Melissa Rollison - Muncie 70.3

Results: 1st 4:08:48

Swim - 30:10 (8th)
Cycle -2:16:47(2nd)
Run - 1:19:19 (1st)
 

Race report

We dive into Prairie Creek Reservior, I position myself to the right of all the other athletes. In previous races I've been swimming off track. I always veer right and find myself heading way off course. Positioning myself to the right to start may seem strange if thats the way I tend to head but I breath only to the left when racing. So this way I figure I will see myself heading off track if I do this. It worked. My swim coach, Zane King back in Brisbane also spent a lot of time with me before I headed to the states, teaching me to swim straighter. It did help that the swim bouys were huge, bright and many of them. I think one of the best marked swim courses I've done. I had a slow start, or my competitors had a fast start, I couldn't keep up. This may have been due to not warming up. I didn't get a swim before the start as I was frantically running around looking for a timing chip strap. Once everyone settled into their pace I found myself passing athletes, something I've never done before in the swim leg so this was encouraging. I ran out of the water in 8th place. There were 19 professional female starters. Obviously still not as strong a swimmer as the leaders who still managed to put 2min 50sec into me but I was fairly happy with my swim.

We had a long transition to the bike. This was nice. It gave me a chance to get my legs going before I jumped on 'Buddy', my trusty Avanti Chrono TT bike. I lost a couple of spots briefly in transition as I tried to get my race belt on as quick as possible. I noticed I was one of only a few that didn't wear a speed suit over my tri suit. Many of the girls already had there race belt on under their suit. They must have been quick to get their suit off as they were off before me.

I didn't know how far I was down on the leaders but I knew I had to work hard. My partner, Jared had given me the heads up that Cave was a very strong swimmer/cyclist and Williamson was a great swimmer/runner so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I couldn't let Cave gap me too much more and I had to try and catch Williamson on the bike. I had no idea where I was placed, how much time I was down and who any of them were so I just rode hard. My bike time of 2:16:47 was 2min 13sec slower than Cave but I had caught the rest of the field. The bike course was flat. Very flat. We had a few slight climbs but nothing you really had to get out of your saddle for. What made it a little difficult was the wind. We had long straight roads so we had a long time into a head wind but then also a long time into a nice tail wind. For the first half of bike leg my left leg felt 'dead'. It felt really tight and fatigued. But after about 40km I started to feel good.

90km complete, I quickly rack my bike, grab my SiS visor and head off for the run. I have an official course bike riding next to me. I'm puffing hard and my legs feel terrible and I yell to him "what's my position?". He said "your in second about 4min down". 4 minutes...whoa! That's tough but doable I think to myself. I later found out I was in fact over 5min down on the leader. After a mile I feel great. I get my running legs and settle into a comfortable pace. The course had some rolling hills and was an out and back course so you could only see your competitors once you hit half way. I'm about a quarter of the way through the run and some nice spectator tells me I'm 2min behind the leader. "Awesome" I think to myself. "I can keep up this pace and catch her by half way". But there is also this thought running through my head "I'm WAY ahead of the pace Jared told me I should sit on". I'm clocking every mile on my watch and I'm running too fast. I've only been back running for 5-6 weeks since taking time off after rolling my ankle. But I'm feeling good and it feels very comfortable. I tell myself, I'll slow a little and catch her by 10mile. This is what I told myself to do but I couldn't help myself, I kept the same pace and caught her at mile 8. I ran past still feeling great. "Ok, now slow down, your in the lead". I put the brakes on a little but still kept the pace strong. You never know who else is coming from behind. And there was still Williamson...somewhere... don't know where...I'm sure running her way through the field...

I was running in my new road racing flats supplied to me by Nike ('Lunar Racers'). I haven't run in Nike before, they have just started helping me out last month. These shoes are fantastic. They're as light as a feather and you would expect them to be as hard as a rock but somehow Nike has produced this shoe that feels so soft and comfy it's like your running on clouds.

Running down the finishing shute...I finally relax, give some spectators a high 5 and smile. I've done it... I've won my first race of my International season. It was an awesome feeling! My finishing time of 4:08:48 was 3:31 ahead of a fast finishing Williamson. I was 8th in the swim, I clocked the second fastest bike leg and I had the fastest run split.

Thank you very much to all my sponsors and supporters Scody. Avanti. Connectel. Compressport. RudyProject. Continental. Nike. SiS. WRCC. Ifeelgood24/7. Aquashop. Rideoz. Cadence Cycling.

And a special thanks to my manager Phil Stoneman - M5 Sport and Event Solutions, my partner Jared Hauschildt, and my swim coaches Brendan Capell and Zane King.
 

I also want to send out a big thank you to my Homestay family in Muncie, Melissa & Bill Greene and their two lovely kids Matthew & Emily. The Greene's were fantastic. They ran me around everywhere, fed me and gave me a bed and roof over my head for a few nights. I am so grateful for all their help.