I raced the
ITU Long Course World Championship this year. It was the longest race I have
done o date a 4km swim, 120km bike and 30km run. The race fell three weeks
after the 70.3 worlds championships in Australia. It was going to be a very different
race.
Long Course
Worlds was in flat, hot and windy Oklahoma City. It is not called tornado
country for nothing. Even the morning before the race the winds were strong and
turning the water up. But I knew
that everyone was in the same boat.
The swim was
crazy it probably was one of the choppiest swims I have been in outside of the
ocean. The waves were hitting us from the side and it was like a washing
machine out there. With such a long swim I knew that no matter what happened I
had to keep pushing and stay as close to the leaders as possible. About half
way threw the first loop that all went out the window and it was just about
getting the swim done and onto the bike. The wind had blown some of the
sighting buoys away and there was a big gap where all you could see was water.
I was blown of course and became very disoriented to the point were I had to
pop my head up too see where I was. Finally after a struggle I made it onto the
second loop. The second look was a little smother since I knew what to expect
but there still were a few times when I had to look around to find my next
sitting point. After the race I talked to a few other pros and it seemed that
every one was in the same situation getting pushed all over the place.
When I
finally got on dry land I new that it was time to get stuff done. I had a lot
of time to make up, but I could not just go crazy on the first few km with such
a long ride ahead of me. I built into the bike and slowly caught a few people
as I went along. It was very important that I stayed hydrated and ate properly.
For this race I aimed to take in 300cal an hour on the bike and drink as much
as needed. I used 1st endurance liquid shot with caffeine added to
it for my nutrition. At every water station I made sure I cooled myself down
with water. I was able to hold myself together until about 100km.
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| Picture by: Joel Jameson |
Then my body
just fell apart. I started to get a head ach and could not focus. All I could
do was keep moving forward fighting against the wind. As the bike came to an
end I was able to catch a couple more people.
When I got
onto the run all I could think was, ‘I need to fight for every place in this
race.’ The run was a survival, you just had to keep running and picking people
off. I was able to work my way up from 17th to 12th place
on the run. I just had to stay on the gas and never back off. It was so nice to
race of my country again under the maple leaf.
Over all it
was a good day but I am always looking for more and I will be looking to build
on this result in 2017. Next up I will be racing Ironman 70.3 Miami and Austin.
Thank you
to:
Royal Containers
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