WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACE DAY

5 am.
quick jump out of bed and run around the block to wake up the senses.
5:15 am
breakfast. Auch.. that was more difficult than I had expected, the nervers were there.
5: 45 am
taxi down to transition with Mia. 3 bags ready, pre-race, transition bag, post race.
6:10 am
at transition area. The bike was still there… with all the others. It stayed overnight, covered in plastic, to keep sort of dry. Lay out all my gear, helmet, glasses, runners, number, run-cap, gloves, arm warmers.


6:50 am
Time to get ready. Wetsuit on. Lots of oil and Vaseline to get the wetsuit of quickly and to keep the feet warm. Timing belt on the ankle. Two swim caps to keep warm.
7:05 am
Last energy gel before the race and time to get in the water to get COLD! Water temp just around 12, 4 or something. It was freezing.


7:15 am
All the girls were gathered together to be ready to go. We had to line up on the beach on mats with numbers.
7:25 am
START

SWIM:
We ran in the water and I started swimming straight away. I had cooled down enough that I didn’t notice the cold so much anymore. All went well for the first 200 meters, then I got a kick in the face, which made me realize… there are more of us and ☺ I am not yet at the back! While I was out there the water became choppier and choppier. Navigating to the buoys was become difficult, every time you looked up you were welcomed by a big wave of water, taking your breath away. It only got worse and worse, the wind had picked up and the waves became bigger and bigger. Sometimes you tried to lift your arm out, but it never came above the water. The 1100 meter were long. From the last buoy to the exit, I kept being drifted off, and tried to start to focus on sending blood to my feet. I tried to move them, but there was no feeling from the ankles down. Nothing was happening.

I was so thrilled to come out, I think I have overcome my fear of ocean swimming, because this was ruff!

TZ 1
I ran undid my wetsuit, found my bike. Here I took it easy, I had to. Got the suit of, but was shacking. Arm warmers on, helmet, glasses, and gloves. I had some feeling in my hands, but non in the feet or ankles. We had to run on the grass (mud…!) and on the bike path to get on the road and mount. I just took off and put my feet in the shoes. Which was easy, but well! I was happy to be on the bike.

BIKE:
4 laps of 10km.
I had decided to take the first lap easy, to get the blood going and to warm up. This never really happened in the legs and feet, the upper body was fine. I didn’t have a clock so just keep going. Lap 2, picked it up a bit and had a gel. It was going well, and could do the climb steady, keeping the legs turning over. Lap 3 and 4 were the same, although now the course was getting busy. I gave it all in the last laps especially down the hill, were they tried to tell me to slow down! ☺ not happening.

TZ 2:
I had decided to keep the shoes on and run through transition, as we were coming down the hill so fast, didn’t want to undo the shoes down the hill and run in the mud. Took some time get rid of the bike, but all done. Helmet off, cap on. Then came the fun part. Socks! Thank God I had feeling my fingers and was able to force the socks over the ice feet. Shoes on, race belt and off I went.

RUN
3 laps of something!
My feet had no feeling, nothing, it felt like my toes were double in my shoes and I could barely roll my feet. I just though keep going, keep going. It was great course, many people and lots of cheering! Go the Netherlands. Go the Dutch. Here come the Dutch lady with the beautiful smile. Hup Holland. Rennen! So this was great especially as you did the same lap 3 times. I must say the last lap got very hard. I was trying to pick up the pace, but everything had been so cold that it was resisting a bit. The one good thing was that in the last 3km my feet were warming up, so I got pins and needles for a while…
I ran strong and was very happy to have pushed and pushed! I finished under the 2:30 mark and I wanted, and the individual legs were all very good! Official results not yet there, but it should be around 2:27: 33. I think around 1:08 on the bike, 49:33 on the run, not sure about the swim and then of course transitions.

A very happy Anneke (with now an extremely sore back)

And of course the biggest thank you to Dirk and Mia for the great support all week here and for taking the great pictures.

