So it’s been a hell of a journey and after all this time I am finally at this stage, the night before. The great thing about my race is that it is tomorrow afternoon at 4.30pm, so no need to worry about not getting a good nights sleep as I have all day to relax.
So sport is often/ always, about overcoming challenges; lots of those challenges are known ones, like the physical and mental exertion you will encounter, and that’s all part of the fun and why we love sport (not to mention what it teaches us about real life) but sometimes we get other challenges; and that has happened in spades over the last 2 days.
On Tuesday night things went horribly wrong, I spent the whole night, and some, stuck to the toilet vomiting and diarrhoea (I know, but I can’t spin that any nice way) at that point I really believed I wouldn’t even make the start line. Anyway, long story but I had a short and quick recovery. I’m certainly not 100%, but good enough! Thank god.
Then I found out that we don’t have a group wave start, but a rolling start with 2 athletes at a time every 10 seconds. Now what’s the big deal? Well my race plan was straight out the window and I now have to race it completely as it unfolds (now that’s ok, but I do like to be organised so a bit of a pain) not to mention, no drafting value in the swim to be had at all. The biggest negative for me though is that I love to race, I like to know we’re people are, that’s what motivates me. However, if I look at this from a positive side; I know I can work hard on my own (most can’t) and that is a big advantage.
So what am I after from tomorrow? Well oddly my biggest fear is a dsq for crossing the line (centre of the road) on the bike, that’s an instant dsq. Why is that a fear, because the road rules are reversed, lol. Anyway, that aside, my ideal goal has already been achieved; I’m here! I’ve had a solid 13 week program that I have followed and I’m going as well as I can. So my main goal now is top half of the field, there is 44 (if I recall) in my age group, so 21st or better is a big win for me. Top 10? Well that would be phenomenal, I won’t bother mentioning any higher up as I am a realist and aware of the standard here.
Going to the opening ceremony tonight was a tad intimidating, seeing all the countries , 63, represented was overwhelming. As an aside, a very cool entry from the kiwis doing a haka. But looking around the crowd, man these people are fit! Normally I’m used to masters events where you sort of fit in because everyone is old (I say that with compete respect and tongue in cheek of course) but with this you see all ages and the young guys are somewhat intimidating; and that showed during the swim course recky today when I was getting blown away but lots of people. I had a guy next to me who was pulling away easily an I was digging in (he had the same colour swim cap so i assumed he was in my age group) I was demoralised big time, it got worse when she (yes she) got out of the water well in front of me, I then realised she was about 30 years younger and it was a coincidence the swim cap colour. Lol, thank god! I had to remind myself they are kids. Lol.
Anyway, enough for now, time to get some sleep and do this thing tomorrow.