Still slowly coming down from the high of racing in the world’s biggest Triathlon event!! What an amazing day! The weather was absolutely perfect for spectators and athletes alike. I got out well from the gun on the swim but as it happens I couldn’t find my rhythm and soon was dangling off the back of the lead group. At 1500m i was off the back when 4 more swimmers came by. When I couldn’t hold them I was thinking, ok drags, bloody SWIM!!! I stopped thinking on the groups and just swim hard and clean, as I have been training since last October, Magically it started to click and reeled in the last group that had passed and came out of the water on fire. I followed Stadler for the first 5 km of the bike and was thinking, THIS AIN’T THAT HARD!! hahah.. he must have been taking it ez for the first bit cuz a few km later he was gone and I was solo. I was feeling good though and kept it solid. At about 30km a group of about 12 caught me up so I hooked in and away we went. The pace was off and on and some points were really ez and others were absolutely killer. At about 130km we had reeled in the first chase group and the race was on. A few guys went off the front of that yet but the pace was so hard I decided to stay conservative and save something for the run. I was off on the run in about 12th place and feeling ok. My legs weren’t completely smashed and energy was also ok.. my back was, however, not feeling great and a chiropractor would have been useful at that point. I worked my way up to ninth by about 15 km and was holding but hurting. At 20 km I got an extra bit of motivation and then soon after my sponsor/good freind/manager was on the job. He must have been at almost every km for the entire last 18km of the race giving me info and firing me up. I held off a charging Vabrousek in the last 10km but could make no headway forward and came into the finish feeling pretty stoked for top 10 in such stacked field. The finish area was more deafening than I have experience yet and I was just about in tears in the finish area. After such a tough spring with the back problems and spotty results, to come up with a performance like that was a fantastic feeling. I am back on the right track and when i get some better stability in my back and some dental work done, I am sure as is my coach and my physio that there is still much more to come….
ok Thanks to all my supporters and freinds for all the help, cheers and thoughts ..
oh.. yeah.. I race in 5 days at the LBS liga final.. will write a short note there yet!!