Tonight we will party like its 1999 in the MG down town.

Some photos, please click the link and have a look

Photos

14 Degree Water!

Monday
Dirk and I arrived, 2pm Canadian Time.. while we had left Amsterdam 2 pm as well… we were prepared for a bit of a jetlag. Mia was there to pick us up, which made everything easy. As it was middle in the night for us… we didn’t do very much. We visited the local shop and were amazed with the number of choices, much more and varied than back in the Netherlands.

Tuesday
We had no plan, and took the bus down to Stanley Park, where the event is, around 10 km from Mia’s house. A bit of a shame that it was raining, and cut our visit short, to a couple of hours, after which we went home, and had a nap… which ended up in 2 hours!
That evening, we went to a local Sushi bar and had great sushi, which were spoiled with in Australia, but isn’t yet around in Europe.

Wednesday
This was going to be a busy day… and it was. There was a swim familiarization at 7: 30 am, where I saw all my Australian friends, which was great. But back to the swim… it was so cold! I got in and my feet almost fell off, I submerged myself and realized that this was impossible and got back out.. I thought to myself.. how do I do this on Saturday?! I stood on the beach for a while and said to Dirk. This is too cold. Jo had advised me to let everything get really cold and go on. So I tried and it worked, I had a decent swim in the end… and got my confidence up for Saturday. After that Dirk and I walked across Stanley Park; to the Women Breakfast! The b’fast was great… but a bit overpriced… After that I had to register myself! Mia got into action here! ☺ the best volunteer so far. After that we upgraded Dirk to my Team Manager.. giving him access to everything! We went home and had a quick lunch and rest, to get back at 3pm for a bike ride familiarization. It is a very exciting course, lots of up and down for the first 5 km, than a decent climb of around 900 meters, after that a nice down section. And this 4 times! There are going to be some fast time. ☺ looking forward to it.

After that I found Dirk and Mia and Mia took us on a mad chase home!

Tomorrow, the morning will be easy and after that we have the country presentations and we will have the opening dinner.

So far so good.. now we just hope that the weather picks up and we have a dry race day.

Anneke and Dirk.

Anneke's World Championship Triathlon

It is hard to believe but there is less than one week to go before I participate in the World Championships for the Age Group athletes in Vancouver, Canada!
(http://www.triathlonvancouver.com)

As strange as it sounds, yes I am going to participate; which being a Dutch national isn’t all that complicated, but I believe still very rewarding. It has been strange to start doing some triathlon training and racing here in the low-lands. The structure and approach is very different from what I had been used to in Australia, but I must admit I was very spoiled there with the highly experience coach and an excellent squad!

After return in NL, I started training again, having recovered from a serious stomach bug. I struggled with the flat roads and missed the hills straight away! I actually wasn't able to get average speed up as I was used to. I started swimming on my own because the swim lanes with the club were so crowded that it was like one big traffic jam. So overall it took a while to get accustomed to the new training schedule. I did some great rides in the south of the country, getting some hills in there, it was gorgeous and there will be some more hours down there! I did one race to see where I was at, and despite a rather poor time, I was happy with the progress I had made.

As Vancouver started to come closer, I had to start organising my entry, my race suit, which now has NED across the stomach! It’s a great suit, but of course made for the man…. and is extremely see-through…anyway.. I have managed to solve that!

The last weeks I have started to focus a bit more on speed work (sitting behind Dirk!) and some block session (bike-run) which has been going well, so all in all I believe I should be ready for the big race!

It will be great fun, as I get to catch up with all of the Tridents from Australia, see a good friend Mia, where we get to stay, and have a rewarding holiday with Dirk, who has been the great support through-out this long season..!

For those who are interested, the race is on Saturday the 7th, and I have to start Canadian time 7 25. There will probably some sort of live cast from the follow site:
Live TriCast

I think they might only show the finish, which should take all in all around 2 1/2hours.


Until next time

Anneke and Dirk