Ironman Cairns 70.3 2015… with a bit of Background
and Insight
I always love
returning to a race setting that I am familiar with, regardless of how
successful those previous races have or haven’t been. Especially when I am
traveling by myself. Its always cool to visit the new towns but the
familiarity amongst the nerves can be a huge advantage when sorting pre race
day logistics out. Cairns been a split transition needs a bit or sorting
out the day before, with bike transfers, bus trips and sorting rides out post
race briefings all of which I personally find quite stressful. But this race
despite the familiar course was also a big first for me. This was my first
international race with me starring in not just the Pro Athlete roll but also in
the role of Coach.
Since the end of
last year I have been coaching myself. This came about due to necessity rather
than choice as my current circumstances at the time dictated. I absolutely
loved my previous coach Michael Lovato. I had huge respect for him and viewed
him not only as a trusted coach but also as a really valued friend. I had learnt
so much about myself, Triathlon, training and life under his guidance and most
importantly he believed in me and had my back. I was hanging onto his support
as I re entered back into NZ nursing both a shoulder and foot injury. The last
thing I wanted was to stop working with him, but after a year of putting all my
resources into stepping up to the full Ironman distance and coming out the
other end with a DNS, a DNF and what felt like a bag load of injuries, I had
pretty much exhausted all my resources and as life sometimes has impeccable
timing it was then that my trusty old car decided to throw a tantrum and it
failed its warrant.
Bottom line is I
needed my car and I had to use the money I had put aside for my coaching to fix
the car. At the time it was the harsh reality
I didn’t have a choice. I joked with myself and thought of great
headlines like “Car fails W.O.F – Athletes Career finished” and at the time to
be honest I felt like letting it all go and giving in. But the thing
was that I wasn’t ready to finish on that note. Deep down if I was honest with myself, below the surface doubts that I felt swamped in, I knew I had more to give and I
wasn’t going to give in. So feeling a mix of failure and embarrassment about where
I was at I decided to just quietly put my head down and do the what was needed
to first fix my body and then find my way back into racing form. I was going to
have to coach myself and at the time I didn’t have time to over think or doubt
that choice I just had to get out of the hole I was in.
Over there
Summer months I surprised myself a bit and was able to successfully achieve my first
goals as “Coach” by getting myself first injury free while also getting a
couple successful race results on the NZ racing calendar.
The build up to
Cairns however was a bit more challenging and the straight forwardness of the
summer months seemed to elude themselves and my build up seemed to be a
mismatch of periods of illness or other frustrating interruptions, so although
I knew I was still in really good shape and was still very fit and strong been
the perfectionist I am I was worried about the up and downs of my training
weeks. In the summer I had appeared to be a very easily coached athlete, however in
this training block the coaching side of things was now proving to be quite challenging.
I was excited, motivated and driven for the
race and yet I was also at times feeling very isolated and doubting my ability
to coach myself. I missed having a
sounding board and most of all I missed been able to debrief and celebrate the little
successes or milestones along the way with someone who was 100% on board with
the plan and to which it meant as much to as it did to me.
I had to work
really hard to bring myself through this patch and to find a successful balance
between the passion of me as the athlete and the rational thinking of me the
Coach. Been able to allow myself to feel the ups and downs of the emotions that
come with training hard towards a goal that you are passionate about but also
having to be the voice of wisdom, reality and sane reasoning. If I as the
athlete doubted the session that I was doing, I as the coach had to explain to
myself the reasoning behind the session. This I have learnt is more challenging
than may sound and I had a slight indication of how hard I may have been to
coach over the years!!!!
Through the last
few months though I have been forced to learn a huge amount about myself and
despite the challenges I can honestly say that I was in a good space mentally
and physically to race the Cairns 70.3. Had I nailed the balance of coach athlete 100% -absolutely not… but was I making progress -absolutely yes!
THE RACE
I love The Cairns
Course. It was the first ever international race that I podium on in the PRO
ranks (the inaugural year of the Challenge race) and I was super keen to be
back and able to give it another shot. I was Healthy, I was injury free and I
was ready to race!
The day before
is always busy with a split transition and sorting race logistics and prep out,
so it was great to meet up with fellow Kiwis Anna Ross and Erin Furness, Max
Woodhead and Jamie Hunt in T1 and then other kiwis, Michelle Bremner and Cam
Brown at the race Briefing.
