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
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