Pages

Monday, April 7, 2014

Auckland Half Ironman Race Report

Auckland Half Ironman was a relatively successful outing in the World of Jo, my main goal was to be happy and achieve Triathlon Zen and I am pretty sure I did that.

I find it very weird doing a big race (I call a big race a Half or full Ironman) at home.  The night before the race I was vacuuming and cleaning up kitty litter - I can't imagine doing Ironman and going to work the day before, emptying the dishwasher in the morning, etc.  So the night before I tried to remember I was racing the next day and managed to get all my stuff together without forgetting anything.

Saturday was a lovely day - nice blue skies and no wind.  Race start was a leisurely 8.30am which got dragged out to about 8.40am due to the usual Matt Tuck tardiness.  The sea was nice and flat and I had a few people to swim with at times, I came out of the water after the first lap and didn't really feel like I had swum 1km already.  Running out of T1 after a lengthy transition putting on my uber aero bike top, my helmet, my shoes etc and then trotting the 50m or so out to the timing mat and my official swim/T1 time was 30mins16.... Hmmmmm maybe a few hundred metres short?! The first team swimmer did the swim + T1 in under 20mins, so around 19 minutes for 2km - world record pace?! The organisers assured us afterwards that it was GPS measured - maybe need to get their GPS machine calibrated! Sadly they didn't use they same GPS for the bike and run as these were both spot on.

All aeroed up
The bike was pretty good albeit rather sloth-like on the descents, more like a terrified sloth as I seem to have lost my nerve for anything not in a straight line.  I pity the fool who gets stuck behind me on a downhill.
I had hoped to bike a bit faster but I was happy in my biking so I can't ask for much more considering I hadn't really been taking bike training too seriously recently.  I had a few boyfriends on the bike course who obviously liked the look of my arse and I only knew they were there when I looked behind me but none of them seemed to last long.
Uber aero
Nice day for a bike ride

Davo riding like a crab
The run was pretty good, I trotted along passing a few people and getting lapped by Amelia Watkinson who won the women's and came 4th overall in a smoking record time.  I managed to catch a girl in front of me who I had given an odd nickname (as the voices in my head tend to do) which perked me up and put me up into 6th place. The run was 3 laps and the first two were one second different and the last was about a minute slower so I thought my pacing was pretty good.
Leggies weren't too sore but feet were a bit ouchie with a hotspot/blister on the ball of my foot.
Team SpeedTheory did well coming 2nd in the teams but the outcome might have been a bit more interesting if Captain Pudding hadn't have got a puncture which cost them a few minutes.
Nonetheless we all went home winners with me wining an Orca wetsuit and Jared Razzle taking home some styley sunglasses.
Actually looking biomechanically correct for once
About to catch my new nemesis



What Triathlon Zen looks like
Thanks to Scottie T for the awesome photos, I will stop being a tight arse and will buy some soon.

I have had quite an enthusiasm for running since the race and am planning my running timetable to try and up things without hurting myself.  My awesome new yellow running singlet helps with my enthusiasm and my pretty new shoes I will be buying soon.

PC news

No actual news just some cute pictures


Maybe not a PC but a nice sunrise

Family photo minus one

Look at that little face
Kitty in the wild