Noosa
My gosh! What can I say about the Noosa Triathlon? If there is such a thing as "the perfect race" then that was it. I was so sure that I wouldn't do it in under 3 hours but I did 2:58:33!
It wasn't looking promising when I came out of the swim. My watch showed 30:35. I was expecting under 30 minutes. I did 1500m in 27:37 at the pool recently, so I was a bit disappointed. I learned later that most people found their swim times were longer than expected. Apart from that, and having my goggles kicked at the first buoy, the swim wasn't too bad. I stayed calm, tried to maintain good form (hard in a washing machine) and, most importantly, got out of the water able to run into transition.
The ride was where my race was made, though I didn't realise that until I was off the bike. It mostly felt good. Going up through the forest felt hard and slow, but I knew that wouldn't last too long. I hit a bit of a wall around 25km, but shortly after was "The Hill", a not too steep, but long and so fast decent. That seemed to give me the momentum I needed for the rest of the ride. I was a bit disappointed when I looked at my bike computer later to see I only managed a top speed of about 68km/hr. 70km/hr would have been cool!
Anyway, like I said, it was at the start of the run that I realised I had a chance to achieve what I thought to be an unattainable goal. I looked at my watch and saw 1:56. I thought "I've got about 64 minutes to do the run in order to finish in under 3 hours. Hey, that's actually possible!" After that, I looked at my watch a lot. I was monitoring my pace, doing calculations at every distance marker, working out how much my pace could slow for me to still make it. Anyway, it worked. I even had enough left to really push it for the last 500m or so. I have to say I don't think I would have managed it if not for the very numerous drink stations and hoses out on the run course. It was bloody hot (though it could have been much worse). Thank goodness Noosa has more water than Brisbane!
These are my official times:
Swim 00:30:36
Bike 01:25:44
Run 01:02:13
I plan to put up some photos that my lovely support crew took, but I'm always slack with that. Plus I'm sick. I'm soooo lucky the cold held off until after the race!
It wasn't looking promising when I came out of the swim. My watch showed 30:35. I was expecting under 30 minutes. I did 1500m in 27:37 at the pool recently, so I was a bit disappointed. I learned later that most people found their swim times were longer than expected. Apart from that, and having my goggles kicked at the first buoy, the swim wasn't too bad. I stayed calm, tried to maintain good form (hard in a washing machine) and, most importantly, got out of the water able to run into transition.
The ride was where my race was made, though I didn't realise that until I was off the bike. It mostly felt good. Going up through the forest felt hard and slow, but I knew that wouldn't last too long. I hit a bit of a wall around 25km, but shortly after was "The Hill", a not too steep, but long and so fast decent. That seemed to give me the momentum I needed for the rest of the ride. I was a bit disappointed when I looked at my bike computer later to see I only managed a top speed of about 68km/hr. 70km/hr would have been cool!
Anyway, like I said, it was at the start of the run that I realised I had a chance to achieve what I thought to be an unattainable goal. I looked at my watch and saw 1:56. I thought "I've got about 64 minutes to do the run in order to finish in under 3 hours. Hey, that's actually possible!" After that, I looked at my watch a lot. I was monitoring my pace, doing calculations at every distance marker, working out how much my pace could slow for me to still make it. Anyway, it worked. I even had enough left to really push it for the last 500m or so. I have to say I don't think I would have managed it if not for the very numerous drink stations and hoses out on the run course. It was bloody hot (though it could have been much worse). Thank goodness Noosa has more water than Brisbane!
These are my official times:
Swim 00:30:36
Bike 01:25:44
Run 01:02:13
I plan to put up some photos that my lovely support crew took, but I'm always slack with that. Plus I'm sick. I'm soooo lucky the cold held off until after the race!
Labels: triathlon
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