Ironman 70.3 Graz, Austria August 15th 2021
We had looked forward to this event for a long time. My last important races before Covid changed the world so drastically, had been at the end of summer 2019.
there were two events very close together and both races resulting in an age-group win for me, which had left me feeling very happy with my world indeed.
ITU World Standard distance Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland on the September 1st 2019
The very next weekend was a seemingly lower key event because it was on my doorstep, was the BTF National Aquathlon Championship, in Arundel three or four miles from my front door.
towards the end of that year, just before Christmas, my husband, best friend and coach, Stephen and I, settled down and entered four major races abroad that would be our main focus for the summer of 2020. Then along came the deadly Covid 19 virus and our sports world had to be put on hold.
We went into full lockdown on March 1st 2020 and took it very seriously. If only everybody had taken it equally seriously I think it would have been over long before now I am quite sure.
All the sports facilities were closed down until further notice. Stephen and I only left the house before dawn to go and run in the very quiet and peaceful nearby woodland and downland.
We were home again long before most people were even out of bed and our run training went very well. At that time people were thinking that it would all be over in a few months but it wasn’t to be.
We did loads of turbo training indoors so our bike work held together well.
We did not have any swim training at all until late spring this year. I am one of those people we get aches and pains when I have not had exercise and so suffered aches and pains in my shoulders to the point where I would get up in the night and stand in the dark air swimming a few lengths.
We added Qigong as an extra for the movement benefits and the mental attitude.
We follow a cross-fitness-ballet weekly class.
Both of those were found on You Tube.
Other worries crept into our lives with business going well off the boil and a number of other things were not working out so well.
We both suffered some irritating injuries after falls on muddy trails during the winter times.
However, we kept working hard at our fitness levels, no matter how hard it was to try to keep motivated.
Then early this year most were postponed again until later, well into the summer this said though we did manage to compete in the Eton Sprints weekend that was all controlled very carefully according to the Covid rules. We were thankful for the bit of race practice though it was only at sprint distance. No age group wave starts, but one athlete at a time set off,
So, what I am saying here is that we should have been ready for the big events this year all of which had been postponed from 2020 until 2021.
We had lost heart a bit, is probably the best way of saying how we felt.
We were like many others wondering, if it could ever be like the old triathlon days again.
It is only fair and honest to say that we were doubtful that this event in Graz would ever happen.
We had taken a few days stay in Klagenfurt before moving on to Graz. The cycling and the swimming are great there and we have taken breaks there many times having raced the full Ironman Austria race together over the years. This year was just a last few days of training and we were out on a ride, when disaster struck and Steve had a crash hitting a high curb flying off his bike and hitting his head, shoulder and knee quite badly and damaging his bike too. The bike got repaired in Klagenfurt but Steve could not move his shoulder very much, all he could do was to rest as much as possible before the race. Our first big race in two years in danger again due to injury this time.
Then the day after my 82nd birthday we found ourselves at the registration desk in the tent in a square in centre of Graz, in the World Heritage old town there in Austria.
We were still waiting for the catch, but found that once we had shown evidence that we had both had two doses of the Covid Vaccine, and that been tested before we travelled.
Our race numbers and goody bag were handed over. Steve was determined not to drop out of the event.
On Saturday we checked our bikes in and handed over of race bags containing our Bike kit and Run kit.
Sunday morning our alarm sounded at 5.20 am and we took the last few things we would need with us when we drove to the Schwarzlsee for the Swim start.
It was announced on race morning at the lake side that the water temperature was 26.7 degrees which meant that wetsuits would not be allowed.
This was good news for both or us and bad news for many of the triathletes who felt that they needed the buoyancy.
There was a rolling start and we were set of into the water one athlete at a time. Stephen told me to go on ahead and he would try to catch me up during the swim. He is a much stronger swimmer than I am but he would be swimming with one arm, not that he had mentioned that to anybody. We did not have any expectancy of a good result for this event but were very happy to even be taking part. We planned simply to go through the motions and have a nice day of adventure. We do all our training together and are roughly the same speed on the bike particularly for the run. 1900 metres using one arm would be astonishing.
After swim and into the changing room to take off the swim wear and change to bike kit we were both already quite slow but were being passed by the last of the slower swimmers during the bike. Most of the time on the bike ride I could see Steve a way ahead of me which was a comfort to me and he was suffering from his shoulder injury and getting down on the bars was almost impossible for him. Later on, that became totally impossible, maybe because he was moving with difficulty or maybe the arm rest that snapped off and landed on the road a little way up the road from me, so I added a bit of speed, in case he didn’t know it had dropped off, but as I shouted at him, he shouted back that it must have also been weakened in the crash the previous week so not there was no chance of getting on the tri bars.
He still wanted to carry on but I was very worried about him and bothered about myself as the temperature went up and up because I am not good on very hot days. For nutrition I had coffee with creamer and manuka honey in my front drinker, fixed to the tribars and I had been drinking that since I started the bike ride. Things got trickier when I found that I could not pull the other bottle out that was on my down tube out of the holder. I don’t know what the problem was, why it was stuck but I did know that I need to be drinking the water as well as the sweet drink since that goes down like food, and I needed the water. We both kept on going close enough to see each other but most definitely not drafting and keeping a distance between us. the course was flat and easy to start but then started to have hills that seemed to get longer and though I had no problem with my legs, I certainly needed that water.
I was getting hotter and hotter and thought my head would explode, and so eventually I knew I had to stop to get the water bottle out of the holder because I was over heating big time.
There was a bus stop, so I got off my bike and sat down to drink some water. I drank the whole bottle and I suppose because I was last on the course at that time, I was being followed by the broom wagon which was also very off putting. A man appeared watching me drink the whole bottle down and handed me another bottle that I also drank. By that time there were several people from the tailing coach (broom-wagon). I said that I wanted to go on but then Steve also appeared having turned back when he realised that I had dropped so far back to see what had happened.
Steve insisted that we call it a day at that and they were all telling me to get into the bus. Both our bikes were put in the coach and we started off with the coach moving a bit faster then, because they need to catch up with the next slowest rider.
Sitting in the coach already was a man we had passed a while back, when first Steve and then I, had asked if he was ok or had a problem but he just said he needed sugar and later we found out that he was diabetic. All the people on the bus had plenty of time to chat and drink water or eat bars of this or that and they stopped at an aid station and picked up bunches of bananas too. We had to follow the rest of the bike route as we passed through all the pretty Austrian villages until we got back into Graz, where we were walked to the finish zone.
By the time we got back we were all feeling much better but of course our race was over.
Some feeling worse about it than others.
Stephen and I had not had much in the way of expectations at all, so we were not upset about the outcome, it was a start.
We had taken part in our first race.
We are triathletes again.
Well apart from the run Eh?
We’ll be back!
