Another weird year. My 2020 races were all rescheduled to Apr/May then bumped back to Sept/Oct. Some even on the same weekend which doesn’t help. Of my 4 Ironman Triathlons booked for 2020 I did 2 this year (2021), I have postponed one to 2022 and even one to 2023.
In 2020 I had signed up for 3 short distance Ironman races before the full distance IM race in Nice. After all the messing around the full distance one ended up being the first to roll in 2021 with the short ones way after. Well that didn’t go so well!
At IM Nice (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42km run) I was fine on the swim and bike but totally lost the plot on the run. Looking back now I am convinced it was all a head thing. With over 2 years since the last hard race I had completely forgotten how to push hard. On the run I just went slower and slower then retired before the end.
Afterwards I was really upset by this so did the Nice Half Marathon (21km) a couple of weeks later and pushed hard from the start. Finished in under 2 hours – super happy. Similarly I pushed really hard all the way at the half Ironman in Greece (1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21km run) and again was super happy.
When it came to my 13th Nice to Cannes marathon (42km) in November I decided not to push really hard but to try jog the whole thing. Amazingly the plan worked and I did the entire distance without walking at all. The weather was so brilliant that I took my camera along to make a Photo Story of the event for my blog. See: https://blog.stevegale.com/…/nice-cannes-marathon-2021…/
So all in all I am very pleased with the Class of 2021. 3 out of 4 and actually racing again 