2014 Albany Half Ironman

In January 2014 it was time for a bit of a new experience, it was time to return to a race that I had competed in previously. As I drove down to Albany to take part in the 2014 Albany Half Ironman I realised that is something I have never done before. Not really significant, just something that occurred to me.  It did mean that I knew a bit of what I was getting myself into though.

I had some reservations about racing at Albany since it was only 4 weeks after Ironman WA, but I was keen to return to the event because the 2013 version of the race had been a positive experience for me. It is a nice, small, relaxed event on a tough course that I had enjoyed and I was keen to experience that again. The 2014 version was still a nice, small, relaxed event on a tough course, this year though I am not sure if enjoyment would be the right word.

I won’t describe the course in too much detail since I described it in last year’s race report. In a nutshell the course is made up of a two lap ocean swim, a single lap 90km ride and a two lap 21km run.

The swim is lovely, with beautifully flat water for two years in a row now. The swim is protected, the location picturesque, sighting is easy, really it is pretty perfect.  The only trick with the swim is that you exit the water and then re-enter between laps, but other than that it is straight forward. The other trick is not thinking about sharks.

The bike is not so flat, with 450m of elevation gain over the course, mostly in the form of a couple of pretty big hills. The ride has been windy for two years in a row and I suspect it always will be.  The road surface is best described as average, most of it being covered with coarse bitumen.  The ride looks harmless enough but really it is a tough one; it is a long way out and a long way back. Both this year and last year I saw this bike course break people. Slogging that for long into a wind over rough roads, often with nobody around you can sap your will.

Once you are off the bike you are usually pretty thankful, and then you start the run. The run leg follows an undulating cycleway that runs parallel to Middleton beach for about 5km to the far turn around. The cycleway is located just behind the dunes of the beach and so is constantly going up or down as it follows the dunes. Once you turn you follow the same cycleway halfway back to transition. At this point you run onto the beach and run along the beach for the next 2.5km. After you leave the beach you run up Mount Clarence for 600m, turn around and then run back to transition, you then do the whole lap again. Running up Mount Clarence you only gain about 20m or so of elevation, but it is steep and you are usually pretty tired by that stage. All up you gain 250m of elevation over this run course, most of that is in the form of running up and down undulations in the cycleway. Just a quick note about running on the beach, that sand is usually quite hard and a decent running surface. Last year the sand was a bit softer but still okay, this year it was a lot nicer though. I think it depends on what the tides have been doing and how wet the sand is.

If you want a more in-depth description have a read of this.

2013 Albany Half Ironman Race Report

The wind on the bike, the hills, the rough roads, the constant up and down on the run, the sand, the big hill at the end of each run lap, all these things add up to a tough course. The organisers say it is the toughest half Ironman in WA and I would fully agree.

So how was my day in the sun?

It went okay.

For 2014 I made the decision to race in the open category. This meant that I was racing with the big boys, the pros, rather than racing as an Age-Grouper. This was a new experience for me that at first caused me a bit of stress but in the end was a very positive experience.

Heading into this race I was feeling about 90 to 95%. Things had been starting to click in training, but they didn’t feel like they were quite there yet. Ironman WA was four weeks prior to Albany and that combined with Christmas and New Year meant that training had been a little interrupted. Physically I was probably fine, but mentally I felt like I needed a bit more work. All that meant that I wasn’t really sure what to expect, my goals though were to have a good day, try and improve on my 2013 race and not embarrass myself in the open category.

Race morning came around and I was feeling okay, not too apprehensive. I got down to the course with plenty of time, got the bike ready, got numbered up, sunscreen applied, wetsuit on etc  and was ready to go.

After my experiences at the Busselton Ironman, I got myself down to the beach with plenty of time and made sure I had a decent swim warm up. Once that was done it was time to stand around on the beach and not think too much about who was standing next to me.

After a bit of standing around the gun finally went and we were off. A crazy mad sprint down the beach ensued, followed by the standard high stepping run, before falling ungracefully face first into the ocean and then some dolphin diving. I got some water in my goggles during the process and paused briefly to empty them. The end result of all the splashing around though was that we started swimming as one big bunch. As I started swimming I noticed that we weren’t quite one big bunch and that Guy Crawford and entered the water wide and was swimming a bit separate to the rest of us. It was a pretty clever move since Guy is a crack swimmer and so knew that everybody, including me, would be looking for his toes. This move allowed him to get some space. Eric Watson, who is also a great swimmer, took off as well. I quickly found some toes (Matty White) and settled myself down to the task of sticking on them.

