I was quite familiar with the town so jumped straight into my pre race training schedule the next day, albeit after sleeping in until 11.15am. The down town YMCA is a short walk from the embassy suites (the athlete host hotel) and cheap.
I didn't ride until the Friday but noticed the course was very flooded (reminding me of Brissy). Unfortunately this meant that the course had to be changed. I think USAT did a great job of calling this early and making very clear changes. Our race ended up a multi loop street circuit.
I was pleased with my pre race prep and was ready to race. However, I didn't realise how significant the impact of jet lag would be and got only one hours sleep the night before the race. Luckily I got a full nights sleep on the Friday (after going to the baseball) which meant I could manage to get up on race day.
Even without sleep I felt pretty good on the start line and got off to a great start in the swim. I was hanging off the back of the main swim pack and was just shy of them out of transition 1. I was really happy with this effort.
I had a significantly better ride than last year but was still well off the pace. I am really amazed with the strength of the girls on the bike, tough competition.
Onto the run and I started strong chancing down the next group early in the run. It was a lot more motivating this year to be amongst it on the run. However, I faded in the back half and didn't get the result I would have liked. 2 minutes is worth about 10 places at the 5150 champs and I didn't capitalise on the opportunity.
All in all I am happy with about 70% of my race but there is still plenty of work to be done on the bike / run before Noosa. I am realising more and more how hard it is to manage both 70.3 and shorter course racing at the pro level, particularly when you can not afford the time to train full time.
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