Antwerp Race Report

After finally getting to a computer that was not charging me more than 12 euros an hour.... this is the going rate here in the mountains.....I realised that I have yet to post a race report.

The Marc Herramans Classic was in Antwerp. A non Hawaii qualifier unfortunately. It was a half ironman though.
I was feeling pretty good considering I had been suffering from terrible jet lag the week before. We drove over on the Friday and little sis Sahra and little cousin Sonja arrived in the evening. With Alice flying in the next day Lukey and I had quite the cheer squad. We were all ready to race come Sunday and the start line was a bit of an Aussie fest actually.
Jac W was here as she had been visiting her sister and would be in my age cat racing aswell.
The race got underway and I have to say I got the S*#T beaten out of me in the swim. Never in my life have I been punched and kicked as hard at the start of a race. There was no mercy out there and I stuggled to find clear water. I swam an average 31 min. Not my finest but I was alive at least.
Out and on the bike I felt great and started to ride past quite a number of the men. I didn't look behind me till about the 55 km mark when a man whom I had been sort of pacing with... as much as you can in a non drafting race... mentioned that I had 12 blokes all sucking on my wheel. I couldn't believe it!!!! Dam cheats. I didn't worry about it too much till an official came past on a motorbike and I may have mentioned it then by using some flamboyant words. Apparently not the done thing in europe.... swearing at the judge is just not the done thing. I got a penalty.... 3 mins in the sin bin. Bugger.
Sat it out and sucked it up.
Then off on the flat run thoughout the beautiful township. 4 Laps. I had no idea where I was placed but Alice was screaming on the sidelines and sissy was cheering and I felt great. Saw poor Jac who had to pull out earlier due to illness :( Had a bit of a quick chat then finished it all off with a solid 5.01.
In the end that had me over the line in 2nd place by 2 mins and I was ticked off as I would have won if not for the dumb penalty.

All in all it was a terrific training race for IM Canada in 2 weeks. Canada will be my last chance to qualify for Hawaii so wish me luck and watch on IM live.

Stay tuned
Memphis