Korea report from Grace

It’s a few days after Ironman Korea.

It was my goal to win my age group, to enjoy the journey and sport and training, to race an international race and get a fitness base. Despite not winning and missing a Hawaii slot, I have come to realise that four out of five aren’t bad! Hey I just finished another ironman and a year ago when I had no idea what a pink Giant Bike bike was that would have seemed impossible!

I’m improving and I know that everything happens for a reason – and the challenge regarding Hawaii is to believe this now. I’m already starting to.

I had put in 5 months of hard training, although strangely enough, this was the easy part. I discovered that the real challenge was not physical. It was the juggling act of training whilst being a mum, working and having a life.

After the race being such a focus for me , heading over to Korea on the plane (which took 24hours including 3 planes, 1 train and 2 buses!) felt quite surreal.

My Aussie team mates (Marathon – Lisa Marangon, and JoMo – Jodie Morris) and I concentrated on drinking bidons of water on the plane and tried to keep our legs moving by doing the silly airplane exercises which I would normally laugh at! We were later nicknamed the Aussie three musketeers and finally arrived at the Hyatt and it was Wednesday before the race.

The weather was surprisingly cool that day. It would take a few days for the Korean heat to set in. I had a press interview at 11am so we all I ducked down for a quick swim at the swim start before breakfast. It was overcast, and the water looked horribly rough. I was terrified and thought I was back in Tasmania as I we swam out to sea. I tried to focus on breathing as I felt my chest constricting with anxiety. The waves pummeled me a few times and I thrashed about through the water, even heading in to shore at one stage to regroup myself. I was relieved when even Lisa (who is an extremely strong swimmer) told me that she was genuinely scared too – my mind was not exaggerating things, this was for real but I realised that everyone would be in the ‘same boat’ – we just needed to stay afloat!!

I remembered gladly someone telling me that the Korean and Japanese competitors would be worse at swimming than I was and so I made a mental note to keep that in mind if there were similar conditions on race day. I also re-assessed my goals from swimming a good time to just making it through the swim if the weather was bad.

The rest of the week I busied myself with a few media interviews and familiarizing myself with the course. I like to know where I am going and was determined to know the bike course – while most people rested up, my busy mind wouldn’t be settled until I had tracked down a way to tour the 180km loop around the island………twice. My suspicions were soon confirmed. Hills, hills, hills, hills, more hills and…. for a little variety, a BIG, big Mountain-type-hill climb! Again, my goals changed from going fast to getting through the course as I decided if worse came to worse, I would just keep grinding up the hills until I fell off the bike!

I also wanted to “go over the run course,” which I had been told was flat…. Hmmm I think the person who called it flat had toured the bike course even more than I had, because only someone who thought mountains were normal could call the run course flat. Undulating would be the nicest and tamest description!

In between touring the course and mostly scaring the hell out of myself (but being glad to know what I was in for) I did my media interviews. This was an experience in itself as it felt like a scene out of “Lost in Translation.” (There was even a translator for each interview!)

I first tried to understand the questions and then tried to give an answer that they would understand. Why does a model do this sport…? (I suppose the same reasons all of us crazy people do this sport!), How do I stay in shape (were they for real! I swim bike and run about 20+ hours per week how did they think!), How do I do the Ironman (I move my arms and legs the way I’ve practiced a zillion times I guess!).

Then there were the photos – running, walking, running on a running machine, lifting weights, standing in front of an Ironman poster, smiling, not smiling, drinking water….. hugging a life sized teddy bear…..(I know what does hugging a Korean Humphrey have to do with Ironman???!!!?!) . It was all becoming a little out of hand and I finally said enough when they asked me to hold a kick board in front of me whilst standing OUTSIDE the pool and pretend to be paddling in mid air!!

At one stage I just couldn’t stop laughing at how strange it all seemed! It was all very entertaining and the Korean people were polite and lovely to me and made me feel really special.

