New Plymouth and Ishigaki World Cup wrap up
17 April 2008
The eagle has landed!.
Its 2 degrees outside at the moment here in Saarbrucken, my home away from home in Germany. It can only get better ( and warmer ) I hope.
Sorry for the delay in writing this update about my last two World Cup races. With all that went on post the New Plymouth world cup and trying to pack up everything in NZ and get over to Japan there was just no time. So I'll go back a bit and fill you in on it all, as it happened.
As I had said before New Plymouth I was really looking forward to race. I'd done a really big block of training over summer and I was itching to get amongst it and race the best guys in the world. I had some clear plans of thought heading into the race. And I knew where I would make the most of what I had done over summer to gain a good result. As it panned out the whole race exceeded mine and my coaches expectations. So here's a run down for you all.
The swim went well for me considering I messed up the start. After being one of the first to the waters edge from a beach start I started my wade. I took one step and stood in a hole. I went face first into the shallow sand( mmm sand taste's yummy). I got back up but had gone from the front to the back. I didn't panic as I knew I was swimming well enough and ended up swimming back up to the front to exit 9th.
The cycle was all about watching and learning for myself. Its interesting how different athletes react in different situations and I think its important to see this. There were a lot of attacks during the ride and eventually two small groups got away to form a group of 14 up front. All the big runners were still in the main group and so I stayed there and took it all in.
As we hit the run we were 1.17 down. I knew that World number one Javier Gomez would be the man to set the pace. Javier, myself and Brad Kahlefeldt ran very fast for the first ks which set us all up for great runs. After 2k I dropped off, Brad hung in for a bit longer and Javier just keep going! In the end Javi got to the front of the race in 5k which was just amazing. I ran through everyone in the front group bar one athlete Andrew Johns. He held onto third 5 seconds in front of me and behind Javier and Brad. I finished 4th and ran 30.17 on a course that was not easy. It was way above what I had thought I could run at this stage of my build up. And considering what I have done over summer it was a massive confidence boost. It also made me excited about Ishigaki which would happen 7 days later.
The last few days in NZ were a bit of a blur... I was running around doing a lot of things as I wasn't coming back to NZ until after the Olympics. Packing up in 4 days after 5 months was made a lot easier with the help of Mum and Dad ( Thanks Di and Bri). They let me relax as much as I could before leaving and racing in Japan.
Unfortunately as it is when you get really fit you become very susceptible to getting sick. And so after such a big effort in New Plymouth and a bit of stress I just couldn't get myself back up to where I needed to be health wise and developed a sore throat. I left NZ for Japan hoping it would be just a small thing but it wasn't to be. By the time the race came I had a slight fever, and was feeling like someone was standing on my throat! I was pretty close to not even starting. But after speaking with my coach we decided I would give it a go and maybe I could still learn some things.
In short the race went as you would expect under the circumstances. I ended up being in the second group after the swim and stayed there on the bike. I couldnt contribute at all which is not my usual style. So just tried to save as much as energy as I could until the run. We wanted to see if I could run like I did in New Plymouth. To be be perfectly honest my legs felt better than they did the week before if it not for being sick.
I started the run like I would have wanted too if all was well. And it felt good. But I was just finding it very hard to breath at all. So I decided enough was enough. I hadn't really done any great damage but to run on would have meant a big delay in recovery both health wise and body wise. It's something I dislike very much ( not finishing a race ) but I have learnt that sometimes it is for the best.
The flight with Lufthansa to Germany was great and I got some good rest. I'll now have a very easy week to get over the jet lag. And try to kick this throat infection in the butt. Then its onto my first real run block of the year which I'm really looking forward to. The trails in the big forest here in Saarbrucken will know, I have arrived!
Cheers,
Kris
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