2015 Season Opener - Challenge Fuerteventura

A week before the race I was convinced I wasn't even ready to race.  A string of bad luck starting with my bags being delayed for a couple days and my bike breaking on the first ride put me into a mental slump and my body followed along feeling like I had not been training in months.  A few frantic days of locating a new bike to ride and carefully being talked off the mental cliff by my coaches and I was finally starting to feel ready to give the racing a try.

I kept expectations to as close to zero as possible and just focused on the strategy we had decided in advance.  After a swim that didn't feel like I hoped, I quickly brought myself back to the next task of pushing my bike ability.  I was very surprised to find that I was able to push 100% throughout the whole ride despite riding an unfamiliar road bike instead of my normal tri race bike.  I was even able to focus myself after getting a drafting penalty, which came as a massive shock. 

I will quickly share the story how I ended up with 5min drafting penalty because it's worth telling. Those who know me understand how strongly I feel about drafting being a massive problem in our sport. So I must admit it is embarrassing that I get my first ever penalty for anything as a drafting a drafting penalty. How it happened was my fault. A rider had just come past me and I didn't slow down fast enough to move back away from his draft zone. As we were on a fast downhill I would have needed to literally put my brakes on to get out of his draft zone.  I did stop pedalling and was about 10m back but the new rules at this race were 12m draft zone.  I saw the official come up and realized I was too close and assumed he was going to give me a warning to make more space as I was obviously not getting much of any advantage and not trying to enter the draft zone. But the official had already decided to give me a 5 minute penalty.  Technically I had broken the rules so there was not much reason arguing.  Frustrating but on the positive side it is encouraging to see some officials finally trying to stop drafting. I just wished it were being applied with a little more judgement as I have seen whole groups of riders much closer than I wasride, ride the whole day together and not be punished.  End of my thoughts on that topic...

By the end of the bike I was be very happy how my body was performing and a bit surprised as usually my first race is a painful reminder of how much more training I need to be ready to race full speed.  But on this day, I was already able to really push like I wanted.

Rolling into T2 I fought back my disappointment as I served my 5 minute penalty and watched athlete after athlete roll by.  I put the feelings behind me and got to work on the run and leg my legs roll.  I was pretty nervous before the run about my ability to perform as I only returned from a foot injury that had kept me from running most of the winter just 3 weeks before the race. I didn't even know if my foot would last the distance never mind run a decent time.   I can't say the run felt amazing but I was again surprised how well I was able to perform.  I ended up with a respectable 1:15 half marathon and most importantly my foot survived!

Now seeing my fitness is very much race ready and my body healthy, I am excited and ready to really get this season underway. My next opportunity to race will come in 3 weeks at 70.3 St. Pölten.  Stay tuned!