Amazingly all week I ate carefully, sticking to plain rice, crackers, eggs and HI 5 from Thursday night to prevent the stomach upsets I had during the Aussie Ironman ….mmm such bland food I was certainly looking forward to some some fruit and vegies on Monday.

I slept like a baby at night and during the day – it was as if my body knew it needed rest although I was a little afraid I was too relaxed. I woke to my alarm on race morning at 3am to eat my brekky of 2 bars and a bidon of HI-5 – I already felt full but did my best to finish them and drifted off to sleep to wake up again at 4:30.

I sprung out of bed, with the tune of … “This is it, this time I know it’s the real thing…..” from a Danni Minogue song rushing through my head. AWESOME, YAY It was race day and I was so glad. All that anticipation…. It was here, I could finally put in the effort I worked hard to get to. I LOVE THAT!!!

Time to the starters gun passed in a blurr until we were 1100 competitors strong lining the beach and ready to go. I made my way to the outside of the group and it all began. I ran in into the water and my only focus was to relax and breathe deeply and keep my stroke long for the first 1900m loop.

I knew I could get anxious in the water and wanted to avoid the mad crush and conserve my strength rather than fight it out in the splashing rubble of the middle of the group. Before I knew it I was heading running on to the beach and out on my second lap, I saw Jodie and yelled GO JOMO – thinking how funny to have seen her partner Anthony at Forster at around the same time and now JoMo here! Either I was swimming quite well or she hadn’t had a great one as I expected her to be ahead of me. I quickly went back to relaxing on my second lap, then caught my breath just swimming my own race and avoiding the packs. I found a good rythym and stepped up the pace – this is my favourite part of the second 1900 of the swim and I really started to enjoy it – I really wanted to keep swimming forever and realised how ironic that was considering I hated the swim in the past!

Ha, “just concentrate on my length and the rest will look after itself” I was saying ..
“Buddy would be proud I am really relaxed!” I made it out of the water and headed up the short but hard hill before I realised I had done a 1hr and 3min something swim and that is a huge PB for me!

WOW it was off to transition and I began to focus on what I would do – Some reporter shoved a camera and recorder in my face as I ran up the hill and asked “Grace Macaluuuaaa you are model.. how did u like the swim?” Was I really being interviewed running up a hill to my bike.. could my heart rate possibly go any higher?! It was even more bizarre to discover it was later on the news – !!

Before I knew it I was 30k into the bike still trying to settle my heart rate when I saw a race number on the ground. It was 1012. Shit, I realised that number was familiar and from a specific girl in my age group. Obviously, she was in front of me and I knew it was her who could run a 3:10 marathon. She was fast, faster than me on the run……..damn. Still I felt glad I had that information and I resolved to do my own conservative race as anything can happen in an ironman and chasing her down at that point would only lead me to blow up later on the run. So I continued up and down and up and down and up and down the hills and so on an so on.

JoMo passed me at about the 90k mark and I started to go with her but she was going to fast for me and my heart rate, I heard John Hills voice in my head… “naughty naughty Grace, you gotta listen, if you go too hard on the bike you just wont be able to run.” Then I imagined Tessa Waterhouse saying “just jump on my wheel and spin” and so I concentrated on spinning smoothly with imaginary Tessa in front of me!!!

Finally I was at the 120k mark where I knew the big mountain type climb was and I was being careful to spin and telling myself that this was simply one of those horrible times you feel in an ironman.

A Japanese cyclist started trying to chat to me half-way up the hill, my God was he serious????? It was all I could do to politley grunt that maybe … “ I sorry, I talk to you later, I can’t talk now”. I couldn’t help but smile when I got to the top of the hill and a group of locals (who were obviously Tour De France” fans) ran along and pushed me for a few meters at the top – it felt great, gosh, if only they would push me for another 80km!

