St Croix 70.3 4th May 2008

 
Well I arrived on the island of St Croix on the 24th April after 36 hours of flying from Christchurch New Zealand, being there a week before was going to give me the best chance to get in the 9hr time change.
 
My training had been going really well since the Auckland Half Ironman then two weeks before I left on a trail run my left calf tightened then bang I could put any weight on my left leg. So it was off to all my crew of specialists to find out that I had a tear of 31mm in my medial gastronemius. This was caused because I have been favoring the left side after the crash at Ironman NZ.

 

So going into the race it was going to be a battle with if I could recover fast enough to be able to race, so it had no running just aqua jogging, its the 1st time in my life starting a race were I didn't know if I would make it to the finish. This was really nerve racking and hard to stay positive so talked with my coach and we came up with a plan.

I was to swim as hard as I could to win that then back off to avoid any further damage to my leg, this was hard for me as I love to race and had new if I stayed with the leaders I would have blown my Triathlon season to pieces.

 

My choice meant I could relax and have some fun thank the Volunteers out on the course for us and take in the beauty of the island and riding on closed roads. Getting off the bike I put my socks on and headed out very carefully to concentrate on my running style and form not to over work my left calf.
 
Cheering on my fellow Triathletes and having some fun I finally crossed the finish line in 4hr 41mins it was my longest run since February taking me 1hr 39min to cover the 1/2 marathon not bad considering what I had been through.

I took the positives out of the race swimming the fastest 25.47 6sec ahead of 2nd place and look forward to the season ahead.

Thanks for all your support and look forward to seeing you at the races.

Cheers Rhodsey