Fast forward to Dubai departures check in on Thursday 1st July, and we are checking in the super heavy bike bag and who should show up at the next check-in desk but Lord Rawlie. Great to see another familiar face and we talked excitedly about the adventure to come as the excess baggage counter took an absolute age to work out whether a bike box should be classified as a “golf bag”, “ski equipment” or “other”.
The flight with Lufthansa was uneventful. Thankfully I can sleep anywhere at any time so I did not miss the fact that this was probably one of the few planes still in the air that had absolutely no in- flight entertainment. I woke up just in time for the breakfast from hell. Arrived to grey skies at a grey Frankfurt airport. With bike bag collected and all luggages arrived things were going smoothly. They went even better after picking up a Mr National special – an AWD Volvo tractor, with Sat Nav. Plugged in Radisson Blu- Aarhus and we were on our way 840kms to go in 7 hrs. and 45 mines.
As we crossed the border into Denmark, the skies started to darken, the wind was blowing and the temperature gradually fell. Oh dear this is not good. We arrived at a very wet and windswept Aarhus at about 5 pm. Leaving the support crew to get the room ready I headed off down to find registration and meet the T2A mob. The Expo had a very “sad” look about it under overcast skies as the vendors huddled in their tents. Not much business being done by the looks. There were no queues at Regio and the whole event had that “first time” feel about it. Good 80s music though. Saw the guys and agreed to meet for dinner at a swanky restaurant booked by Annie P. The food was four star but very little carbs on the menu and definitely not a typical Tri2A pre-race meal. We toasted our friends in Korea and imagined (with a little bit of smugness) that they might be having “dog fried rice” in the heat and humidityas we tucked into our tenderloins. We were all in good spirits especially Rawlie despite the fact that his bike had not yet turned up. We planned to meet up at 1230 the next day and do the 15/15/15.
Saturday brought heavy skies and it was pissing it down. After an early breakfast the bike was reassembled in the corridor of the hotel and test driven for two laps around a very wet car park. The bike was fine but I was soaked and cold. There was a lot of sms traffic and talk that coach had said stay dry and scrap the 15/15/15 if it’s cold and wet. Decided to speak to coach and seek guidance on the conditions to be greeted by “the problem with you Pomms is that you can’t handle a bit of rain”…With the advice to keep your “extremities” warm I headed off to Fricycler and bought a “beanie” for under my lid and some gloves with long fingers. I also planned to wear my 2Xu compression top over my tri suit to keep my body warm. So we had a plan to deal with “Arctic in Aarhus”.
As it was still raining at 1230 we decided to drive the bike course. Not only did it look difficult as it snaked up and down through the forest for 15km, there were blind 90 degree turns, the roads were narrow and wet, there were potholes and undulating hills and we got lost several times (Faulhaber was navigating). The first 15 km looked tough through the woods but then it opened up into the countryside and there looked the possibility to get down on the aero bars and get the legs working. The roads were narrow and twisty and after thirty km we decided to return to base having seen enough to decide this was going to be hard work. Annie P stopped off for some Danish Pastries possibly at Ralwie’s prompting?
Race brief was not encouraging as the Race Director had not yet decided whether this would be a duathlon or triathlon. The problem was the temperature of the water. Prior to the race all swim practice had been cancelled due to sewage in the bay. The heavy rain on the Thursday had caused a sewer to overflow. We were told to watch the website and a final decision would be taken later in the day. It had now thankfully stopped raining enough for JT and me to manage a 15 min bike and a 15 min run before racking the bikes.
I was pretty relaxed about the event, despite the uncertainty of the course. Although I did not want to come all this way an miss out on my first 70.3. Training had gone well, I was running smoothly at race pace, I felt at one with my bike following a professional bike fit and I was improving on the swim. Ten weeks earlier I had done a full ironman in SA. I bet coach I would run sub 135 for the half. Did some stretches with my physio before turning in. I fell asleep worrying about where my spare tyre was; I thought I put it on the bike, but I have two.. haven’t seen the second.. it must be still in my bag.
It had been announced overnight that the swim would be 1km due to the water temp being 13.8 degrees. The Danish Triathlon Association rules prohibit swims over 1000 meters if the temp falls below 14.
Awoke at 0515 and had four pieces of brown bread and honey which my nutrition advisor had procured from room service the night before at the extortionate cost of approx. AED 100. Typical for northern Europe, room service would not deliver before 0600 am. Arrived at transition at 0630 for a 0835 swim start. It wasn’t raining which was a good start and it felt a degree or two warmer. Saw JT looking calm and relaxed and we chatted whilst completing the final set ups. Saw all the guys who were looking confident, especially Trudz and Simona with her “go faster” helmet. The general advice for the day was to keep warm and drink lots so we can pee in our wet suits for the swim. I managed four pees but they did not help!
The Swim did not look appealing and few people were brave enough to do practice. It was flat flat but looked cold and very cold. Annie P was the first of us to test it and came back and said ‘ it’s not too bad”. That was not convincing. The pros went off and then the women. Pete Faulhaber and I were in wave 4 at 0835. I grabbed a spare swim cap in the waiting area so I could double hat and made a mental note to ask some kind soul to buy me a “skull cap” for Xmas.
