After racing the ITU World Cup for many years and winning the World Cup in 2008, Sam Warriner showed up at 70.3 Geelong and walked away with a win despite some very solid competition. Sam Warriner talked to Slowtwitch about her long day.
ST: Sam, nice win in Geelong. Are you happy how your first 70.3 race went?
Sam: First off I’d like to say thanks for giving me the opportunity to discuss my very first Ironman 70.3 Race. I had a great time down in Geelong; the atmosphere at these events is totally different to an ITU World Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I love ITU World Cup races too, but I was just blown away by how many age group athletes came up to me after the event and exchanged stories of how they over came their fears, challenged themselves and came away the better person for it. We’d experienced exactly the same highs and lows on that course; I loved that aspect of it!
For me personally I’d targeted this race as one of my early season goals; I wanted to qualify for Clearwater early, but more importantly I wanted to say to the other girls I’m a serious contender for the title, so I planned to race aggressively and went out to win from the gun.
Pip Taylor had a great swim and led me out of the water by about 20 seconds. I’ve worked hard on my biking over the past 4 months since Siri and I decided I’d race 70.3 this year, so when it came to the 90 km bike I was confident that I could mix it with the other girls and wouldn’t just be a ‘40 km Olympic wonder!’ I didn’t know the splits at the time, all I was concerned with was going hard, but apparently Rebekah Keat exited 1.09 down on me out of the swim, Kate Major was at 3 minutes, and Yvonne was at 5.07 from me.
After one lap of the 3 lap bike course I’d pushed my lead over Rebekah to 3.10 and Yvonne had managed to take 20 seconds out of my lead, she was down 4 minutes and 47 seconds at 30 km’s.
I’ve got to say I was somewhat surprised when 30 km’s later Yvonne passed me, having taken 4 minutes and 47 seconds out of my lead in just 30 km’s. She’s a great cyclist there’s obviously no arguing that! I actually thought I’d blown as I was seeing double, but then realized it was actually her partner wearing identical racing kit as her on the front of the bunch that she was riding with. But I’d also like to add, it was a non-drafting race and I’m in no way suggesting anything un-toward was going on.
Anyway, after Yvonne passed me I kept her at 5 to 10 seconds. I was very wary of the non-drafting rules. If anything I’m a little over cautious at the moment about the draft zone so tend to let people sit a bit further up the road than I could, but I was confident I’d be able to run her down.
Coming into transition I saw Yvonne was taking the whole ‘Rocky Balboa’ approach to triathlon, ding ding, and let’s have a minute between rounds to gather our thoughts. So I decided to go for broke, I’d planned on wearing a race belt and putting socks on for the run, but I’ve learnt at Olympic distance that races are won or lost in transition, you have to take your chances when you can get them. So I came into T2 with a 25 second deficit and left 10 seconds ahead of Yvonne.
The run was good to me; it was totally different to how I went in Tauranga four weeks earlier. Normally in ITU races we get handed water in bottles or sachets, but in Tauranga they gave us it in cups and I kept spilling it on my feet. The blisters from the rubbing only went away a week out from Geelong, so I was extra careful not to repeat that this weekend. For the second lap of the run in Tauranga I hobbled! I ran a lot better in Geelong but it’s early days, I set myself the target of 1 hour 20 for the half there and I achieved that. But I’m hoping to go quite a bit quicker in Clearwater on the back of a season of ITU racing.
ST: There have been some rumors floating around about blatant drafting in the race. Is that basically what you noticed?
Sam: I was at the front going as hard as I could for 60 km’s of the bike course, how would I see if they were drafting behind me? I didn’t see anybody get penalized in the pro women’s field so I guess there couldn’t have been. The organizer and officials did a great job as always. These people get out there for free and put on awesome races for us athletes. But as I said earlier, I was seeing double, so who knows.
ST: What have you learned from that experience?
Sam: I’m the sort of athlete that gives it 100% no matter what it is, that was my down fall in Beijing. 3 weeks out from the race we were based in Cheju, South Korea. We went there with the Tri NZ team to acclimatize to the heat, but I gave the heat absolutely no respect and carried on training as usual. On race day I felt worn out and heavy. In this race I went hard the moment I hit the bike, and didn’t stop pushing until the moment I got off in T2. Yes these races are ‘non-drafting’ but you’re always going to be quicker when other people are around, so everybody has told me since the race anyway. Next time I guess I’ll race with my head a little bit more, and my heart a little bit less!
ST: Were you worried about running out of gas on the run?
Sam: I’m still finding my feet at this distance so it’s all new to me. But the fact I ran a 1:20 would suggest I didn’t blow on the bike. I’ve done lots of hard runs off even harder bike sessions. Like any athlete I’m always going to have doubts about my own ability, all I can do on race day is commit 100%, give it my absolute best effort and be happy with what ever comes from it. Siri says ‘set no limits’ she challenges me to do things I wouldn’t normally think I’m capable of and I listen to her, simple as that.
ST: What is next on your race calendar?
Sam: I’m heading to San Diego in two weeks to join Team Sirius for a couple of months of training. It will be great to be back with Siri, Nikki, Miranda, Marcella, Ruby and the rest of the team. We’ve got a pretty tight group that trains together. I’ll be building toward the ITU World Championship Series beginning in May in Singapore. But first priority will be to convince Siri I need one more 70.3 hit out just to put the record straight over that bike ride!
ST: When we last spoke you were on a bike sponsor search. Any news on that front?
Sam: I’m going to be honest here (not that I haven’t been previously). I’ve been in talks with quite a few bike companies since winning the ITU World Cup Series, but none of them could match the professionalism shown by my sponsor of 2008, Avanti Bikes. Your readers will probably be saying to themselves now, “who the hell are Avanti?!”, but I’ve led The Port of Tauranga Half by 8 minutes on an Avanti Chrono, and dueled with the women’s Ironman World record holder in Geelong on an Avanti Chrono, I’m happy with my ride and will be sticking with it. I should add though, Anne from HED wheels has been absolutely amazing to me; those wheels go and go and go.
ST: Am I missing anything else?
Sam: I don’t know Herbert, are you? Perhaps a free training program from my coaching site www.sweat7.com. Come on, stop talking about it and start doing it!
