The sun was out as we registered on the Saturday. We met with Simon and Neil and scratched our heads over the seemingly random positioning of various buoys in the bay. We did spot some fish though. Having done all we needed to do, we all headed off for a nice meal together.
Skip to the early hours of Sunday morning (3.30 did seem ridiculous), and we were racking our bikes at around 5am. We headed over to the race briefing over by the swim start only to be told that the start was delayed by 30 minutes, and that the bike course had been shortened from 3 x 13km loops to 6 x 5km loops (the Elite course) as someone was threatening to jump from some flats somewhere on the bike course. They did admit that it was going to make the bike course incredibly busy, and that they would be more lenient on the drafting penalties.
Katherine was in wave 2, 10 minutes before me. That meant I had 10 minutes to make up so that I could run down the finish straight with her.
Whilst it is nice to swim in this large fresh water bay, the swim did seem long. And choppy on the way back in. We didn’t see the fish again. Katherine did have goggle issues, though.
Katherine: 38:25 (she measured it as 1635m)
Me: 37:15
In and out of T1 fairly uneventfully before the crazy busy bike course.
Katherine: 2:57
Me: 2:49
Despite the short laps, with lots of sharp bends and dead 180 turns, it was a really fast flat course. Katherine and I managed to wave to each other most laps. I was pleased to see that I was gaining on each lap! Katherine managed to spot Simon on one of his (successful) laps. I managed to spot and have a quick chat with an old school friend of mine on the course. I did drop a gel early on though, which was a bit annoying.
Katherine: 58:25
Me:57:15
T2 for me was fairly uneventful for me (despite having to negotiate around some discarded pointy helmets in between the racks). Katherine, on the other hand, had issues with her watch, so faffed with that, before almost heading out onto the run with her helmet still on. A quick run back to her bike to drop that off, and she was on the run.
Katherine: 2:06
Me: 1:23
It’s quite a nice (9km) run over the barrage and back (twice), although the wind made it hard work on the return leg. We saw each other on both laps, high-fiving as we passed by, but I could see my hopes of joining her on the finishing straight diminishing with every step. I started off quite well, but it just got harder and harder to keep the pace going. So that’s what training is for!
Katherine was smiling all the way (as usual), and looked like she was really enjoying the run. The times say it all:
Katherine: 42:58
Me: 47:43
Total times:
Katherine: 2:24:50
Me: 2:26:22
It was great to see Neil finish his race (especially as he wasn’t expecting to do the run), but not so good to hear that Neil had seen Simon being attended to on the side of the road. We found him recovering in the medical tent looking somewhat battered and bruised, and in need of tea and cake.
It was great to have the chance to race together, and we’ll definitely be back.
