We had rain overnight but race morning dawned clear and promised to be another hot one.  After grabbing some coffee, oatmeal and bread on my balcony....the tough life of a pro triathlete!  I headed over the road to transition (see view of transition from my balcony) to claim my bike rain jacket, pump up tyres and put all my gels in place.  I saw Rebecca Preston (AUS) checking her bike in...love it how they are so laid back here. She had driven over from her training camp in Switzerland the afternoon before, glad I wasn't stuck in a car for 3hours the day before. I headed back to my room to chill out for another 1/2hr as I had plenty of time and wanted to call Cookie before the race.  I must admit I don't remember feeling this nervous before a race for a long time - I was almost in tears on the phone as I couldn't face still feeling sick and either really struggling through or not finishing and I simply wasn't sure whether I was right yet. You try and put it all in perspective, it's only training and no-one really cares how you do but it can be hard plus I was ranked #2 - how did I manage that?

Ok, pull yourself together and over to the start area which was about 1km from the transition (Picture on route to the start). After a last toilet break, I slipped into my new Ironman Wetsuit and using my newly purchased lubrication gel - France sadly doesn't seem to sell Vasceline, so after a good 20minutes in the supermarket this was the best thing I could find.  (NB. Lubrication gel clearly isn't meant to withstand 7hrs plus of friction without lots of reapplication!) After a quick warm-up, everything was feeling good and the water was perfectly flat for the 3km one lap swim.  I found the start line and you have to be kidding?  They wanted us to do a lake-side start which was about 50m wide between two piers but the ground was stones!  There were two boat ramps but I figured everyone would want to run down these and it was going to be a fist fight, so opted for the stones next to Sara Gross (SCO) - ok, challenge one of the day, don't get face planted into the stones and run over by 300 testosterone incensed Frenchmen!  As it turned out the start was fine, the normal battle in the first 15m but I then found some space.  I always find it hard to get started and the first 300-400m was hard work but then I got into a rythmn and found a good pair of feet to swim on. The pace felt reasonably comfortable but every time I went to go round, I couldn't overtake so I figured I was on the right feet.  A couple of times, faster swimmers came through and every time I managed to switch feet and get myself in the best place. By halfway through the swim, my goggles started to feel really tight - I had tightened them at the start worried they may get knocked off but I was obviously cutting off the circulation and this made me feel pretty sick for the rest of the swim.  As I staggered up the finish ramp ripping off my goggles, the announcer was shouting 2nd placed female (43:49).....was that me?  Cool and I could see the first female just heading out of transition....pretty good start to the day.

I immediately felt better after taking the goggles off and focused on my quicker transition......had a few changes to make since my last Ironman race as I was loosing too much time in transition.  After a long run to the bike exit, I made it through in 2:30 - much better and in third place as another girl had just piped me out.  My legs felt good heading through town for the start of the 120km bike but then it was downhill!  I focused on settling into a good pace and staying in touch with the girl just up ahead. There are two things I notice when racing in France.....one - the men all cycle REALLY WELL and two - 90% of them either can't run or they use way too much energy on the bike. It gets pretty depressing when it's a steady stream of men passing you especially if you have a good swim and I am sure about 200 must have gone past me on the bike!  The first Col comes at about 10km on the bike and as I neared the top I passed one girl but Nikki Edged, Rebecca Preston & Tine all passed me.  I knew it was important for me to focus on my race & nutrition as I wanted to use this race to help my preparation for Hawaii but managed stayed with these girls on the downhill into La Bresse, which is about 12km although we had a headwind on all three laps.  I found the Col de la Grosse Pier out of La Bresse really tough on the first lap and very hot.  About halfway up, Marilyn McDonald, Estelle Leroi & Nicole Klinger (eventual winner) all went past. I wasn't feeling at my best and just focused on my race remembering this was the first lap of three. The second lap was pretty un-eventful accept I got a drafting call with two guys on the descent into La Bresse. I was trying to overtake them and this was the only part of the course with two-way traffic and I had to suddenly stop and pull in as a car was overtaking meaning the gap was 5m instead of 7m! Pretty unfair and even one of the German girls, who was behind me came up and said it was an unfair call.  Oh well, at least they are policing the drafting well here rather than many races now where they almost can't be bothered to do anything.

