Many thanks to Neil Jones who has shared the ups and downs of his recent hit out at Mooloolaba. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Neil post-race and it was great to hear his positive spin on what could have been a very tough day.
Right from the start of the swim, I knew I was going to have a tough day at the office! It hadn’t started that way, but somehow I knew and I told myself that I would be writing this as a lesson to myself! I don’t know what compelled me to write about this, as a positive person it seems odd that I would share a series of negative events, it’s probably some level of therapy and cheaper than booking a session with a counsellor!
With a start time of 08:13, I couldn’t have asked for a more relaxed beginning to the day. That was my first of many mistakes. After setting up transition I headed back to the hotel and set about taking in breakfast, as usual 2 hours before the start. The only difference, it wasn’t at 4:30 in the morning!! I got the chance to sit with the family, help pack up the hotel room and head over to the club tent, and watch a few of the earlier waves head out onto the bike course. It was a perfect morning for racing, not overly hot with a mild wind, excellent.
With about 30 minutes to go, I warmed up as usual and after 10 minutes I suddenly looked down in horror, no timing chip!! Sh!t, now what. Mild panic, race anyway but no official time, pull out, swear at myself (that was a given). I raced over to transition, sneaked my way in, grabbed my timing chip (which was attached to my race belt – so that I didn’t lose it!!) and started the journey across to the start line – next mistake! I hadn’t connected with how far away the start was from the loo with a view (or hadn’t read the race pack too well either!) From the loo it looked pretty far away, little did I realise that it was around a kilometre and would take me 5 minutes to sprint there. Lucky I love running I guess. With only 6 minutes to start time, it left the heart pumping away nicely!
I just had time to step onto the blue timing mat to activate my chip, before my wave started. I hurriedly put my goggles and swim cap on whilst I walked into the ocean and began the race.
Now it will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I had an ordinary swim. If trying resulted in world championship points, I’d have a chance, but I am not blessed in the swim department, try as I might. The best part of this year’s Mooloolaba swim was the lengthy run back up the beach. I hadn’t meant to have done a dry run of this, but I managed to overtake a fair number of swimmers, which meant that by the time I got out on the bike the legs were feeling pretty good.
Now I love the bike leg, it’s everything I love about racing. Fast and furious. I headed out onto the bike and just rode as fast as I could, for as long as I could. I managed to hold a decent pace for the duration of the ride, taking back a number of places on those who had out swam me. I had two minor indiscretions with a race official. One for drafting, (how do they only see the 30 seconds you are behind someone and not the 20 minutes people are sat behind you!!) and the other for overtaking an Ambulance and Police Motorbike!! I’d love to say that it was because I was sitting at 80KPH in the outside lane, but they were slowly progressing along and I asked the Police man what we should do and he told me to overtake, so past I went. Apparently you are supposed to undertake. The “discussion” continued at about 45KPH and I backed down with the threat of the penalty box. Official 1 Nelly 0!
With just the run to go, it was all I could do to keep moving forward. The relaxed start to the day had left me mentally unprepared to push myself on the run course. At the top of the hill I could very easily have stopped, but I didn’t. The first K took 4:47 and I knew I was going to have a punishing next 40 minutes or so, having to dig deep to keep running. I usually look forward to the run, but today, not so. I survived to remaining K’s and had a lift when I ran past our club tent on the way to the finishing line. It was great to hear the supporters in full voice, cheering all club members on as we ran past.
So what did I learn from all of this. Stay focused, get in the zone, don’t change what works for you on race day and above all else, read the race day pack!!!
Nelly
