Three things that attracted me to the Mallorca 70.3 were clear water, hills and the heat. With 180-something people in my wave and a beach start, the water was no longer clear. In 5 years away from my beloved Dandenong Ranges I am no longer good on the hills and in 5 years away from my beloved warm days I suck in the heat! With those three things against me I am still relatively happy with the result; a PB swim and aggressive descending which got me up to 70km/hr coming down some switchbacks. I had a great time chasing with some guys at 60km/hr through small towns.
The only real downfall was on the run. In the heat my stomach decided to stop processing anything so I shuffled through 21kms with a full sloshing stomach and no water/ nutrients going to my muscles. That hurt. 1 hour 53 minutes of hurt killed my hopes of that elusive sub 5 hour race, finishing in 5:17. I would also advise against swallowing 3 or 4 huge mouthfulls of the Mediterranean. In hindsight this wouldn't have helped my stomach.
Thanks to Tomeu at Bequi’s bike shop for fixing my crank, a different Tomeu for straightening my muscles, and the random guy at the 14km mark who gave me a generous helping of French Voltaren for my ITB before pushing me off as though I were on a bicycle. For the record, Voltaren doesn’t work.
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