Rebekah Keat's Blog

Today was more than memorable it was a day when fianlly I had an almost perfect race!

Roth Challenge started 620am and a messy start I had no idea where i was!I could see the lead pack getting away from me and I tried to bridge it several times but with no luck,so I was stuck in no man’s land until another cap infact the yellow one of Chrissie Wellington popped up beside me.That was a small relief although iwas disappointed, asi realised she ahd missed the lead pack too.We worked hard with several men behind us to come out only around 2 minutes behind the leading male.

Onto the bike and my plan was to stay 10 metres behind Chrissie as long as I can,so I managed to until we hit the big long clibm and I just couldnt stay,the elastic band snapped and that was it i was on my own!

I pushed on and on and hled off Belinda Granger and Catriona Morrison for the first lap,who caught me with a pack of men,so I stayed my distance to see what would happen.

The men lost us and we lost some of them,which is always nice and i was just the three of us girls!With two draft officials watching our every move, they sat 10 metres behind each of us which was our gauge of where we must stay ..exactly 10 metres no less..”yes boss”!

So the bike was fare and even and although Chrissie put around 9 minutes into us we were all a little afraid to push especially me knowing Cat can run so fast I wanted to run well, and knew it would need to be fast!

I took off straight from transition my bolts carrying me superbly they felt so nice and light and so did my legs at first!

I was stuck neck to neck with Catriana and time check at 10km was 39high ohhh thats fast,but it felt easy and my heart rate was low.My goal for the run was to try and do around 124 then if i blow I cant say I didnt give it all!

I clocked Chrissie who was ofcourse still leading at the 12km mark and realsied I had made up almost 3minutes,I did the math and thought shit if I can make up 3 each 1/3 of the race I got her!…very wishful thinking i must add! 

I went through 21km inright at 1hr25min just as I had planned,then it was hang on for dear life,I hadnt made mush more time up on Chrissie and began to feel a bit tired so tried to settle down into a good rythm!

By the 30km mark someone yelled out I had 5 minutes to Chrissie,I dont know if it was correct but a guy on an official bike road beside me and said ‘you are making time’!By then i had a second win and picked up the pace for one last time I knew once I had done this it will be my last try to gain a little more.

With 4km to go I hadnt pulled anymore on first and was starting to really feel it in my legs,the dwonhill hurt like mad and I just couldnt ‘go’ so I tried to take it all in and ejoy the moment of a good day at the office!

I rounded the finish chute to a massive crowd I was completely overwhelmed and thought about what had got me there my family, my partner and ofcourse my dad who i knew was with me too today!The clock read 8hrs38min I seriously stumbeld for a minute and stopped all the hand slapping and high fiving,so Icould push a bit to the finish to grab under 8hr40 and I did…pumping my fist..JOB DONE!

Erika nad I arrived safe and sound in Roth today after an easy 6 hour road trip , we were kept alert by telling some funny stories and some cool cd mixes!We also realised her little red mobile doesn’t like to go above 150km/hr as we practised to draft behind an Audi TT,who dropped us quiet quickly lol!We were bombarded by people(at least 10 haha) and stalked at our autograph session by two (older) men (unfortunately for Coco not hot ,rich,age group guys..so if that is you please contact me on the forum) who looked like media but apparently are just triathlon groupies…it was a little scarey especially the hand shake…

We were greeted by Felix with our very own brand new AudiA4 to use while we are here!!Erika is too scared to drive so I didn’t mind taking over,its manual and left hand drive but us Aussie’s are fast learners!!I think I may have to test it out on the Autobarn on monday after the race!

After a sleep deprived night due to many things including a queer smelling smoke wafting into my room from the party below me…which still didn’t put me to sleep..but probably could have! Then  a 1am call out from down below, I look over the balcony, Chris had somehow locked himself out…damn for a split second I was hoping it was a late night booty call!

The swim started off with 25 metre sprints..  a total of 40 the set is confusing(to me)…Brett loves this warm up especially for me, when my brain isn’t functioning this early and my mind wants to wander back to bed. It’s as nice as having a bucket of cold water poured over your head at 10 degrees outside!!…While my head was  still rattling the melatonin out, I had to concentrate so hard on the clock …leading the lane is hard enough without having to think and calculate the clock each set changes by 5 seconds so my head was everywhere…not unusual Doc may point out!

