Blood, Sweat and Tears

Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one!

Hi everyone,

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone for their support over the weekend. I have been blown away time and time again by how much support I receive from not only my friends and family, but from people I have never even met. It means the world to me. So are we ready? Lets get into my race report from Bintan 70.3 held over the weekend.

The lead up to Bintan did not start out too well for me. About 10 days out from the race the start list was released and there were some really good athletes in my age-group. I mean, very fast. I immediately went into panic mode, called my Mum, messaged my coach, what to do? Pull out and pick another event? I had actually decided that is what I would do. This decision changed several times over the week. My coach told me to not think about the things I couldn't control and to go and race the smartest race I could. I decided to go but i had lost all interest in the event. I didn't think I had a shot at the World Championship slot anymore. I didn't even write a blog post last week (the first time I have missed one) because my heart just wasn't in it. We landed in Singapore on Wednesday and I was so excited to be here. I love it here! But I noticed I was perhaps having too much fun. I was drinking a little too much and maybe eating a little too much either. Still I followed my taper plan. I went for a run in the heat and felt good. On Friday we made the trip over to Bintan Island. When we got there and to our hotel I hated it. The place was empty and depressing. Bintan Island is basically Indonesia with Australian prices. 

I was in a bad way mentally, I did not want to race at all. On Saturday I went out for a easy ride to make sure the bike was ok and I came across a kind of look out where the water was so blue and there were palm trees along the coast, it was beautiful. It made me realise how selfish I was being. I had been hoping for a free ride almost and I had forgotten how lucky I was to be able to even race, or travel. Something in me changed. I became excited about the race. We made our way over to the race area which was based around the partially completed Swiss Bell Hotel in Lagoi. It was hot. Really really hot. Transition was a long double sided line but the area looked really nice. At the expo I rushed around trying to find the stuff I needed. I got myself a new pair of Blue Seventy goggles because I have been having massive issues with the latest pair of Speedos I bought fogging up every time I bloody look at them. I also spoke to the people at PURE Hydration who were going to be the on course electrolyte. I got myself some of their stuff and it was great. I left all checked in feeling nervous but also a little excited.

The morning of the race was the usual chaos, thinking I forgot something, having too many bags. We got to transition at 5:15 and all the lights stopped working so Dez had to walk down to my bike and shine her phone torch for me. I set everything up but was surprised to find I was spending so long in there. When they gave the 5 minute warning to transition closing I was still getting ready. I came so close to forgetting the battery for my bike gears. Literally I tried to change gears at the last second and it made me realise I had forgotten them. But I got into my swim skin, dropped off my bag and headed to the beach. 

The Swim - 29:20
I was unusually calm at the start line. We were told that because of the low tide the start had been moved about 50 metres into the surf for a water start. I positioned myself on the far left as it was a series of left hand turns and there was a good line of buoys to follow. I made sure that my Garmin had GPS locked on and was set on triathlon mode as I didn't want to have it miss the swim leg like it did in Melbourne earlier this year. As the gun went off I decided to try and shallow dive as many times as I could before swimming due to the depth of the water. I think I did it about 6 times and noticed I was out the front of the start group. Once I started swimming I put in a serious effort and was leading for a good 200m. Then I started to settle into my rhythm and saw a few other green caps pass me. I was ok with it. My swim has become very strong recently and I was curious to see what I could do. Very quickly we started swimming through some of the slower swimmers from the other wave starts. I actually found it quite difficult to navigate through them as there were many doing breastroke. I had someone try ad grab me at one point as well. I found sighting quite difficult as there was a kind of haze meaning it was light but it wasn't bright. I just kept going buoy to buoy. I could have swum a better line but I was heading in the right direction. As we started to approach the beach I picked up my pace a little and once we hit the shallow water I started diving again like I had at the start. I came out of the water and was happy that my arms were a bit sore. I had swum hard.


T1 - 1:59
Coming into T1 I noticed straight away that most of the bikes in my area were still there. This meant I was one of the first out of the water. It was quite a distance to get to my bike and out of transition. No major dramas.

The Bike - 2:27
I had heard horror stories about the bike leg at Bintan. I had been very worried about it and had gone away from my normal 90mm aero wheels to my 40mm wheels which I usually only use when road racing. I put on an 11-28 cassette to make climbing easier. What I noticed quite quickly though was that these hills were not going to be horrific like I had expected. I was expecting climbs like I had to endure at Challenge Phuket. Instead this was the definition of a rolling bike course. Some hills were a little tougher but there was always a down hill the other side. I also noticed early on that I was riding very quickly. I have been doing a lot of work on my bike to get back the strength I had and it was obvious to me that it had paid off. I was able to ride ell over 40km/h very easily. The first 15km of the bike I was going past a number of competitors from the other age groups and was keeping an eye on the race numbers looking for any in my age group. I passed one guy after about 10kms and thought that there couldn't be too many others ahead of me. I spent a good 50km riding almost completely by myself passing the occasional athlete. There was some great support out on the course with a number of children cheering on the side of the road. They all wanted to high-five but I was worried it would cause a crash. 

It was starting to get hot after 90 minutes on the bike and I was trying to focus on staying hydrated. After about 60kms a rider on a road bike overtook me. I looked at his number and he was in my AG. I noticed that he was faster than me on the climbs but not on the flats or downhills so we started our game of cat and mouse. He would pass me going up a hill and I would pass him going down again. This must have happened 10 times and was becoming a little frustrating. Before turning on the major road that would take you towards transition there was a long climb and he put maybe 20 metres into me. So when we got to the top I hammered the pace to catch back up to him. Coming down the other side of the hill there was a 90 degree right turn. Nice and wide, plenty of room to go around quick. I slowed down a bit and took the turn. Something went wrong.

