Prestige Ultra race report

 Three weeks of hard training and it was time for the Prestige Half Ironman*. Took the decision not to taper for this race and rather build mileage for Ironman in April.

Result:
Time 4h28:57
Swim: 42min
Bike: 2h15*
Run: 1h29*
Finished 7th in age group 40-49 (not the usual 40-44 group) and 28th overall

* Don't know why but race was not full half Ironman distance and bike leg was 83 km and run 20 km. 8 km short in total
The whole race was a two lapper, two swim laps, two bike laps and two run laps. Not bad.

 Swim was again a non wet-suit swim. Was actually hoping for a wet-suit swim just to prepare for Ironman and see if i could sort out my breathing. Took my old wet-suit, that is one size bigger than my current one, but obviously couldn't try it out. Swim was super slow but nothing new. One thing I can say is that although swimming is not my favorite leg of a triathlon, I just don't like swimming in the Vaal river. Super dirty compared to Buffelspoort dam or the ocean.

Onto the Bike and was keen to see if I could manage a good pace on tired legs. One thing about being a slow swimmer, you get that extra motivation overtaking loads of athletes on the bike. My legs were screaming from the start to finish but I was happy with the power output and could almost manage the watts I aimed for.

The run was also hard but luckily it was not a hilly route and I could manage a decent pace. Just before the start of the second lap I had to do a pit stop and lucky for me the whole run route was through a neighborhood but just before the turn around there were some bushes. Lost about a minutes there, but hey, had to stop. Runners know that feeling when you have to go and actually struggle to run. From then on-wards the second lap was actually faster than the first, haha. One thing about doing a Half Ironman on tired legs is that it takes a lot out of you. Felt so tired afterwards that Kim had to drive the odd 250 km home as I just wasn't up to it, doesn't happen that often.

Happy with my race and now it's another hard week of training before Xterra South Africa in Grabouw this weekend. Haven't mention it but I'm with a new coach. Made the switch just after Iroman 70.3 SA. Happened by accident (if you can call it that) but more about that later.