Well, it’s hard to get
annoyed or sad about today’s race as my pacing, nutrition and race positioning
was spot on where I wanted it to be due to the weather circumstances… …but if there’s one thing I learned from my
last season’s mistakes or achievements was to not take races to heart.
Things go right and
things go wrong…. Last year I already achieved what I really wanted to do in
the long distance. My 9h47m finish in Barcelona already set my mind to peace
with the big sub 10h monster so this year it was particularly difficult to find
some sort of a target or a motivation.
At the start of the
year I thought it’d be nice to try to get closer to the 9h30m or even try to
break it.
Unfortunately, Last
April I had an Achilles injury which left me out without being able to do
proper speed training until practically 2 weeks before my Ironman 70.3 in
Dublin in August and even after that I also had a couple of terrible weeks
where I couldn’t even rest my foot on the ground (1st week of
September).
Before that I also had
to cancel 3 Triathlon races (an Ironman 70.3, an Olympic and a sprint), 2
Duathlons, 1 aquathon and a few TT sessions with the club.
With all that in mind,
I decided to still come here to Amsterdam and go long (Ironman 140.6). I didn’t
really mind what the outcomes would be as long as I knew I left everything I
had on the field… and fortunately this was the case today.
Yes, I’m going home
with a DNF and a pat on the back instead of a finisher’s medal and a T-shirt
but I know this is the best I could’ve done today.
By having stayed on
the ground, I think I would’ve seriously damaged my Achilles too much to the
point of no recovery.
I know I don’t want to
go long again but I also want that I still want to compete in more Ironman
70.3’s in the years to come… so having thrown the towel today (even though it’s
not a nice feeling) it was the right thing to do.
Swim: It's ok, it's only the start...
The swim went fine…
water was around 17degrees and not very choppy. The buoys were clearly visible
and it was a very good swim course.
I started at the front
and kept there pretty much the entire race splashing around sometimes with a
few lads and some times on my own.
At the 1.9k mark, I
checked my watch (29mins), which it would more or less mirror what I was
expecting to see. A bit slow but such is life!
My second lap was even
a bit slower but at least I go to break the hour, which is okish for the amount
of time that I spent in the pool this year.
Bike: They have wind turbines for a reason!
Once I got on the
bike, I started pushing the watts controlling the bike, which seemed to be a
bit of a job due to the strong winds (here in The Netherlands they call them
gentle breeze).
It was all-fine until the
18th km where we had the wind on our right-front shoulder until the
40-41st km… then, we turned again and we had full-on headwind until
the 70th km… it was pretty
hardcore … we knew it was 20-30km more with the wind sitting on our right-back
corner and then again another miserable loop of 60kms with the wind on our
heads.
The course is VERY
FLAT…. I don’t think there’s any other course out there in the world as flat as
this one…. According to my Garmin I was
on a TT position for 5h10m and only standing up 10mins (which includes the
water stations).
But don’t fool
yourself (in case you’re thinking of doing this race) … the course is based on
cycling paths, cobble stone streets, speed bumps, cow gates, farmers roads, and even when you’re on the “main road” this
is not the usual crystal-smooth pavement. The road surface was made up of some
sort of a red-mixed stones put together.
I was incredibly
disappointed by this fact…. But such is life and the pavement and strong winds
are there for everyone.
My Achilles started
giving out a bit as I was pushing on the second lap against the wind but
nothing major though.
I managed to be in
control and stay in the front 7th or 8th (AG) during the
long distance Dutch Championships which is not bad if you think about it.
(Everyone’s so tall in this land – I looked like my wee girl with her tiny bike
next to these dudes with their very high saddles).
I dealt with my
nutrition brilliantly and I started overtaking a lot of cyclists in the last
15kms of the bike. Felt very strong and with a lot of hunger for the marathon’s
miles!
T2: Not good news
I got off the bike and
I noticed that I couldn’t rest my left foot on the ground. I limped from the dismount line until the
Transition area but the pain was unbearable so I started hopping with my right
foot while holding the bike and finding my number to rack it.
The entire ankle was
hurting, it wasn’t the Achilles alone… as a matter of fact the Achilles was the
less of my worries there.
I’ve never felt this
way before during training so it’s was all new news to me. Eventually I drop
the bike off and hopped into the changing tent where I sat down, massage my
foot quickly and off I went on my run.
Run: Oh, oh.
The running shoe must
have absorbed part of the shock as I was able to run without limping anymore.
I set myself to my
usual 4:35 pace (which is too fast but I always do the same for the first 2kms)
and I kept in under control (4:40) during the first 7 mins.
Unfortunately, the
pain around my ankle was too unbearable and as soon as I started the 2nd
loop I realized there was no way I would be able to finish the race.
I decided to see if I
walked a bit maybe it would go away but the minute I stopped running and
started to walk, my ankle shoot a very strong pain in the ankle that made me
fall. That’s when I realized my race was over.
I got up, took my chip
off and started to walk back to the headquarters.
The pain was actually
worst walking than it had been the entire loop and as I write these lines, the
Achilles is reminding me who’s wearing the trousers in this relationship! J
Ah well, as I said, it
was only a race… this puts an end to a terrible season if it wasn’t for the
Barcelona Marathon in March which is the only thing I take with pride this
year.
Thank you all for your
support and messages.
Ernest
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