Here we go, possibly my favourite race report ever. From my best result ever, (in my view) - my most satisfying win and just a really special day.
Firstly -to recap on the last blog, one week before Antwerp I raced my first ever Pro wave at Zurich 5150. This was my choice, but I was very disappointed at being swum over, and really didn't feel that I justified what I was capable of, and similarly after racing Cowman to a 4:54 2nd place with food poisoning, I knew that I deserved better and I was dearly hoping Antwerp would be where I could right those wrongs.
The reason I enter this race is because its cheap, fast, and you swim with the men so plenty of feet to draft. Oh, and I like Belgian beer, moules and Frites!
It was a shame that I didn’t know anyone else there though. A bit lonely having dinner on my own, but these days you can stay in touch pretty well using electronic means. It felt like my support crew were only a Facebook post away.
So having explained why I wanted a good result – what was the preparation like? I arrived at this race having completed a big tour around Europe, and spending the last week tapering in the French Pyrenees at Sancture Sportifs. It was a strange place to taper, with hindsight, as the cycling is so good there, and the temperature so hot, I was tempted to really nail myself. But I (mostly) stuck to the plan, slept a lot and drank some French wine! I nailed my last 2 bricks, although I would say that I suffered a lot from trying to run my race pace at 38 degrees. I also had 3 steaks on the 3 nights leading up to the race, and I drove for 12 hours to get from France to Antwerp. But out of my car I hopped at registration to do my pre-race run, and I felt like a champ. My legs were just raring to go. I did the unusual step of emailing Coach Tom and Brendon my sports psych to tell them how good I felt going into the race and I texted my Mum to say that the race started at 11:30 and I’d be a winner by 4:30pm. It was actually 4:02.
I know that all sounds very arrogant, but I just knew that this was going to be a good day. As my final preparations, I watched the Tour time trial, willing Bradley Wiggins on, and I listened carefully to his post-race interview after he’d won, where he said he thought a lot of his family during the ride.
It dawned with beautifully sunny, clear blue skies and maybe 18 degrees- warmer than the 13 degree forecast. I rehearsed the race many times over, as I know the course and I knew pretty well who my competition was, even down to the pros who were going off 30 mins ahead, and I judged that I could catch some of them on their 2nd lap of the run while I was on my first. We had lots of time to get ready for the start - I lay down in the sun, listened to some good tunes and did my pre-race run warm up at 1 hour to go. Then into the wetsuit and go and psych out some of the 11:30 wave.
The plan for this race, from Tom, was to experiment by nailing the bike as hard as possible and then just see what happens. I secretly knew that even by nailing the bike, I would be able to run hard. I planned to be aggressive on the swim, push through the pain on the bike, while keeping my chest open so that I could breathe on the run.
At the start, I aimed to swim on the left this time, so as to avoid the carnage of Zurich and it worked. I can’t tell you when I realised than instead of swimming amongst my own wave I was overtaking the next wave, but I got out in 29:16, which is almost exactly the same as my time 2 years ago, my career fastest split over 1900m. I felt great.
Onto the bike and I swiftly made it past any women who were out there, and just pushed the Baby Blue to its fastest ever - averaging 36.6kph. I have a Garmin which doesn’t work, but sporadically it turned itself on and off again a couple of times on the first loop, and I saw my HR was 162 and the speed was 39kph. I resolved to keep it there, and just kept on overtaking as many as I could. There were no packs near me and the draftbusters were good to me, as they watched me overtake each time and gave the thumbs up, never getting in my way.
Unfortunately my father got taken into hospital suddenly while I was away and I have been calling and sending him pictures from all the places I’ve been training and racing, and now I’m back home I’ll be visiting him in hospital and supporting his recovery as much as I can. He measures his progress by how many tubes are stuck in him, and some days when the pain is not too bad and they remove another tube he seems happier. When the pain came in my legs I thought of him and those damn tubes, if he can put up with the pain day in day out, I could certainly push through 2.5 hours of it. So that is what motivated me, and it worked. I kept on overtaking, and made a deal with myself that each loop would be 34.5 minutes and no more, and I would be back by 2 hours 28. And I stopped the clock at 2 hours 27.59. This was 1 min 45 quicker than my time 2 years ago. Which I had thought would never be improved, as it was on the old course, which was faster with no dead turns in it. It was 20 mins quicker than last year on the same course.
Onto the cobbles for the run, with no heart rate, no speed, just feel. And I determined that I would just take it easy, since I’d done what Tom asked, I did my hard bike and now I knew there were no women even close to me, I could enjoy the run. I usually count the people that I overtake for motivation. It was 126 for the first lap, 128 for the second and then I stopped counting at 118 on the last lap when I had to push it for the finish line. But most significant were numbers 6 and 16. These were the pros that I’d so wanted to overtake. It made my day. With no pacing strategy at all, I managed a 1:32 half, quicker than every amateur female, and only beaten by 2 of the pros. It was 5 mins quicker than my time on the same course 2 years ago.
So overall 4 hours 33, 6.5 mins quicker than my PB. Beating 7 pros, coming 7th female and winning my Age group by 12 mins, I was beaming from ear to ear when I crossed the line. And I just had the strangest feeling of complete peace. Just utter satisfaction. After racing for 5 weeks on the trot, I feel I can relax now, and nail some really hard training for Las Vegas World Champs. I will watch the Olympics and see my friends and family but feeling more relaxed now I know I have nothing to prove. I have won my age group twice at 70.3 in the last 6 weeks and beat some of the best amateurs in the world at all ages and I know that is what I am capable of now. Knowing that, were I racing as a pro, I would have won prize money is heartening, but the main thing is that I know where I stand relative to the best. That was the purpose of taking my summer off.
Having celebrated properly with moules, frites and several bieres, I then drove home in the sun on Monday. I am still very fatigued, but no pain and my body is doing really well. Its a very satisfying kind of tiredness. In all honesty, I feel that if for some reason I never race again, I will be completely happy with that result.
The thanks of course go to Tom, as the journey is never completely smooth, but it has certainly got to the destination I want to be at for now, and the final leg is still to come. Jenni and Matt at Fresh are still keeping the machine working perfectly injury-free : I'm already missing the core/strength and soft tissue work that I do with them after 2 weeks away. Plus I owe lots of thanks to all the training buddies from one side of the world to the other who I’ve managed to drag around with me. And yes, I still need some more of that for the next month before I head off to the desert heat of Arizona. If you fancy some really hard sessions, just contact me and I’ll let you know what Tom has in the plan!
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