Sunday morning I felt fine. Went for a run to get the legs going, warmed up on the swim, ready to go. I was stood between 2 other athletes from Vic at the start and proceeded to get cut off from the left by one of them, then got kicked in the face, hit, and swam over for the first 250m until the first turn. I tried to find some clean water to the left but was completely boxed in - front, sides, and back. That got to me. I started passing the people that seeded themselves incorrectly and prevented me from getting a good start, but missed the train, f*$k. Swam into one guy on the first lap that was stopped in the water (sprint distance racer), and then into another on the 2nd lap (oly distance on his/her first lap). That was wonderful.
Out of the swim and onto the bike. Not a great transition but not bad either. I need to listen to my coach more and maybe ride the bike a bit more before trying to race it. Bad idea. Didn't have the bike split that I have trained hard for and can ride. That bothered me. On the bike I started slowly cramping more and more throughout the course on my right side in the intercostal region. Onto the run that would get me. Coming into T2 I looked for my shoes when I was running to rack my bike and didn't see them. Perrrrfect, some helpful person put my wetsuit on top of them to get it out the way. They were soaked and a challenge to get on. So, the run - 49mins. I ran...a little. I think the only thing from stopping me from DNF-ing was knowing that I'd have to walk all the way back anyway so why not just go that bit further and make the turn.
The "nail in the coffin" came at the awards ceremony, which we stayed for. Steve King announced the F25-29 A/G podium (congrats to Jane!) and then moved onto the men...haha. I didn't even look at the results at the end because I didn't want to know the time, but Steve King (who is a great guy and the best announcer!!) piped up with a time and then announced "from Victoria...Kamal Rae"...oh god. I felt pretty ashamed to be standing up there on the 3rd podium spot (for the M25-29) with that time hanging around my neck.
Not riding the TT bike more than once hurt me. Not only in my bike strength but it put me into a position that caused cramping (because of not being used to it) which failed me on the run. Completely my fault. The swim: well, that first 250m was the problem. Some over-zealous people seeding themselves incorrectly and getting in the way didn't help much.
Back to basics and training. More running mileage, and looking forward to some (hopefully) good racing in Quebec and San Francisco.
0 comments:
Post a Comment