13 replies to this topic

[TynoMite]

Race is on tomorrow.
I know Balri, Kandingo and Goughy are heading out.
Good luck to you all, hope it isn't too Hellish.

Edited by TynoMite, 30 January 2010 - 10:39 AM.

[blair]

Thanks mate. We're just driving into town now and the temperature gauge in the car says 33 so hopefully it won't be too hellish. (It was 39 the other day!)

[SpartaJen]

Good luck guys. Looking forward to the race reports. This event is on my list of things to do one day

[AndyP]

Good luck, you maniacs.

[Goughy]

I'm F'ed. Nuff said for now!

[blair]

Goughy, on Jan 31 2010, 05:58 PM, said:

I'm F'ed. Nuff said for now!

How'd you go Goughy? You looked pretty comfortable out there.

For me, that was the longest ride of my life and I thought it was never going to end. I was happy to cross the line in ~5:28.

Tyno, a couple of CRs you missed off your list are Run67, Glenda and Karisma who did the run for a team. All looked pretty good and Glenda looks like she's well and truly over her injury.

[AndyP]

Goughy asked me if I wanted to do the run for a team. I told him to bugger off.

I'm looking forward to the reports, peoples.

[Kandingo]

the weather was kind to us this year !!
the return section of the bike would have got to a few with the nice cooling headwind
I got a 9 min PB for my 5th time out at gundy...4.30 only good enough for 6th in the League of Gnarly Dudes...when do they slow down ??
now back to the short stuff next weekend !!

[funrunner63]

Kandingo, on Jan 31 2010, 03:48 AM, said:

4.30 only good enough for 6th in the League of Gnarly Dudes...when do they slow down ??

You would have been up against my coach- Craig Rule. I'm still waiting for him to slow down!!!

FR aka C

[Goughy]

balri, on Jan 31 2010, 06:20 PM, said:

How'd you go Goughy? You looked pretty comfortable out there.

For me, that was the longest ride of my life and I thought it was never going to end. I was happy to cross the line in ~5:28.

Loved the ride out - the ride back was crushing!! I was riding based on my hr, but to be doing 37k/hr at times on the way out and 23k/hr at times on the way back in just destroyed me, and I knew beforehand it would be coming, but just couldn't be prepared enough for it.

The swim was plain scary! Dark tinted goggles in the morning darkness in a brown river and I had no idea where I was going. I didn't see a single buoy marker the way out and could just make out the turn around.

The ride was ok, though it just felt like an age coming back in. It was demoralising really. But the run killed me. You've got me stuffed when you saw me looking comfortable out there! Nah. It was ok. I talked to a lot of people, thanked everyone, got some girl doing cartwheels for me outside her house. But I had some sort of stomach problem out there today. First toilet stop after the swim and then 5 more on the run leg, and not the standing kind! Probably added a bit to my time, but that's racing, and it's not sheep stations for me. Saddest thing is that afterwards I just felt the IM was just too much for me to handle. Feeling better about the idea of it now. But was pretty demoralised straight after when I thought it was out of my reach.

That is the best organised race I've been to. Everyone looked after us so well, from the couple in the Rivergums caravan park (plug plug) to people in the shops, to all the volunteers. Personally, USM could learn something from them. Paper cups int he drink stations (you can crush the top to make a spout to drink better) and water in like orchy bottles, ice, pepsi, jellybeans. Everyone looked out for you. The recovery area was great! The second I was through the finish, someone ran over to me and shoved a plastic bag of ice down my back (yeah) and another had a recovery drink in my hand. Then there was all kinds of fruit, water and energy drink, pepsi in ice, people walking around with platters and bottles trying to refill you. What I felt from this race, was that you weren't treated like a contestant. You were treated like someone special.

That was far and away the hardest race I have ever done in my life! The swim sucked. The ride crushed me and the run chewed up the rest, digested it and then shat it out!! It's called Hell of the West for a reason, and I had just so much fun. I'm so planning on going back next year and experienceing even tougher conditions!!

