I wrote a detailed report the night after the event, but my laptop crashed (battery fail) as I was about to post it....
So I'll give it another shot:
Noosapalooza
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Week leading up to event:
Sat, 1 week before the event: did 25km ride at 30.9kph rolling avg
Tues and Fri: two beach swims out the back between the flags 4 to 5 times, approx 500m per swim, untimed
Thurs: brick session 33km bike at 31kph rolling avg and 9.6km run in 50min.
Sat, 1 day before the event: 20km ride, leisurely pace, untimed. Also Noosa canal swim, once around the island after we dropped our bikes off in transition, untimed.
Day of the event, got up at 4:15am, muesli with banana (breakfast of champions!), then into the car with my mate and off to the event. Dropped our stuff into transition, then waited around for 3 hours until our wave starts (the elites were in the showers before we hit the water). Made a series of bets with my buddy: $5 for each leg, and $5 for the overall win.
Slow swim time, 36min 47, felt like I had been passed by almost everyone, and that turned out to be the case! I was 291st of 305 finishing competitors for this leg. $5 down, but my friend's bike was still on the rack when I got out of transition (he started 4min behind me in the next wave, and he is also pretty slow in the water -- but otherwise the bike rack was practically empty.
Bike was ok, I didn't draft off anyone, although I probably could have. I hit 74kph on the way down the hill, that's a new record for me. My bike computer showed an average of 31.3kph for the leg, but with transition included, the official result was 121min 10sec, for an average of 29.5kph. (233rd of 305 competitors in my age bracket).
At the last minute, I had decided to put gatorade in my drink bottles rather than water, and I think that might not have been a good move. The stuff was tasting quite sickly sweet by the end of the first bottle, and I was hanging out for some plain water. Next time I will either dilute it, or take one bottle of sports drink, and a second of just water. A funny thing happened as I pulled up to the dismount line. Someone decided it would be a good idea to zip past me over the last 10 metres, and then do a quick dismount. Actually it was so quick they did a clip-stack, and almost took me out too! I was a bit peeved, but I managed to stay upright as I ran past them.
I was about the leave T2 when I heard my friend arrive. Oh no! $10 down! So I got out of there before he could put his shoes on, and tried to concentrate on my running rhythm. I managed to get into a good groove, and finished in 48min 36sec, for an overall time of 2:46 and 36 seconds. Sadly my mate died toward the end of the run, and he finished 2min (6 minus 4) behind me overall, so I got my $10 back, hooray. Run time was 135th of 305, and overall time 226th of 305.
I had my partner and mum there to cheer me on during the run and bike, which was really nice.
I had set myself some goals before the race of sub 40min swim (tick); sub 80min bike (cross) and sub 60min run (tick), for an overall time of sub 3 hours (tick). Sub 3 hours means I am entitled to a new bicycle helmet. I just missed out on my new wheels by a minute and a half (sub 2:45). I had them picked out already -- Fulcrum 3's. Oh well, maybe next year!
We managed to get an awesome park earlier in the day, and there were no traffic snarls getting out of town either. I was a bit sore earlier this week, but three days later and I can't wait until Mooloolaba in March: I might sign up for the Caloundra short distance thing later this year. I still haven't broken it to my poor partner, I think she would kill me.
How did everyone else go? Did all those half IM and IM kilometres make the difference for you CB?