By the end of
the Saturday I was to be honest feeling pretty shattered, and pretty tight in
my sacrum but as I tucked in bed at 7pm ready for the 3am wake up call I was
excited to get things under way.
It was dark and
wet come race morning and I was first to the Pro bus pick up which never happens!
So I was stoaked to get the day off to a
good start. It was a super quiet almost solemn drive to Palm beach. The
anticipation in the bus was thick but under control. We had to queue to get
into T1, as it wasn’t open when we arrived and despite the rain and darkness there
was the normal pre race mix of excitement and nerves in the air.
The whole warm
up and T1 set up was done in darkness and thankfully about 10-15mins before we
started the sun raised enough for us to see the buoys and daylight arrived!!
Palm beach is a
beautiful bay and to my delight the water was warm and calm and the rain had
cleared J The race start was as
normal a bit crazy but we thinned out quickly and I swam most of the race with
one other girl. I didn’t feel great in the water and at the last buoy she and I
had some confusion on where to turn in and I wasted a bit of time having to
turn back a bit. For some reason I just struggled to get going in the swim, and
was really glad to be touching sand and running up the beach into T1.
The swim wasn’t
super fast but was okay and I came out behind but with some good company. I had
planned a progressive race building my effort in 3 x 30km blocks, I started off
conservatively as planned, and even though I was supposed to be holding slightly
back effort wise and my watts showed that I was in the more conservative race
range. I didn’t feel great and I had an ache in my right side of my pelvis. I
tried to settle and ignore it, but I felt weak on the hills and I was finding
things a lot harder than they should have been. I persevered through the first
30km block but as I tried to nudge up the effort and watts for the second 30km
block, the reality of my concerns started to become clear.
The more power
/effort I tried to put in the more ache I had in my back and it was spreading
like a burning pain down my thigh. I kept trying to sit up a bit and stretch
and ease the pain, but as I hit the wind and hills on the return leg the pain
and weakness just got worse. I gave my self a good talking too and I tried all avenues
to fix things. But in the end I backed right off and had to sit up a lot and
had to just aim to make it back to T2.
It was demoralising to have so many people power past you while your
trying to make yourself stay down in aero despite the pain, fully aware that
your left leg feels fine and almost fresh but your right leg is on fire.
I eventually
made it into T2 and racked my bike I was pretty stiff and sore but been able to
get off the bike and upright had eased the pain so I decided to try to run, and
to my delight I was able too and as I had had to ease up so much on the bike my
legs felt okay to start with so I decided to continue.
As it worked out
a few other pros also must have had some issues as they were still around
me in the run and it was a real inspiration to still be in the race even
though things had just gone so badly on the bike. There was a real camaraderie
between us, which helped me push through the tough bits in the run and finish
the race. I finished up 11th Pro in a time that I am not happy with
and I was gutted to not have been able to see where I was truly at and get a
more accurate indication of how my training had gone, but the reality is that
the day didn’t go well, I had to deal with some major obstacles on the bike and
although I felt like giving it all in I still carried on and made the most of
the day and the experience.
I am so thankful
I was able to complete the race
So I am in the
process now of the Coach/Athlete race debrief, and about to have the coach/
athlete coffee planning session with myself. Where I will again figure out how
to manage the two delicate sides of the coach athlete relationship... Passion and
rationality.
A huge congrats
to all the kiwis who did have some great races!! And a big thank you to Heather
and Nick for been the most amazing hosts and opening up there home for me to stay
with them. To my Sponsors and there amazing continued support, of course Mum
and Dad Lawrence my family and Marc, but also to Debbie Lawrence, Tom Patrick,
Marnie Oberrer, Matt Merrick, and Michael Lovato, for been there to support me
through the injuries and the challenging times at the end of last year, helping
me believe in myself, get through the other side and continue my dream.
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| Pre Waiting while I have a pre race swim in the Lagoon Pool on a wet stormy Friday evening |
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| Pre and I Crocodile spotting along the Barron River on a sunnier moment in Cairns |
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| The view of the run course from where I was staying |
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| Friday Morning breakfast view- not bad ahy!! |
