Saturday I woke up at 5am after having slept a solid 8hrs. I definitely felt well rested. Got all my stuff ready to go and headed to breakfast, which was a plain bagel with PB & banana. Rikki drove me to the race site and other than a few issues trying to find parking, nothing particularly exciting happened. I got in the water for my swim warm up from 7-7:20am and did some easy freestyle, some backstroke and a few breakouts and kicking on my side. For some reason kicking on my side really does a great job getting me ready - whether it’s for a hard set or on race day. After the swim I would say my nerves really started to kick in. SWIM: 7:50 am on the dot the gun went off for the swim start (an out and back course). I felt good going out, waves were really big the whole time though. However, on the way back I couldn’t see anything since the sun was in my eyes (possible improvement for next time – buy expensive sunglass type goggles) and i swam wayyy off course. Very frustrating. I think I swam a 28 minute swim, when my goal was around 26 minutes).
T1: Found my bag with no major issues, found my bike...and I was off!
BIKE: Was caught up in a draft pack for the first 40km (you never mean to draft, but sometimes you can’t really help it), but I got dropped at a turnaround and they took off in their pack, then was passed by some of the stronger cyclists during the last half of the race. Hip flexors were sore...completely forgot my coach’s advice to get out of the saddle every 15 minutes or so to give them a bit of a break. Was pretty much dying the last 15km of the bike course and thinking to myself how do I get the energy I need for the run. My nutrition on the bike included a power gel right after the swim, 4 scoops eload total.
T2: Wow! They actually rack your bike for you at the World Championships. AMAZING!
RUN: Well - I felt really tired and lacking energy by this point, had a gel within the first mile and at halfway and took water or Gatorade or water at each aide station. Was really heel striking on the run – I think my shoes are getting a little old as they were very uncomfortable to run in and hurting my feet. Thankfully no calf issues!!!
FINISHING TIME: 4:33.01 (I wanted to break 4:30 for sure so I was a bit disappointed, but that only means there is room for improvement!!!)
