flares

Weather was kind in the end...How did you get on?

See local boys Olivier and Omar finished 11th and 15th in the Elite.

My day started at 2am and finished at 5pm. I ducked out early too - these events boys don't half put a shift in. Good fun though - especially closing the roads before the police turned up.

DustyBits

Hats off to you and the rest of the support crew and volunteers. Bloody magnificent efforts right to the very end and aid stations always had what I was after.
After hammering it on the bike short course I had nothing left for the run but managed a PB....even if I did have to be helped into the recovery tent at the finish!
Awesome event and gets better every year.

DB

csdf

I did the Sprint: was aiming for 2 hrs 40min and got 2 hrs 36min, which was nice. There's no way the swim leg was 750m though - I did it in 14 1/2 minutes and the course record is apparently under 7 minutes.

Man was it hot by the run though. I am in awe of the people running sub 5 min/km in that heat.

commander

Had a mixed day. Disappointed with my time and placing but I learned a whole lot about racing.

Came 4th in my AG for the short course. Swam a steady 22mins, biked a hard 2h33 and was tapping out sub4 min kilometers trying to keep up with the guy who was the fastest amateur in the whole race. At 4K both my quads seized up with severe cramps. I spent 10mins getting treatment at the side of the road. Had my legs bandaged up, hardened the **** up and ran home for an overall run time of 50mins. Total time was around 3h50. Good but if I'd have held it together on the run, I would have won my AG for sure.

That is racing though. I cramped for a reason, however pinpointing what the imbalance that caused it is the question. I think i know though.

Great race and great organisation

commander

I swam the sprint course on Friday, bang on 750 in afraid ;-))

commander

Was a tough race, bet you told yourself "next time I'll go a little easier on the bike".

You won't :-)

Just need to remember the words of Mr Lemond. "It doesn't get easier, you just get faster"

Well done

Pongo

Lack of conditioning?

scrubbedexpat141

Uh oh.

commander

Possibly, given I have not been training for that specific distance. Or going too hard on the bike, not enough electrolyte intake etc etc. Numerous reasons...

Pongo

Same thing was happening to me, on the bike. Essentially, when I moved here I was riding with people 10 years younger and using a tricross bike against their road bikes and using much more energy than I realised.

commander

It's a balancing act and very fine line when racing "on the rivet". I was maybe one bottle of gatorade instead of that water away from winning, maybe if I had that gatorade I would have still cramped, who knows.

What I do know is that compared to last year, I swam faster, pushed out more power on the bike (and I'm 2kg lighter) but my run was 11minutes slower. I know through past races that I am consistent at running the 10k part sub40mins, so I'm not panicking.

Next stop Ironman South Africa,where I won't be smashing the bike at threshold for 180kms, well maybe not.

If the triathletes on here or anyone for that matter want to keep in communications about training tips etc and share ideas, I'm more than willing to do so..pm me.

commander

Wouldn't worry about age mate, the young upstarts lack endurance. Your only as old as the man you feel ;-)

csdf

That's good news, because it means that
a) I'm a much quicker swimmer than I thought and
b) The Yas sprint swim was a lot longer than 750m

Millhouse

You should have had a bag of salt and vinegar hula hoops prior to the race. This was your failure.

scrubbedexpat141

I take these when I play golf in the summer. PB is 11.5 litres of water before having a wee wee. Tee time was mid morning and 45+ degrees. Finally had a foul smelling piddle on the 17th. WEnt out, got smashed, played golf again the next day. Why? Because that's real stamina, not a swim/bike/run combo.