2016 Busselton 703 Race report

Definitely my most enjoyable 703 race so far.
Perfect weather, perfect conditions, imperfect preparations but still yielding relatively good results.

Managed to beat all of my original targets
Swim: 42:00
T1: 5:30
Bike: 3:27:58
T2: 3:18
Run: 2:23:15
TOTAL: 6h 42m

1KM Open Water Swim on Saturday (1 day before race day)
Joining the 1km Open Water Swim on the race ground was EXTREMELY important in acclimatizing to the cold water and wetsuit. I didn't get much of the cold water shock during the first warm up on Saturday, however the constricting nature of the wetsuit actually made me dizzy even though I swam less than 100m in the warm up. Decided to go conservative on the 1km swim and swam with a super slow tempo, just focusing on keeping my breathing steady and slow. The other problem was the buoyancy of the wetsuit putting my legs in an unfamiliar overly high position, resulting in me kicking the air instead of water half of the time. Had to adjust my body position and strokes to let my legs sink a lot more than usual to maintain a more efficient kick. Got more used to the conditions during the 2nd half of the swim and managed to bring my tempo back to a higher tempo to better utilize the buoyancy advantage offered by wearing the wetsuit.

Lessons Learnt:

Swim:

1. Pre-race familiarization swim - super important, especially for wetsuit swims
2. Warm up for swim 20 mins before race starts - super important. Get used to the cold water first to avoid shocks. And allow/pour more water into the wetsuit. Makes wearing more comfortable and less constricting.
3. Acclimatizing to the cold weather days before the race - wearing shorts and short sleeved tees, exposing myself to the cold as much as possible (without overexposure to wind)
4. The usual sting from the initial contact with cold water is actually bearable. Just keep immersed for more than 10secs and I'll get used to the cold.
5. Lube up my legs and back of neck before putting on the wetsuit. Makes taking off much much easier

T1:

1. Never really thought about why I used to care so much about doing a fast transition, until the moment of realization when Wee How pointed out that we have all the timing for Swim, Bike, Run, and how fast/slow we transition doesn't really matter since we are not going for podium. Well, I guess it used to be a ego-booster that my T1 and T2 was fast, to sorta make up for the slow SBR timing. But come to think about it, it was actually quite silly. So I really took my time with T1 and T2 this time.
2. With enough lube on the legs, it was much easier to take off the wetsuit than my first 2 encounters with the wetsuit.
3. Chose to wear my bike shoes properly first, and took my time to walk the bike out of TA, prioritising comfort, rather than doing all the flashy stuff that I used to do in the past - flying mount, shoes on bike

 Bike:

1. Strategy was to hold my speed between 25-27km/h throughout the 90km and I should be safe to complete the 90km in 3h30min
2. My concern on the cold wind adversely affecting me was valid - originally planned to wear the windbreaker for the first half of the bike, but ended up just wearing the arm sleeves instead - still a bit worried about taking too long in the T1, as well as windbreaker creating too much drag for the ride. Ended up the arm sleeves were good enough since I was sufficiently warmed up from the swim and the weather was starting to warm up too.
3. Followed the strategy perfectly - much due to the acknowledgement that I didn't prepare well for the bike, so it will be better to be more conservative and save my legs for the run, rather than going all out on the bike in glory and suffer later - not that I can keep up with the field anyway...
4. Much as I had told myself and Dear - Yes, my bike is horribly underwhelming and heavy, and is a major reason why my cycling sucks. This time even to the point that I didn't repair the broken gear shifter cables before going for the race - my front deraileurs didn't work. Not that it's a big problem for this race though since the course was totally flat, so it didn't affect much.

T2:

1. Good strategy to leave the Honey Stinger waffle in T2, as I was starting to get hungry on the bike.
2. Took my time to chomp down the waffle and salt stick, and wash everything down with Endura and water, before slowing running out of the TA

Run:

1. Best.Run.of.my.Life 
2. First time completing a 21km run with no sweat! The weather was dry, so basically all the sweat evaporated during the run, instead of dripping down to my shoes in all of my races in the past. 
3. It was a full 100% run - no walking (less water breaks) - something that I had never been able to achieve in all of my Triathlon races in the past.
4. Even though the run was dry, I'm keenly aware that I'm still losing water during the run, especially when the salt deposits on my trisuit started to build up. Maintaining discipline on rehydrating at every single water aid station was important.
5. Toilet break - I had actually endured this for half of the bike, and lasted all the way till around 16km mark before taking that single toilet break - much of it due to the toilets always being occupied when I ran past them. The other reason was to maintain that slight pain and urgency in the system so that I don't slow down to walk. The pain was starting to get a bit more unbearable at 16km, so it was good timing to visit the loo then. And instead of taking off the trisuit from top down to pee (and get a cramp in the shoulder), I chose to pull the trisuit up and just pass the urine out from below - works better and faster.
6. First 4km of the run was painful as expected, as I tried to run off the cramps which was caused by lactic acid build up during the bike. Maintaining the run cadence at around 175 helped to keep my discipline and true to my strategy, it worked well and I managed to speed up to a 6:30 pace and kept at it throughout the rest of the race without getting into cramps again.

One Major Rookie mistake:

• I joined the wrong wave start - so my wave actually swam off 48 minutes before I started. Should have double triple quadruple checked my wave details instead of assuming.
• What actually happened - I remember registering myself as 34 years old as the website stated that our age should be taken as of the day of the race (since I have not passed my birthday, I shouldn't be in the 35-39 old man group!)
• So I was waiting to start in the 30-34 group instead of 35-39 group.
• My friends were all in the 45-49 group so they just swam off in the wave before the 30-34 group
• Moment of realization came when I saw the entire group of 30-34 going into the swim start pen with pink swim caps (whereas I was wearing a yellow one).
• So I just went into the pen, and checked with the race officials that my wave had left long time ago, and I could leave anytime I was ready.
• Then I just unceremoniously walked the walk of shame and jumped into the water with the entire group of 30-34 watching on curiously at this dumbo.
• Point to self - Never ever assume again!!
• However, this experience has confirmed one thing - that the timing starts after checking-in on the swim start timing mat. It doesn't start with your wave. So I ended up with an official timing that was 6 minutes faster than my actual timing, as I checked in together with the 30-34 wave, which started 6 minutes after my walk of shame. - Myth busted!

 

Well, looking at the registration details shown on the official race results - it's really confusing isn't it? Age 34 but Division 35-39....