News
Wonderful Weather at the Worlds
Posted September 12, 2009 01:05 PM
Last year's race report after the Vancouver Worlds was titled "Wacky Weather at the Worlds". Thankfully this year, in Gold Coast, Australia, the weather gods smiled down on us.
Bob and I arrived a few days before the race and adjusted to the time change quite well. Every morning we've woken to clear blue skies and the forecast leading up to race day was just perfect. Yesterday was a little hot for racing (probably about 26 degrees) and a little windy on the bike, but overall it was excellent. Perfect for the spectators too which is really important as it was a long day of age group racing.
We took a taxi to the race site (about 4 kms away from where we're staying in Surfer's Paradise) along with our New Zealand friends Tania and Steve (Tania's Dad was also competing in the M70-74 age group). This was the best idea as my race was to start at 7:41am and we had to be out of transition by 7am as it was a 1.5 km walk to the swim start area. The buses would have been really crowded and the first one that was leaving Surfer's was at 6:23 so I knew I'd be panicking about having enough time to set up transition etc if we'd gone that route. The bike transition area was huge - it felt like an Ironman race setup as there were more than 2000 age groupers competing throughout the morning. Bob's race wasn't until 9:14. The heats went from 7am to around 10am.
After walking to the swim start area with Bob, Tania and Steve, I had enough time for a short swim warmup and then headed to the "corral" to wait with the other W50-54 competitors. I positioned myself on the far right of the group but approx 1 min before the gun went off decided to switch over to the far left as I felt it would provide a better outside line to the buoy and allow me to avoid being pummelled as everyone rounded the first buoy. This proved to be perfect as I wasn't hit once but had a good clear line and toes to draft off right from the start!
The swim course was well marked as the buoys were basically parallel to the shore for the whole 1.5km distance. I stayed perfectly on course and was able to draft quite well. I felt relaxed in the water and gave it a really good effort as I wanted to do as well as I could on the swim and bike portions of the race. I knew that my run would be lacking having done IMCanada less than 2 weeks beforehand.
The swim exit was up on to the beach and a steep, sandy incline into transition. A long run down one side of the bike area and then along the far back end looking for the row marker #6. Luckily my bike was down the row by only a few bikes so was easy to spot, as was my screaming yellow and blue IM Western Australia towel which I used to place my transition gear on. It really stood out! (Apparently in Bob's row he and another fellow just a couple of bikes away used the same towel - thankfully that wasn't the case for me!)
The bike route was 2 loops of 20km of main road along the coastline and through some residential areas. Well paved and well marked. The first loop consisted mostly of women from earlier heats and so was very civilized. I worked hard on the bike ride and by the end of the two loops had averaged 29.4kph for the 40km ride. Not outrageously fast or strong but I was pleased with my effort. The second loop of the bike course had men from the younger age groups out onto the course. Then things got interesting (or perhaps frustrating would be a better word). Even though age group races are strictly "non-drafting" events (i.e. you have to stay at least 3 bike lengths from the bike of the bike in front of you, and take no longer than 20 seconds to pass) there were huge - and I mean huge, 30 bikes or more - packs of cyclists passing en masse. I saw one group go by just before the turnaround point of the second loop and was so mad as they were 10km into their race and there was no reason that they should still be bunched together after that distance - except for the fact that they were blatantly cheating and betting on the odds of not getting penalized by the motorcycle officials...maddening!
Coming into the final small turnaround approximately 200ms from the bike finish chute was the scariest part of the whole bike leg as there were so many men at that point all trying to go around as quickly as they could before heading out onto their second leg of the route. I took an inside line and just held on as tight as I could and prayed that no-one clipped my back wheel and took me down. It was crazy...
Then it was time to dismount and run the bike back into the transition, throw the runners on and head out onto the two loop run course. By this point it was really getting warm and I was starting to overheat but thankfully the aid stations were fairly closely placed and I was able to pour water down my race outfit and over my head every few minutes. It did mean running with squishing running shoes but I figured for 10km it wouldn't cause too much of a problem.
I gave it my best effort on the run but having done an IM so recently definitely impacted on my leg strength. I did what I could and that's what counts. The run seemed to pass quite quickly and then it was finally time to head down the finish line chute. There were a ton of spectators all day lining the course and especially lining the approach to the finish which was a couple of hundred meters long. It was fabulous!
I went through the recovery area and retrieved my morning gear bag and then headed off to the grandstand to get a spot to watch for Bob finishing his race. I saw him coming in from the first loop of the run (you run down a different chute and then head out onto the 2nd loop) and of course saw him triumphantly finishing. We both felt that the day had been absolutely perfect. No real pressure to "perform" as we knew we'd be MOP or BOP in our age groups. The hard part is qualifying to go to these races so on the actual day you just try to soak in all the atmosphere and enjoy every moment. It was a fantastic experience.
After the race we cycled back with our gear, had a shower and lunch and then headed back down to the race site to link up with Tania and Steve to watch the Pro Men's race mid afternoon. We watched the first lap of the swim down at the beach and then scooted back up near the transition area to watch the rest of the race from there. The 40 km bike ride was 8 loops of 5km each, and the 10km run was 4 loops of 2.5km so we had a great vantage point to see the shift in the lead from lap to lap. Coming off the bike Simon Whitfield was only 1 minute back from the leaders and we thought he stood a good chance of bridging up and utilizing his amazing last moment sprint speed. Sadly, though this wasn't the case and the 21 year old phenom from Britain, Alastair Brownlee, won the day with a dominating last minute surge over Javier Gomez from Spain.
This evening is the "Great Aussie BBQ" farewell dinner so we'll definitely be taking that in. Monday and Tuesday will be spent relaxing and taking in some of the sights around Surfer's Paradise on our bikes (or perhaps we'll even rent some scooters...) before packing up and heading out on Wednesday for the final leg of our holiday - one month in Kona where we'll be volunteering during race week at Ironman Hawaii and spectating on the big day.
As Bob said this morning at breakfast - the race yesterday was "magical" and it truly was a great experience. Final stats were:
BOB
Swim - 26:47
T1 - 2:45
Bike - 1:13:59
T2 - 1:50
Run - 44:40
Total - 2:29:56
46/76 in M55-59 AG
CAROLYN
Swim - 27:13 (I'm blaming my slower swim time on the fact that Bob's heat was 1.5 hours later than mine and the currents were flowing more in the right direction for him...- actually it was Bob that proposed this theory so I'm embracing it!)
T1 - 2:56
Bike - 1:19:55
T2 - 1:44
Run - 59:44
Total - 2:52:27 (8 minutes faster than the Vancouver Worlds in 2008 - I was very pleased with this!)
55/68 W50-54 AG
