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Iron Man South Africa Review

tinatina
in Races & Places 🏁⛺

The weather was perfect for a great race . I had a great swim . The sea was choppy but you could surf the waves back to shore which I love . for swimmers not used to the ocean it was a little daunting and quite a few people quite on the swim leg but I left the water feeling really good  , Time : 01:14:00. I did my first bike leg at a medium pace , feeling out the route and the winds . I picked the pace up on the second leg as planned . The bike leg went very well and just as I planned it .I had a few issues with my aero bottle as I lost the yellow sponge on one of the many speed bumps on the course , but luckily I had decided to only put water in there so I had a bath every now and then . I think the black cap if sealed will work better . 

I stopped as planned for special needs and a quick stretch just before my final loop of 60km which definitely gave me the vooma  I needed to finish the last round . I had my husband waiting with an ice cold Milo drink and ice water for me .    I completed my bike leg lying in 4th place in my age group and feeling very good . Time : 05:55:00

My first loop of  my run I felt I ran at an easy pace and was feeling good . BUT around the 24km mark things started to go pear shaped ! I was still feeling good , no stomach issues , no cramping , but my legs started to ache . My pace slowed and my race went out of the window . I did a slow run , slow walk trying to complete the last lap . With 5km to go a friend forced me to run with her and I made it to the finish line . Time 12:26:00 . I still felt fine , just the muscles of my legs were in pain , a pain you feel when you push yourself harder & longer than your muscle are used to  

Looking back on the race and my training I think the problem is that I never trained the distance I was supposed to in the run . I realised with 7 weeks to go to IMSA that I was on the wrong training program and was training for a 70.3 My bike was fine as I am strong on the bike and ride or spin every day BUT running is my weakness and needs time . I started to increase my mileage but my Right hamstring went into a spasm , I had 5 weeks to go and was at around 22km . I went to a new sports therapist in town who made my injury worse . I then went to a physio who knew what she was doing but we only got my leg right 2 weeks before the race , I had managed in this time to get up to 26km ! Not far enough , I need at least 36km for Iron man . I had also only manged about 4 longish runs which I also feel is not enough . 

I learned if you do not train the distance you will not go the distance comfortably   On the bright side while on my run I passed Bella Bayliss WALKING , So as it is for ALL of us we have good days and bad ones and every IM is a learning experience . I am now going to take a 2 year break from IMSA . I plan after a good rest to do more running races so I can do a marathon with relative ease , I plan to enter some overseas races in 2011/12 to get a change of scenery and experience . Then when I am at the top of my next age group return to IMSA with the purpose of getting a slot to KONA .  The rest is for the body and the mind Good luck to everyone with their upcoming events , my brother lives in the States so I might come and do a race over there .......  

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