As noted my training went well right through the summer with new found training buddies Gary Pertot and Rob Taranto. They’re great blokes and very different people how they go about approaching their training. Rob’s a flat out type of bloke who wants to go 100 miles an hour every training session while Gary is very measured and sticks to what his plan says (but can be swayed!). I sort of slotted in between these blokes well, Gary was there taming me when we had the long aerobic stuff and Rob was there pushing me along for the harder sessions. He is very much like another good mate, Geoff Pell (GSP), in the way that he rides, he’s as strong as an Ox and hits hills real hard. On Sunday’s Rapido bunch ride where there are many strong (and smart) riders, Rob is the benchmark of strength. A big positive training with these fellas was picking Gary’s brain about all things Triathlon & cycling as he has a pretty deep knowledge on training methods, recovery etc. The humour was also a big highlight of this years training, it can get pretty tedious at times pushing out the big km’s, but there was always a good yack or plentiful sledging going on. Apart from the persistent ITB trouble on my right knee, we arrived in Port Mac on the Wednesday and I was feeling as though I was in pretty good shape.
Port Mac ’09 will be remembered for the ‘great wet’, the whole Northern Coastal area of NSW copped a ‘1 in 100 years’ dose of rain. All the transition area, check in area and virtually everywhere else around the IM village was under 4 inches of mud due to the construction equipment chopping the ground up and leaving it smelling like a Melbourne footy oval in the middle of winter – stink! It made getting around difficult and was a general pain in the arse right throughout the weekend.
Check in on Saturday went well and I was carbed & electrolyted up to the eyeballs ready for a bigun’.
On race morning I met up with Rob and Gary at Gary’s unit (we were all staying at the Sundowner ) and we trekked on over to the IM Village. Check in was painless and then out to the bike to kit it and wettie up ready for the swim. I saw Marie, Tilly, Tom & Meggie on the way to the swim then GP saw Di, Jenna & Renae so we all had our final good luck wishes then into the water. My positioning was ok, on the outside, closer to the land where the competitors thinned out to avoid the start carnage. It didn’t quite go to plan as I got swam over twice at the very start then got the shit beat out of me over the next 400 metres. At the far turnaround I copped a whack in the goggles that nearly knocked them off and lost my swim cap. The same problem as ’07 happened as my hair was getting in the way making for difficult navigation. This saw me zigzagging all over the joint bouncing off people who were in for a bit off payback and I often copped a smack in the head due to my misguided efforts. This was probably more my fault and most definitely the ‘nude nut’ or ‘chrome dome’ head (the same as Pt Mac ’08) is the way to go here. I exited the water in around 1hrs 09 mins which I was disappointed about, I felt I had swam a lot stronger at swim squad and hadn’t shown my true potential through the muddied waters of the Hastings River. Official Time – 1:08:41, Ave HR (Heart rate): 157 bpm (beats per minute). Swim pace: 1min 48secs/100 metres.
Onto the bike after a slowish 2min 54secs T1, then no great dramas until Lighthouse Drive, which is a small little back road full of crude little road repairs & patches. My only bidon (bottle) cage on the bike, which was carbon fibre snapped then jammed in between my frame & big ring. I lost my bidon of concentrated electrolyte/protein which was full of ELEMENTAL NUTRITION’S finest products (Athletes Advantage and Whey Protein). This had me doing some quick recalculations as I didn’t want to make the same mistake as Hawaii ’08 when my drink went off due to the heat & I had to ditch it. I was now going to rely on Gels, increase my salt tablet intake, cola, and for a flavour change go the occasional Gatorade. It was a good thing I had a new ‘Jetstream’ aero bar mounted bottle on the bike for the first time as this would now have the job of keeping me hydrated through the bike leg.
