Eish! Quite an interesting race this one... In an animistic way I have to say that PE didn’t take kindly to our idle talk about an easy course and nice weather and brought us down to earth properly! We stayed at the Town Lodge this year and it was a great location. Eating breakfast on the porch on a beautiful Saturday overlooking the bay and all the activity I again understood that for me IM is all about the massive anticipation in the hours leading up to that start. That feeling I had walking along the shoreline and on the beach before the start, knowing that I was going to partake in the very thing all this is about, was again just magnificent! The practice swim pointed towards an interest leg and it turned out to be just that. Swells that certainly got my attention and a chop to match made for a proper test. It was really difficult to sight and after the first turn I followed about 100 athletes in front of me on a completely wrong line. I realised this a few minutes later when I noticed that we were swimming towards the left crane and not the end of the harbour wall. I sat up to check and saw that a major part of the field immediately in front of me was going off towards the 1st yellow buoy after turn 3, some 300m off course! I don’t know what happened to these guys but I’m very glad I realised it. Big swells around turn 2, and what I think must have been current on the back leg: I missed all the yellow buoys about 50 m to the left despite how carefully I sighted. Came out in 1:19 which was about 5 min slower than what I hoped for. The bike was relatively pleasant. Conditions were perfect for the first lap, and ok for the second: little hot, slight wind towards the end, but much easier than last year. I stuck to my target HR, felt strong throughout and ate/drank according to plan. The 28mm tires definitely helped (Thanks DaveM!). Got off in 6:12 which meant my best ever average speed of all 70.3’s and one IM. Out on the run and, initially, I felt quite good. My target HR translated into a ‘brisk’ pace of 5:57 for the first 20km. But then, just as thoughts of breaking 12 hours entered my mind all came crushing down rapidly. It was weird, just like pulling a plug. The power just drained out of me within a few kms. At 22km I couldn’t get myself to run past the feeding tables and walked all of them. At 28km I was getting really dizzy and couldn’t figure out whether I ate/drank too much or too little, which with all the normal scary thoughts during the last stages of an IM wreaked havoc in my mind. By 32km I was walking both upslopes at the ends of the course. The last 4km felt never-ending. I eventually finished the run in 4:25. With liberal transitions it meant a 12:13 for the race, a good 33min faster than last year. My AG position will show whether I really did a better race. I feel proud irrespective. Great organising as always and the fans and volunteers were again the lifeblood of the whole experience. Like ICM said above I hope that I could also support and volunteer in the future. After two IM I can say with all integrity that I gave everything I had, in both training and racing. I am completely happy. Bar marriage and parenthood, this is the most intense thing I have ever done and I think I came out a better person on the other side. I won’t be back in the foreseeable future as there are some other amazing things I look forward to achieving now like trying out Xterra and cutting my golf handicap from 9 to 0, but come next year I will definitely have some serious nostalgia. What an amazing two years this was! I am indeed a very privileged person.