The main set was basically 100’s ‘’keep swimming until i say stop’’…god we could be in here till next week. That’s just torture as you never know if we are doing 10 20 30 or 50..

We were lucky James and I, Coco leading and only three of us in the lane and the other two lanes had a much faster cycle…finally an easy swim was so nice for a change for me. Ok when I say easy it was still 30 of them minimum with a damn tube, inflated of course around my ankles ‘’ how’s your puppies’’ laughs Brett..slang for’’ muscles’’ in Oz ‘’ I feel like I am doing shoulder press in the gym’’..that’s exactly what it felt like, then add my mum sitting on my back, would be a fair description!..sorry Mum kidding!!

Anyway the idea was to ‘’save our legs for the run day” apparently…Uh oh that sounded scarey!  As I chugged  up and down as always we all try to work out what ‘’run day’’ means…could mean anything a marathon, a triple run or a 30km track set, which one was our medicine? I couldn’t help but notice the second lane, there was alot of splashing,  standing up , cap pulling etc Steve had finally blown up, ( that’s Abbie’s Steve, I have never seen Mr Bayliss blow up  in the pool yet!) It looked like absolute mayhem, I just laughed trying not to drown myself as I choked on water! I don’t think Brett even notice or did he? Silly question!

The first run was a little speedy set we do, one hint Moneghetti  , it’s a great set to spike yourself up for a bigger and better final run in the afternoon. I missed my speedy Swiss Miss on the treadmill but felt quite good , and had Boss there to check up on me, which was good ..no hiding!

At 4pm it all started happening our double loop last week was rained out, our ipods all died and my time was slow. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to run better , I think someone poured cement into my muscles just before I started? I was determined to run fast and it seemed Mother Nature tried everything to stop this from happening..can Brett also send bad weather? Because when we started an eerie grey cloud appeared out of no where, oh no not again I thought , another new ipod, heavy running shoes and then a lightning strike ..perfect!

So off wet set and down it came, heavier and heavier and by mid way into the first loop we were drenched! My shoes weighed and extra 2kg and my clothes stuck to me like glue! I don’t know if my ducking of the head was shading me from a strike of lightning but this reflex action sure must have looked funny, like a chook searching for food!

The storm got so loud and the bolts were making such a crack, appearing what looked like right in front of us! So here we were, my ipod dead, dodging puddles and lightening and I thought this can’t get any worse? Or can it ? Well it sure did, lap two and ‘’CRACK’’ again more bolts of lightening and then something stinging my face and my skin! Big hail stones started pelting down ’’ this is……crazy ‘’ I thought ‘’Brett i love you’’…well I can’t really say what I was thinking!!

Half way through the second lap we see a figure, standing against a tree, it was misty and we couldn’t quite make it out. Was it one of Erika’s vampire slayers out to get us, as nothing else had stopped us or it was…arggghh…LC! She was hiding under a tree, not sure why as if it got hit then she would be dead anyway! I yelled out don’t worry we can all die together come on out you come!

I wasn’t waiting around so I tore off up the hill, hit the playground and as I turned the next corner was greeted by a landslide of running water and mud, so deep it reached my knees! I didn’t think twice it felt like Xterra , I went straight though it like a crazy woman! These soft mountain bikers(all boys ofcourse) had taken shelter  under the bus stop Tez,Coco, LC followed like real troopers..great job girls!!I couldn’t help but yell ‘’A la  gouche’’  back at them, as they had screamed passed us yelling the exact same words on the first lap he he that will teach those boys, so soft I thought. They really must have thought we are fricken crazy, that we had escaped from a mental asylum!The water was up to my knees, so poor LC it would have been upto her neck!! Lucky Scottie wasn’t here he would have been washed away hahah!!

At the last turn and ¾ way into the two loops, finally the sun broke through. My legs somehow were still carrying me well, I imagined the sun warming my freezing cold feet and muscles and giving them energy .  At that exact point appeared a rainbow,I felt re-energised, we all noticed its colors as it appeared right in front us guiding us up the last hill as we headed  home!

It was all down hill (literally) from then on, so legs speed kicks in, and that nice feeling when you know you are almost home! I hit my watch as I completed the final loop , looked down at the time and was content. I had knocked a bit off last week’s time, so vampires, the hail, lightening and rapids all else aside, I had achieved what I set out to do!