2013 Albany Half Ironman

During early 2012, scouring Daryl's event calendar for potential events turned up an unexpected surprise, a new half ironman event in Albany in WA (4 hours south of Perth), early in January 2013. An even nicer surprise was that this time the scouring was done by my wife and the suggestion to do the race came from her, negating the need for a 'discussion' as the relative merits of the race. From her perspective we were going to Perth for Christmas anyway, so we might as well hang around an extra week and get a race in. For me I was attracted by the idea of a race where it wasn't going to be almost 40 degrees (as a lot of my races seem to end up being) and a course that would hopefully be a fastish one. So decision made, I did the entry (comparatively cheap) and got on with training.

When the time came we headed down to Perth a couple of weeks early in order to be in town for Christmas. I got to briefly enjoy training in Perth's endless summer daylight and cooler temperatures before we hit a week of 40 degree days. Still I got to learn that training on a 40 degree day is easier than training in Darwin when it is 34 and 80% humidity. After a couple of weeks of Perth training it was time to head to Albany.

Between entering and doing the race I had come to learn a bit more about it, and whilst it looked like it had some interesting bits, I was still hopeful it would be a quick course. I am familiar with the Albany area so I knew the swim would probably be flatish, the bike would be mostly flat with a couple of big hills and I thought the run would be flat, with some beach running thrown in for fun. Once I was in Albany quickly began to revise my opinion.

I was right, the swim was going to be two laps of flatish water and the ride was going to have some big hills (you gain and lose about 450m of elevation on the course), however what I had not counted on was the wind. As it turns out, it seems like Albany is always windy, one way or another. On the first day there I did a training ride into 40km/h head winds. Similiar the next day. The forecast for race day was that the winds would be lighter, with a tail wind on the way out and a head wind on the way home. Whatever it was going to be, one thing was for sure, there was going to be wind. The 2nd factor for the ride was the road surface. The ride was mostly on a back country road and the surface ranged from nice bitumen to continuous potholes (although not for long) and everything in between. It was not what I would describe as a fast surface. Combined with the ride being a single 90km lap, I began to suspect that it wasn't going to be a quick leg.

However, the biggest surprise for me came when I checked out the run. Two laps of 10.5km. On paper the first 7km of each lap seemed straight forward enough, running along a cyclepath behind the beach. But when I saw the cyclepath during a training run I realised that it was constantly undulating, following the dunes up and down for most of the way to the far turn around. Halfway along the return leg you get a break from the continual small hills by getting to run along the beach for the next 2.5km. Once off the sand it is 600m straight up hill to another turn around, back downhill and that is the end of the lap. Do that twice and you are done. I began to suspect it was going to be a tough course rather than a quick one. At least the forecast was for it to only be 30 degrees.

Race morning came along as they tend to do, no matter what wishing you might do in the middle of the night. I woke up slightly before my alarm with a gasp. The start of the bike is uphill, with the mount line at the bottom of the 2km climb up MountClarence. I realised that trying to put my shoes on while riding up hill may not be a good idea. Rather I would need to put my shoes on before getting on the bike. Such are the thoughts that occur to you in the early hours of race morning. Other than that revelation my morning preparations went smoothly and before long it was time to jump in the hire car and head down to the start line.

After the usual preparations, including me wondering one last time whether to put the bike shoes on the bike or put them on in transition (I put them on in transition) it was time to get into the wetsuit and head to the start line.

The field for the race was fairly small, about 300 people, so there were only three starting waves. Despite the small field, the race had attracted a number of impressive pro men and women and these were off in the first wave. Next wave was all the women and the last wave was all the men.

The time came to line up on the beach, one last adjustment of the goggles and then it was time to go. Once the gun had gone off there was a bit of a mad scramble down the beach before hitting the water, a long wade and a couple of dolphin dives later and we were swimming. Whilst the swim was in the ocean, it was in a protected section of Middleton beach so the swell was very gentle. The swim course was made up of two laps around a triangular course with a Singapore style short beach run between laps.

 

Once I got swimming, I felt pretty good, found my rhythm quickly and managed to get to the first turning buoy clear of the rest of the men's field. This got me some nice clear water before hitting the back of the women's wave. I got through most of the women's field by the end of the first lap and so after that I had clean water. All up it was a very nice swim course, gentle water, pretty spot, everything you could ask for. At the end of the swim it was up the sand and a quick glance at the watch, around 25 minutes, so happy with that, around where I hoped to be. From there it was to the bike, number on, sunnies on, helmet on, shoes on and away.

