Huskisson Long Course- this race was what it was. I came off the end of my ironman block, didn’t back off for the race and raced to the best of my ability on that day. Flying to Sydney on the Friday and surviving Sydney traffic to get to Nowra late afternoon. Saturday saw some shorter sharper sessions for pre-race prep and unfortunately I was feeling every km from the past week still in my arms and legs. Registered, racked, ate and went to bed. Pretty tired still on race morning but stranger things have happened in a race. I set up as early as possible to make sure I could get a long warm up in. The swim was incredibly beautiful and at the most furthermost point out I could still see the bottom of the ocean. I actually had quite a good swim with a 29:30 for 2km- which isn’t bad for me! Came out 2nd out of the water behind an ITU racer and with the gap only being about 40seconds out of T1 I thought- great, I can do this! Spoke to soon….. I was gaining on her but not before the two girls behind me passed me and left me for dead. Further up the road I could see the three of them riding away from me as I struggled to turn my dead legs over. There were three laps on the course- with rollers (which felt like mountains to me!) a ride through town and the country side. The third lap became quite congested and I was dreading how much time I had given away by T2- it was about 5minutes- not devastatingly bad, not fantastic either. Still the last lap on the bike I was nervous about having to run 20km! Took off feeling relatively good, realising that 3rd wasn’t too far ahead, but moving a bit quicker than me. No change in position throughout the run & i lost a bit more time to the leading lady. So I crossed the line in 4th position.
Packed up my bike on the side of the road, had a shower down at the beach and headed back to Sydney to get home ASAP to recovery, refresh and get set for IM NZ. At the airport I checked the results from the race and it had me placed as 3rd female. Turns out the girl that crossed the line in third didn’t serve a penalty and was disqualified. Not nice for her, but respect for the officials who were doing their jobs well imposing penalties on drafting. So not all bad considering the state I went into the race. I would really like to return to Husky next year fresh and ready to give it 100%.
Thanks Orca for my great new race kit, Mizuno for a never ending supply of shoes and apparel, Ryders for the eyewear and Enervit for keeping me fuelled. Big thanks to Compressport Q for Quads for holding my niggly hammy together for the race!
Back into the grind now. The real count down is here, now only 10days until my Ironman debut in New Zealand. I am going into the race the rookie and the nameless athlete, and nicely enough the youngest pro female!!!!
Rachie xo
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