It is funny how it somehow seems more tiring traveling to races somewhere like Korea than it does going to the USA or Europe.  I left for Korea early Friday morning and after 2 flights with an airport change, I finally arrived at our condo's at 6pm.  The weather was cooler than Hong Kong which would be ideal for racing...let's hope it holds!  I was originally going to be in Boulder for training by now but had decided to stay in Asia for another two weeks as this was a good money race and I hoped not too many people would be racing.  It seemed like my prayers had been partly answered as there were only 8 women entered but they were all good athletes with 5 coming over from Japan plus Shatnaya (KAZ), who consistently outruns me with her 37min 10km times and Melissa Ashton from Australia.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel come race day as I knew I hadn't been doing as much hard swim training as I feel I need too due to my heavy race schedule since April.  I had also had a big bike/run overload for 6days over last weekend in preparation for my Ironman training.  It would be interesting to see how my body responded to the overload and then almost complete rest for 2days going into this race.

I was rooming with Tania, one of the junior girls from Hong Kong who would be racing over the sprint distance on Saturday, so she would hopefully be able to give me some good feedback from the course ready for my race on Sunday morning.  I managed to get my small swim, bike & run sessions all done by 11am on Saturday morning which gave me time to nap and relax for the rest of the day.  It was cool to catch up with Melissa, who I haven't seen since World Champs in December last year.  She has also turned her focus to Ironman and will do her first one in Korea on the same day as I will be racing IM Canada, so it was interesting to swap notes. 

Race day dawned with the same weather, overcast - finally it looked like I was going to be able to race this year without having to deal with 36C plus heat.  After an early morning jog and some breakfast, Melissa and I biked down to the course so we would have plenty of time to check it out as there had been some changes from the year before.  The swim had moved to a more sheltered location round the corner from the normal beach, which also meant we would have to climb the port bridge ten times on the bike.  The course was very similar to the Ishigaki World Cup and at least this meant the weaker cyclists would have to put some work in too, before the flat 2lap run.  The surprise came when they announced it was a non-wetsuit swim, which actually suited me fine as I hadn't had much of a chance to swim in my suit since March as it was so hot in HK at the moment.  I had tried the other weekend but I nearly drowned with heat exhaustion after 15minutes.

As we lined up for the start, I was feeling somewhat more relaxed than normal for an Olympic distance race as there wasn't any pressure and no-one was paying for me to be there except myself.  The gun went off and as we plunged into the icy water, I kept Melissa close by as she is a good swimmer and it would be nice to sit on her feet.  By the time we reached the first buoy a small pack had just broken away and I was left with Takahashi & Shatnaya......not bad considering these were the girls I was swimming with at my fittest back in April.  We stayed pretty much  together for the second lap but by the time we ran 600m to T1, there was a small gap between us.  I wasn't too worried as I was confident I would be able to catch up to them as we climbed the bridge for the first time and sure enough we were together as the chase pack within 1km.  My legs didn't feel the best they have ever felt but strong and I felt in a position to push the pace and try to catch the lead group.  Takahashi and I worked pretty hard to real in the girls ahead and had soon caught and dropped two of the Japanese girls and Shatnaya was pulling through when she could.  By 15k, we caught Melissa and Ueda but it was obvious Mel wasn't feeling up to her normal self on the bike or it would have been a good opportunity for us to try and break away.  I knew I was the weakest runner out of the group and wasn't sure how well the girls behind ran so I wanted to make sure we had a reasonable cushion going into T2.  It was easy for some of the others to want to back off the pace and wait for the run, but I couldn't see how this was going to help me so I pushed on especially on the bridge climb in order to build the lead and make sure everyone was working.

Coming into T2 is always a surprise for me, as I never seem to know how my legs will feel for the run.  Often a hard but consistent bike is good for them rather than too much acceleration/declerations by drafting with a big pack but who knows.........I felt I had worked hard but not too hard on the bike so fingers crossed!  The other girls set off like their butt's were on fire and although they didn't get too far ahead, I know I am better if I let myself build into it slightly.  Shatnaya took the lead within the first 1km, followed by Takahashi then Mel, Ueda and me bringing up the rear.  By 2km, I could see Ueda slowly slightly, so I started to chip away at the lead and by 3km I had gone past......OK, 4th place now I just have to hold onto it.  I could still see Mel up ahead and tried to real her in, which was successful until the next turn around at 5.5km when she saw I had been gaining and pulled her lead out again slightly.  It was so nice to be running, feeling strong and as though I was able to focus about catching people, which is something I haven't felt for a while except Powerman Italy, so maybe the tide is finally turning! I knew I was running better in training but I just couldn't seem to get it together come race day but as Siri said, it has a lot to do with relaxing and having confidence in your ability and maybe I was beginning to get that.  As we turned for the final time, I could see I still had a reasonable lead over Ueda and there was no-one else close but you never want to be too confident, so I tried to pick up the pace one last time to the finish.  I hadn't realized at this point I was about to smash my PB and do my best run time in a triathlon over 10km (I have broken 40min before but that was over a short course!).  I came under the finish arch in 2:03:58 and 4th place.......awesome, good money and some ITU points to improve my ranking to 106th which was still nice even though I don't need it at the moment. 

The best thing for me was to have put together a really consistent swim/bike and run and broken my PB a week before my first anniversary of working with Siri as my coach.  I felt we had achieved so much over the last year but it had shown more in training than on the race course.  I know it has to come in training before the racing and this would ultimately happen but it was nice to feel I had done all our work justice on the course as well.  I also feel like I have been able to fulfill two of the goals I set out with 18months ago when I gave up full-time work to focus on Olympic distance triathlon.  The first one was to swim with the main pack in a World Cup race, which I managed in Ishigaki earlier this year and the other was to have a solid Olympic distance ITU race and break 2:05.  Now, I feel completely ready for the challenge of Ironman racing with Canada only 8wks away!

Happy Training......

Cheers Claire

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