Shepparton Half Ironman Race Report

Woke up at 4.30 to have a light snack before going to the course. I find it hard to have solids so only had an up and go, along with one piece of toast, I would do the majority of my eating during the ride.

We were the first into transition and had plenty of time to set up. I filled my tires, checked my shoes for tightness and laid out my cleats and helmet etc. It was still cool so I was hoping for the temperature to slowly rise, rather than rapidly so we would be done before the real heat of the day.

The start of the race was interesting; a fellow 18-24 competitor took off at the start gapping me by about 10m. Within 50, I had taken him and put 10 onto him, so it was short lived. My wave was directly following the pros, by 3minutes, so I knew there was a chance I may catch some.

It was a relatively easy swim, I had some trouble passing through some of the females (who started also with the pros) and we turned directly into the sun, so rather than sighting buoys for a while I was just following white wash. Other than this it was very comfortable and by the time I had finished only 23.40mins had elapsed (the fastest swim on the day by 1min) and I had caught all but 10 pros.

Leaving the water so far up the order, 11th, was very exciting, gave me a little taste of how the pros transition. As I entered I watched them quickly change and run off trying to remain in a pack. Unfortunately I was too far off them to join, and too far in front of any of my age group to be caught quickly.

The course was a rectangle basically, along two stretches I comfortably held between 36-39kph. Unfortunately along the other stretches there was a head wind dropping my speed to around 30kph, sometimes at slow as 26kph. It was incredibly demoralizing and took a massive toll on my legs.

The first lap about 10 riders caught me only, so this was a good start, but then the numbers slowly increased. It was difficult as I came out of the water so highly positioned everyone overtaking me were of far greater ability than me, thus I rode the whole race by myself, watching competitors fly past.

By the time I had reached my run my legs were fatigued and I was slightly angry. I had watched my average speed drop from 34.5 to 33.3, however still managed to finish 4mins faster than my Gold Coast ride, which was encouraging.

200m into the run my ankles were incredibly sore, I had spent way too much energy on the bike. My first 7km was 33mins, followed by 34, then a dismal 39mins. The second lap I started to feel a little stronger, my ankles stopped hurting, but by the third lap the ride really had its affect on my legs. 1.46 half marathon, last race was 1.36

Overall I finished in 4.54, still a respectable time as I had planned to go under 5hours in my first race so at least I was still well under this. The race was a very good learning experience and taught me many things.

Nutrition wise I think I had a fairly good routine. I had a gel each lap and a muesli bar or powerbar. Unfortunately my first lap I drank too quickly, my whole power cell and the majority of my two water bottles (2.5litres total) so I wasn’t thirsty for most of the last two laps. I had to force myself to drink and believe in future I should space the drinking out more. Having said that I didn’t have any issues due to hydration so that was positive!

The run I made sure to had sips of water, coke, or electrolyte depending on what I wanted. I had Gu Chomps which I think are a novel way of getting the energy but preferred the gel shots of which I had 3.

In terms of race performance I had to work on my legs strength particularly in my gluts. They gave out at around 50km making the last 40km purely quad dominated. I need to work on my ride most importantly. I am naturally a good runner, (1.27 half marathon with no training shows this) but without riding strength running legs mean nothing if you cant use them.

Finally I really learnt the meaning of a statement once uttered to me about Half and full Ironmans. "When you have an off day, you really have a bad day at the office." It was a great experience in highlighting my weaknesses but also a great testing ground to test my grit out when I was having an off day. I could have easily shut off in the run, and then I would have done something appalling. But I was able to maintain composure and continue to push, even though I was aware the times really weren’t that impressive.

A great race, many things learnt now we can go back to training and ensure this doesn’t happen again next time. Bring on 1000km week rides!!

Swim
1.9km - 23:40

Cycle
30K split - 53:58
60K split - 1:46:57 (52:59)
90K split - 2:44:14 (57:17)

Run
7k Split - 33:39
14k Split - 1:07:41 (34:02)
21.1k Split - 1:46:21 (38:40)

Overall Time - 4:54:17


Full race details at http://www.sheppartonhalfironman.com/