4th in a row

Soon Specsavers Ironman weekend in Port Elizabeth was approaching. For a lot of people that means a long day out racing and putting months’ worth of training to the test. For me it’s the  Vodacom Corporate challenge. It’s the race at 10% of IM distance the day before the main event. It’s meant for fun but for me it’s about keeping the streak alive.

Preparing for the race

I have won the race on 3 previous occasions and I was going for a fourth this year. But it was going to be hard, I was sick the whole week so I didn’t know what my body is going to react. But on race day, I felt good also because I”m  was able to ride on my new Cannondale Evo bike for the first time. With the warm up, I was feeling a bit sick still but not too bad. I decided to swim hard to get a gap on the rest of the field so that I can have an easy transition and to have a bit of alone time on my new bike. Dan Howitz caught me at about 8km on the bike and we worked well to make a gap on the rest of the competitors.

The race was going to come down to the run with me and Dan exiting transition together, I thought I was going to push the first 2km and open up a gap and then I can take the last 2km a bit easier. My plan worked perfectly, but when I reached the point where the crowd started to cheer, I couldn’t slow down – it was really amazing. Once I reached the final few meters on the red carpet I knew I had the race and the streak. It is always an amazing feeling winning a race but this race is one that I really enjoy.

So hopefully next year I will be back and keeping the streak alive for one more year.

Cheers