Update and Race Report - August 17th 2009

I am writing this update in the airside atrium of Seattle – Tacoma airport (or Sea-Tac to the locals) after racing the 70.3 event in Lake Stevens, Washington yesterday.

Training had gone well in the lead up to the event, and my “numbers” showed that my fitness had improved relative to what it was prior to Ironman Japan. As a result, I thought I was justified going into the Lake Stevens event confident of a good result. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way, but more on that later.

I left Perth bound for the US on Tuesday 11th August. The journey to Sea-Tac would involve stopovers in Sydney and Los Angeles.

I hate flying at the best of times, especially the long haul flights, so I was ecstatic to be upgraded to Business class for the Sydney to LA leg of my journey. My seat turned into a bed, and along with the in-flight service, it made the flight almost bearable. Thank you Qantas!

Prior to my journey, I had organised a homestay with Brenda Wilkening and Eugene Allen, who lived about 30km from Sea-Tac. Brenda was a friend of my homestay hosts in Arizona last year – Jerry and Sandy Haupt - and believed Jerry’s advice that I was a trustworthy individual and worthy guest.

Not only did Brenda and Eugene pick me up from the airport, they also fed me, let me use their wonderful Pierce County Cross-Fit gymnasium and ferried me around town. I can’t thank Brenda and Eugene enough for their wonderful hospitality.

I arrived at Sea-Tac on the day I left Perth and stayed with Brenda and Eugene until the Friday morning. At this point I was picked up by Jerry Haupt, who had flown in from Phoenix, and we drove the 90 minutes north to our accommodation for the weekend. I had booked a hotel in Everett, which was about a 20 minute drive from the Lake Stevens race site.

The next couple of days were taken up with the formalities of preparing for race day.

I was aware of who was racing and picked out Joe Gambles as the man to beat. Joe is a relatively young Australian triathlete – 27 I believe – and has been around for a long time. I remember noticing his name in results many years ago when he was a developing talent. He has certainly stepped up another couple of levels over the last few years and has turned himself into a formidable opponent.

I felt Joe was out of reach, but I was reasonably confident of having the fitness and ability to finish in second place. Unfortunately, I failed to factor in the deleterious effects of Jetlag.

In the lead up to the race I was having trouble sleeping through the night and I was at my most fatigued between the hours of 5am and 11am. The race started at 6.30am and would last about 4 hours.

For some reason, when I planned on doing this race, I ignored the effects of Jetlag. This was probably because in 2003 I raced a long course event in Mexico virtually straight off the plane. It would now seem that straight off the plane is totally different to 5 days later.

I woke at 3.15am on race morning to prepare for the 6.30am start. We arrived at the race venue at 5.00am and I had plenty of time to go through the usual pre-race routine prior to donning the wetsuit and heading down to the swim start. The temperature on race morning was colder than expected at around 8 degrees and it resulted in a thick mist over the lake which led to a 10 minute delay in the race start due to visibility issues.

The swim utilises a rowing course and there is a cable strung under water for 90% of the journey. I positioned myself right on the rope, and, to my surprise, had the spot to myself. When the gun sounded to start the race all I had to do was sight the cable and know that I was going in the right direction. This meant I could sprint off the start without having to sight and I found myself close to the lead after the first 100 odd metres.

That was as close to the lead I would get all day, because as soon as the adrenaline of the start dissipated, I proceeded to go back through the field at a great rate. I was fortunate enough to be able to hang onto the back of the lead pack until the finish of the swim, but I was toasted.

It was difficult to know how I was going in the cycle, because due to the nature of the course, there was no chance to sight my opposition. However, I had some idea when the group I left the water with was gone within a few minutes, never to be sighted again. Further confirmation was given when Matt Lieto overtook me just after the beginning of the second loop and three athletes caught me with 10 kilometres to cycle.

It was absolutely clear that I wasn’t going very well when Jerry told me that I was 13 minutes behind Joe at the cycle to run transition.

I was hoping to gain some consolation from a good run, but I had no legs at the start, and as I had a sore right forefoot in the lead up to the race, thought it would be a better idea to withdraw after the first run loop of two.

Canada is now the focus and I want to make sure I give myself the best chance of a good result and at least cover the expenses of this trip.

While Lake Stevens is a nice place, in all likelihood, I will not be returning to compete again. Premier Event Management couldn’t come up with a complementary entry or a homestay, even though I have a good race record and I was flying in from Australia for the event.

Unfortunately, it looks like many of the WTC run Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events are going down the same road and it is getting increasingly difficult for many athletes to keep the costs of racing down to an acceptable level.
I only really signed up for this race because it was good timing prior to Canada.

I will be in Penticton for close to two weeks prior to Canada and this should give me time to get myself sorted out.
Stay tuned for an Ironman Canada race report.

PS. After getting the royal treatment from Qantas on the way over, anything less on the return journey was going to be a huge let down.

I thought that I may mention in passing while checking in that I had just finished third in Ironman Canada, to give myself the best opportunity of the upgrade to Business class. However, after analysing the check in staff, I was quite sure that none of them would have a clue what a triathlon was, so I didn’t bother – ha ha ha

The boarding passes I was given at check in were obviously incorrect, as the seat numbers were way too high. As on the trip over, I thought they must be giving me the “correct” boarding passes at the gate.

This was not the case unfortunately and I was relegated to the rear of the aircraft for the duration of the long and arduous journey home – damn you Qantas!
Ha ha ha