Arigato Gozaimasu Ishigakijima!

I don't really know where to start with this post! I guess I can start with thanking the people of Ishigaki for being such great hosts. I met some of the warmest, most generous people here. The town was so enthusiastic and the atmosphere was incredible. The local beer company even made a special Ishigaki Triathlon can!

The course was lined with people chanting cheers in unison with noise makers and live music. It would have been cooler if I was running well but the #1 most important thing is I stayed on my bike and I finished which has proved to be a more difficult task than it should be lately! I can't say I'm happy though. Not even close. After a rough few weeks I was just chomping at the bit to run. I've been training my run so hard and I was really excited to see where it has taken me.

After returning from Sydney on monday, I booked a flight to Ishigaki on tuesday morning. Tuesday evening I received a call from my dad that my grandfather had passed away. I was standing on thin ice and this news really affected me. Looking at it in a positive light, it takes something like this to put racing into perspective and suddenly my crashes seemed minor. My Pop was my biggest fan. I don't even want to think about how many hours were spent hunched over the computer on triathlon.org over the past few years! He was the one who taught me to pick myself up and dust myself off when I was a kid. A lesson which has proved to be most useful in my career thus far! ;) I decided I would dedicate my race to him and in wanting to win for him so bad I pushed aside my aches and pains from 2 hard crashes and was hoping for a miracle mind-over-matter type performance like in the movies. I went for an hour run the next morning, bawling the entire time, quickly packed, got on the plane and didn't really give myself any more time to think about anything.

As for the race; I was called out last due to my extremely late entry and was stuck dead in the middle of the pontoon. I know I have said this before but this one trumps all the other races and was by far the roughest swim I have ever had. After the start we didn't separate like normal and we swam in one giant horizontal line for a good while. It started with one girl pulling my shoulder, then the next girl pulled my shoulder and proceeded to basically stand on my shoulder (horizontally) and kick me backwards and another pulled on my shorts and before I knew it I was at the back. Within the first 300m I went from being 38 people deep to the far right just to get clear water. Once I got to the outside I swam up to the front pack where I was again sandwiched and clobbered for the next lap. I was angry at the lack of sportsmanship and ethics of the girls I was racing against but it proved to be good energy because my frustration made me swim really hard and get back up to the front of the main group. I understand it's going to be rough with so many girls going to the same point but intentionally grabbing and pulling people backwards when going in a straight line is just unnecessary and not fair play. Anyway, I could rant about that forever but it's going to stop any time soon (it's only getting worse!) so I guess I just need to HTFU ;)

I had a good T1 and I thought I was one of the first onto the bike. I didn't realize until we got to the first turn around that there was a lead group of 4 about 20 second up on us. After a few laps of chasing we eventually came together. I stayed at the front or 2nd wheel the ENTIRE ride because I was so nervous of being behind anyone after being taken out last week. In hindsight it wasn't the best idea because I smashed my legs a bit. Usually once the packs come together the pace slows to a crawl but not this time, the pace was on! I had a bit of a rusty start to the ride but I felt pretty good towards the end, was first into T2 and on a mission.

It only took a few meters to realize my legs were not "my legs." Sluggish and zapped of energy I was forced into a jog. I just couldn't get out of that one pace. I wasn't breathing hard or even hurting but I could not go any faster. The only pain I felt was my cramping shoulder girdle, QL, hip and hamstring. Lovely little left overs from last week. :) I never panicked and I just kept chugging along. Chuggin is really the right word for my pace, it literally was nearly the pace of our 2hr Sunday runs at home!

I have no explanation for that performance. All I can say is that is definitely not what I train for. I am looking forward to another good block of training before the next WCS in Madrid in June. First things first, I need to get my body back to normal…I'm on my way home now and ready to be back into a routine. I've had quite enough white rice and strange rubber-pastry bread! Today Ash and I got adventurous and tried so miniature dried fish. As you can see Ash was a bit more enthusiastic than I!

Jimmy and I getting stuck into some cotton candy at the post race BBQ :)

Pre-race dinner with the Swiss. The only Italian restaurant was booked so take away on the ground for us!

Only on China Airways....Teriyaki chicken "burger" with rice buns!