I was very tired leading into this race after a through Ironman build block in preparation for Ironman Melbourne, then add in the supper tough conditions and I was a bit unsure on how it would pan out. I knew my body was fatigued but fit so I just had to race hard from the gun.
The swim (not my strong leg) was very choppy and I knew some of my competitors were very good swimmers but I think the rough waters leveled the playing field for me. I was always going to be playing catch up so I had to make up ground on the ride without hurting my run leg too much and I did it well, I came in off the bike in third place, regretting my decision to keep the Zipp 808 on the front with the typical Aussie mentality of “she’ll b right” well she wasn’t, it was a scary ride that left me with sore arms hanging on for dear life!
Luckily my Giant Trinity was up to the battle with me and its superb handling kept me in touch with the leaders. I was out of transition in second place, and I had one to hunt down. The next thing I knew the male leader bike was next to me (this was a first) I knew if I ran the back half of the run solid it would be unlikely the chasers would catch me in the hot windy conditions, in the end, I had time to soak up my first breaking of the tape with some high fives although I made one catastrophic mistake!
I didn’t zip up the tri suit (Sorry CBD cycles) so my learning points, go hard, make sure your tri suit is zipped up for the finish, and don’t use a front 808 in extreme wind.
Levi Maxwell