I had prepared myself for a flat fast race and I was even contemplating using a friends disc.... I had been told that Denmark was flat, privately in my head I was thinking I wonder how close to 4 hours I can get?? previously in The World 70.3 Championships in Clearwater, I had clocked 4.12 for the same distance.
It was the Danish National Championships, a Half Ironman, consisting of 1.9km swim in the sea, 93km bike and a 21km run on mostly trail through the woods and coastal path. This consisted of a 1 lap in the sea, 4 laps of a bike loop and 4 laps on the run. This sort of course is very spectator friendly and to be honest its nice to hear the roar and support of the crowd. In the days prior to the race I recce'd the course completing a lap of each.... it was then I realised this wasn't a personal best(PB)course. DENMARK and especially Juelsminde IS NOT FLAT..... The bike course headed out into the prevailing West wind and the parts of the course that were with the wind were up hill!! and at one point a 17% climb...
The run was mostly off road and through woods and trails, momentarily heading through the town, but all in all not a fast straight course.
It started off well for me, after the initial ruckus in the swim I managed to get away from the pack and swim clear. It was then that nature ganged up to conspire against me... I swam through hundreds of jellyfish that had come in on the previous days swell. This was fine until I swam through a school of little pink ones.... Ouch!!! I was stung on both hands and between my fingers...It felt like a bee sting, but I knew it would subside, and maybe the pain gave me little more adrenalin that made me work that little harder...
As soon as I hit the bike, I knew this was where I could make my mark. My biking had been going well. I'm light and hills give me an advantage of the larger athletes. I worked my way through the athletes who had swam faster than me. It was great, each loop I couldn't wait to attack the steep climb again and I took strength from the fact no one passed me or could hold my wheel. I averaged 37km, working to the watts I'd been hitting in training. All was going to plan until I was stung again for the second time that day... a bee flew in to my mouth and stung me on the tongue!!! This was not good, it really hurt....and to be honest, I wasn't very happy!!
When I hit T2 and changed into my trainers, I tried to put this to back of my mind and powered out of the transition area to the roar of the crowd. It was awesome!!
There seemed to be no one in front of me, or if they were, I couldn't see them... I settled into my run and despite the ever changing surface and all the twists and turns I ran consistently. I put a little too much into the bike, so my run wasn't up to my normal pace. I had to hang in there....
It was a great day and a great race, I podiumed, winning the Open category and my age group category. I would have been crowned Danish National Age group champion if I wasn't English...
I was 5th overall... Hooray!! Its looking good for Ironman Wisconsin - Sept 13th
