2nd   4:11:05
 
    Swim  26:59   7th
    Bike   2:21:27   3rd
    Run    1:18:47   1st
 


Where to start... I'm not exactly sure what happened out there today. There were a lot of firsts for me in this race... For starters, the swim. I swam 'with' people. Secondly, the nutrition problems I had and thirdly, running
a half marathon off of basically swim/bike training. 

As the siren went everyone took off like crazy... As they usually do but this time I wasn't spat out the back. The swim was straight down the creek of Johnson's Beach, less than 25m across and then straight back. The entire way down the creek I had girls to my right and in front of me. I was getting bashed from every direction including my left as I collided with almost every buoy on the way down. As much as I liked the fact I was swimming 'with' people I was by no means comfortable with the constant clip over the head. Every time we passed a buoy the swimmer on my right would drive me right into it so I'd have to pull up, and almost start climbing over top of her to get around it. By the time we got down to the turn around I'd
had enough so I put on a surge and passed the whole group I was in. It looked like I was in the lead, except there were 6 speedy swimmers up ahead, that weren't even in sight.

As I scrambled out of the water and ran my bike up the hill to mount, Rudi (my Compressport sponsor and personal cheufer for the weekend) yelled out '3minutes'. Damn! I thought to myself. I was hoping for 2 minutes. 2 1/2 max. Already I was in a slight state of panic. With still only a small amount of running under my belt and a now long run of 10km (last weekend's race) done I still didn't want to leave it all down to the run. I worked hard on the bike. The course was tough... Not so much in the hills, although there were constant rises along the way but more on the technical side. There were some sharp corners and more importantly there were major potholes, cracks, bumps... The roads looked like a mini earthquake had gone through. Shivy took a beating as I was bouncing all over the place. I had water splashing out everywhere as I was constantly weaving over the road looking for the smoothest route. I passed a few girls but I knew my main contenders were still up ahead. Leanda and Meredith were my targets and I wanted to minimize the gap as much as possible.

On the nutrition side, something seriously was not working for me today. I had four gels taped on my bike. All of which I had to get down. I still have trouble taking in anything on the run so I must take in enough nutrition on the bike. I had my first gel about 20km into the bike. One down, only three to go... This is the bit I hate on the bike. At about 30km I'd drank my first bottle of water and refilled my front bottle with my electrolyte mix. Next gel at around 40km washed down with electrolytes. It was ok... But by 65km after my third gel and electrolyte drink I wasn't feeling too good. At 80km I knew I had to do one last gel... As much as I didn't want to I forced it down.

With 15km to go I passed Leanda. This got me excited as I had guessed Leanda and Meredith would be first out of the water and riding together up ahead. So I assumed Meredith was not too far away. Around the next corner someone yelled out '3 minutes down'. What!

As I racked my bike at T2, Rudi yells out 'calm down, relax'. Obviously the panic was showing. Quickly I put my shoes on and ran out. By 2 mile I'd caught up 1 minute. Oh no... I thought... That's bad. Too quick. Slow down. The course wasn't marked with mile markers but I was roughly going off where the aid stations were and I think I ran the first two mile in around 11 minutes. It wasn't too long before I could see Amy and Meredith ahead. I passed Amy at around 6 mile and my mind was working overtime. One part of me
was saying "pass Meredith now then slow down, settle in" and the other was saying... "You've got time... Slowly catch her by mile 11 or 12". The later would have been the ideal thing to do especially considering my stomach was really starting to play up now.

8 miles down and I'm feeling so sick but I'm still running strong. Just before 9 miles I come up on Meredith. A smart idea runs through my head "sit in, draft for a bit, get your stomach right then attack".  I run up behind her, I'm all ready to sit in, then... For some reason I run straight past. "Why?" I'm asking myself... "Why did you do that. You haven't run this far for over 10 weeks. You haven't even come close to running this pace for even 10km. You didn't even run this fast last weekend in the 5150". Im not ready... My run training has been 20 minute jogs. What AM I doing? But I convince myself that I'll be fine. Not much further. I want this win.

At 9 1/2 miles I am no longer in control. I can't keep a thing in and almost immediately I go from running strong to feeling completely drained. As I approach the 10 mile aid station they yell out "only 1 mile to go". I must
have misjudged. Thank god! I can make that. I wanted to get over that line so bad now that I put on a surge... About a mile passes and I see another aid station. "only 1 mile to go" they yell out again. What! That's what the last aid station said... So again I NEED that finish line so I put on a surge. Another mile passes and yet again ANOTHER aid station... "last mile". C'mon guys, I can't do it again, this course is never gonna end... By now I'm completely cooked. I feel like I'm almost walking... I'm dragging my heavy tired legs along and with less than half a mile to go Meredith storms past. I couldn't go with her at all... I was toast. I still wasn't even sure I was going to make it to the finish line.

