IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong 2015: 3rd, my first 70.3 podium
I am over the moon to report that this past weekend in Australia at the Geelong 70.3 (which doubled as the Australian Championships) I claimed my first 70.3 podium coming in 3rd behind 5x World Champion Craig Alexander and Sam Appleton. It’s been a whirlwind 2 months having raced 3 half ironman in NZ and topped of with this one in Aus. These set of results give me huge confidence going forward and make me feel that my team and I are on the right track.
Righto so how did the race unfold. It started off as a calm and warm morning and I was very excited to don the New 2015 Blueseventy Helix which I had tested a couple times in the last week and has felt amazing. There were some gun swimmers in the field like Jimmy Seear and Marko Albert so as soon as the horn went the pace was on. It was a straight line 800m out to the first buoy, which allowed for the bunch to string out before the first turn. I was in about 6th but in the main pack slowly over the next kilometer the pack strung out into a long pace line thanks to the fish up front. I dropped back to about 9th out the water but still just off the main group of guys so a quick transition saw me on the heels of Crowie which is always a good thing.
By this time the wind had started to pick up and the pace out of T1 was hot. I sat at the back of the group as we slowly reeled in Jimmy Seear and then Marko Albert. On a short out and back Sam Appleton started to pull away which I must admit I didn’t even notice (the down side of being at the back of the group), Crowie was leading and our motor bike escort pulled over at a set of cones so we all turned a few seconds later anther motorbike is shouting at us that this is not the turn around so we had to make another U bolt and carry on, this allowed Sam Appleton to gain about 30sec and the chase group to catch up a bit.
At the proper turn was where I saw that Sam was off the front. This little dogleg section of the course was at right angles to the rest and was a tail wind out and head wind back. In the head wind section is where the pack started to splinter. Crowie made the break and I waited until it was a definitive break before I went to. Took me a good few km to catch him and as soon as I did he signaled to me to come around, I was like “dude I only just caught up give me a break” but I guess his reputation got the better of me and I went through and next up the road was Luke Bell with Sam leading.
Literally just as I caught Luke he had to pull off with a mechanical which left just Sam. Crowie and I caught Sam just after the far turn and we worked together until about the 60km mark where Crowie and I stared to feel the pinch of Sam’s strong riding. We hung on till the end of the ride, and it turned out we put about 4 minutes on the guys behind. I managed to get the fastest bike by a few seconds, which is nice, but it was tough going today.
On to the run and they took off like a shot, covering the first 4km at 3.10 min/km pace which was too hot for me and it continued in that fashion they pulled away and I ran as best as I could. At half was I was about 2 minutes down with 2minutes to fast charging Canadian Jeff Symonds. Luckily I was running well enough and had a big enough gap off the bike to secure 3rd place behind 2 great athletes.
As I said it was my first 70.3 podium and it was a special moment for me to be on the podium receiving the 3L jug of Erdinger beer and flowers. Unfortunately we didn’t throw beer over each other which is tradition as thanks to typical Melbourne weather it was bloody cold, which still blows my mind, how can it be warmer at 6am than 11am.
Anyway that’s a wrap on this block of racing, I’ll have a good few easy days this week and then start to build towards the U.S. season.
Thanks for all the support,
Regards,
Mark
What I’d tell an athlete now
The part worth copying is what I did on the run, which was nothing. Crowie and Sam went through the first 4km at 3:10 pace. I knew that was too hot for me, let them go, and ran my own race into third.
Almost every age-grouper I coach has lost a race in that first 4km off the bike. Your legs feel fine because you’ve been sitting down for two hours, someone comes past, and you go with them. The clock doesn’t care where you sit at 4km. Run the pace you trained at, and let the first kilometre feel too easy.
This report was written in 2015 and has not been edited since, beyond reconstructing paragraph breaks. No wording has been changed.
Mark Bowstead