I am not sure exactly what happened but my back wheel locked. I managed to get one foot unclipped and then there was pain and a hard bang on my head. I had gone down HARD abut 5km from the finish line. Moments before I was thinking I might of been on track to go under 4:30 I was looking at a 2:20ish bike split. Next thing I know I am on the ground. It is amazing how adrenalin kicks in. I was up right away and couldn't feel too much pain. I knew I had done some damage because there was a lot of stinging and there was a big scratch on my handle bars. But the bike seemed ok. I was trying to get the chain back on but the police there (marshalling the course) were panicking, trying to take me and my bike off the course. I don't know what I was saying to them but lots of F's were used. I eventually managed to get my chain on but then the wheel wouldn't turn. At this point I thought the race was over because I had done something serious to my bike. But luckily I am quite logical and after I took a moment to impose myself I noticed the tyre had come off my rim I race tubular tyres where there is no inner tube, the tyre and tube are one and they are glued to the rim. Well my tyre was wedged between the rim and the bike frame and was still fully inflated. I knew what had happened now. The try had rolled off the rim. I assume it was because it was so hot that the glue had melted. When I checked the wheel yesterday the glue had stuck again. So I deflated the wheel until I was able to snap it back on the tyre then I jumped back on the bike and carefully rode the 5km back to transition. 

T2- 1:32
As soon as I got off the bike I could feel my right knee was a little sorted whole right side of my body was grazed and had blood on my arm. I went through as quickly as I could. Again this was mostly because of adrenalin. I think I spotted 3 bikes in already. I was in 4th place.

Run - 1:42
I stared out feeling awful like normal off the bike but expected it to go away. I also noticed that it was incredibly hot. The course was 3 laps of the lake. My pace was ok for the first couple of kms but it was becoming harder and harder. I was struggling to run the way I wanted to and the heat was killing me. The mental games started then too. "Mate you crashed, if you pull out you have an excuse" I just kept telling myself that no doubt the others might be struggling in the heat too and 21kms is a long way. The first 7km was one of the hardest runs I have done in a triathlon. I just kept hoping it would get better. It was impossible to cool down as well. The sponges would warm up so quickly. On my second lap it became a matter of survival. I stared to walk the aid stations and drink anything cold. I thought if I could just stay in 4th position I might get a slot at the role down. I also knew that there were a lot of people tracking me online and the thought of them watching my splits kept me going. At the end of the first and second lap I saw Dez and she said "You are in 3rd place! Keep going" I thought she was mistaken as I was sure I was in 4th. But she was right. Somewhere along the way I had passed the leader who had obviously been struggling with the heat. By the last lap I was running over 5 min kms but I just kept telling myself, "5km is nothing, 3km is a cool down" I was starting to feel sick with about 3km to go and stopped drinking and eating at the aid stations. I threw out the sponges with 1km to go so I would look good for the cameras and I came into the finish area. I didn't realise but they were letting all the athletes cross with the tape across the line but I got bloody out sprinted by another guy. I didn't care. I was happy to cross the line. I heard the announced say I was provisionally 3rd in my age group. What was going on?

Total Time - 4:42

After
When I crossed the line I must have looked in pretty bad shape. There was blood all over me and they came rushing up to me. All I asked was "which way to the medical tent?" They insisted on walking me over there. The guys in the medical tent were sensations. They cleaned all of my wounds and dressed them. I realised the extent of the damage because I came out of there looking like a mummy. As I made my way to the recovery area I saw the results were being pinned up and I had 3rd place. I couldn't believe it. I found Dez and she was ecstatic. I was speechless. Another friend of mine from Team MaccaX Timo found me a while later and knowing I wanted the WC slot told me the guy who own my age group wasn't taking his. We had to wait around for about 5 hours after the race but it didn't bother me. I got changed into my Thanyapura shirt which always gets me lots of looks and questions. Going up on stage to receive my third place award was surreal and was only outdone when my name was called to accept the World Championship slot. I could not believe it. I had qualified. It still hasn't sunk in yet.

It has now been a couple of days since the race and my body is pretty sliced up. So many people are saying that they can't believe I crashed and still managed to finish let along get on the podium. When I went down there was only the briefest moment where I thought I wouldn't finish and I forced myself not to use it as an excuse on the run. The support, congratulations and comments I have received from people literally brought tears to my eyes on Sunday night. I have written in other blogs how I have failed often. This time I succeeded. I set myself a goal and worked hard. It is funny but even though I had so much success over the weekend I am still disappointed that I didn't race to my potential. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't crash. Would I have gone under 4:30? Would I have won the age group? At the end of the day I will never know. Instead I think back to the advice my coach, Ben gave me "Only worry about the things you can control". So that is what I am going to do.

Big thanks to my coach Ben Hammond for everything he has done for me. I have developed so much as an athlete with him and am sure I have so much more to learn from him. My family also need to be thanked for their ongoing support even though they don't really get the triathlon thing. Thanks also to all of my Team MaccaX team members. You have no idea how amazing it is to see all of your comments and posts. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it now. The biggest thanks must go to my wife. Dez told me all week that I was going to get on the podium and qualify for the world championships. She is my biggest supporter and is doing a bloody good job of tending to my wounds.

So thats it for this week. Sorry it is long. But have a read and feel free to leave any comments you might have. It was also great to meet up with some Singaporean athletes yesterday Dawn and Eric. I love talking to other triathletes about the sport.

Now I am going to enjoy my last day in incredible Singapore. Good luck to everyone racing in Austria next weekend! Watch out for Sam Appleton, I think he will surprise everyone!

Stay safe, chase your goals and remember to TRI!

My first time on the podium! I told Ben I would have crawled through 21km of glass for that feeling again!

This is me just after the crash. Ripped my top and shorts and my back is covered in grazes