Japan 70.3 Race Report.

Today was the first 70.3 (1/2 Ironman race in Japan at Centrair in Nagoya). Japan does many things well, and something's rather badly, I was desperately hoping this as going to be in the former camp, alas it was not to be. A swim course that was poorly marked, a bike course that on parts a MTB would have been more suitable, and race organisation that missed the ball on more than a number of occasions. However that being said the volunteers and course marshall's did an amazing job keeping the race flowing and this was ultimately about seeing how I would fair after my 11 day training session in Hokkaido.  Would all this training and hard effort actually help my performance or was it going to leave me with many unanswered questions?

Thankfully I was very happy with my result coming 55th overall and posting my fastest ever 1/2 marathon (1:42:12) in a 1/2 ironman event after a very hilly and technical bike ride and on a hot day! I have changed my tactic's a lot thanks to my new coach Woody, and it already seems to be paying dividends.

The swim 34:04
I was in Wave 2 and we kicked off at 7:35am. For some reason the race organisers failed to use enough buoy's to mark  the course properly and the 3 they did use were all so small that spotting the most direct course was very hard, especially as the current was strong in places. I didn't feel particularly fast for some reason, and had a few goggle issues and I knew coming out of the water that it wasn't going to be a great time. To see a 33 handle I was rather disappointed, but coming into T1 I saw Bevan and he is a fast swimmer so maybe everyone had a tougher swim than normal?

The bike 2:48:57
We had been warned at the race briefing that the first 7km's of the ride were dangerous (The race organiser's words not mine), so I had taken a quick look the day before to see how bad it was and although the surface was pretty horrendous  it looked ok. However I had done that ride at a fairly leisurly pace, and after exiting T1 this morning and coming out at race pace I felt the full force of this horrendous road surface. My bike is 100% carbon so is amazingly fast to accelerate and incredibly light weight, the downside is you feel every seam in the road, and today we didnt have seam's we had gaping wounds in the road. By kilometre 3 I had had both bottles jetison off my rear cages 3 times, on the 3rd time going up a bone shattering incline, I lost one at the bottom and retrieved the 2nd and got on my way knowing that there was only going to be 1 aid station.

The road surface improved but was now replaced by the most technical bike course I have ever done in a 70.3.  There must have been approx' 100+ 90degree turns some on incredibly narrow roads, finding a rhythm was proving hard and I was already starting to think bad thoughts about the race organisers for putting a race on such a poor course.

However everyone had to deal with it, so I followed my coaches advice and broke my 90km into 3 taking the first 1/3 relatively moderate then increasing the intensity into the 2nd 1/3 finally laying it all down on the final 1/3. A major difference to today's plan was to put into practice all the hard gear training I had been doing. I normally ride with a high cadence 90~100 in an easier gear and use my lungs to power me through, today was all about riding a harder gear, lowering the cadence to 75~80 and using muscle power not lungs. The effect is a much lower core temperature, something that has doomed me many times before. I worked hard to keep the cadence between the prescribed frequency, as it certainly sneaked up when I wasn't paying attention. With over 1,000m's in total climbing I was pleased that my legs were strong from all the riding in Hokkaido. I was happy with the time 2:48 and an Av speed of 31.96 km/h, not bad considering the course.

The Run 1:42:12.
I landed into T2 feeling rather batterd and bruised from the bone shaking ride, and after downing the now mandatory redbull, out I went. I was determined that what ever happened I was going to use the first 3 or 4 km's to find a rhythm, it didn't matter if it was just above walking pace I just had to find something. So I was amazed to feel my core wasn't that hot...after Suzu a month prior where I left T2 in the red zone, today I felt comfortable...shit I felt comfortable enough to run properly.

The tactics from Woody were to run every 14:30mins then walk 30sec's, but after 2km's in I knew that I could do better, I felt good and I wasn't going to be walking when I felt this good. Added to that my mate Bevan who is generally much faster than me was only 500m's ahead...that was striking distance. I tried to calm things down and not worry about Bevan but get myself into the zone, after running through a stitch at 3km's we were off. I had been hoping to run 5 minute km's, and saw that I was at a steady 4:45min pace. I immeditealy changed my tactics (you always have to be flexible to a changing race) and broke the course into 5 block's 4 * 5km's and 1*1km and planned to try and hold this pace and drop the hammer in the 4th 5km and catch Bevan.

The first 5km went down in 23:31,  the 2nd in 23:22, a small negative split. I was drinking coke at every aid station and had come armed with 4 shot's to keep the carb's up. The 3rd 5km was starting to hurt, and by now I could feel my 2 big toe's starting to blister. I was wearing my running flats today, again another change in tactics, to get me better positioned for fore foot striking, like I learnt in Hokkaido. I had to walk through 2 aid stations, and finished that 5km in just over 25min's. The fade had started...I wasn't gaining on Bevan, but I wasn't loosing ground either.  It was all about holding it together for the final 6km's. I focused on fore foot striking and keeping my cadence high, every time I did this I came out of my shuffle into a proper running stride. The 4th 5km came in at 24:43 and now it was just time to hang on for the finish.

I was chuffed to run a 1:42, my fastest ever run split by a decent margin. Was it the bigger gearing? was it the running flats? coke drinking? probably all of the above...either way it had worked and  I now have a decent platform and tactical awareness to base the world championships off.

Final time was 5:08:49 55th Overall, 14th in my Age group.