Change in Race Plans!

Big race plan changes!

I was going to race Ironman 70.3 Korea on the 5th July, but unfortunately the race was canceled due to the MERS virus in South Korea.

So there was another race on the same date I was thinking about doing as I have heard only good reviews about this one. So here we go, Ironman 70.3 Norway!

After Challenge CamSur I had some more time to improve my running and I felt pretty good coming in to this race. It was not about 'hopefully' finishing the run, but rather about running faster and get some confidence.

I had a good swim, so I had to ride the first 30km completely alone, before a group of 3 women caught me. A bit later the 5th woman joined our group. I arrived into transition in the 4th or 5th spot, just about 30 seconds behind the leaders. The close race made for some great spectating.

I didn't want to run the whole 21km alone, so I was hoping to catch the second place athlete (at the time) Susie Cheetham, she ran the first 7km or so just maybe 150 meters ahead of me. I realized the pace was too high for me, so I just focused on running my pace and to hang on to the 3rd position. During the final 2km I started to relax a bit and enjoyed the nice feeling of running. With less than 500m to go I saw Sticksy (who was racing as well, but had a puncture, so he came to watch the race) and he yelled out, "Rads, run a bit faster, the 4th girl is catching you..!" I was very surprised, but luckily I had no problem sprinting to the finish… My mum, watching the race live was telling me later: "this time you finished looking very tired, you didn't even smile like usual.." Yes, I was tired at the end as I had to sprint to finish 3rd, but I was very happy about my performance. The 3rd place finish was more Sticksy's work than mine :-)

It was my first time in Norway and I was very sad leaving the next day as it seemed like such a nice place to do some sightseeing! I was so impressed with this race that I've already booked my return for next year.

Results:

1st Eva Wutti

2nd Susie Cheetham

3rd Radka Vodickova