Ironman Langkawi 2009

Ironman Langkawi will always have a special place in my heart.  It was my first ever WTC Ironman Distance race and my first ever Hawaii qualifier…among other things 🙂

It was a good race for me..I was very happy with my swim as I honestly do not feel that I trained for it properly, and was quite satisfied that I timed in at 1:04, similar to my split last year.  Nothing much to it as I started on my bike leg, which in my opinion was much tougher than last year.  I bet they used a real Tour de Langkawi climbing route….I had conditioned my mind to execute the bike course last year, which also had a sprinkling of rolling terrain but no real climbs.  So I did less hill work than I should have (wrong move on my part anyway), not knowing they would change the course two weeks prior to raceday….and of course by that time it was a bit too late….I had a time goal of 5:45, and I did 5:58, but it’s still below 6hours so I took a little consolation in that.
 
The saving grace of the day was that the heat did not manifest at all, and am glad for that….I was having major back and tummy problems starting the run leg and could not take in anything for around 10km at least….so imagine if I were sweating like crazy and I could not replace anything then I would have bonked big time.  I told Patrice I never had to struggle so much for the marathon leg of an Ironman.  We had to go up and down that loop five times, and pass the bridge ten times, and i just wanted it to be over.  I had wanted to beat my run time in Kona but only managed to do 4:35….but it’s okay.  I also knew that I was in the second position in my age group and had I at least done my Kona run time I would have been able to chase her, and I saw her each lap at the same exact place, which meant that we were running similar times, but try as I may that was all I could manage for the day.   I am aware that I still had a podium finish and that is always something special. I was happy at the finish because I knew I had given it everything–and that’s when I can pat myself on the back for pushing it to the limit.  My hotel was only 1km away from the finish line but I pleaded Patrice to get me a cab as I could not stand up anymore….haha.  It’s funny how one can run 42km but cannot even manage a kilometer walk. But that is the human brain for you 🙂

Joining a couple of bike races and focusing on coaching the Kids for Yokohama World Youth Triathlon for now…till next time!!!
 
Ani