Renaud was up really early to get ready and all for the race. I had written him a letter and told him we would see him at the start at about 8. In Sydney we had had a swedish exchange student who had come up from the south to see the race, which was really nice, and she too was looking forward to seeing renaud and seeing him race.
He is in the 20 - 24 year old age group which means being only 21 puts him at a little disadvantage, but on his times he sat well in his group and looked to finish strong. I was so excited to see him all suited up and ready to go. The race he usually races is half ironman (2.5 km swim, 90 km bike and 26 km run - doesnt it sound brutal when the only measurement you can use is kms!), and this was a long distance race which extended the swim to 4 km the bike to 120 km and the run to 30. He had been training there and at that distance which put him at a huge advantage however. Unfortunately his Australian race suit had not arrived and so he could not race in the national strip like all the others, which was a shame, but at the same time, he wasnt worried, he just wanted to race.
They were all in the water ready to go, and just like that the gun went and they all took off! The water was 12�C which was not to my liking. But triathlon is a funny sport to watch, mainly because you see them for 10 seconds (if that!) and then they are gone for an hour. So basically we didnt see him for an hour and just hoped. We were counting the people coming out of the water, and when renaud came out 5th overall (not just in his age group) we almost flipped! He came out in 56 minutes, which wasnt bad, and then set off on the bike. The bike section was in 3 parts each of 40km. He lost a few places and dropped to 5th in his age group on the bike by the second lap, but he looked really happy and strong and travelling well, remember, they had already been going for 2 hours! He moved into 4th on the second lap and at the end of the 3rd had dropped back to 5th. But he looked fine, and came off strong. He had two americans, a fin, and a brit in front of him, and was time now to run them down, which was his strongest leg. He had other plans though, he went to the loo. Haha, after a seriously extended period in there we were worried that he was having a baby. But he came out and set off on the run.
He didnt look so great but he was settled into his stride and the boys in front of him were bigger which would make it harder, and by the 3rd lap he had moved into second. By this stage mum was having kittens, i had lost my voice and dad had bitten his nails down to the knuckles. We were all so proud of him. But anything could happen on the last lap, he didnt have long to go, but he could still cark it. We of course were hoping that wouldnt happen. The fin had broken into a legendary stride and put more and more time on Renaud, but he was lengthening the gap from the others, he could seriously hold onto second. We all lined the finished line, and waited for him to come. He strolled down with an Aussie flag ran up to me, gave me a big hug, and crossed in about 6:50, not bad. He was a little sick after, but who wouldnt be! It was nice to finally sit down with him and down a well earned beer. My brother came second in the world, ive never been prouder.
Paz