What a day! That’s my second goal race of the year done and dusted, and another result I can be truly proud of. Our team placed 9th in the Men’s Relay* and 1st of the VTO teams!

* For some reason, our Mixed Relay team was entered into the Men’s Relay, but we weren’t too worried. I cannot claim much of the result credit as my swimmer and runner both set blazing times.

I didn’t have ideal preparation, but you play the hand you’re dealt. After a couple of weeks of insane fitness from Tour de Brisbane, my body decided enough was enough and I suffered lingering illness and injury, plus had another wisdom tooth extracted. Luckily I spent a bit of time in Cairns before the race trying to ride myself back into fitness and acclimatise to the suffocating tropical heat. But anyway, onto the racing. Mike, Bec, and I were all racing the 90km bike leg for different VTO teams.

FulGaz representing separate teams for VTO! Bec, Mike and I before the start.

Starting on the beachfront at Palm Cove, the swimmers hit the water at 6:35am. Aisha, our absolute gun of a swimmer, put in a stellar performance. She blitzed through the 1.9km swim and exited the water easily inside the top 10. Her blistering swim time gave me a solid head start into the bike leg!

My plan was to go out hard-ish for the first 10km as a test of my condition. My heart rate had been elevated for the previous few weeks. As other riders started to come past me that plan went out the window and I kicked it up a gear! I felt pretty good, better than I had felt in weeks, so I kept it pinned. On the flats I was passed quite a bit, whereas over the rollers, climbs and descents I easily made up places. The Cairns bike course is probably a bit too flat for me to be competitive on.

Ripping along on a mission!

The tropical heat and humidity quickly started to drain me and I grabbed a bottle at every aid station (you don’t need to stop, they do fantastic running hand-ups). I gulped down what I could before throwing the bottle into the litter zone. I drank often and downed a gel roughly every 20km.

Ironman is non-drafting. You have to keep at least 12 metres from another competitor. Pass wide and maintain your speed. If you are passed it is your responsibility to maintain distance. The event is a test of your own solo effort and endurance. Well, in theory it is. See the guy behind me in the photo below?

I passed him while cresting the climb at 18km. He then sat on my wheel enjoying a free tow for quite some time. Every time I glanced around I could see his road bike shaped shadow on my tail like it was the Sunday club ride. It didn’t affect my own ride or result, so it didn’t bother me too much, but check out the guy passing us correctly, giving him a “dirty cheater” look! 😂

I don’t remember much about the middle section of the race, other than it was hot and hard. I pushed on with head low to maintain my “turtle” TT position and simply raced my own race. Even power to the pedals, smooth pedal strokes, no coasting, no letting up. I focused on getting fluids into me and maintaining a strong aero position. I don’t put out much power, so aero is everything!

Next photographer and he’s still there!

Within the final 30km there were a couple of big bunches of 10-20 riders that came past at speed. You’ve never experienced fear until you’ve been swamped by a group of triathletes riding in a bunch, some down on the aero bars, many with dubious bike handling skills. I could have easily slotted into one of these groups for the rest of the ride, but I wanted my effort to be, you know, my own effort.

With 10km to go I was roasting in the heat, but still feeling strong. I decided it was a good a time as any to totally empty the tank. Ramping up the power I gave it everything. I managed to pass quite a few riders into the finish with my heart rate through the roof. I was going so hard I almost had to emergency brake to avoid riding over the dismount line.

Unclipping and running to rack my bike, I was totally gassed. My quads started to cramp as I handed the timing chip to Jeremy, our speed demon runner. I’d absolutely 100% turned myself inside out to put in the best possible time for my team, and for myself.

My official result was 2:36:36 @ 34.32km/hr.

I am totally stoked with that. Considering my fitness level and my training interruptions leading up to the event, I don’t think I could have gone a single second faster. I paced and fuelled to near perfection, and came away with my fastest ever solo 90km effort. Job done!