Six things Tayler Reid absolutely did not consider before he toed the line in last Sunday’s Ironman Pro Series opener in Geelong:
1. Finishing his maiden 70.3 on the podium
2. That his 3:34:38 effort would be 3½ minutes faster than the next best Kiwi
3. That he’d qualify for November’s 70.3 worlds in Marbella
4. And bank US$3750
5. Wearing socks on the run. His bloodied and badly blistered feet remain a rookie error learned
6. Quite how much fun racing a half ironman would be
But the undisputed highlight of his dream, bronzed bow in Victoria?
Finishing within 1min 15sec of the reigning 70.3 world champ Jelle Geens.
“…one of the other things you’re most stoked about is, you know, like, you’ve got Jelle there, the world champ [from Taupo last December],” Reid said.
“And I finished a minute or so down on him and I was like, I’m not miles off the best in the business. So that was a massive takeaway.
“Just stoked to be competitive with some of the best guys to do it.”
Take it as read then that Reid will cash-in his slot for Marbella. Actually, we’d better check where you’re going with this 70.3 lark given you’ve already stated that you’ll focus on mid- long-distance racing after one last Olympic Games campaign. This isn’t going to expedite those plans, is it?
“I don’t think so,” Reid said with a laugh. “I might do some more 70.3s but I think that goal [LA ‘28] is still in the back of my mind.”
Phew.
Still, a serious schedule reshuffled is on cards now “Marbella, November 9” is locked into the calendar, the 70.3 worlds following just three weeks after the WTCS finale in Wollongong.
“I’m still working it out,” Reid continued.
“Obviously, that section of the year is crazy, there are a ton of events on at that point, like all at once. So obviously I want to do well in Wollongong, but I’d also love to race the 70.3 worlds well… we’ll have to see what the best options are for that.”
Have you got another 70.3 in mind in the meantime?
“Well, it hasn’t changed my plan in the short term. I’ve got six weeks now to train for [WTCS] Yokahama, which I am really amped to do. I haven’t put one down on paper but I’d love to have another crack as soon as possible. Just how that fits in the calendar I don’t know but I’m definitely going to be running it back sometime soon.”
Reid wasn’t totally surprised with his performance in Geelong because he knew his training was going well, even if his 7th at World Cup Napier three weeks prior hinted otherwise.
What was surprising was “how fast the half was”. Until it wasn’t. Before Reid explains, note that longtime Kiwi long-distance No.1 Braden Currie finished 7th despite producing the fastest 70.3 of his career – 3:38:01.
“Yeah, it was awesome. I actually really enjoyed training for the distance, and I really enjoyed racing it,” Reid said before running through the disciplines, a “comfortable” swim and “surgy” bike before a flat tack half marathon
“Obviously, coming from short course, I got a pretty good start, so used that to my advantage. I didn’t feel like the pace was too bad, on the feet and in the bubbles anyway, wasn’t super quick. But I was already thinking then, it’s a long day out there so we’ve got to be smart with the energy.”
The next test was getting used to Race Ranger’s drafting tech, “ripping around at like 50k an hour, just charging.”
“It was sick that we had the whole bike course to ourselves. I felt pretty good on the bike but it was pretty surgy. Like we’re just sending it for like a minute up to 10 minutes, could be really hard at times, but then it could be like crazy, crazy easy.
“You’re having to pull on the brakes to avoid going into the red light [zone], which is where you’re going to get a penalty or you have to make a pass. Obviously, I hadn’t raced the distance before so I kind of just stayed within the pack just biding my time, not really sure what I’m capable of. And so you wanted to save as many matches as possible for later in the day.”
Reid would need the reserves too as his relatively conservative swim/bike strategy went “out the window” as the leaders headed out of T2.
“I come off the bike, I feel really good, excited to be amongst it. Ran out with Jelle , Jake [eventual silver medallist Jake Birtwhistle] and Kenji [Nena] and we were just ripping.
“I think we ran together for maybe till the 5K mark. Jelle said we ran like 15:30 or something. I’m not sure if that’s right but we were definitely charging and then Jelle got away. Kenji and I We actually got away from Jake early in the first lap too, not long after Jelle got away from us.
“We battled it out until the second lap and then I managed to get away from him and I was like, oh, yeah, here we go. Keep, keep pushing for second.
“But out of kind of nowhere, Jake came charging back at us. I talked to him after and it’s kind of his pacing strategy. He was 30 seconds down and then came back really, really fast. I held him for a time but couldn’t sit on him. But yeah, managed to hold on to third and 1:09 [1:09:14 to be exact] for my first half, I was really stoked with that.”
As he crossed the line, 30 seconds adrift of Birtwhistle, Reid’s bloodied ASICS told another story of the Kiwi rookie’s remarkable 70.3 debut.
“Didn’t wear socks on the run. Obviously I race 5 and 10k and I never wear socks, I never worry about blisters. But yeah, 21.2km…that was a bit of a learning curve, a hard man lesson. They’re not in the best shape, but they’ll be fine.”
#GizzyHard to the core…and the soles of his feet.