Once I was heading up Mount Clarence I was glad of my decision to put the shoes on in transition. The climb isn't a difficult one, but the first part is steepish and it is long, requiring a bit of a spin up hill, not affording much of a break to do up shoes.

The descent down Mount Clarenceis a technical one with several hairpin turns, so unfortunately you don't get back all of the time you lost on the climb, but you do get a nice rest. Once on the flat it was down to the business of working.

Sure enough the forecast was right and it was a tail wind on the way out. My aim for the bike was to push it a bit and not be over conservative, I particularly wanted to take advantage of the tail wind. At the same time I was aware that I would be fighting the wind on the way home. So the outward bound leg of the ride was a balancing act between pushing hard with the wind, but saving something for the trip home. Being a single lap ride course, I also had no idea where the rest of the field was, so I was mindful of keeping the effort on and seeing how much of a buffer I could build going into the run.

 

Once the turn was done it was time for the hard bit, going into the wind, sure enough the speed dropped and the effort increased.Whilst the speed was lower, this is where I thought I might be able to get a bit of time over the quick runners so I kept the effort on. The ride back into the wind was a tough one with the effort and the long return trip playing on the mind. Several times I had to resist the urge to simply sit up and let it go. Around 70kms I was a little worried that I had perhaps overcooked it, but then I started to feel more comfortable in the final 20kms.

The final 3.5kms of the ride involve a 1.5km ride back up Mount Clarence (including gradients of 14 degrees I have been told) and then descending into transition. The last climb was a slow hard one followed by a bit freewheeling into transition giving a bit of a chance to rest the legs. By the time I was on the descent I was very happy to be at the end of the ride. I got into transition with a bike time of around 2 hours 27, which is slower that I would have liked. However, I also knew that given the conditions it was about the right speed. I didn’t know where the rest of the field was and at that point wasn’t all that concerned since there wasn’t much I could do about it, but I hoped I had managed to gain some time.

In and out of transition and then it was out onto the run. Another glance at the watch, under 3 hours at the start of the run, which is about where I wanted to be, so happy with that. Time to find a rhythm and relax. The rhythm came pretty quickly and the running was feeling fairly easy. Running past transition at the end of the first lap I heard the commentators saying that 2^nd place in the age groupers was not far behind and was running well, so I wasn’t surprised when he came through not far into the 2^nd lap.

He was indeed running nicely and whilst I held on to him for a while, there wasn’t a lot I could do. I knew 3^rd place was a long way back, so I let myself relax and focus on staying under 4 and a half hour pace. The run was certainly a tough one with each section of beach running seeming to last for ever, particularly the 2^nd time through. In the end though the run went okay with a fairly steady pace and no great problems.

After the final stretch of sand and a painful climb up hill it was a downhill run to the finish line which I was very happy to see come up in a personal best time of just under 4 hours 27 minutes. That was enough to get me 2nd in the age group athletes and 8th male across the line.

 

Going into the race I had several concerns, but in the end the race ran very smoothly. Before the race I was worried that the single lap ride course might have been a bit lonely but in reality it wasn't too bad. Although I did hear it suggested that a 2 lap ride course might be more interesting. The ride course was open to traffic which I thought might be a bit unpleasant/dangerous (the road wasn’t that wide with crumbly edging). However, on the day there wasn’t much traffic and I never felt crowded or in danger. This was the first time this race had been held, and it had been organised by a couple of local volunteers, so I was also unsure how well it would be run. However, my concerns were totally unfounded with the race being very professional and everything seeming to work seamlessly. The volunteers stopping the traffic at all the intersections where particularly good.

All up I thought it was a great race, whilst some of the road conditions on the ride could have been better, on the whole I thought the course was a tough but nice one. It was the sort of course where you knew that if you worked hard, it would reward you. An ‘honest’ course is how I heard it described a couple of times and I would agree; there certainly was nowhere to hide.

Something to keep in mind though if you are considering this race is the need to keep training through Christmas and New Year. Doing so was a good way to keep a bit of self control over the Christmas period, and I did get in a very nice ride on Christmas morning. However, it can be a hard time to keep yourself motivated.

All up I enjoyed the race, and would thoroughly recommend it for anyone who is after a race at that time of year. Particularly if they are after a race that is slightly more low key and relaxed than the usual 70.3 circus.