COMMONWEALTH GAMES FULL RACE RUNDOWN

What a journey it’s been! After one of the biggest events of the season, it’s taken a while to get round to a race report. No time for rest after Glasgow – we had a few days off afterwards and got back on the horse as soon as we could. I tell you, it’s been tough getting back into training these last couple of weeks.

But what can I say about the games? It was an outstanding experience, everything there was mind blowing. Those of us in the Kiwi team kept to ourselves before the race though.  We stayed outside the village since our race was on the first day and we didn’t want to get caught up in too much hype beforehand. But leading into the race I was in the form of my life, every session had gone to plan and even more! There were a couple of episodes however –  I took a couple days off 5 days out with a sore stomach…could I have pushed too hard? Was my appendix scenario playing with me again? Meh I didn’t know, all I knew was that I was in form and wasn’t going to let anything get in my way, so the pain went away and everything was on track again a few days out!

Then it was race day – it was GO TIME! I was ready, I was nervous, I was fired up. The hooter went and straight away I was out front in the swim, then 100m into it, got caught up in the washing machine as guys tumbled over me (oh god, what a nightmare) from then the swim was an absolute mare, worst I’ve ever felt nearly. But at a big event like this I’ve taught myself to push through even on a bad day! So onto the bike and I quickly got to work.

The worst thing about this was the Brownlees were up the road where I wanted to be, and in our bunch we had all the other runners. I thought “let’s get to work, Tom Davison will be here soon to tow us up to the front!” Well this is something we hadn’t planned…Tom got a kick in the ribs and was having a very off day. I wasn’t feeling great at all and Ryan was in the same boat so pretty much we were all having bad days so far.  WOW this is not what we pictured.

So we got to work on the bike. Three laps in and Tom still hadn’t caught us, uh oh I thought, I looked at Ryan and said “Tom’s not feeling good, we need to do something”. So we went to the front and drove it by ourselves but as soon as we did we were joined by our team mate Tom – what do you know?

Now for the run – well, it was a battle, as the two were way up the road. Let’s cut this short, I felt strong, I felt in the groove of it all, but I just had no speed at the start which meant I had to play catch up.

Overall, I got a 10^th place! I am….. well I’m pleased with having a good result on a bad day let’s put it that way! We didn’t really put ourselves in medal contention which was the mistake. But I’m so happy I made it and got top 10! Next time, that’s the key 😉

The Team’s Race:

We went into it being a medal contender and we thought we put each of our members into a good position. But the problem was it went the opposite way to what we thought. We thought the breaks would happen in the 2^nd and 3^rd person (me and Nicky) and it kind of did, but the problem was we didn’t keep up with England which then meant Ryan was in no man’s land.  He then had to make a massive decision….to save his legs for the run or try and ride solo; the group of 4 were only 10 seconds behind so they were working hard. He chose to sit up and I think that was a fair call. But it didn’t come off as we came 5^th. Was disappointing but this is a team effort and we all take responsibility. But what an amazing race it was! I so hope they put the relays in Olympics, it’s such a cool race to be a part of and even better to watch I hear!

Now on a brighter side, cheers to everyone who has supported me! My sponsors Pak n Save Riccarton and Waioni, Asics, Pump, Blue Seventy, Specialized NZ, Adidas Eyewear, Sky NEXT, Sujon, and Skeggs Foundation. To my friends and family I thank you – love you all for it. Onwards and upwards! Now we have a World Series in Stockholm this weekend then on a plane to Edmonton for the grand final! This season isn’t finished yet! Chhhaaahhhooooooo

Featured Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images