Beijing World Standard Distance Tri Champs…

Well after deciding at the beginning of the year that I wasn’t going to do any shorter triathlon races, clearly I couldn’t help myself. With gaining a spot to compete in the World Age Group Championships in Beijing I decided China was worth a visit and it sure was.

China is very different in many ways from New Zealand or even other countries I have visited. Communication and food were the biggest obstacles.  Apart from an injury I was carrying, staying healthy and trying to eat like I would back home was a big challenge during race week.  Where we were staying in Changping the closest thing that reassembled a supermarket was still a fair distance away.  So we ended up eating most of our meals at the hotel we were staying at as we had no cooking facilities either.  Ordering the food was another challenge with the staff at the restaurant not speaking a word of English. They did however have some translators from an English School that were a good laugh. Easiest thing was to point at pictures and hope it was what it looked like!

Another thing was the toilets. I can’t believe what they use!  I managed to avoid them till the last 2 days and I guess they are not that bad. People should definitely shut the doors when they are on them though!

Because I was leaving the day after the race I tried to have a bit of a look around beforehand. We visited the Great Wall which was really cool.  I never realised just how steep it is. It is amazing that people run a marathon over part of it.

Another place I visited was the Silk Markets. This is where you barter with the locals to get cheap knock off items. The best deal of the day would have to be getting Nike Free running shoes for $20 NZ.  The bartering part is probably the best part of it as they are super funny trying to convince you to buy things. Most things you get for a tenth of what they start at.

Weather was pretty good while over there and I managed to get a bit of training in. Wasn’t feeling overly fit as had 3 weeks off before heading over due to having an injury in my foot. It was holding up though which was great.  Couldn’t get over the fact that what looked like an overcast day was actually smog.

On to the race….

Race morning had great weather which was good as the day before I froze watching the men’s elite race in the rain.  It was a non wetsuit swim with the water being 24degrees. Not so great for me not being a strong swimmer, but they had removed the dive start which was good. Haha as if you have seen me diving you will know 1 out of 5 successes is not great odds!  I had a surprisingly ok swim for my first non wetsuit race, but can’t wait to test out my new 2XU Project X one in the cold Dunedin waters.

On to the bike I was feeling ok but just had no speed.  The bike is my favourite part and with there being a few hills on the course I was hoping to excel in this area but just couldn’t find my legs.  I was behind people I am usually in front of so that was a little disappointing.

On to the run things didn’t improve much with me running a steady pace but not really able to push the speed up a notch. To be honest I was feeling like I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I should be and already thinking about other races I was focusing on next, which is not a good thing.  Crossing the finish line I didn’t feel exhausted and felt as though I could have kept going that pace for a few more hours. I was a little gutted at this but I honestly couldn’t get my legs to go any faster so did my best.  I ended up 7^th in my age group with the top 3 women overall being from my age group also.

This race made me realise what I had already been thinking at the beginning of the year.  You cant (well I cant) train for a race that takes around 2.5 hours at the same time as training for a race that takes 10.5 hours and do well at both.  Long distance racing is where I want to be so will stick with putting my time and energy in to that.  It has been a busy time with 3 overseas races in 4 months and working full time. I am very glad to be back home for a few months and work on building a solid base for the summer.

When I got home I decided to try something different with my training for this summer and am now being coached by Keegan Williams under www.vo2coach.com. I am really excited about this change and training has kicked off to a great start.

A big thanks to all my sponsors as I could not manage with out their ongoing help.