a race still) and started riding up the hill for the first time, I didn't look around until the top and saw we were only 3. I rode the 40km with Kirsten Sweetland CAN and Nicky Gould NZL. Coming off the bike I knew straight when they passed me that there was no flowing feeling. I felt like I was running up and down and not forward. All I could do was run the best I could to the finish. I ran 38.52 for my 10km which was enough for 4th as Kiyomi Niwata JPN ran me down from the chase pack. Kirsten Sweetland won her 2nd race in 2 weeks and Nicky finished 2nd.
I'm disappointed with my race as it was my first of the season and I really have had a good summer of training. I can put it down to the last month of training which has been 2 weeks of under 10hrs because of a virus then racing Singapore Ironman 70.3 and the other 2 weeks of recovering and building up again for this race.
I know I have a good base under me, so I've got 3 weeks to build back my strength to be able to race completely for the entire 2hrs. I couldn't do that this weekend in front of my mum, dad, family and friends in New Zealand. I now have to wait until the Gold Coast series final race in September to enjoy a race with their support again.
Thanks to the Barnett family for their wonderful hospitality again in New Plymouth.
Up next is World championship series race #1 - Tongyeong, South Korea.
Andrea