Finally I see the cones... Then the banners... Then the finish chute. We had to take a sharp left to head down the chute but I couldn't get my body to make the clean turn... It was still heading straight. I bumped my way along banners as I managed to clumsily steer myself down to the finish line completely spent. I was so drained. I had pushed every last bit of energy out of my depleted body. I ran 1:18:47 with the last half mile at almost walking pace. It was the fastest run of the day by a female. Last year I ran 1:16:28. I was only 2:19 slower this year so I definitely can't complain with this time off my limited run preparation.

I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with my nutrition... Mixing electrolytes with gels might have been the cause as I usually only use water in a race. Maybe it was something I ate the night before. But even so, even with the nutrition dilemma I could have raced a lot smarter and I've definitely learnt a lesson here. That aside, a massive congrats to Meredith. She had an awesome race and it was great to chat with her after. She's a lovely person and this is one of the huge highlights of this wonderful sport. Competitors on the course but amazing friends at the end.

Huge thanks again to race organizers, officials, sponsors and volunteers. Also to my personal sponsors in particular Rudi from Compressport for helping me out all weekend. And finally thanks to Pat and Barbara for sharing their home with me for the weekend.

   Boulder Peak 5150 (1.5km/42km/10km)

   2nd   2:07:55 

   Swim    22:37      5th      
   Bike      1:06:08   1st       
   Run      36:58      2nd
 

Each race I start I try to swim as best I can, bike as best I can and do what I have to do on the run to win. That sometimes needs to be to run as best I can. But sometimes I have the luxury of putting on the brakes a little and enjoying it. Today, however, my plan was to swim better than I've EVER swam before, bike better than I've EVER biked before and get off with a lead going into the run. Because today I couldn't rely on my run. For once I had no idea what I was capable of and this scared me.

For starters I knew I was up against an Olympian. Laura Bennett was on the start line with me. 4th at the 2008 Olympics and off to her second at the end of the month. And Laura can swim. Well, that's an understatement. I was expecting she'd put 3 minutes into me. As for the bike - I thought I could pull back 2 minutes. If this went to plan I'd still be 1 minute down. 1 minute usually wouldn't phase me but today it will. (I've had an injury that has stopped me running for two months. In the last four weeks I've done a long run of 7km and haven't been able to do anything above jogging pace).

Putting all the stats together - I've got a tough race on my hands.

As the siren goes I start off as fast as I can... The Boulder reservoir is very clam and flat. We swim straight out keeping the buoys on our right, a right turn for only about 100m then right again and straight back. Simple. But also marked out brilliantly. Plenty of buoys to sight keeping me swimming in a straight line. After about 100m Laura is so far in the distance I can't even see her. Another couple of girls are out of sight as well. And I'm
swimming in no man's land. I felt I had a really strong swim though and emerged out of the water in 5th place (2:57 down on the leader).

We had a reasonably long transition which I was thankful for. I still haven't managed to get the whole face down swimming, straight into standing up thing down pat yet and I was dizzy right up until I got to my bike.

Out on the bike course I had moved into third place quite early and then was on a mission to chase down
the leader. This was a tough bike course - from transition its a gradual climb, about 2% gradient right up until Lee Hill Drive, about 8km in. Then it turns into a 12% climb up Old Stage Rd. I moved into second place just before the climb which lasts about 2km before we take a steep decent. Luckily I'd ridden the course before and knew where to brake as I hit 82km/hr on my way down. From here it's a long gradual decent for almost 12km. Being a bit lighter than most of my competitors I didn't let up on the descent, knowing their extra weight will
bring more speed. A couple of times I was spinning out of gears so I jumped forward onto my aeros, tucked down low and tried to put as much of my weight on the front on my bike.

The rest of the course was nice smooth roads, rolling hills and then a very slight climb almost right back to transition. I've ridden this course many times and a lot of the time I've had my garmin permanently on the gradient to see exactly what the roads are doing. I don't use power. I don't use a HR monitor. All I use is speed. And here in Boulder the roads are very deceiving. You'll swear your on a flat road and you see your
speed dropping. Little do you know your climbing at a gradient of 2%. Other times you'll be cruising along in the high 40's not even trying thinking to yourself "I must be feeling good today" but your actually riding down a 1%
hill.
 
I come into T2. I'm listening attentively to hear how far I am down. 1min 15sec. I made up 1:59 on Laura. But lost another 13 seconds in transitions.

I rack my bike, throw on my Adidas runners and run out with my Rudy project visor, number belt and gel. This time I don't bolt out of transition though... I know I have to run conservatively for the first half so that I can at least make it home. If I feel good at half way I can pick it up. I didn't feel great. I ran 36:58 to take home second place.
 
I am content with my race. I had a decent swim. I biked the fastest by almost 2 minutes and I'm happy with
breaking 37min given the limited run prep I've had.

I'd like to send out a big congrats to Laura for her superb race and good luck at the Olympics next month. And well done to all the rest of my competitors. Boulder Peak 5150 is no easy race. Also, thanks to all the race organizers, officials, sponsors and volunteers. What a great race in an awesome location!