The swim 19:31
Ok here we go. I am not going to like this. I walked out as far as I could before starting to swim slowly. Gosh this is fricking freezing, gasp gasp- a few strokes of breast stroke. Come on get your head down and keep going. Tried to follow Pete for a while but had to stop for some more air as it was too cold. Kept going through sheer determination and found some space and the modicum of a rhythm. Took a sighting whilst breast- stroking and realised I was too far right of the buoys. Got my head down and gradually got more comfortable as I got around the second buoy. Great only 500m to go let’s find feet and give it everything. Thought I found feet as my left hand ploughed through something jelly like. Mmmmm I thought that’s not feet- that felt like a jelly fish.. F*ck, two more white objects passed by my right eye.. I am not enjoying this. The sea was just black and visibility was crap. I was breathing to the right more comfortably and was tracking a guy who was alternating between breast stroke and front crawl. I figured he was sighting better than me so I kept close to him. Eventually the blackness dissipated and sand came into view. Thank God this is almost over. I could eventually put my feet down and was greeted with the smell or either rotting seaweed or sewage or both combined. Not great but my fastest ever 1 km swim!
T1 06:29
I raced through T1 found my red bag and found a quiet spot outside the full transition tent. I was cold but pleased to be out of my wet suit without cramping up. I struggled to get the tight compression vest over my wet tri suit, losing seconds here, beanie on, helmet and gloves. Off we go. Grabbed bike while eating a banana and ran the 200 yards with my bike over the wet grass to the road. Off we go. Exited smoothly and was now on the road.
Bike 2:53: 44 average 31.08
It was a relief to be on the bike, and feeling warm, but it felt unusual to have a vest on over the tri suit. I took a gel and headed into the woods. This was an unnerving experience on two accounts 1) I am as bad as Marshall on the downhill’s and there were some sharp undulating hills in the first 15km and 2) droves of people were overtaking me. I am pushing as hard as I can, I have done the Hafeet camp which is a f*cking mountain compared to these mole hills but I am getting drubbed. I don’t like it. They kept coming in waves, Henrik, Soren, Lars, Torsten all gliding past me, pumping their tree trunk like legs and making it look dead easy. I bet they practice every week on this stuff I thought to myself. I had a simple strategy for the bike, push the uphills and Ed had told me to hammer the down hills which seemed to work as I managed to sneak past a few on the downhill stretches. The course was faster than expected and I was averaging well for the first part. It was a very challenging but beautiful course through some of the Jutland Moraines, along narrow country lanes across fields, small villages, over streams, even through a golf course and alongside lakes. Truly a wonderful experience. I had a couple of private battles with Ninjas.dk and knew I had to keep pushing on to keep up the average speed. It’s different to riding a six lane high way in Abu Dhabi but I kept telling myself this is what racing in Europe is all about so get on with it. I passed a few of the ladies from the earlier waves but my legs were hurting after 60km and I worried that all the uphills were taking their toll and I would have nothing left for the run. Thankfully there was a long downhill stretch back into Aarhus and overall I had done better than I expected over the difficult course.
T2 3:31
250 meters of running with the bike to find a rack. Grab my bag, off with the beanie and the vest and on with the shoes. I felt good but I forget my gels in my bag so I had no nutrition entering the run. Bummer..need to find a banana.
The Run 1:34:18
I caught Annie P at the start of the run course. The run was three loops through the town centre. Apart from the cobbled streets and the numerous right angled turns and narrow alleys there were two special features: a run through an underground car park and another through the reception of the art gallery. I felt good and was averaging 4:15s according to Garmin for the first few kms. After 5 km I saw Pete running the other way and thought he had 2 km on me. Ok that’s a lot to make up but it’s something to aim for. The sun had now decided to shine and I felt good despite the fact that my right Achilles was starting to ache. Lap 1 done and consistently around the 430 per km mark. Feeling excellent, temperature is perfect and a chance of a goal time. I caught up with Boom who was looking strong. At the end of Lap 2 I saw Pete again-he has now only 800 meters on me, maybe I can catch him. Support team give it large!! Running well onto the last lap I caught Pete in the underground car park. The run was lined with a lot of noisy but good natured Danes which really kept me going. I saw Simona and JT who looked strong and shouted much appreciated words of encouragement. Down the chute after lap three and onto the run home across the field and through the Expo village and down the carpet. I saw my daughter, Romy, who eagerly ran down the last 150 meters with me. I was running strong and it really felt great to hear the announcer shout out David Hunt from Great Britain (first Brit home in my AG). Got some great pics.
All over 4:57:31
A great first 70.3 (even if it was really only a 69.3 due to the shortened swim) and I really enjoyed the whole experience. A wonderful crew from T2A and I would like to thank each and every one for their companionship over the 48 hours of the event and for all of the training time together. In our small group of 7 there were 6 different nationalities and I think that’s another great feature of T2A. Also to each and everybody in T2A who sent good luck messages and congrats notes pre and post-race. It means a lot to have that huge support network around. Every message is savoured and read. Thanks
Thanks to coach who gets me right for these events and who always seems to know the right thing to say at the appropriate time.
