It just wasn’t my day.
Unfortunately, my first ever World Championships did not
turn out as hoped. I came in with expectations of a high placing in my
category. Despite having a really good preparation before heading to Canada, a
range of other factors came into play and, ultimately, I wasn’t able to perform
to a level which I had trained for.
My result was as follows:-
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Swim – 32:21.
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Bike – 2:26:10.
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Run – 1:34:49.
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Total race time – 4:39:34.
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97th in Male 25-29 age group.
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600th overall from 2300+ participants.
Let me just point out that the following is my personal
analysis of the outcome. It is really important for me to do this because I am
always looking for ways to get better. I am hard on myself and I prefer it that
way. It helps me to continue striving for improvement.
I am not satisfied with this performance but I am not down
in the dumps about it either. I am just looking for what I can take from this
race so the next one will be a lot better.
Many wonderful people have provided encouragement and given
best wishes for the occasion, which is hugely appreciated. Also, a few even
stayed up late, in Australia, to keep track of me. This is truly great to know
I have people who have a genuine interest in my aspirations and achievements.
No matter how I do, they will always be proud and/or impressed. I would be much
worse off without this. My wife, as always, was right by me supporting all day.
I, on the other hand, must take this hard line approach with
myself because being proud or satisfied with a performance which is not
achieving the goals that I have set out for and trained so hard to reach, will
not contribute to my future improvement and success. I need to continue being
hungry for those goals and not settle for anything less.
I understand that this will not makes sense to some people.
After all, I qualified and participated in a World Championship triathlon event
and got to do this in an unbelievably spectacular location of Mont-Tremblant,
Quebec, Canada. The experience itself is special. However, I trained harder
than ever before and travelled a long way to try and achieve a dream and came
away with a tired, below par performance for my ability and standard. With good
reason, this doesn’t satisfy my athletic being. I’m hoping this helps you
understand the way my mind works and how it’s purely a personal thing which I
work very hard on from a psychological point of view to keep pushing myself.
OK, now the race itself.
It was a perfect day for racing. It started off cool at less
than 10 C at 6:00am while we did final checks and placed drink bottles and
nutrition on our bikes. I then headed back to our room which was just 500m from
transition and my swim start time wasn’t until 8:40am. I had some more to eat
and drink before doing some stretching and other warm up movements, applying
sunscreen and getting into my wetsuit. At 7:45, my wife and I made the 10
minute walk to the swim start at beautiful Lake Tremblant. At about 8:20 I did
a short swim warm-up then lined up with my age-group for the start.
After this, there’s not much to tell. My swim was not an
improvement on any previous Half-Ironman races. This was a disappointment but I
just remained focused on my strengths being the bike and the run. Fortunately,
the temperature had risen to approximately 16 C by the time I was on the bike
and it reached 20 C later on.
Unfortunately, the bike and run didn’t go much better. As
soon as I began pedaling, my quads indicated a lack of strength and a lot of
fatigue. I felt OK on the flatter sections but as soon as the road started
going up, which was quite often, my quads wouldn’t cooperate. They lacked their
normal power and endurance and threatened cramps most of the time going uphill.
Although, I wasn’t able to ride at my best I feel it still indicated that my
training for this race had been excellent. My bike split of 2:26:10 is only 4
minutes below my personal best 90km bike split, so, I know I would have gone
well below my PB if I didn’t have any issues.
The run was a similar story. I wasn’t able to push the same
kind of speeds that I normally would and going uphill was very difficult. Also,
at the 6km mark I had to stop as I got some shooting pains going from above my
right hip all the way down my right leg. I stretched my glute and massaged the
painful area above my hip as hard as I could. This worked and the pain didn’t
return for the rest of the run. However, this was a perfect indication that my
body was not in good shape.
A few positives from the event were:-
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My bike time wasn’t horrible, despite my legs,
which showed good training.
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I ran a consistent speed on the run with a very
slight negative split, which indicates good training.
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My nutrition was very good. I didn’t lack
nutritional energy at any point and I was well hydrated all race.
I can confidently conclude that the following were the major
factors in my poor performance. Sitting on a plane for 14 hours Melbourne to LA
and trying to get comfortable for sleeping has really thrown the alignment of
my body out, as well as the 5 hours LA to Montreal. This was the main reason
for my pain during the run and also contributed to my fatigued muscles when
cycling. My spine and pelvis were definitely well out of alignment which is
something that tends to happen when I sit for extended periods, like I do at
work. My regular chiropractic treatment is what ensures that my body is in its
best possible condition for training and racing. Without having this treatment
after the long travel, my body was nowhere near its best condition.
Also, the jet lag was horrendous. 6 out of the 7 nights
before the race, I only got between 3 and 5 hours sleep. This drained me mentally
and physically and made for a very difficult race week. I finally had 9 hours sleep
two nights before the race but then only 5 hours the night before the race. All
week, despite minimal exercise and being very focused on my diet, my body was
fatigued and for some reason I couldn’t stay asleep. It was beginning to drive
me crazy.
I don’t consider these excuses for a poor performance. For
me, they are exact reasons for it but brand new variables for me to consider
and learn from to increase my chances of better outcomes in future races. I
need these to be a better athlete.
Finally, I am not proud of my overall performance and result
in this race. I will take things from it but I am extremely hungry for
redemption in my next race at Ironman 70.3 Ballarat, on November 16.
I am proud of my training for this race which gives me
confidence for Ballarat. Also, I am proud of qualifying for these World
Championships and grateful to have had the opportunity and the way I focused
for so long on training for it. So, I have things I can take from the whole
experience to help my continued development.
