After racing IM 70.3 Busselton just a week
ago I knew that backing up and racing a tough Olympic distance triathlon at
Byron Bay was going to be a tough ask. Truth be told I found it pretty hard to
recover post IM 70.3 Busso and only just started to feel somewhat normal again
the day before the race.
Race start was set for 12:10pm, which meant
that I was able to sleep in on Saturday morning and then drive to the race mid
morning. The male open category saw 60 men toe the start line ready to race in
a non wet suit swim. With a big current and choppy seas the swim start was
all about tactics and the large group started the swim by running 60 meters
down the beach. This allowed the current to sweep us towards the first swim
turn.
Walk down the beach to the race start
Swim start chaos
I stayed close to the fish that is Clayton Fettell and swam the majority
of the swim side by side with Clayton. Bryce McMaster another front pack
swimmer stayed glued to our feet. The swim felt quite long with the general
consensus being that the strong tide had moved the turn buoys further out to
sea. The water in Byron is pristine which made for a very enjoyable swim leg
looking into the depths of the ocean below. Clayton managed to get the jump on
Bryce and myself heading towards the swim exit by catching a small wave that
gave him a few seconds head start for the run up the beach.
Swim exit with Clayton leading, myself 2nd and Bryce 3rd
Hitting T1, I was feeling pretty good about
my chances with the longer swim helping me to put some good time into my
competitors. I rode a controlled first few kilometres of the bike leg and soon enough
held onto 2nd position. Clayton, who lives minutes from the race
quickly disappeared up the road hitting T2 with a 2min 50sec lead on the rest of
us. Young gun Ben Cook along with Lindsey Wall joined me just before the turn
around and I spent the remainder of the bike leg sitting off the back of these
two athletes trying to freshen up my legs as much as I could before I hit T2. The
bike course was held on a very rough and quite hilly out and back course, which
made for a very fair bike leg between all of the athletes racing.
Once our trio of 3 hit T2 I quickly
resorted to letting Ben and Lindsey storm up the road. My legs felt very
fatigued and cramped up quickly within minutes of running. I wasn’t sure how the
body would feel after last weekend's effort but quickly knew once I put on my
runners that this wasn’t going to be my day. I held onto 4th for 3
of the 4 run laps before being run down by 1 other athlete.
The entire run was
really just a battle for survival and I was very glad to cross the finish line.
5th place was far from what I wanted but the legs just hadn’t
recovered enough from last weekend's race.
For those who like to analyze race times,
please note that my bike computer readout was 34kms and I am not sure that at
this stage if I am really capable of a 30.11 – 10km run like the results show.
Results
| 1 | Clayton Fettell | 01:40:09 | Open | 00:22:06 | 00:49:52 | 00:28:11 |
| 2 | Ben Cook | 01:42:37 | Open | 00:23:35 | 00:51:33 | 00:27:29 |
| 3 | Lindsey Wall | 01:43:14 | Open | 01:43:14 | ||
| 4 | Bryce Mcmaster | 01:44:55 | Open | 00:22:06 | 00:54:54 | 00:27:54 |
| 5 | Sam Betten | 01:45:23 | Open | 00:22:09 | 00:53:03 | 00:30:11 |
Race day crept up on me like always and I prepared to toe the start line on the famous Busselton course. The start was more of a gentleman’s agreement as the count down began and we all dove into the cold, clear waters together. I quickly found myself swimming side by side with young James Hodge the 2012 winner of this event. James and I rounded the far swim turn together before Courtney Atkinson kicked it up a gear and swam past me. Not one to let him get away I stayed glued to his feet for the remainder of the swim. Heading towards the swim exit I attempted to get past Courtney who wasn’t amused by all of this and also lifted his pace. I made the effort to sprint past Courtney up the beach and cross the timing mat with the fastest swim of the day and also a nice little swim prime bonus. A quick look over the shoulder confirmed that we had a nice two-man gap heading out onto the bike leg.
After all the injuries and lack of run training I resorted to settling into my own rhythm and pace in order to have the best run I could. Guy soon joined me and we ran together for most of the first run lap of 3. Guy was breathing hard and dropped off half way through lap 2 of the run leaving me in 5th place. With just one lap to go I wasn’t happy with the gap I had on 6th and 7th so I pushed just a little bit harder to make sure that once I hit the final turn my competitors saw that they had no chance of catching me.
With just 2 kms to go I heard a fellow pro on the other side of the road yell something to me, which I thought was ‘they are catching you’. A few hundred meters later and I clued onto what he had really said which was ‘Courtney is walking!’. I was pretty surprised to see Courtney Atkinson walking but it looked like his day was all over red rover. 