The swim course at Albany is one big triangle, with one point of the triangle being on the beach. You start at the beach, swim out to a buoy, turn right, swim to another buoy, turn right and then swim back to the beach. Twice. I followed Matty White out to the first buoy where we were joined by Courtney Ogden. I then followed the two of them to the next buoy. Once we turned for the beach it felt like we were slowing and I decided to move out of the draft and swim alongside the other two. We continued like that until we hit the beach.

Once we ran back into the water for lap two I found myself swimming beside Matty White again until the first buoy. I had the inside turn at the buoy and so Matty dropped back to my toes and I was happy to let him have the draft. I was feeling pretty good by this stage so I just focussed on working my way around the rest of the course and finishing off the leg, which is what I did.

I left the water in third position, but I then got a lesson in pro transition and Matty White flew past me on the way to T1 and was gone. I think he was probably on his bike by the time I got to mine.

I took a little bit of time in transition because I had made the decision to put on my bike shoes before I got on the bike. The bike course at Albany starts straight into a very long hill, which means getting your feet into your shoes on the bike can be a bit fiddly. Last year I put my shoes on in transition and was glad that I did. Some people follow the more usual route of getting into their shoes on the bike, but I think most of the field put their shoes on in transition like me. Really it just comes down to what you are comfortable with though.

Once I finally made it through transition it was time for riding.

 

Starting the ride I felt good. I worked my way up Mount Clarence feeling okay. It is a long hill, about 1200m long that gains about 70m of elevation. Whilst it is long hill, it is a pretty easy one to spin up. On the downhill side I got passed by Courtney Ogden who had come out of the water just behind me. I wasn’t phased about him passing me, but I was determined to make the most of it, I also knew I needed a solid ride, so I planned to try and keep him in sight for as long as I could.

I kept Courtney in sight for a while until the blur of Matt Burton came flying past. With Matt Burton to chase, Courtney was soon gone as well and I was on my own for the first of many times on the ride.

On the outward leg of the ride the wind was a headwind as expected, so I wasn’t too concerned with my speed. I was watching my power levels and was conscious of keeping the power on. I kept telling myself that I really just needed to get to the turn and then on the way back the tail wind would take care of the rest.  By around 30km I had been passed by a couple more of the pro guys (Thomas Bruins and Johan Borg) and I was becoming increasingly aware that I was hurting. Riding up a particular hill I felt like I had a lot of lactic in my legs and I started getting concerned. I knew that my current level of effort was unsustainable. Still I pushed because I knew I would have a tail wind on the way home and I knew that the tough headwind sections are where you can do some damage to your competitors.

Once I finally got to the turn I was very sick of the headwind and was really looking forward to going home. After the turn I was a bit disappointed to see that I hadn’t opened up a gap on the guys behind me like I had hoped and they were now pretty close to me. I also found that the tail wind wasn’t all that I had been hoping for. It was certainly not a head wind anymore, but the wind felt like a sort of swirly, cross side type wind. There was help there I am certain, but it wasn’t the nice clean, push me along at 45km/h tail wind I had been dreaming of. The ride home became a real mental battle.

On the way home I bounced between feeling okay and feeling like I wanted to pull out at T2, these feelings usually correlated to whether I was riding uphill or down. Also on the return I got passed by a couple more guys from the open category (Shannon Dixon and Blake Kappler). This just served to being me further down mentally. However, despite my negative thoughts I didn’t sit up and give up. I kept spinning and pushing, determined at least to have a better ride time than 2013. I also kept telling myself that I had to at least start the run because you never know what might happen to the other competitors.

I finally hit transition unsure of how on earth I was going to run and whether there was any point even trying to. I did notice though that my ride time was quicker than 2013 (just).

When I hit transition my brain was busy thinking about how I felt, but while it did that my body got my running shoes on, got my visor on and got me out of T2 and running.

By the end of the first km of the run I was surprised at how I was feeling. It actually felt okay. Not super quick, but not the broken shuffle I had been expecting. As the next km rolled through I saw that the pace was holding around the 4:15/km mark, which is about what I had been basing my race plan on. I even managed to pick the pace up a bit in the third km. Phew I thought; at least my ride wasn’t caused by nutrition. I had been trying something new for my nutrition on the bike and one of my concerns was that it had backfired on me. However, the legs I found on the run reassured me that whatever the cause of my poor ride, it wasn’t nutrition.

I kept ticking along through the run, half waiting for it to all fall in a hole; however, to my surprise I kept feeling okay. The cycleway that the Albany run course follows winds around a bit and has heavy growth on both sides. These trees and shrubs mean that a lot of the run course is nice and shady, but it also means that you can rarely see more than 100m ahead. That all changes when you hit the beach and you can suddenly see 2.5km ahead.

