Know your potential, know your limits
At Primi last night 5 of us started talking about our goals for today's race. Mine was to swim 30 minutes, bike 2:30 - 2:35 and to finish under 5 hours. Alex who hadn't trained was just doing the swim and cycle - he was going to chase us on the bike. He said he wanted to ride about 2:20 to catch us. My brother came up with some interesting stats for his race none of which had too much to do with reality. Hannes (whose claim to fame is that he appeared in Idols recently) expected to do a 30 minute swim, a slowish bike (over three hours) and then a quickish run - 1:40 or so.
All the results here.
The 8th of March this year was a toss-up between going to do the Argus. This was the first year I felt I had a really realistic chance of breaking 3 hours. The other option was to do the half Ironman one hours drive down the road with a few friends. Really glad I chose the latter. This year's Argus has been a nightmare, check this out:
Extreme winds buffet Argus Tour cyclists
Elliott truck with Argus bike burnt out
Argus cyclists mourn fallen comrades
19 in hospital after Argus
Wind havoc at Cape Argus Tour
A friend of hours said riders from the skilled VB bunch were blown clean off their bikes, that they crawled at 15km/h on some downhills, that Suikerbossie was covered in dust being blown off the mountainside. He said at about halfway he decided to let the bunch go and ride carefully. He's a guy who normally finishes in about 2:50. He did a 3:20. Lots of broken hearts I think, with bicycles burnt, target times missed, and a lot of falls.
Meanwhile, back up country, the weather was great. Very cool to start off, with mists rising off the Vaal river, hiding away the buoys of the 1.9km swim.
Swim
It was odd getting into my wetsuit again. Felt like I was being strangled. Just before the race I was bobbing near the front and could feel how strong the current was pushing us back. The swim route was 500 metres upstream, 1km downstream (very quick) and then turning back up for the last 500 metres upstream again.
The start was mad. Lots of jostling, felt someones goggles drifting through the washing machine. But once around the first buoy I settled into my thing. I finished in just over 24 minutes.
My brother came in about 5 minutes behind, followed by Janet at about 32 minutes and Alex a minute later. Hannes did a 41.
Bike
The bike started off with a constant climb out of the university campus away from the river. I was in a small bunch of half a dozen riders. 3 guys pulled away from me gradually, and I left about 3 guys behind. At this stage I was about 23rd or so. The wind was a bit of a nuisance, mostly from the side, and the course wasn't nearly as flat as I'd thought.
At about 25km two characters with tattoos passed me, one riding right behind the other, and I watched them stay like that, rapidly changing from the front. It really pissed me off. On a downhill section I caught up to them and said, "Quit drafting."
The guy in the white socks spat at me: "Fuck you dickhead." It was quite funny. For the next 10-15 km each time one of them would pass me and swear at me, at one point one reminded me of the rules that for non drafting you had to leave a gap of 7 metres. Theirs was 3 at most, and they continued to essentially work together until 45km.
At one point one of them said, "I'm riding with my brother; stop spoiling our fucking day."
"What's your race number?" The guy pulls me a zap, his buddy says, "We'll sort this out after the race," and from his tone of voice, 'sort out' sounded like some mud wrestling triathletes.
I didn't like the idea of these two idiots getting the better of me, which definately motivated me to ride harder. At 45km I turned just ahead of them, in 19th position. Then I put the hammer down and didn't see them again until much later on the run.
I thought I saw my brother after the 45km turnaround, but I was mistaken. I did see Alex though, he was cutting his way through a big bunch and was probably around 5 or 6 kilometres behind me.
I had a good second half, although didn't feel as strong as I would have liked. Interesting I only took one water bottle, also took two water satchets on the road and only ate one gu gel.
I finished my bike in 2:31:33, nicely on the lower end of my 30-35 target. I average 35.5km/h which is not bad in the wind. When I started running I felt light, and great. Alex did a great 2:22 (averaging 37km/h), my brother rode 13-14 minutes slower.
Run
The run starts under the shady canopy beside the river, with a constant 3km climb which is a bit cruel after 90 km on the bike!
I started with a steady pace and was happy to do the first 10km in 55 minutes (I did my Std 10km in 51 minutes). At this point I was something like 15 minutes (2.5km) ahead of my brother. I still felt fairly solid after the next 7km (we did 3 x 7km loops). But after each lap it was obvious that he was speeding up, and crucially, I was slowing down. At the start of the 3rd lap he'd whittled down my lead to probably around 1km, and at this point, 14km, my legs basically crashed. It wasn't unexpected. I'd run a 15km in the gym last Sunday and the last 5 had felt brutal.
The 3km climb on the 3rd lap was interminable. I stopped for some cola going out and was shocked to see my broker pass me shortly after the 17km mark. I'd expected our finish to be slightly closer, and still thought the odds favored me! I found my legs not far from seizing up or cramping, and battled to maintain a 6 minute/km pace.
Now get this; moments after my brother left me for dead, one of the terrible two that I'd last scene at the 45km section on the bike pulls alongside. He says, "Dude, I don't want there to be bad feelings between us. Name's Jacques. What's yours? Friends?"
I shake his hand while FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING POES, ASSHOLE, YOU ARE A FUCKING DOOS, YOU'RE LIKE A WHINING WOMAN briefly resurfaces. He pulls slowy away, making about 500 metres on me. But then hey, their legs didn't work nearly as hard as I'd had to on the bike. People are funny eh!
I held on to finish in 4:58:44, slightly less than 6 minutes (1km) behind my brother; he did a 4:52:57.
Going down the stats, my 2:02 run is by far the slowest, (my brother did a 1:38:50) with the next slow runner way down the rankings. Hannes did a decent 1:51 and Janet came in on a 2:21 run which isn't bad, in a time of 6:11:59.
I noticed looking at the photos that I need to trim not only my run time but also my beard. I didn't realise I looked so shaggy! And despite lopping off 6kg in weight over the past 3 months, I'm still a bit flabby. So going to work at getting myself more er...photogenic ;-)
After the race we went to Alex's place for well deserved Coke and pizzas - DELISH!
Yup, I need to work on my run but I'm pretty happy with my race. I've done a 4:54:45 before (in Korea) and I'm glad to have come close to that. With a bit of work, I can be really competitive. So if anything, this race has left me even more motivated.
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