Geelong Ironman 70.3

When Dan, Andrew and I touched down at Melbourne's Avalon airport on Saturday, it was the hottest point in the state of Victoria. Apparently this also made it the hottest point in Australia that day, as well as the hottest point in the world.

47.9 degrees was the official temperature. Plus a gale force wind like a furnace. Not what you'd call ideal half ironman conditions.

We took a maxi taxi to our motel in Geelong, put our bikes together and pedalled the 2 or 3 kilometres to the race venue where we had to check in and rack our bikes to be locked up overnight. On the 5 or so minutes of this ride, the metal frames of our bikes got so hot that they burned us through our shorts and the water in our bottles got hot enough to make tea with. Dan and Andrew both have temperature gauges on their bike computers which got up to 51 degrees!

After registering we still had hours to kill before bedtime so spent some time cowering in the air-conditioned comfort of the local Westfield and then grabbed a movie and some dinner. Not a lot of sleep was had.

Sunday morning dawned cool and windless and we thanked our lucky stars. We cabbed it to the start, organised our transition gear and wandered down to the water for the mass start. The weather was absolutely perfect, a little chilly if anything, and the water was glassy as we waded in among the other 1,200 or so competitors waiting for the siren.

At this point I was feeling pretty relaxed for what would be my first triathlon in a year (since Huskisson last February I believe). Also my first open water swim in all that time and the first time I'd run for more than 1 hour in the last 8 months. I think that was the point - I knew I wouldn't post a great time and ultimately the whole point of doing the race was simply to qualify for Ironman. So all I had to do was finish, the pressure was off, I could just enjoy the race. So I did!

I took it easy on the swim, the mass start wasn't great but I managed to find space most of the way round with only a few frustrating periods of being boxed in. It was an easy course with just two turning buoys and heads of midway buoys for sighting so I kept a good line and kept a rhythmic stoke, making it back to the beach in just under 30 minutes.

T1 went smoothly, and I headed out for the 3 lap bike course. Heading out along the highway I couldn't believe that I was spinning an easy gear with no apparent effort and maintaining around 42km/hr. Of course at the turnaround I realised why when I turned headfirst into the wind! It was a bit of a grind back and - as per usual on every triathlon I've ever done - about a billion people started passing me on the bike, including old ladies on unicycles and small children on tricycles. Then the pouring freezing rain started.

Actually it was a pretty good ride for me, I managed to stay on the bars for most of the ride and kept an ok pace. I'm still a rubbish rider, but it felt good and I was happy enough. I did about 55 mins each lap and then cruised into T2 having needed pee for about the last two hours. I'd had a brainwave before leaving home and brought a second pair of socks in a ziploc bag, so made a quick change into the dry socks and hit the portaloos for the world's longest piss.

Then off for the run. At this stage I was feeling great and I had nothing to prove on the run. I certainly didn't want to push too hard and ruin myself for later, so I thought I'd just cruise along and enjoy it. My legs felt good, the course was flat (largely) and the weather was cool. I practised a fast leg turnover and had my watch set to beep every 14 minutes to give me a minute to walk. It was really tough when everyone was racing to actually just stop running and saunter along. Totally counterintuitive. But I made myself do it and in the end I'm glad I did.

Suddenly the need to go to the toilet was overwhelming, and as happens in these cases, in a few seconds went from a vague inkling to a desperate immediate need! Thankfully a portaloo appeared around the corner and saved my life. Although struggling out of a one-piece trisuit in a hurry is not an event I've practised.

At around an hour (the time of my longest run since July 2008) my legs felt heavy and slow and from there it took every ounce of concentration to keep the pace up and push through the next 14 minutes until my walk break. Fairly quickly though I got to the 20km mark and cruised home with a big smile on my face, crossing under the finishing banner at 5 hours and 1 minute.

If only I'd had some idea of the timing I could have pushed a bit harder and made it under the 5 mark, but I was pretty happy to just have really enjoyed the race.

Now two weeks until Husky!