The hills at least felt better on lap 2&3 although your legs are obviously getting tired and on lap 3 I finally started to overtake some of the guys!  My stomach wasn't feeling so hot on lap 3 and getting food in was becoming more and more difficult but I managed to get in most of what I had planned to by the end of the bike leg (4:08:51). As I came into transition, you collect your bag and then I had to run a penalty lap for my drafting call. I think is a good idea as standing someone down on the side of the road or in transition allows them to rest, drink, eat etc whereas an extra run makes you do something.  The lap took me about 3minutes then I was out on the 30km course round the lake which was 4laps of 7.5km. Four laps was hard as you do the first one and it looks like miles and miles and just think 3 MORE to go!  My legs actually felt pretty good and I had to tell myself to slow down a bit remembering what happened when I went out too hard in Ironman Canada last year.  I had absolutely no idea what position I was in or where the other girls were on the course but in some ways that didn't matter, I was determined to make this day about me and the course. There was short out and back at the far end of the lake and this gave me a chance to see that the lead women was 1lap ahead of me but for 500m and the next girl behind me was 1km back. My stomach felt really uncomfortable and bloated especially for the first lap of the run....not sure whether this is the position you are on the bike but running and being upright finally seemed to sort it out a bit. 

My big goal this year has been to eat on the run and I have been mixing up a gel solution in my fuel belt.  As much as I hate taking anything, I know I need to if I am going to run at my best, so every aid station I took a big mouth full and managed to get through about 4gels like that.  I was running in a lighter pair of Asics shoes this time round to try them out and had numb feet that got worse for the first lap but then went away, so not sure what that was about.  It's funny how all these things are going on and you simply have to block them out and keep going and often things sort themselves out.  I guess that's what I love about long distance, it's as much a mental as physical challenge.  Lap two and half of lap three felt pretty good but then the trials of the day began to emerge about 20km into the run.  By this time the lead women had just overtaken me on her final lap so I remained focused not to be overtaken by Sara, who was in second place.  I could also see Claudia Hille from Germany running well behind me and only about 50m back - not a good sign.  At this point, I didn't think is was a good idea for me to increase my pace with 10km but to try and maintain it and then pick it up if she went past. It's funny how she looked so good - quick cadence, very fluid and I wasn't feeling good at this point.  For the next 7.5km lap, every time I heard footsteps, I thought oh, god it's her but it would be one of the pro or relay men.  I was surprised she had got so close and then hadn't got to me.  At the final turn around with 3.5km to go, she was only 20m behind me - this was a real deja vu to New Zealand where I saw 4th place only 1minute behind with 10km to go!  Did I have it in me to pick up my pace and hold her off to the finish?  My legs were really sore now and she was so close........it's not in my nature to give in and even less in Siri's (my coach) so I imagined her running next to me and Cookie, only he was too slow so I ended up putting him on an imaginary bike so he could keep up!!! I completely went for it deciding it was do or die....I would either make it or keel over trying.  I didn't dare to turn around to see if she was with me at any point to the finish for fear of looking weak or more importantly falling over as I am not sure I would have been able to get up again! When I came down the finish shoot I still wasn't sure if I would actually make it and was completely spent over the line in 8th place (7hrs24). I stayed there just long enough to see her finish about 2minutes behind me - why didn't I turn around?  I was helped to medical and spent an hour lying on a stretcher feeling dreadful with a bag of ice on my head.  At this point you really need someone around just to hold your hand and be there.  Finally I pulled myself off the stretcher and off to massage where I chatted with Sara & Nicole - I am not sure how they are planning to do another race so soon!  Sara is going European Long course next weekend (3/120/30km) and Nicole IM Switzerland in 3wks.  Next time I say, this distance is much easier to recover from than Ironman - please shoot me!
I was chatting to Claudia this morning at breakfast and she was saying she tried to chase me for a while but gave up after 1km when she saw I had increased the pace too.  Despite not having my best race, I am pretty chuffed I have been able to hold people off in my last two long distance races, as this was always my biggest fear and I never had confidence in my running.  All things considered with my sickness and taking time off after Japan, I was pretty happy with my race yesterday.  I was very happy with my swim & run and I know I will be able to really focusing on my cycling when I head to Boulder in 3wks to start my preparation for Kona.  I am also starting to realize that flat to rolling courses seem to suit me better on the bike when I can get in the aero position..... hopefully a good omen for Kona!  Gerardmer is an awesome place with great people and I am sure they will do the Tour de France proud in a couple of weeks.  They do a great job at running this race and have a sprint, olympic and kids race on the Sunday, so it really is a triathlon weekend.  This has to go down as one of my favorite races and I will definitely be planning a return next year.

Good luck at the races..... more news from Hong Kong soon.

Cheers Claire

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