[blair]

Well, if you are not a confident open water swimmer I would not recommend Hell Of The West. At 5am in the pre-dawn darkness with silhouettes of red gums looming over us I dove into the river and complete darkness. It was quite eerie floating about in a dark river while every so often a spotlight shone on us from the shore. Then the hooter sounded and we were off.

As usual I positioned myself towards the back and just set off slowly doing my thing but I was surprised by the number of times I got kicked in the head or had someone swim over me or into me. Nevertheless, I got into a comfortable rhythm and as time went on the light improved and allowed me to tell whether I was heading in the right direction. The occasional bit of reed freaked me out a bit but not as much as the stick jutting straight up out of the water just to my left. I swam carefully around that one!

Before too long the bridge came in sight and I knew that the turnaround was coming up but then I saw a short jetty which made me think of the story of my father-in-law pulling a dead body out of this very river and suddenly I could taste the water and it didn’t taste very nice. But then I reached the turnaround and was on my way back to the boat ramp.

I got out of the water in just over 40 minutes exactly according to plan and began the long run to transition. Someone directed me onto the footpath instead of running along the road which was a good idea but I had to cross the road at some point and, wouldn’t you know it, just as a photographer took my photo, I stepped on a sharp stone which hurt like hell.

As I ran into the transition area I spied Lisa with the camera and she shouted out to me that my bike was five rows down. Thank gods she did because I had no idea. I had tried to count them before the race but couldn’t manage it because I wasn’t sure where I’d be coming in from the swim and because of nerves. There was also the fact that I had set up in transition in complete darkness and was now coming back in daylight so everything looked completely different.

Once I was out on the road and had put my shoes on I pulled out a banana to eat. I managed to get half of it down before I hit a bump in the road and the other half jolted out of my hand so I got down on my bars and prepared for the long ride out. It was here that I discovered where my training had been lacking as I could not stay down on the bars for very long at a time without it hurting my nether regions and I had to sit up regularly for some relief.

I was cruising along comfortably at about 32km/hr and not pushing too hard, saving myself for the ride back but I couldn’t work out whether there was a tail wind or not - I am hopeless at working it out usually. The trees by the side of the road didn’t seem to be moving at all so I figured that there mustn’t be a tail wind. At least, I hoped there wasn’t because if there was then I should have been moving at least 1-2km/hr faster. I don’t think I felt comfortable at any time during the ride out but I was passing people occasionally and making reasonable progress.

Immediately after the turnaround I grabbed a banana to replace the half I’d dropped earlier so my concentration was elsewhere and I didn’t immediately notice the instant headwind. But it didn’t take long for my speed to drop from 32km/hr down to 25km/hr. I settled down on my bars again and began the long struggle home. For the next 40km I only passed a couple of riders but seemed to be passed by a steady stream. At times, a gust of wind would slow me down further and I’d only be able to manage 22-23km/hr.

The longer it took to get back to Gundy the harder it got and all sorts of lovely niggles started to surface in my knees and hammies and then a new one in my lower back/glutes which felt like I’d been stabbed. The only things worthy of note on the ride back were the three dead boars on the side of the road which, combined with the playing of Duelling Banjos prior to the race briefing, did not leave me feeling entirely comfortable and the sun finally burning through the clouds just as I was getting back to Gundy to begin my run.

I was so happy to get to the dismount point and jump off the bike but I quickly found that my legs were so stiff that I could barely walk let alone run. I headed out of transition managing a very slow run but I could feel my legs improving rapidly and began the run at quite a good pace. It was pretty hot with the sun out and the first aid station seemed a lot further than a km away so I was quite thirsty by the time I got there. I walked through the aid station, drank some Pepsi, poured a bottle of water over my head and set off again.