At 170km mark I saw 1012 in front of me. I figured there was no point in staying behind her and going easy on the bike home because she had the ability to run much faster than me and I needed a lead – I decided to ride strongly past her and hopefully psych her out a little and continue on my way. Off I went, the last 10k I really felt tired as I pushed it a little knowing she was behind me but I was looking forward to the run and seeing how my pace would go.

HOW wrong I was thinking I had looked after myself enough on the bike. Running was horrible. My legs were heavier than I have ever felt in my life and I knew I had 42km left to run. I had gained 10mins on 1012 on the bike however about 4km in to the run she passed me strongly and was it my imagination or did she really shoulder me a little …GRRRRRR. (I think she had the same tactic as me to psyche me out!) and I was still struggling to put one foot in front of the other. “I don’t give up” I thought and hoped she would blow up later in the run (although I’m not sure how I figured I would pass her at the pace that I was going!).
“I don’t walk” was the main thing in my mind. Feeling like this, I cursed myself for being so stubborn as I realised I had 42km to go and there was no option but to do it and to do it not walking. For the next 42km, I kept jogging by thinking and doing the following…

Just make it to the next hill, or next 5 minutes or the next time it was to take a gel or the next 10 steps or the next time I saw a fellow Aussie. Said in my head to the sound of my steps “as, long, as, I, can, move, I’m, not, sick” (repeat over and over and over and over…. Quote Lance Armstrong!) Counted to 10 (over and over and over and over…!) Thought of people who doubt me.Stopped quickly to grab a drink from an aid station, then nearly fainted and resolved never to stop again because there was one thing I was doing come hell or high water and that was finishing! Wished that I could let myself decide not to finish but knew I would faint/die before that happened. Tried to concentrate on the good (i.e. when knee hurt think. oh but I’m not running to the toilet and my hip and calf is good!) Yelled “Qwhiting” a few times (Korean word for GO GO GO),! Took my sunnies off but put them back on again because I thought a change in perspective could cause me to faint again (think my mind was really starting to struggle here!).
Wished I was the people I saw on the last lap of the run….. then, “thanked God” I wasn’t the people just getting off the bikes and starting the run!

Finally I made it towards the finish line… I high fived the crowd and grabbed the Aussie flag and ran over the line so damn excited to know I had made it and I hadn’t walked.

I was so relieved and so proud of myself for doing it. 1012 got me on the day but maybe she has helped me because I tell you what, she is what will get me out of bed for many days to train in the future and I just want to get better.

I ended up 8th woman overall on the bike, 12th woman overall in the whole thing and 2nd in my age group. I did have fun under the Korean Sun!

I still remember yelling Kwhiting as I flew down the mountain on my bike and hit a new max speed of 64km per hour…. KWHITING!

I’m young and have years ahead of me to get better its just going to take time and more importantly I’m gonna have fun on the way. I am going to look after myself.

A big thing I realised was how much I missed Billy at the end of the race. Not having him there really made me realize how special it is to have the ones you love around you.

A big thank you for Ironman Korea for organising such a challenging race and looking after me so well. I truly took home an amazing experience.

Thanks Mum for helping with all my training mornings and Prue, Pete, Tom, Will, Benny for being my surrogate family.

A huge thank you to Bridget and Despina and everyone at Nike for the awesome gear and especially Triax HR monitor (I have average heart rates of every one of split times from the race!).

Anthony and the gang at CBD Cycles. Anth is always a savior, packing my awesome pink Giant bike and getting my wheels and everything ready and telling me I would do great.
Giant Bicycles and Darren – what a sensational bike and for being understanding in the lead up to Korea.

My sensational Pflex Orca wetsuit and to my swim coaches Buddy and Dave who combined to help me take 4 mins off my Forster swim time! A PB of 1hr3 mins58!

YAY John Hill for always being there and answering my zillions of questions and getting me to the line again in one piece mentally and physically and for helping me get my nutrition right!

Steven Giderson and Alice for ringing me the day before and Stephen telling me that no matter what happened on the day that I was amazing anyway. (so nice!)