Well it’s that all familiar time to reflect on a race as I have my feet up recovering.
The preparation for the Outlaw wasn’t bad but was by no means run with ultimate precision. I raced Lanzarote at the end of May, then had 2 weeks of light training followed by my wedding, shortly followed by 12 days in San Francisco with no training. Some would say it could be a good thing to allow the body to recover, but I came back feeling rusty and fairy unfit. With 3 weeks there wasn’t enough time to do a big block of training, so it was decided I would do slightly shorter sessions and keep the intensity pretty high.
So the race day was blessed with glorious sunshine, and the swim got underway on time. The swim I found myself on my own for the whole 3.8k and when the course is straight out and back it felt like an eternity. I excited in 58mins which is pretty slow but in hindsight all the swim times were slow. Out on the bike and I got into a nice rhythm straight away. I was in two minds how to ride the bike course before the race, whether to really try and smash it and go for a super-fast time, or to actually race the race… meaning be conservative on the bike and rely on my run speed to win the race if anyone caught me on the bike. It’s not in my nature to race the second option but with slightly rusty legs and a big line up of races to come with key goals I didn’t want the race to really screw my body up. After a fairly short period on the bike I was caught by Hwyel Davies who was biking well. We bounced back and forward taking the front and I knew as long as I stayed with him my run speed would get me the win. So we pretty much came into T2 together and set off running. I held back for the first 4k before catching him and cruised past. I felt great and was ready to put a good gap into him and then back off to make my recovery easier. This was the plan, but it didn’t quite pan out like that! I went from running smoothly and effortlessly on the first lap to standing still with a locked hamstring at the start of the 2nd lap! The cramp came out of nowhere and just seized both my legs up. I took some salt tablets and walk/jogged for 3k really suffering with cramp. It was so frustrating because I was on for a 2:45-50 marathon and even when I was cramping my body felt fine. Hwyel must have been told I was suffering so he put a real effort to chase me down with renewed confidence and got within 2mins of me. Lucky for me the salt tablets kicked in and I managed to get round the final lap with no cramp. If it wasn’t for the salt I wouldn’t have finished! The time of 8:47 was respectable considering how poor my run was and how slow the swim was, but put these 2 things right and I would be on for a better time.
I learnt some valuable lessons yesterday mainly about nutrition but also about surviving even when things are looking perilously close to a DNF. When racing you are on a knife edge of energy levels / motivational levels / hydration levels etc… all these need to be balance but also if you go below the correct level, it doesn’t take too much to correct it (e.g. 4 salt sticks turned my race from a DNF into a win!)
Anyway, a great very professionally run event and massive thanks to GI Tri Bridgtown for the ongoing huge support! I am recovering a content winner.
Joel Jameson
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- finish line
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- run course
