|
Ishigaki World Cup, Japan (11-Apr-04) Ishigaki is a Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean to the Southeast of Taipei boasting amazing fishing, diving and a tropical climate.....yes, you will no doubt recall my desire to pick all the stinking hot races! I fell in love with the island last year when I stayed for a week before the race with Cookie & Newy (a friend from UK) due to the SARS outbreak in HK. The people are so friendly with a great mix of Japanese and pacific island influence, so it can be far more relaxing than other parts of Japan. As last year, I organized to stay at a small dive lodge 10minutes from transition with Megan Hall from South Africa and Beth & Cami from the USA. The best part of this trip is always the food, the lodge has a small family run restaurant two streets away and they cook breakfast and traditional Japanese dinner for us...you will never taste fresher sashimi. I was feeling remarkably relaxed going into this race, no doubt helped by the fact I had had a good result at the Asian Champs the weekend before and that so many other nations were using this race as part of their Olympic selection. This was going to be a key race for the GB squad, who had all been training in Australia through the winter, as the first GB athlete over the line would get their first Olympic spot, assuming they were also top six. The Japanese, Swiss & Dutch were also using the race for selection and many other athletes were desperately looking to win those extra ITU points to boost their ranking to ensure country eligibility. For sure, this was going to be one incredibly tough race but what better way to test out my swim improvement. As expected, race morning was clear and the temperature just kept on rising as the women's race start drew near. We had pulled the short straw with a 12.30pm gun, guaranteed to ensure an incredibly hot run. The streets were already lined with spectators as we rode down to transition, as this is the highlight of the year for the islanders. As you may know, the Japanese are triathlon crazy but Ishigaki is one of the oldest races in Japan, so it is especially close to their hearts. The swim takes place off the pier, in the protection of the harbor wall but the water is crystal clear and teaming with tropical marine life......I could float around in there for hours. I limited to my warm-up due to the heat and sat in the water keeping cool until they called us up to the starting area. World Cups are notorious for having lengthy start procedures, where they announce the top 20 athletes with a brief introduction and typically the mayor will conduct a short speech. They always seem to take even longer in Japan as though we are gladiators waiting to go into the arena and the crowd want to get a good look as you don't know whether everyone will return! It wasn't helped by the fact the commentator kept repeating the temperature and stating, "and it's getting hotter." Well thanks, that's just what I want to be hearing right now! Finally, we were all called onto the pontoon and before you knew it, we were diving into the refreshing water. I have always been a strong believer in mind over matter which I normally use to my advantage, but I had had this niggling feeling before this race my goggles would come off. Sure enough, they did! It was weird as I haven't had a problem with them during a dive in over a year and was only thinking the other day, "Why did I used to get so worried about dive starts and my goggles coming off?" At least I remained calm kicking myself for the negative thoughts, stopped and popped them back on before jumping on the feet of the swimmer next to me. I felt really good and made it to the first buoy mid-pack - BONUS, never been here before in a World Cup. I was so excited to be in the mix, that the pushing & bashing of 60 women trying to get round the first buoy was actually fun.....it sure beats having all the space in the world because you have been dropped from the pack and have to do the rest of the race on your own! I remained aggressive and remembered to surge round the buoys and found I was still in a good position halfway round the first lap and it wasn't even as hard as I have had to work in other races. As we ran up the pier to enter the water again, the field was pretty much still one big pack and I wasn't at the back, so I am sure Ruth (HK National Coach, who has seen me sink on numerous occasions) must have been having a mini celebration on the side-line. I was trying to remain calm and focused through the second lap and not make any stupid mistakes as I knew I was swimming well enough to maintain my position. As we ran into transition, I could see Beth just ahead and a number of other girls I don't normally swim with......groovy, OK, now all I needed was a quick transition. You take a sharp left turn straight out of transition and head up over the a steep bridge so there is no time to get shoes on, you just go before the pack forms too tightly and leave you in their dust. I was soon in the heat of it and five of us started to take turns at the front looking to reel in the chase pack 30seconds ahead of us. A number of our pack were dropped as we came back over the bridge for first of 6laps and this made our group more efficient than the larger pack ahead. By the fourth lap we had caught them making a peleton of 27 riders, which became pretty interesting as we weaved our way through the narrow streets of town which slowed us down considerably. I decided the safest place to be was somewhere in the front 5-6 riders, which meant working at the front but that suited me fine...there was no way I wanted to go down in a crash after getting into the main pack for only the second time in my World Cup career! The lead group were now 2minutes ahead, which they maintained into T2 giving them a good cushion going into the run but my focus was simply making the 8% cut off and nailing some points. We have to tackle the dreaded bridge 6 times again on the run, so combined with the 35C plus temperatures, makes for a slow course which wasn't helped when the officials forgot to set up the run turnaround and we ended up going to the bike turn for our first lap. Like I really needed to run an extra 1km in lap one! Thankfully, it was the same for everyone and they brought the turn cone in for the next two laps but this still resulted in the course being about 500m long for the women's race. While the Brits were battling up front for their Olympic spot, I was battling to keep the legs turning over....clearly this wasn't going to be the day my new run was going to shine through. I felt slightly better and more fluid that I had in the Asians but it was still hard work to the line and after sprinting the last 100m because I knew the 8% was close, I collapsed in a heap in a time of 2:10:32. I was quickly plonked into a wheelchair and rushed to the medical tent ,which was already over-flowing with dehydrated women. I was hooked up to an IV as they tried to cool me down and bring my heart-rate back to normal but as I looked around, I was by no means the worst. A number of the women had two liters of IV and a couple were throwing up, so the volunteers had their hands full. Maxine Seear (AUS) won the women's race in 2:01:10 over-taking a fading Michelle Dillon (GBR) with 50m to go which begged the question, did that extra 500m make the difference? Either way, Michelle secured her Olympic place with Niwata claiming the last podium spot and giving the locals something to cheer about. I missed points by 32 seconds......can you believe it? To be honest though, I really don't think I could have gone any faster on the day and this is always one of the most competitive WC races of the year. I was over 9minutes away from points last year so it was a big improvement and has given me the confidence now that I can swim with the pack, so hopefully points are very close. I am planning to go to the Korea World Cup in June, where it would be nice to finally put a score on the door. In true Japanese style, we finished off the day with Karoke although I hate to think what the locals must have thought with 20 of us descending on a local bar after a truck full of free beer, thinking we all sounded like the next American Idol superstar!!!!! "Don't give up your day jobs," must have sprung to mind and why is it the French just can't wait to take their clothes off? After a night of fun, the four of us all crawled out of bed early the next morning for a casual ride round the island to spin our legs out before heading our different ways again. Until the next time... Cheers Claire PS. I forgot my camera so sorry no pictures this time! For full results see www.triathlon.org |
|
|
|
