Dear Friends,
Hope this report finds you all happy and healthy as we near the end of 2013! Last weekend I made my way up to beautiful Forster, a stunning little town on the North Coast of NSW, and the birth place of Ironman Australia, for the inaugural Challenge Forster half event. I have always had a keen interest in the Challenge Family races, and with their new arrival back in Australia, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to do this race.
With my win in Taiwan earlier this month, I was excited to keep the ball rolling and again test myself against a small but talented field. We made the long uneventful drive up to Forster from Canberra, arriving there late Thursday night before the Saturday afternoon race. The 1pm start was very relaxing…a bit too relaxing for my liking! There was a lot of waiting and waiting and waiting pre race!
The course takes in most of the original Ironman Australia course with the 1.9km swim taking place in the calm waters of Forster Keys, the 2 lap 90k ride along The Lakes Way, and the 3 lap 21km run in Forster town including the iconic Forster-Tuncurry Bridge.
So 1pm finally rolls around, and I’m floating in my Blue Seventy wetsuit on the start line with 8 other girls. The few minutes before the gun goes off always seem to take forever!! I got off to a quick start hot on the heels of Andrea Forrest who was chasing Annabel Luxfords feet…it was a pace that I certainly wasn’t going to hold on for very long! Surely enough the explosion came about 5 or 600m in, and I was swimming solo for a little while until Matilda came past and I drafted off her for the remainder of the swim. I came out 4th about 2min down from Annabel. Pretty happy with that!
Out on the bike though, I was feeling very ordinary for the first 20ks. My legs just didn’t want to play and I felt flat. Rebecca Hoschke and Michelle Bremmer passed me like I was standing still. I started to finally find some legs after the southern turn-a-round point at Tiona, and pushed hard on the return to Forster passing Matilda along the way who unfortunately flatted twice and therefore couldn’t finish. The rest of the ride was pretty lonely. The heavens then opened up dumping a significant amount of water on the roads and athletes, and the wind was so strong at times, I was getting blown sideways! 3rd race in the row now in pouring rain! Why is it I bring wet stuff with me to everywhere I go?? Anyway, I finally make it back into Forster town relieved to have stayed upright…..or so I thought….
A sharp left hand turn, about 200m from T2, I come crashing down. Maybe it was my brain turning off as I was looking forward to getting onto the run, or just misjudging the corner completely taking it too fast. Either way, it happened in the blink of an eye. My front wheel flew out underneath me and my hip hit the ground hard followed by my head and shoulder. I was in a complete state of shock. I tried to pick myself up, but then started to see black stars, so remained on the ground for a little while longer. I’m not sure how long I stayed there. Maybe about 3-4min? I finally gather myself together, gingerly mount my bike again, and slowly creep into T2. Limping and with blood all over my left side, I’m not sure why I thought I’d be able to run…but I at least had to try, so I painfully pull on my Saucony runners, and jog out. Ha. Fat chance!! I make it probably 100m before I’m walking/limping again. At the first drink/aid station, I surrender to the pain and called it quits. Tears filled my eyes and wow…am I a sorry sight or what!! I was also freezing. A lady then comes to my rescue, wraps me up with a plastic rain coat and takes me to medical which fortunately wasn’t too far away. I lie there shivering uncontrollably, with silver space blankets and towels wrapped around me. My body temperature was 35 degrees! After what seemed like an eternity I finally stop shaking and when my face had gone from blue back to a more normal colour, they let me go. I get changed into dry warm clothes and mum and I head back to our hotel.
So, definitely not the way I wanted to end my race! Congrats though to Bec Hoschke for her amazing win! One of the nicest and most supportive girls I have met and well deserved victory! Thank you to the volunteers and medical staff for looking after me, and to Mel Saltiel, Mark Emerton, Elite Energy, and Challenge Family for putting on a great event in testing conditions. I will be back to finish one soon!
I’m now facing an uphill battle to be ready for Canberra 70.3 in 2 weeks time. I love racing at home, so it would be really disappointing to miss it! I will just have to wait and see how things progress though over the coming weeks.
Thanks everyone again for the support and messages, and to all my sponsors, coach Jared, and manager Phil from M5 Management who keep me going in the sport! In case you’re wondering, the little ceepo is fine…I was the one that hit the deck!
Hope everyone is well wherever you are!
Shell 🙂
shellzworld 