The roads were wet and very slippery which took a huge edge off your cornering speed and lead to a lot of criterium style sprinting to get the bike back up to speed out of the many corners and bends through town. I quite like the Port bike course, hilly at both ends with a long flat bit in between. Just as you get sick of the hills in town you have the flat of Ocean Drive to look forward to, then when you get sick of rolling along the flat you turn off down Houston Mitchell Dr. or ‘Ghost Rd’ for some more hill action. I was using GSP’s Zipp 999 wheel combination and the whole bike and wheel combo were proving to be very fast and handling the conditions beautifully. There was a slight tail wind into town and the majority of the ride was spent concentrating on staying on top of my gear into it then ‘pushing’ a big gear like crazy going with it. A huge disadvantage with being a poor swimmer is the packs of riders I have to contend with. Yet again drafting was rife within the age group ranks with several large peletons of ‘weak’ riders forming and often encouraging each other to stay together. They were of no inconvenience to me as I was too strong for any of the small appendaged riders to hold onto and simply rode past them then put in an effort when I got to the front so they couldn’t hold my wheel. The laps were ticked off nicely and I enjoyed the whole ride which went pretty much to plan with the only exception being on the last lap on the way out was slow as the legs were starting to feel shot. The support from the crowd was fantastic with Marie, Tom, Tilly & Meggie being their usual vocal selves at Munster St and the Fry, Pertot and WSTC (Tri Mental Edge & ETPA) crews also offering great support. The great thrill here was getting off the bike in under 5hrs. A sub 5hr ride time at any Ironman is the mark of a solid rider and one which a lot of top age groupers gun for, achieving this on the tough Pt. Mac course just makes it that little bit more special. Official time – 4:59:16 secs, Ave HR: 149 bpm, Ave speed: 36.13km/h.
I dropped the bike off, grabbed my run bag then headed through the swamp to the change tent. Extra time was spent drying my feet and getting all the mud off them before putting my socks and runners on giving me a 1min 54sec T2. This probably didn’t help much, as soon as you got out of the change tent there was approx. 60 metres of mud that was 4 inches deep to run through, oh well, I’ll worry about the blisters and chopped up feet tomorrow!
I settled into a comfortable rhythm heading out to Settlement Point then back into town, taking advantage of the flat part of the course to tuck my gels and salt tablets away and set my run up.
I love this run course, flat at one end and hilly at the other, the 3 lapper is great for spectators who duly reward you for your efforts and the volunteer support is absolutely awesome. How the vollies find their energy to continue on all day just astounds me and their levels of help this year was nothing short of sensational. Kilometre markers are a bit scarce on the course which makes doing your timing splits pretty hard, I rely on using my own markers and work off rough splits around them. I’m not too sure how my lap splits were but I feel I got faster every lap. I had no real flat patches and just continued to pick off athletes one by one, hopefully whittling my way down to a respectable placing in both Age Group and Overall. My nutritional plan worked an absolute treat and I even had time to throw in a few of the most awesome tasting cookies around to break up the Gel/Coke routine. The last lap of the run was something that will stick with me forever. I worked out I could do a race PB if I could go a touch quicker, so I put the hammer down, lifted the HR and went for it. The last climbs up past Town, Flynn’s and Oxley Beaches hurt like hell as the HR sailed up past 155 bpm for the first time in hours. My ITB which I hadn’t felt all run was starting to cause me some slight grief, stuff it I thought, I’m nearly home – The old line about ‘pain is temporary’ etc. was running through my mind. I pushed real hard verging on cramp going down the hills then hammered home the last 2 km’s in a touch over 8 minutes to get a sub 3hr 10min marathon time. Wow ! I didn’t have much time for any finish line carry on as I really wanted to get that run PB in as well – I made it !! I felt pumped as I was escorted off to the recovery area. It is a great feeling walking through the tent at that time. There isn’t many athletes that have finished and all the massage staff and catering team are standing around waiting for peak hour in around an hours time, they all turnaround and give you an enormous undivided cheer, I copped a heap of back slaps and hand shakes on a job well done. Chrissie Wellington who had finished about 20 minutes in front of me was sitting down for some tucker and actually took time out to say well done and ask me about my race, the joy on my face must have been pretty obvious and she just kept talking, obviously pretty excited for me – Another buzz !!
Official run time – 3:08:06, Ave HR: 141 bpm, 4min 27secs/km
Overall time: 9hrs 20mins 51secs, 33rd overall, 6th in 35-39 Age Group.
Overall a great race - shit swim, PB on both bike and run, a race PB overall on a tough course after a great training block with some great mates, even another spot for Hawaii if I wanted it! Does this sport get any better ????
Many thanks to Marie, Tilly, Tom & Meggie for their love, support, patience and understanding during training. To my SPONSORS: Rapido Cycles who look after all my bikes & gear, fit me out in the best looking kit and are there at the drop of a hat when I need them, Elemental Nutrition for supplying me with their awesome nutritional products throughout my training block, XOSIZE – thanks for all your help Scotty and to the City of Moonee Valley for their ongoing support.
Cheers,
Matty Lewis – 9 times Ironman.
Rob, GP and I pre race
Port Macquarie cattle yards
Saving it for the 'chute
The Day after - done & dusted !
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