.I’m still on cloud 9 after winning the Standard Bank Durban 70.3 Half Ironman, my first big win as an athlete. It’s been an incredibly journey so far this year, where the long hours of training and the extra effort put into working on my weaker areas are now finally paying off. Its never easy to be on top form all year round, so selecting key races and wanting to be at my best for that specific goal is the way I like to do it. When I look back to what I put down at the beginning of this, and what I wanted to achieve, I can tell you I am on my way to achieving the goals I have set out for myself.
Leading up to Durban wasn’t so smooth. I had a few niggles that decided to play up a week before the race, which had me doubt my abilities. I wasn’t in a good headspace at all and this made me extremely nervous just knowing that I’m not going to be able to give this race my everything, but the mind is a powerful thing and said no more negativity, just stay focused and rest up.
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The race was a non-pro start, so this gave the age groupers an open opportunity to showcase what we had. The swim start is always manic and getting to the front is always important for a good position coming out the water. I swam a 28min/ 1.9km coming out 2nd Female and had a super long run to my bicycle into T1 (the transitions were different this year being in two different locations). The bike being my strongest discipline, I was feeling solid and took the lead passing Lauren Dance and managed to open up a nice gap between the other female competitors. The wind wasn’t favorable so it was a tough hilly 90km cycle out there.
I hit the run feeling like my legs had something left in them and got into a comfortable pace for the 21km very flat, fast course. |
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The Sun Coast promenade run is very deceiving and you think flat means easy, but once your out there, you realize that the legs get no time for recovery and you jarring that course all the way to the finishing line. I could the see the girls Gabi and Natia as we passed each other on the 2-lap course, which kept fighting all the way. I held onto the lead and finished my race in a time of 4hours50min.
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Being on the top step of the podium is a very special thing and to see all my energy I put into the sport achieving results is what keeps me purpose driven. At the end of it all, I do this because I love it. It makes me push my body to unknown limits everyday during training and racing. I sometimes think to myself, what am I doing out here, running 21x800m, swimming 80x50m and putting my body in the hurt locker like it’s a normal routine. It is never easy or everyone would be doing it, the rewards are so sweet and I’m super blessed.
Thank you to my coach Lucie and team for the huge support, it can’t be done alone. When your out there putting in the long hours of training and having the motivation from your team, it really is a great feeling, even under pressure, its awesome! I’m planning on doing my first overseas race towards the end of the year to test my abilities and give me the opportunity to race with the top athletes. The best is yet to come. |
