I looked outside to see the rain teeming down and blustery squalls.
Great! I will be wet before I even get the wetsuit on. Getting a wetsuit on when the skin is already wet is hard enough. Unlike the dive wetties I am used to, these swimming suits are so soft and supple they are as delicate as tissue paper and prone to ripping with your finger nails as you grip the material to pull it on or off.
Great! I will be wet before I even get the wetsuit on. Getting a wetsuit on when the skin is already wet is hard enough. Unlike the dive wetties I am used to, these swimming suits are so soft and supple they are as delicate as tissue paper and prone to ripping with your finger nails as you grip the material to pull it on or off.
After a quick shave I dressed in my Shining4Sharn team tri-suit, some tracksuit pants, hoodie and devoured a massive bowl of muesli while filling four bidons with Hi 5 4:1 carb-protein-electrolyte powder.
At 4:20 I donned a plastic poncho, grabbed my track pump wetsuit and "street clothes bag" then walked along the waters edge of the Esplanade into Cairns (around 1km) to catch the shuttle service 25km north to the race start location at Palm Cove.
You could feel the tension everyone on the bus was feeling. The temperature display next to the driver showed 17 degrees. The winds had eased but the rain was still steady.
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| A wet 4:20am walk to the IM event centre to catch the bus to Palm Cove |
Once at the Palm Cove event centre I waded through the mud to check the bike over, especially the Di2 electronic gearing. After all the rain overnight I was worried that the Di2 battery in the seat post had got wet. It was fine. I shifted into a comfortable gear for the start of bike leg, put my bidons in their cages, filled up the frame mounted storage bag (A.K.A a bento box) with Hi 5 protein, carbohydrate bars and gels then pumped up the tires. I was regretting the tire choice - Michelin Pro 4 Service Course. Oh well... They had got me up and down Mt Baw Baw in worse conditions, admittedly the Ironman bike course was around 150km longer... I couldn't do anything about them so patted the seat bid the bike cheerio and set off to find a dry spot to stand for almost 2 hours till the race start.
I had to wait for Michelle, her parents (Lyn and Steve) and the kids (Liam and Aishlyn) close to the spot where we parked the day before when I checked the bike in to T1 (swim to bike transition).
It wasn't hard to pick out the Sharni-Army as they started to arrive with their blue or white Shining4Sharn shirts and fluorescent pink wigs.
While huddling under paperbark trees out of the main thoroughfare, getting eaten by mosquitoes and big green tropical ants I had a few friendly chats with others who were getting ready to either race or support others.
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| Just outside transition 1 getting eaten alive by big green tropical ants while waiting for the family to arrive at Palm Cove. |
The Ironman 70.3 were to start earlier than us so we all had to make our way out of the area so we could get across the T1 exit gate and on to the start.
A quick look at the time and I needed to hurry and get the wetsuit on then head over to the race start area about 500 metres around the corner and up the beach.
The Elite athletes had there start 5 minutes before us "age groupers".
I just saw the tip of Sharn's kayak and heard the cheer from the crowd as she made here way down the beach to the waters edge. There was no way I could get through the to others in the team. Everyone started to press forward getting ready for the start as the media helicopter flew overhead.
A quick check that the Garmin was set the 'Auto Multisport' mode and the screen was showing only the distance so I could see it clearly while taking a breath and bringing that arm forward for the next stroke.
The final 1 minute and 30 second calls felt like they were only a few seconds apart then all of a sudden the start hooter sounded. It was on! Away we went!
Just like the Foster Club Champs in April I ran in and dived through one latte coloured wave a bit higher than me from waist deep water then I was out of the short surf zone and away.
For the first several metres or so every kick would hit someone behind me in the head so I decided to make smaller flutter kicks and rely more on my arms whilst Looking for someone in front to swim behind also trying to avoid getting kicked.
It is really exciting being at the start of a mass swim start. I was happy that wore two swimming caps. I had put one on, the goggles then the Ironman event category coloured cap on over the top.
There were tangled arms hands hitting me in the back of the head. I would expected there were a few goggles being ripped off. It would have been quite difficult having to do a swim like that if I had lost my goggles.
The conditions were not too bad. There was a little wind chop from the east and the swell would have been less than a metre. It was high enough to lose the buoys and get lost between the swell.
The swim course was a rectangular shape with the "M-dot" buoys marking the course. We had to do two laps. It was an Interesting buoy colour choice considering the overcast and rainy conditions. I have to admit though it wasn't too bad as long as there were people in front to follow or if you were at an angle fortunate enough to cast the white buoys against the trees on the land.
The first lap didn't feel too long. I haven't checked the splits yet but the first lap didn't feel too long. In fact the whole swim felt quite relaxed although the stroke-breathing method I used probably had a lot to do with it. I don't remember being out of breath although all my technique training went out window. I have been doing a lot of Total Immersion stroke style swimming over the 16 weeks training prior to the race. My stroke become more efficient. The didn't get an opportunity to do any open water swims other than one at the Foster Club Champs. Not ideal however as a Sydney diver I am not daunted by swimming in open water or in limited visibility.
In the Ironman swim I found it easier breathing on one side for a maybe three breaths before swapping sides. As the wind chop and swell were coming from the seaward side I tended to favour breathing on the right where the land and markers were a majority of the time.
If I tried to breath on the left (seaward) side for any length of time to relieve the clunk developing in the my shoulder and chafing caused by the wetsuit zipper on the back of my neck, I would change course and start swimming toward New Caledonia. It was easier to stay on course if I was spotting and breathing on the right during each left hand stroke. Thank goodness I trained for this in the final weeks before the race. It is tricky to keep form in the stroke and straight body tracking while spotting. It is also quite hard on the neck which.
It wasn't obvious until I uploaded the Garmin activity that I saw there must have been a slight current heading out to sea (east to south east). At the time it felt like I was being pushed into shore. It also explains the extra effort it too to get back to the beach.
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| Transition 1 at Palm Cove on the Saturday |
Michelle mentioned that Sharn and Craig were around 10 minutes ahead. Great!
... Off to what some were saying was a "Tough Mudder" or Cyclo-cross style transition but that and the bike leg is for the next post...
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| Next post... Sharn and Craig on the front page of the Ironman Asia Pacific website! |
Cheers,
Pat
Pat
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