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Anna Cleaver, la plus rapide pour l'étape à vélo au Ironman 70.3 de Floride.

2011-05-18

Argon 18 est fier de vous présenter le rapport de course d'Anna Cleaver pour le Ironman 70.3 de Floride. Son E-114 lui a permis d'atteindre la permière position pour l'étape à vélo, dépassant même quelques hommes au passage dont le départ avait été devancé de trois minutes par rapport aux femmes. Anna a terminé 6e au classement final dû a une blessure au pied. Le rapport de course d'Anna est en anglais.

What a day. Thunder and lightening lit up the course in the morning of Florida 70.3, not quite the weather we were expecting for this notoriously hot course. Siri our coach had generously given up her time to come to Florida to share the experience with us, so the days leading up to the event were so much fun. The course is held in the Fort Wilderness area of Disney World. It starts with a lake swim, then a fairly flat 90km loop. The bike course was different to previous years with some added technical sections and turn arounds. The 3 lap run takes you on beautiful trails and also along grass.

My day was one of extreme highs and lows. I lined up on the start line feeling ready. My preparation has been great and I was excited to see the improvements since I last raced the half distance in January.

Swim

Pro girls started 3 minutes behind the boys. My objective was to catch some of those pro boys which I did manage to do. The countdown for the swim start began, 10, 9, 8…. At about ‘3’ one girl took off and then more went on 2 and 1, before the start gun actually sounded! This didn’t bother me though as I ran hard into the water and established my lead immediately. I broke away from the girls swimming by myself on the stunning course. A little detour on the way in to the swim finish meant that a few girls got closer to me than they otherwise would have but I swam past some boys and exited with a comfortable 30 second lead on the next female athlete

Equipment: Champion Systems race suit, Blueseventy PZ3TX

Cycle

My plan was to ride my own race and build my gap on the girls. There weren’t too many places on the course where you could see what was happening behind you, so I just focused on what was happening ahead of me. I kept the pro boys in my sight and passed a few of them at various stages on the course. I increased my lead from 3 minutes to 5 minutes to almost 8 minutes by the end of the bike course. There were a lot of strong winds on the course which I loved as our training had prepared us for the strongest of winds. There were times along the course though that I wondered if I had gone the wrong way as there was no one in sight!

The organisers did a very good job of marking out the complicated parts of the course and the volunteers were excellent. I loved the support and acknowledgement from the pro guys that saw me riding so strongly.

I finished the bike with an 8 minute lead, feeling strong. My foot pain had been niggling me during the ride but I had ignored it.

Equipment: Argon18 E-114, FastForward F9 wheels, speedplay pedals, Louis Garneau Vorttice helmet, Sidi T2 snakeskin silver shoes, Oakely jawbone glasses, High5 Energy Source 4:1, High 5 caffeine and non caffeine gels

Run

I should really title it walk/shuffle/ heal jog instead of run! With a comfortable 8 minute lead I just needed to hold a solid run pace. Unfortunately a foot problem that I have had since before the Sydney WCS race got the better of me and it felt like I was running on needles if I tried to run on my forefoot, so I ended up doing a kind of heel run (very evident in the photos!). Maybe I should have stopped but I had such a big lead I just couldn’t DNF. So I ran my way to 6th then straight to the medical tent! As a result of changing my running style to accommodate the pain I have no skin in places on my toes and lots of big blisters. I wont be getting a pedicure any time soon!

Equipment: Compressport, HIgh5 caffeine gels, Oakley jawbone glasses

Overall

So mixed emotions about the day. Would I do anything differently? The only thing would be to have put socks on to prevent the blisters, but that wouldn’t have helped the foot pain.

Sadly I didn’t get to spend the afternoon with Mickey at Disney World because I needed to stay off my feet and recover (wore the compressport full legs to bed yet again!). But I did have an amazing time with friends Siri and Jenny. They were great at pointing out the huge positives from the day, that I had a phenomenal bike and once I get the foot sorted I will be able to celebrate in the run! 

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