Budapest IM70.3 Race Report: A successful day all up; a few hiccups on the way but another improvement in the finishing time... Swim: Im starting to really appreciate the Busselton Jetty swim, i.e. you can actually see where you are going! Just like Mandurah and Cairns, the Kopaszi Bay swim has no visibility; drafting is by feel only. The beach start was quite narrow but I managed to at least get a space near the front. I must remember to keep doing this as I managed to avoid getting kicked in the head this time. Also managed to swim 30 seconds under my goal time so definitely happy with that. Result - 31.33 and 35th in the age group (out of 240 starters). T1: Doing the transition bag routine for a half ironman seemed a little over complicated to me, but the bike racking area was quite small so I get why they did this. It does slow down the process a little though. Gotta get the bike bag, get a seat in the tent, change from swim to bike, pack the swim gear in the bag, drop the bag to the volunteers (they were great all day) and then get out to the bike. All up it was probably about a minute slower than I wanted as a comfortable transition. Result - 3:39, still needs work then. Side note, European races require wearing the run bib and race belt on the bike leg (despite the three helmet stickers and seat post sticker). Slightly retarded. Bike: Dramas, dramas! In the pre-race set-up I found a bee inside my aero bottle. Not a good sign but at least I didnt end up drinking it. There was definitely more cobble stones and broken road than I was expecting. The flats were generally in good condition (I dont know if the plastic covers they used on the tram tracks made things better or worse) but there were a few hairier sections that needed caution. The main culprit was the descent from the hill climb. It wasnt exactly the type of descent you could take fast - the road was very patchy and the tight hairpins slowed things down. Because of the bumpy road two things happened - my nutrition bottle got spat out the back of the bike on the first descent (goodbye High5, hello crappy Powerade for the next 70 km) and the temporary repair I had tried on my broken right arm rest (thanks baggage handlers!) failed on one particularly large speed bump. The end result was more trips to the aid stations than I wanted and riding most of the bike leg on one arm rest. Still though, averaged over 35 km/h so not unhappy with the final time. Absolutely not using that bottle cage again though (thats happened twice now in a race). Result - 2:32:19 and 47th in the age group. T2; Not too bad despite the bag routine. There was a long run to the first timing mat so while the race recording had it at 3:25, I had it on my watch as 1:45. Could have been a little quicker but thats splitting hairs. Run: Absolutely most satisfied with this leg out of the three. I was basically aiming to average 5 minute kilometers over the half marathon distance. yeah its not the fastest pace yet but considering nine months ago I ran this at over 2:30 I was very satisfied with the end result (and its my fastest time for the distance so far). I did see the funniest and at the same time soul crushing injury on course. There was an arch set up for a charity on the course. A bell was attached and swung from the top which would result in a $10 donation every time an athlete rang it (which pretty much every one was doing). The bell wasnt exactly hanging at an easily reachable height for anyone under about 58 though, especially if it was swinging around. A guy about 20 metres ahead of me on the second lap had to jump to try and reach it and in the process blew out his hamstring! That is the most depressing exit Ive seen on a race. My result - 1:47:08 and 58th in the age group. Overall result - 4:58:04 and 58th for the age group. So I got the result I was after for 2014, which was a sub-5 hour half ironman result (and another 17 minutes knocked off from my previous best in May). Excellent crowds and great scenery made for a fun race. Might even try for a 4:45 in Auckland next time out. Cheers for everyone that send me good luck too :) Next event... Perth C2S followed by some snappy left knee surgery in two weeks (probably should have got this done about 2 years ago...whatever).
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 06:01:06 +0000
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