My World Champs - race report

All age group athletes had to rack bikes on Friday afternoon between 2 and 5:30pm. Britt and I chilled for most of the afternoon, and when we got to transition, most people had racked already. It makes our local races seem very tiny by comparison. About 5000 bikes here.

I had a pretty good sleep the night before the race, and woke without the alarm at 04:45. This is the view from our resort at around that time:

As usual, the vibe in transition was electric, with lots of checking and double checking of equipment.

We had quite a long walk to the swim start, as the swim was a one way swim along the waterway - salty water from the sea, but no waves. Each age group wave had a different colour swim cap. Mine was yellow; Britt's light blue. I had an easy warm up swim, and felt great. After convincing ourselves that non wetsuit would be better, at 6am the ruling came that the temperature had dropped to 20 degrees and it would therefore be wetsuit optional. Probably better actually, as most of my open water swims have been with wetsuit, and I have a brand new Orca Apex 2 that I bought specifically for Worlds.

Lining up with all the other yellow capped women, age 40 to 44, I took a moment to focus and give thanks, and ask for a safe race. We were given our 2 minute warning, then 1 minute, then all of a sudden the siren sounded and we were off!

I sprinted into the water and swam as hard as I could towards the first buoy. As I came up to breathe, it really seemed to me that I was in the front line, although, on reflection, the probability of that was quite remote.

I felt great on the swim, fast and sleek, and I knew I was having a decent swim - for me. It felt quite long, but it often does for me, so I just kept swimming, swimming, swimming until I could see the exit flags. I checked my watch as I ran up the beach, and it said 27:53. I was pleased with that, and started to focus on the transition and the bike.

Rio (my bike) felt amazing and I felt so grateful to have such a gorgeous bike. The bike course was absolutely stunning, wending its way along the Gold Coast with thousands of spectators and beautiful scenery and high rise apartment blocks. We did 2 laps of 20km, which went by in a flash. The roads are in great condition, and I only spotted one tiny bit of broken green glass on the entire route. My bike split was 1:15, which was a few minutes over what I would have liked, but it was my very best shot, and I felt happy with what I had achieved.

As I came into transition, I saw Sue from South Africa ahead of me, and set off on my run a little ahead of her. I know Sue is a fearsome runner; I have never beaten her - so I ran and ran, expecting her to overtake me at any minute. It took her a lap and a half to catch me, and she finished about a minute ahead of me. My run time was around 52 minutes, which I really would have liked to have been better, but again, that was my best on the day.

My final race time was 2:39, which is not a PB for me, but then again, the course was measured to World Championship standards, and I suspect some of my better times have been a little "short course". In terms of the competition, there were almost 80 women in my age group, and I was 52 in the swim and 66 on the bike and the run.

The most inspiring part of the race was realising that I was sharing the course with the best age group athletes from all over the world. I know some athletes go to Worlds and are disappointed not to do as well as they had thought they would, but I really feel I had the most superb experience and completely sucked the marrow out of the day.

This is Britt, Bev and I wearing our medals at the end. We stayed on the grandstand, dancing and partying and screaming whenever a South African finished. Congratulations to all my fellow South African teammates - I loved applauding your finish.

Mike Copeland was the last South African to cross the line: Mike is 67 years old, and has been doing triathlon for 21 months. Yes, months; not years. He started because his car was stolen, and he needed to get around. In the few days before the race, I chatted to Mike a few times, and realised that he was really worried about his hip, that was playing up badly. He was in a lot of pain, and going to physio every day. Britt and I watched him run through the first lap of his race, clutching his hip and wincing in pain. We looked at one another with tears in our eyes. Anxiously we waited for his return, hoping and praying that he would make it. Eventually, we spotted him, and screamed until our lungs hurt. Hip completely forgotten, Mike sprinted down the blue carpet, beating an Aussie in a younger age group to the line! He was so excited to have taken the Aussie, and on top of it all, the race was a PB for him!

That was the inspiration that really made it the best race day I have ever had. When all the chips are down, supporting someone else's efforts is truly the best way to acknowledge your own successes.