Still pinching myself that I actually earned the chance to compete at the 70.3 World Championships and still surprised by my 3^rd at the Australian Age Group Championships in Port  Macquarie that secured the spot.  I had convinced myself that I would never qualify for the 70.3 World Championships given my lack of run speed.

I never thought of it, but 135,000 around the world tried to qualify for this race and only 2,781 made it.  Thanks to Neil Brooks for that nice stat.

After resting up from Ironman Australia back in May, Mark and I set about building up some speed across all 3 disciplines.  This saw me increasing my swim sessions from what I had previously been doing with 3km now the norm.  The hand paddles, band, flippers, pull buoy and garmin are now part of the routine, so you can imagine the frustration when I leave something at home or my garmin goes flat mid session.

Bike sessions were not as long as the Ironman build, but intensity was certainly increased.  So much so that I struggled to maintain several of the sustained efforts and finished most of the sessions totally spent.  This no doubt affected by a 2 month long chest infection, so much for the flu shot.  I did manage a couple of climbs up Mt Donna Buang which certainly made a difference.

As I was leaving my beautiful family behind, the trip was reduced to the minimum amount of time needed to fly across the globe, attempt to adjust to the time difference, race and then head home.  Certainly not ideal, but it was done with the view that I may never get the chance again to go. 

Not much to say on the flight, it was a long way, Melb to Dubai, Dubai to Munich.  Then a 2 hour drive down to Zell Am See.  I was obviously a bit jet lagged as I jumped into the car only to find the steering wheel on the other side.  That aside, the ford focus did the job nicely and ran beautifully along the autobahn.

Zell Am See was as spectacular as the images I had seen prior to leaving,  a mirror like lake, amazing mountains and typical village style feeling in the town.  Using google maps, I booked our accommodation out of Zel Am See at Kaprun, this we found was a great decision as Zel Am See was incredibly congested over the week.

  

 I managed to get a couple of swims in before race day, the water was fantastic, 20 degrees, even managed a non wetsuit swim the second time round.  I rode the bike course which didn’t fail to deliver and was certainly worthy of a World Championship.  The climb was steady, kicking the last 2 km, but the real fun was the descent.  This was the first time I had seen large foam crash barriers lined up around the corners.

The descent was fast, very fast.  I thought I was pretty good at riding down hill, but this was like nothing I had ridden previously, the road just dropped away, sweeping bends, hairpins and straights, it had it all.  The lower sections were flat and fast, so there was certainly good opportunities to make up for time lost on the climb.

The only problem pre race was my left foot.  The weekend prior to leaving, I managed to strain some ligaments on foot, this essentially leaving me unable to run or even walk at times throughout the week.  I resorted to soaking my foot in the river flowing nearby our accommodation, that was true ice cold water, but it made my foot feel better.  Not much I could do about it, just leave it and see what happens on race day.

Registration went as you would expect, picked up another Ironman Bag and still can’t figure out what the included Mercedes merchandise was for.  Bike check in was Saturday afternoon, this after the Ironman 70.3 that was held on earlier in the day. 

Bike racked, aisle noted (M) and gear bags placed on the hooks.  I might have had a little Bike envy if not for the plastic bags that were placed over all the bikes.

Race Day arrived, again different to normal as the race started at 11:00am, this was normally when I was finishing, not about to start.  The start area and surrounding streets were packed, it was a nightmare getting around, I didn’t plan that bit at all well.

Don’t know why, but I left my bike shoes in my bike bag at checkin, which given my foot, was going to be near impossible to run the transition in cleats.  Fortunatly I was able to get my shoes out of the gear bag and lock them onto the bike.  My frozen electrolyte was positioned on my bike along with some Gels.  With transition sorted, it was off to the holding pen to wait for the start.

I do love a cannon firing to get things underway, brought back memories of Ironman N.Z in 2013.  I was in the first wave after the pros which was good, meant less waiting but nothing had prepared me for the washing machine.  The first 5 minutes of the swim was the toughest I have ever encountered.  It was very intense,and I drank more than my fair share of water.  I did have the time to sight a drone hovering closeby at the swim turn around though.   Swim time 27:20

Wetsuit extraction complete and helmet on, I was off and before I knew it blasting along the shared biked paths of Austria.  Fair Dinkum, their paths are better than some of the roads I train on.  The bike leg out to the base of the climb was quick, I was sitting on 300w and a post race check had the speed averaging 42kmh for the first 20km.

I commenced the climb feeling pretty good, I knew what I needed to do power wise, so I settled into my rhythm, problem was I was getting past by a lot of guys.  I later found I dropped 40 places on the bike, I’m sure most of these were on the climb.  The descent was awesome, glad I had done the recon, clocked up 84km/h and I was on the brakes for the majority as well.

The remainder of the bike leg was pretty straight forward although I dropped a drink bottle whilst charging over a wooden bridge.  I returned post race to the bridge to find my bottle, only to find a heap of other bottles in the same spot. Obviously everyone else had the same problem.  Bike Split 2:31

With the Bike leg over, I strapped the runners on the time had come to test the foot out.  I came into this race with some solid running, but this was the first time I had an injury that prevented me from running race week.  I set off running around 4:45 pace, just tried to settle in and see how things went.  Turns out I wasn’t going to get much faster in the run as I pretty much just remained at this pace.

I did make a rookie error though missing the collection of my lap 1 band which meant I had to  grab 2 bands on lap 2.  That was an interesting exchange with the volunteers. Run time 1:42

All in all, Zel Am See was a sensational course and a ride that I wont be forgetting in a hurry. It wasn’t my best day, but it was a week of empty feelings that only having your family with you can solve.  I actually think I had phyched myself into a sub optimaal performance, this stemming back to my qualification which was unexpected.  All I know is that Hawaii is going to come with a lot of hard work and effort and I can assure you that I will be mentally on for that race.  99^th in category, 2^nd Aussie home, 456 overall.’