We arrived on the island 10 days before race day to acclimatise and recover from the long journey from Cape Town. I think I tapered the most I’ve ever tapered so was feeling very rested come race day.
My first half of the swim was ok. I found plenty of feet. My second half was shitty. I swam most of it in my own. There was bit of swell and chop coming back.
The first part of the bike leg in town is always a bit messy and then things settle down once you get onto the Queen K. Having a slow swim meant I was constantly over taking other athletes. I felt that there wasn’t too much drafting going on with the ladies which was great. There were a few who were clueless and I stared sideways at them as I passed with a WTF expression on my face! However the guys were much worse. There were two male age groups who also raced on Thursday and they started after all the ladies. Most of the men who passed me were in groups of 3 or 4 and they didn’t seem to care that they were drafting off each other and all working together.
I didn’t have much power on the bike. I’m not sure why. But I couldn’t push any harder. And my heart rate was pretty low too. At least I still managed to move up to 18th place, having been 132nd after the swim!
I felt good for the first 10km of the run – Ali’i Drive is relatively flat and there was lots of supporters. I ran up Palani, albeit slowly and then it was time to attack the Queen K. Unfortunately my left foot (Morton’s neuroma) was now sore. I don’t know why it flared up as has been manageable over the past few months. Which then made me heel strike to ’save’ the ball of my foot (I’m normally a mid foot runner) but my Achilles niggle on the right is better when I run on my fore foot. I’m annoyed I didn’t dig deeper and ignore my foot pain. But at the time I couldn’t.
It seemed to take forever to reach the Energy Lab. I think I got my nutrition and hydration pretty spot on but I still didn’t have the kick I wanted coming back onto the Queen K.
As I reached the top of Palani a rush of adrenaline kicked in. I flew for the last 2 kays; why couldn’t I have done that earlier?!
Happy to have climbed a few places on the run into 10th, despite it being one of my worst/slowest marathons!
Disappointed that I didn’t do as well as I should have. My run is normally my strength and although I haven’t done as much running recently due to my Achilles injury I still think I was capable of a 3hr30 marathon.
Time for some rest now, and then I’ll set some goals for next year.
Swim: 01:22:17
T1: 00:04:18
Bike: 05:38:25
T2: 00:05:08
Run: 03:50:29
Total: 11:00:34
10th (45-49 age cat)