Gina Crawford 3rd at 70.3 Pays d’Aix

Monday 19 May 2014
This week I raced Ironman Pays D' Aix in France. We arrived on Tuesday and I rode the course on Wednesday and it was absolutely spectacular, reminded me a bit of St George in USA. The course was very challenging with 1100m of climbing which was longer climbs and long, tricky descents. I love to climb but I'm really not a great descender so this was going to be my biggest challenge. I was up against Jeanne Collonge a French athlete who I knew to be an outstanding cyclist and runner (particularly on the hilly courses), Tine Deckers who I raced last week in Rimini (an amazing cyclist particularly on these types of courses who was 2nd to my 4th place in Rimini), and Susie Hignett who was the defending champion and who had done an outstanding time on the course in 2013 as well as a few others I knew less about.

The swim I felt really not great, not sure why but I came out of the water first woman although probably not quite with the lead I would have liked. Onto the bike and I felt pretty good although quite cold to begin. I was feeling a lot better than the week before and felt very strong on the flattish parts and the climbs but knew I was losing on the descents. I had a man number 30 who I would pass on every climb and flattish bit and then he would hoon off down the hill on every descent and would get quite a gap. This continued for about the first 30k until the descending part outweighed the climbing and I lost sight of him altogether. I was quite scared on the descents, I was trying to stay relaxed but I had a few close calls and felt out of my depth with these descents. I enjoy these types of courses as they are so scenic but I think this may be the last time I race this type of course, I don't want to have a serious accident. Tine came past at about 50k which was about 10k further than I got last week (despite having about a minute less gap in our swim times) and I tried to keep her in my sights which wasn't long as we reached another technical down hill and that was that. I enjoyed the longest climb up to the top but then lost a bit of time unfortunately in the last 15k descent. But all in all it was a much better bike ride than last week. Last week I was about 8 minutes slower than Tine and this week 4 minutes, and despite my poor descending I was only about 30 seconds slower than Jeanne Collonge who I guarantee would have been descending a hell of a lot faster than me!

I came into T2 in second with Tine a few minutes up the road and Jeanne just under 2 minutes behind. Unfortunately I then took the wrong bag in T2 and didn't realise until I had run to the chairs and opened it. I then had to run all the way back and replace that bag and find my own. So that was some valuable time lost. I had just taken the 2nd pro female bag as that was my spot (but it must have been placed wrongly the day before, we weren't allowed to place our own bags, but had them done for us). So that is a lesson, always, always check these things!

Onto the run and I felt a lot better than last week, I was able to run pretty freely whereas last week I just felt horrible and heavy. The run was quite hilly which I always struggle a bit with as I like to just race on the flat and get into a rhythm but it was really fun running through the town, down narrow streets with lots of spectator support. It was 4 loops. Jeanne came past me on the second loop and she was flying, in the end she ran a 1.18 run split! Phenomenal! I was not able to stick with her, but felt better as the race went on and ended up with a 1.23. I was bringing down the time to Tine but it wasn't enough. Jeanne got the victory, very well deserved, Tine was in second backing up really well from last week and I was happy to get onto the podium and make a lot of progress from the week before.

Now it is on to Ironman Austria 70.3 which will be 3 half in 3 weeks. I know that is not everyone's cup of tea but it helps to get me in shape for the ironman race I am racing in July, plus it is expensive coming to Europe so my goal is to try and get in the top 6, get a good workout and try and get a pay check to help cover our costs while we are here. Plus I have raced in St Poelten 3 times before and I love the vibe on the run, absolutely great spectator support. The bike course is not as technical as the ones I have done the last 2 weeks so might suit me a little better!

Thanks always to my wonderful sponsors, Ceepo, Powerbar (so good to have Powerbar on the run course so I could collect at the aid stations), Rolf Prima, Asics, Soas, SRAM, Roka, Rudy Project and Keywin.
Gina Crawford


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