Pre Race
I was inspired to do this race because I did the standard distance before in 2012, and really enjoyed it.
When one of my team members said she was doing it, it planted a seed, and I thought it would be a nice event to do at the end of the season. It took me a bit of time but finally I decided to enter the legend distance (70.3) rather than the standard distance. I chose to keep it quiet that I was competing just to take a bit of pressure off, (thanks Lorna for giving me that idea!)
I also invited my mum up, as she hasn’t been away for a long time with restrictions in place, so it was great for us to get away together. Looking at the event and where it fell I was happy to see that my period was due the Tuesday before the race, which was perfect, but writing this a week later it still hasn’t started, so I was feeling a bit stressed about that.
Race Morning
I woke up what felt like every hour the night before, but we didn’t have to get up too early for the event to start. I was in wave 2 which started at 8:20, so left the house at around 6:45 to get there which wasn’t too bad! We’d been to the beach the night before to register, and the sea had been beautifully calm, when we arrived I looked at the flags and realised that it wouldn’t be as nice as it had been the day before! There was a lot of wind chop and quite a big swell. I went to sort my transition kit out, and bumped into Jan from the tri club, it was nice to see a friendly face and have a little chat.
I pre-loaded with a hydration mix with a bit of extra salt from a salt tab in there, breakfast was an instant oats, I was feeling a bit nauseous, so made a note to keep on top of fuelling on the bike and run.
The Swim
The sea did not look too inviting, and during the briefing the organisers announced that the swim would be cut short to 1km, which was a good decision. We had to swim out into the waves, then across a short distance, then back to shore, so it was only the going out bit that was really bad!
Every time I thought I was getting into a rhythm a big wave would loom above me, and I would swallow water. Once I reached the first buoy I knew it would be easier, going across was ok, and then going back to shore we had help from the swell. I can’t say there was much speed there, the swim was more a case of surviving. When I came out of the water the announcer called that I was 4th female out of the water.
T1
We had a short run into transition from the beach, and everything went fine, I had some quick transitions on the day so I was happy with that.
The Bike
The bike course has slightly more elevation, and is a little bit longer than Ironman Staffordshire which I did in July, (still haven’t published my report from that!) so I was expecting a similar time, I thought I would probably be a lot slower, around 3h-3:15 looking at previous finishing times, and the bike course was also slightly longer.
It was a bit rainy when we got on the bike, but it soon dried out. The first part of the ride is a climb up from the beach along a drive with speed bumps.
I took it fairly steady along here as I was faffing about with my Garmin so I could see all of my data. When we got on the road I saw a woman up ahead, and started catching up. She was slowing down a lot for corners, so I got past as quick as I could, and then tried to get some distance between us, my legs were feeling pretty good, much better than my last race.
I averaged 188 watts and 194 normalised power for the 1st half and 168w/186np for the second half. In Staffs I averaged 172w/183np for the first half and 157w/175np for the second half. It was a lot cooler, and better conditions for me here in Anglesey.
Soon after I’d overtaken I was then overtaken, by the eventual winner, and towards the end of the bike leg I was overtaken again, by Nerys Jones, so I thought I must be in around 5th 6th place now.
I really enjoyed the bike course, there was plenty of space on the roads and it wasn’t crowded. There was a bit of congestion coming back into Newborough with cars, and on the last section we started to catch up with the olympic athletes which definitely helps with motivation. I finished the bike leg in 2h55m which was under my predicted time.
Fuelling I had a bottle of Skratch super fuel, and a bottle of hydration mix, and every 20 minutes I had half an energy ball.
T2
No problems in T2 I took a small soft flask with a drink in it, and took some clif blocks and Skratch chews, which I ate a couple of every 20 minutes.
The Run
I was a bit worried about running, as in Staffordshire I felt I’d underperformed, so I wasn’t really expecting much. The run is beautiful, through the woods and over some sand dunes then back along the beach and the sun was out now. The temperature was still good though, not too hot!
Around 4 miles in I saw Nerys ahead, and started to catch her, when I got close I thought “oh shit” as the last time I raced her in a run race she overtook me just over halfway through. I was contemplating whether to overtake or not, but in the end I had too, then had to keep the pace up.
I could still hear her behind me for the rest of the first lap, so just held my pace as best I could.
On the second lap near the end someone told me I was around a minute behind 1st place, which was confusing as I thought I was in around 5th still, as I got hear the end my mum was there cheering, and when I crossed the line I was called out in 2nd place.
Afterthoughts
I love the Always Aim High events as the locations are always beautiful, and the atmosphere is super relaxed, and friendly. It was the perfect end to the season. I haven’t planned to race that time of year for a while because of school holidays and training, but with all the lockdowns and cancelled events over the past 18 months I made an exception, and was glad that I did.
Having a quick look back on power data, this was the highest power I’ve ever sustained in a 70.3 event. I dropped off a fair amount in the second half of the bike (20w), but still managed to run well off the bike, posting the fastest female run split of the day.
Every race is different and it’s interesting to see what your body and mind can do on the day!
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