Sardinia

This race was a long time coming! After a rearrangement from covid and then a deferral because of a planned wedding, it was good to finally get a date in the diary for Ironman Sardinia 70.3.

It was lovely to come out to Sardinia with my family, it’s always a bonus having them supporting me whilst also having Paul race too - it’s great sharing these experiences with them all. After travelling most of the day on Thursday and relaxing/reccing the course Friday and Saturday it was race day before I knew it.

It was a nice leisurely start with the gun going off at 9am. However, unlike the previous days, there was quite a chop in the sea which was far from ideal. My open water swimming hasn’t been great this year, but after some video analysis with coach Paul just over a week ago, we were able to identify some quick wins, 1) correct the sinking elbow in the catch phase and 2) increase my stroke cadence. These were my main focus points in the swim, and I knew I wasn’t going to be madly competitive but it’s slow progression.

Even though the swim was pretty choppy I felt controlled throughout, but sighting the buoys was quite a challenge, however I just followed the swimmers ahead of me - perks of not being the best swimmer. Looking back I should have been closer to the front so I could draft the faster swimmers but that’ll be for next year now. Anyway, I exited the swim in 30:33 which I was fairly happy with considering the conditions but definitely needs work on over the winter.

Next came the long uphill run to transition. It only came apparent to us the day before that T1 included a 1km run from the beach up to transition - plenty of time to get prepared for the bike at least 😂 6 minutes and 11 seconds later, I was onto the bike where my race could begin.

The bike course is quite challenging with 1100m of elevation. You do 300m in the first 15km then there’s a few undulating sections, especially along the coast. The road was often winding which didn’t help get into the aero position. So overall I wouldn’t particularly say it’s a fast course.

Since I knew I had time to make up I pushed on the first climb and at around 30kms in there was an out and back section where I could see the time deficit. My estimates were that I was a good 10 minutes back, far from ideal if I wanted to compete for the top places. I actually counted how many athletes there were and I was about 20th - a bit misleading when looking at the actual times thanks to the rolling start.

Thankfully the bike was mostly uneventful except for the occasional shout at people to stop drafting me and actually take a turn on the front. I ended up dragging 3/4 athletes with me but at the penultimate climb I saw my chance to gap them and left them to it.

In the end I managed a 2:17:09 bike split averaging 38km/h which I’m really happy with considering the course. For those interested, on the bike I consumed ~125g of carbs per hour with 3 x 1500mg Precision Hydration sachets. I’m definitely feeling the benefits of the higher carb intake as I didn’t feel depleted at all.

After a quick transition, I was out onto the run. I had a target of 3:45min/km but I think I got into too comfortable of a rhythm. I saw the lead was probably too far away so didn’t really push too much. It was only on the second lap when I thought I should dig a bit deeper, after all I wanted to finish on a high, but it was too late. I managed to finish the half marathon in 1:19:32 - nothing special but not a bad run either.

Overall, I crossed the line in 4:15:37 finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in the 25-29 age group. I’m pleased with my performance and I can see progress all the time. Nevertheless, there’s plenty to work on over the winter months to improve that overall position.

Special mention to coach Paul for preparing me for this race, I’m excited to see where next year can take us too. It’s always great sharing the course with you too 😊 also, thanks to my mum, Ann, and sister, Rach, for the continued support and photography duties! Lastly, it’s great to be supported by Precision Hydration and Raceskin, both help me tremendously with nutrition and kit to keep me going through the season.

Now for some downtime with my flatmate, Mike, and Rach in Sardinia eating my body weight in pizza and pasta!