I arrived in Austria, for the St Polten 70.3 IM race 23 May. I was going into my first IM 70.3 race off the back of a 4 week intensive training camp with my Team Dillon coach, Perry Agass.
During the taper, I could feel my body getting stronger from the countless amount of hours training I had accumulated in Lanzarote. I was ready and focused.
What I was not prepared for, and the majority of the other athletes that were competing was the weather! I thought I had got away from the cold, wind and rain but no...it had followed me and there was no sign of it f-ing off, haha......
The couple easy sessions I had leading up to the race gave me a taste of how the conditions were going to effect my race. On the bike I was cold, on the run I was cold...brilliant, and a swim before all of this. The thought of getting on the bike after an open water swim, with a wind chill factor forecast to be 0 degrees was somewhat daunting, especially rocking in my new Team Dillon LD two piece ; ) Brrrrr.....
Nevertheless, I didn't let it phase me. Everyone else was gonna be in the same boat, and I had my game plan to stick to. Plus us Brits are as tough as nails when it comes to poor weather training and racing. 'Just deal with it'
It wasn't until the race briefing on Saturday, before the race, it was announced that dew to the conditions, the swim was to be cancelled!!! Hmmmm...interesting, will it be a Duathlon then? Was just one of the questions going through my head. No, well sort of. It was to be a 'Le Mans' start, whereby athletes would be sent off in waves of around 15, every 30 seconds. This did change things a bit and I knew that the start of the race was gonna be a sprint for the first 30-45mins.
Race day....and the usual pre race routine commenced. I got down to transition early to ensure water bottles were filled, nutrition was on the bike, shoes clipped and tires pumped. Everything was set to go. It was very cold, the winds were getting stronger by the minute. What was reassuring though, was the fact that the sun was rising in the distance. I did my warm up and then made my way down to the start. Trying to stay warm was difficult as I left it right until the last moment to take my warmer gear off.
Here I was, on the start line of my first IM 70.3. I was really disappointed not to have the swim, but that was the decision. We were off...15 athletes sprinting to enter T1 to get on our bikes. I had to laugh to myself as one of the athletes slipped on the plastic mats leading into transition, that's one less competitor I have to worry about ; ) 'I do hope he didn't hurt himself, LOL'
I started well on the bike, getting into my rhythm early on. The first 20k was on the autobahn, and with a tail wind I was making great progress up the field. I could see in the distance all the other athletes, and just kept picking them off one by one. I eventually found myself in a pack of strong riders. We took turns in attacking, just seeing what the other had in the tank. By the start of the first major ascent, I had made ground on some of the pros, passing quite a few in the process. I had also lost the pack of athletes I was with earlier. This was a big climb and pacing right was the key. Something we worked a lot on in Lanzarote. I was still making good progress, passing athletes at a steady rate. By now the winds were very strong, around 30km/h gusts and as they hit the side of my ZIPP 808's, I had to fight to keep myself from being sideswiped and blown into a ditch. My arms were physically aching! The last 10km into St Polten was ridden solo. There were no other athletes around. I remember thinking this is either good or bad, haha... thank goodness I hadn't gone wrong and in no time I was heading into T2. I had missed my target time by 5 minutes. It could have been dew to a number of factors.
I still had the run to finish, so stick to the game plan. I was confident I could make up the time. Again, I was passing more and more athletes. I felt strong and consistent, and as i quickly glanced over at others as I passed them, they were looking laboured! The new running technique, Perry of Team Dillon Coaching and I had worked so hard on in the build up was certainly paying off. My pacing was bang on and I was well on target.
As I neared the end, the music was pumping, the crowd was cheering. I turned back into the stadium for the final time, up the ramp and across the line in 03:49:19. I smashed my run target and got a half marathon PB in 01:16:01, nice work coach ; )
I knew I had a good finish time but was it good enough for a Vegas slot? Eventually I found out that I finished 5th in my AG, and 39th overall, in a very competative field and bad conditions. I knew 5th wasn't an automatic qualification slot but my time was certainly worthy. The waiting game began. After a tense few hours, watching other athletes grab their slot to Vegas, it eventually came to my AG. I had a lot of emotions going through me when I realised I had missed out on a slot by one place! My fiancé, Mum and Dad, who were there supporting me, flying the GB flag, shouting encouragement "get aggressive" haha....would have thought I'd been disqualified or DNF by the look on face. To say I was gutted would be an understatement. But as a wiseman says, "what doesn't break you, only makes you stronger" is truly the case and I am even more determined to get that slot I deserve in Norway.
For my first IM 70.3, I have to be really happy with my result, and first Brit to cross the line, haha...I've gained valuable experience from it and learnt a lot about racing in a 70.3. As always, there are areas to work on, but so many positives to take from the race. This is just the start of my journey and there is loads more to come from me yet!
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