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Ironman Australia 2007 is a race I will remember for a long time. For most of the day I thought I had a very good chance of winning:  I had the best swim I have ever had at Ironman Australia which shows that all the hard work is starting to pay off.  I rode the third fastest ride of the day in extremely tough conditions.  Then I had the fastest run of the day in just under 2.49 for 42.2km, which was what I needed to run according to my calculations out of T2 (based on the time difference to Vernay and his PB marathon time).

However, I had a very unusual swim in that I was in the lead pack until halfway and then felt an overriding sense of exhaustion to the point of considering pulling out!  I persisted and got through that very bad patch to finish well in the water and go on to have a solid bike leg.  Then came the run. Unusually, the marathon just did not unfold in its normal way. Though my run was the fastest and certainly a respectable time, I did not feel the rhythm I wanted to and normally take for granted.   I felt I had to work really hard for each and every kilometer of the run.  My ‘flow’ was simply not with me on the day.  This is not to diminish Vernay’s race as he gave a fantastic performance and deserved to win.

I continue to try to be more philosophical and objective about the race than is my very personal and subjective habit of looking at things.  I can see I put in a great performance and can look to the fact that on a day that had much tougher conditions, I was 12minutes faster than last year.  I can also take solace in the fact that I was able to put together a solid enough performance to secure a competitive second place even on a day on which, in racing terms, I felt pretty terrible.  I know now I can go away and work on a few different things to enhance my opportunities in future races, including the art of tapering (and believe me it can be an artform!); and continuing to fine tune each of the three disciplines in various ways.

Jason Shortis at Ironman Australia:
Did you Know that Jason has finished 13th times at Ironman Australia.
He has finished in the top 10 twelve times and in the top 3 eight times.