Luke Gillmer

So I just finished Shep 70,3 about an hour ago and I just thought I would write a quick review while it is fresh in my mind.  I had a got night sleep and then i had a good swim and managed to hold the back of the main pack getting out of the water in a solid position.  I flew though transation and from here, things went bad.  On mounting my bike I made a mess of it;  My shoe came off the pedal and I was looking like an idiot trying to sort that out the remount.  This was not a pleasant moment.

From the out set on the bike I just had nothing; it felt like I was fighting my machine and it was pretty bad stuff.  A few of the 18-24 year guys (who started with us) were with me and I used them as my pacers for a while.  After about 30km they dropped away and I ended up riding with some of the leading pro women.  To be honest it was my pride only that kept me with them until the end of the bike, those girsl were killing me.  I felt like i was pushing massive watts but going nowhere.

With about 15km to go we caught one of the male pros.  As we rode up on him there was some confusion as he upped his pace and tried to go again.  At this point a draft marshal showed up and pulled a yellow card.  I was fuming as this guy had basically blocked by altering his pace and the draft buster hit me and just didnt think twice about it.

From there I felt really broken. My bike leg was already average and now I had to sit in the box for 5 mins.  Anyways I limped home, tail between my legs and took my penalty.  Out onto the run, I had cramps in both calf muscles for the first 7km loop.  Coming around I decided to just up it and try break out of this negative cycle and see if the cramps would go away and ...they did.  The most positive part of my day beside the swim was my 2nd 7km loop, I ran well.  The last lap was ok, I just crusied around.  All I wanted was to somehome finish.

I got home, I think was 32nd overall, but with a lot of DQ for not serving penalities think that may climb higher.  Of the pro ranks I was the last male to finish.  About 10guys DNF or got DQ so I claimed 9th in the category by just finishing.

I have a lot of work to do on the bike.  I didn't fell comfortbale with my machine and I might be riding something else next time you see me.

Thank for reading.  Sorry if there is some spelling and grammer issues.  I just wanted to get this out.

Luke