Although my pace was alright I wasn’t feeling too good. Not helping was that every time I approached the end of a street which I thought was the turnaround I discovered that the course kept going along a path or something. I was quite surprised when I finally did reach the turnaround and found that I had only run 3.3km. It had seemed so much further. I was still stuffed when I got back to the finish line but as I rounded the tractor the crowd seemed to have an affect on me and I suddenly seemed to have a lot more energy as I headed back out for my second lap.

After walking through every aid station on the first lap, I now started running through the aid stations grabbing a bottle of water to throw over my head and a cup of ice to tip down my shirt and in my cap. At the turnaround I had a gel. It was an orange Hammer gel which I’d got free at another race and I’d never tried before; it tasted disgusting! I washed it down with water but there just wasn’t enough in the bottle and I had to grab another bottle at the next aid station to finish the job.

By the third lap the sun had disappeared behind the clouds again which made it a bit cooler but there was still a headwind on the way back. My pace had now slowed from 5:30min/km in the first two laps to over 6min/km and I was struck by the pain in the lower back/glutes again. I kept running and dug my fingers in to try to alleviate the problem which seemed to work but it struck again once or twice more.

With a couple of kms to go I decide to give it all I got and managed the last 2kms in 5min each finally crossing the line in just over 5hrs 28min - about 10 minutes slower than I had been hoping for but it’s pretty obvious that I didn’t do enough work on the bike so probably the time I deserved. I was pretty happy with the swim and the run though.

As a postscript, in the recovery area, I was talking to a couple of people when a photographer took our photo and told me he’d catch up with me later. I assumed he wanted our names for the paper or something and thought nothing of it. However, it turned out that he was writing an article about the race and had heard about our fund raising efforts and wanted to include it in the article. I am assuming that he found out about us through the link that the race organisers were good enough to put on their web site so a big thanks to them for that.

Although I wasn’t feeling completely compos mentis I did my best to give him an interview until Lisa came along to save me and give him a few pertinent details. All in all, a rather unexpected end to a very long day.

I raced this race for Kate to raise money for research into Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) by the wonderful people at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR). For Kate’s story and to donate to this worthy cause please go to http://www.everydayhero.com.au/forkate.

[glenda]

Well done Blair and others who finished...it is a tough race but I reckon it is way better than Noosa or Mooloolaba in terms of spirit, friendliness, organisation etc. I ran for a team for the second time and I really love the whole weekend. The swim puts me off doing the whole thing as I am a chicken in open water...I got to toughen up

[Kandingo]

Blair
I hope you give it another go...you will have a much better idea how to prepare for it. even though it is a very flat race the conditions are what make it a tough day out...great work on your fundraising efforts too !!

[Stonewalled]

Well done to Balri, Goughy, Kandigo and all else who completed. Balri well done on the fund raising also!!! I was hoping to run into you at some point over the weekend - maybe next time.

This was my first time being invovled (other than enviously spectating) at HOTW despite living in Gundy for over 15 years now. Ran the run leg for a team and had an absolute ball. Althought the time on my run leg was not what I had hoped for, our team did well for a 4.54.05. and we were all pleased to get under 5hrs in our first HOTW.

I ran 1.47.01 with splits of 33.12, 34.47 & 39.02. As the splits show there was a pretty big fade in there with both legs cramping, resulting in a walk occurring (never walked before in a competetion and once twice before in training - never cramped before training or competing ). Although I was pretty confident I could get through in 1.45 with ease if I ran conservatively, I agreed with myself to be greedy and risk that time and chase a sub 1.40, which I think I am capable of achieving but not that day - maybe next year. But like all ordinary runs I learnt plenty of things to do differently in the days leading upto a race for next time.

Despite this I had an absolute ball. The town does put on a great show. If anyone is thinking of having a go at HOTW in future get on board, its worth the trip out. The tri-club has been receiving excellent feedback all around of late and everyone is very proud of what was staged. The volunteers are just amazing!!!!


Regards

Stonewalled.