The race was fantastic and the support of the crowd just awesome. There were dramas aplenty 48 hours prior to my leaving being told I may have had a stress fracture in my foot by a sports Dr and that I was on the cusp of withdrawing. Bone scans and x-rays later I'm saying to him “drugs thank you darling, give me drugs" and he did. No problems. Then on the way to the airport my bike decides to become airborne on the Tullamarine freeway at 100km and I'm staring at $700 of bike and accessories bouncing merrily along just waiting to be collected by a semi. This didn't happen and I got her put back together in Noosa. I figure with this build up I've got to make it through.
The swim was in a canal and luckily it snaked around a corner so I couldn't have heart palpitations as I saw how far 1.5km actually was. 30, 50m swimming pools lined up end to end is tough to envision. Being the slow poke that I am I had about 6 waves of competitors swimming past and over me but I managed to not get kicked in the head, well not too hard at least. The 40km bike ride had an impressive 3km hill in it, the little devil. Quite a challenge but all these spinning classes with Alex - the Queen of Hills had me well prepared for the challenge. Onwards I climbed chatting away to people who passed me. Just out on a relaxing bike ride I kept telling myself, la de dah, embrace the hills, embrace the hills. Folks, don't underestimate the power of denial and delusion.
The best part of the ride was when I got to enjoy the benefits of the “what goes up must come down" theory and I flew down a whopping great hill at the 30km point even letting out a “whoo hoooooooo" (very un-triathlete of me I know). I should have just stuck a card onto my spokes with a peg and really made the ride worthwhile. I had a chick pass me a little bit after the hill, I had passed her at the top of it (I remember this clearly as the incidents of me passing anyone were few indeed!) and she yelled at me “Girl, you have no fear. You're unreal!" I then ate her dust. More bygones.
The first 2 km of the 10 km run was the worst part of the race for me. The lactic acid in my legs after being on the bike for 90 mins was just a treat and I had to run past the grandstand and past the endless stream of triathletes coming in from their run as I was starting mine. Man they looked hammered and it put the fear into me for sure. I ended up walking for about 5 minutes and getting my psychological self together. It was about 25 degrees and humid and you just can't get prepared for this in Melbourne during training. I then got it sorted and ran the next 8km well and happy. The final 2km of the race was amazing with so many of the triathletes having finished up ages ago and were going home. They were walking past me on either side as I was finishing the run and everyone was clapping and yelling encouragement to me. The finish line appeared as I ran over the bridge and I have never seen such a beautiful sight in all my life. I had envisioned the moment in training at least every Sunday for 5 months but nothing comes close to the feeling of getting over it and still feeling well.
So all up I came stone cold motherless last in the Noosa triathlon which is the second biggest triathlon in the world. Dawn Fraser handed out the awards for God's sake! Individually there were people who did longer swims, bike and run legs than me I'm happy to say. Hey at least I'm consistently slow. You just have to love a sport though that sees you come last yet still allows you to take out 3rd place in your category and win a $75 gift voucher.
Thanks everyone for your support and patience with me over the past 5 months as you've heard ad nauseam about this. Given I couldn't run 400m without 4 breaks this time last year to say I am incredibly proud of this achievement is an understatement. Trust me when I say there were tears aplenty with my coach in the transition area after it all. Relief, elation, joy, pride, awe and disbelief for me as well. Loving life. xx Torn
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