I ran onto the beach feeling a bit apprehensive, I hadn’t enjoyed the beach sections in 2013, especially on the second lap which had felt like it was never going to end. But when I ran onto the beach this time I suddenly found that I could see somebody in front of me, two people in fact. Right I told myself I can pull these guys in and that is the goal I set myself. Slowly but surely I pulled in Shannan as we ran down the beach. This served as a great distraction, allowing me to focus on chasing rather than the beach which seemed to stretch out in front of me forever.  As we left the beach and headed up Mt Clarence for the first time I managed to get past Shannan and I started feeling a bit better about my race.

 

At the start of the second lap Blake Kappler started having trouble with his knee and I managed to get past him as well. From there I had no expectations of picking up more places but I was determined to finish strongly and make sure my time was as good as I could get it.

After 16km or so I was starting to hurt, but I was also on the run home. I hit the beach for the second time just wanting to the next 2.5km to be over. Conscious of how effective chasing somebody had been on the sand during the first lap, I concentrated on pulling in as many age group competitors, who were out on their first lap, as I could. In this way I finally made it to the end of the beach, up the hill one last time and into the finishing chute to cross the line. Very glad to be done.

I crossed the line in a time of 4:22.49, which is almost exactly 4 minutes quicker than 2013. This was enough to get me 6^th place in the open category and 9^th place overall.

Whilst I was quicker than 2013, looking at the results I think the two years are probably pretty similar performances. Last year I was absolutely ecstatic with the result. It was my first time under 4 hours 30, I was the second age grouper across the line, it was a great result for me. This year’s result is no worse. You could argue that the number of competitors at the pointy end of the field was a bit bigger in 2014 than in 2013 and so my result this year is perhaps an improvement. However, I still find myself a little disappointed with it. The race didn’t go to plan; stuff went wrong which is always frustrating in a race. On top of that I think my expectation has changed as well.  From my results and training in the second half of 2013 I have come to expect more of myself.  More than a 2:26 ride anyway. Those are some of the reasons why I consider the race to be an okay one, rather than a good or great race.

Still it isn’t all doom, gloom and negativity. One big positive is that this race shows that my swim is on track. To be swimming side by side with some of the big names of Australian triathlon was a real buzz and a massive confidence boost. Another positive is that I don’t think I completely embarrassed myself in the open field. I would have liked to be closer to Johan in 5^th place and I really would have like to be a bit higher up than 9^th overall, but I was in the right ball park and that is a positive. Another positive that I tend to overlook but perhaps shouldn’t is that this was my second fastest Half Ironman. My fastest time was of course Mandurah, but trust me Albany is way tougher, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so unhappy with my time. I know I could have gone quicker, but that doesn’t make my time a bad one.

However, the big take home lesson out of all this is:

A bad leg doesn’t equal a bad race.

This is the first time I have recovered from a bad ride. In fact it is one of the first times I have had a bad ride in a race (ignoring 2012 Vegas), which is usually my favourite leg. It is a good reminder to me that even if things don’t go to plan it is important to stick with it and keep working. A bad leg doesn’t equal a bad race.

Moving away from my personal race, I think the event was good again this year. However, my gut feel is that it wasn’t quite as well put together at the 2013 version. Just little things. Aid station one on the bike was on a little side road. Using it was no problem, but it was very easy to miss. I knew it was off the main road and I still nearly missed it, no sign posts other than one 1km beforehand. Matty White missed a turn and rode another 3kms. I am not sure where he missed his turn, but I nearly did something similar towards the end of the bike where you turn to head back up Mt Clarence. I knew I had to turn, but there are a few side roads along that section and it is easy to miss the right one. As I said just little things.

[I will just add a post race note here. I now know that that last turn was supposed to be signposted. Apparently the sign was blown over by a truck early in the race and by the time it was put back up the first 50 competitors or so had already gone past. So that is bad luck rather than bad planning on the behalf of the organisers].

I think it really came down to perhaps not having enough volunteers out on the course and perhaps not enough signage. I don’t want to be too critical, particularly of volunteers who have given up their time to make the race possible. As I said they really are just small things, it is just that I don’t remember them being a problem in 2013.

Having said that it was still a great race.  It has a nice relaxed vibe which I love. It was well put together  and run by great people. Plus there were several real improvements over 2013, like more acknowledgements of the age groupers etc.

Will I be back for 2015? I am not sure yet. I might have to wait until memories of that ride have faded a bit. I wouldn’t rule it out though; this is a race that deserves support.

So that was my race. I would like to also take this chance to say a big thanks to a bunch of people. Firstly, as always, to my family. The tireless support of my wife and kids never ceases to amaze me. I keep waiting for the day when they say, ‘that’s enough’ but it hasn’t come yet, which I am very grateful for. To my coach Daryl Stanley for getting me ready and always having the right words when I start to doubt. And finally to the guys at Break Your Limits for the support they have given me over the last couple of months but more importantly for just being awesome folks.