Luke McKenzie on a day that went South
I am sorry for the delayed report since Ironman Malaysia. I have now settled in Singapore for 10 day training camp and I was finally able to sit down and write about the race.
As many of you know I went back to Ironman Malaysia as defending champion. I had put in a really good block of training at home in Australia and I was far better prepared than 12 months ago when I won. I was in good form and was looking forward to an even faster race. Marino Vanhoenacker of Belgium, a 6 x Ironman Champion was entered in the race and I knew he would be the
man standing between me and winning again. I was looking forward to the challenge ahead!
It all started off well as I led the 3.8km swim and was able to establish a 3 minute lead over Vanhoenacker and the main bunch behind me. Once I was on the bike however I wasn't feeling 100% and my power was way down on normal. I tried to ease into the ride get some nutrition into my system and maybe I would feel better? At around the 20km mark I vomited for the first time. I pushed on but it seemed my body wasn't liking anything I would put in my mouth. Water, Nuun, Gatorade, Power Gels, PowerBars, they all came back up! At around 30km I was joined by Vanhoenacker and Romain Guillaume.
We rode together for 20km before I dropped off their pace and they were soon out of sight. I continued to struggle and was still vomiting every 5-10 minutes. I stopped and drank a Coke to try ease my stomach. Two minutes later out it all came! Between 80-90km I was pedaling squares and was in a bad way and knew my day was done. I felt like I was operating at about 25% of my ability and knowing the hard work I had put in it was very frustrating that this was how my day had panned out. Knowing I have a ticket to China for the Ironman 70.3 event, I called it a day and will now focus on the Ironman event there and having the race I know I have in me on March 14th.
After a shower, a little lay down I felt better and return to the run course to support the athletes. Amanda was also having a tough day but she conquered her demons at Ironman Malaysia and finally got over the finish line on her third attempt. Very proud of her!
Belinda and Justin Granger had impressive races and I was stoked to see them do well. I do a lot of training with them at home in Australia and it's always good to see your mates having great success.
Hillary Biscay showed some really guts to push all the way to the finishline in third place. I was devastated to her she feel agonizingly short of WTC's new 8% prize money cut off. Unfortunately I think this is going to be an ugly trend throughout the year and one that will surely kill professional womans triathlon. Let's hope we can come to an agreement as athletes with WTC to help "improve" not "destroy" professional triathlon events!
I am looking forward to racing Ironman China for the first time and taking on the likes of Chris McCormack and Chris McDonald. Sorry I let you all down in Malaysia but I am sure China will be redemption.
Cheers
Luke
