Triathlon is a sport of details where every small piece of the puzzle matters in reaching the overall result. Going into my first major ½ Ironman event of the year in Austria, I felt my puzzle had all the pieces to get a top 5 placing. Training had progressed well beyond what I had accomplished the previous year and I had a good feeling going into the event.
Beautiful weather greeted me on race day with sun, no wind, and 25 degree temperatures. With over 1500 competitors, the race was the largest I had ever undertaken. The adrenaline of television helicopters and thousands of spectators helped fuel my efforts.
The first section of the event was the 1.9km swim, which was interestingly divided between two lakes with a short 200m run between the waters. Swimming is admittedly my weak point, so I simply tried to limit my losses in the first section.
Then pushed onto the bike section where I have an advantage over most due to my background as a professional level cyclist. The 90km flew past and I slowly caught over 30 athletes who had gained some time on me during the swim. Upon completing the bike leg, I was somewhere around 10th position and felt relatively strong to do a fast ½-marathon.
The first 5kms of the run my legs felt like Jell-O and I quickly realized the day was not going as I had hoped. To reach the highest level in ½ Ironman racing, you need a deadly fast run of less than 1 hour 15 minutes. As the kms ticked past, my pace slowed and by the finish I could only manage a 1:22 ½-marathon. About 10 minutes more than my person best time for the distance.
While the end result of 22nd place did not reach my goal of a top 5 placing, I left happy to know I am not far away from reaching that target. Now I have two months time to build upon my fitness and tune my running to be able to achieve what I know is possible. My season goal of racing the world championships is within reach and now I have a clear picture of what pieces of the puzzle I need to refine in order to reach my goal.
