Ben Marshall and I raced the Short Course tri out at the Auckland Half IM in Maraetai yesterday.
Distances were 1km swim 30km bike 7km run.
Going into the race it was just a chance at a last hit out before the summer race season is over. No real expectations, esp as I’ve been travelling loads for work lately so very little training. In fact I’d only swum twice this week in the last month, riden a handful of times and run even less. I was keen to give the new Specialized Shiv a hit out in a race, and was not disappointed.
I was 5th out water, with Ben screaming ahead in first place. We’d had a change of swim coaches this week and Mon/Wed we tried out a new swim stroke, my 3rd change of style in the last 2 years. It worked, and is super fast. Only thing is I’m not used to it and it killed my shoulders and neck.
.
A ridiculously slow transition (haven’t raced since the Half IM in Jan) meant I lost a couple places, as well as a few teams went past. No worries, gave me a few targets to pick off during the bike. Into a head wind to Clevedon, found it pretty hard to get wound up and going. Once there and on the way to Kawakawa Bay with a tail wind I got the Shiv wound up, cruising the flats at between 40 & 60km/hr. As I got to the T2 area I went past the bike finish partly my fault, partly lack of signage/direction – I ended up going nearly 1/2 a km past trying to get out of the marshalls where to turn off. Finally got back in T2, 2nd off bike racking my bike next to Bens lonely bike, god knows how much time I lost with that overshot, but at a guess a couple minutes.
Shiv-er me timbers, Specialized Shiv
Out onto the run still in 2nd up to the run turnaround, passed by one guy nearly a k back to the finish, then they came flying by dropping me to…..about 5th or 6th overall,2nd or 3rd in my age group??
Ben won the overall short course leading from start to finish which was awesome.
Ben crossing the finish line in 1st place
Hell yeah Team Performance Bicycle Tuning – Ben 1st place short course, me 5th or 6th, and….
Peter Hughes 4th overall in the Half Ironman race – awesome result Pete, well done.
Here’s a link to the pix on Facebook;
http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=38544894636&view=all
#aucklandhalfironman
