Sunday 11 May 2014

Byron Bay Triathlon - 5th

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







Sunday 4 May 2014

Ironman 70.3 Busselton - 4th

I’ll start this race report by giving you the reality of life as a professional triathlete, which is that this is one hell of a rocky journey. In the last 2 months I have been dealt a very painful back injury that keep me bed ridden for near enough to 3 weeks. This forced me out of what was to be my first big race of 2014, Challenge Batemans Bay. In addition to this the last 2 weeks leading into Ironman 70.3 Busselton I had not done a run longer than 20 minutes without pain in my knees from yet another injury issue.

As someone close to me told me, the road is bumpy and has lots of unexpected ups and downs, which are to be expected and embraced. 

In saying all of the above you can forgive me for being just a little bit apprehensive in flying across the country to race IRONMAN 70.3 BUSSELTON. Going into race I wasn’t nervous and more so just wanted to get a lot of frustration out of my system after missing many of my planned early season races and training.
Pumped, focussed and ready to go minutes before race start
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.
This gap allowed me to take the time to put my socks on and have a more leisurely T1. I knew that there was a strong pack of men behind who would be unwilling to let Courtney and I ride off into the sunrise so lifting the heart rate and smashing the first part of the bike leg wasn’t in my best interest. I let the pack catch up and settled into my rhythm aboard my Specialized S-Works Shiv. I paid close attention to my position in the pack sitting in 4th for the entire first lap while also ensuring that I was drinking and having my Dextro Energy gels at regular intervals.
Heading out onto the final lap a few keen athletes decided to move up in the pack, which moved me further back than I would have liked. With the large amount of age groupers on the course during this 2nd lap I kept my head up and stayed out of trouble letting others set the tempo.


Hitting T2 I was feeling pretty good and ready to see if my legs would make it through a Saturday morning half marathon after a 1.9km swim and 90km ride. Being that I had already put my socks on in T1 and most of the other athletes hadn’t in order to make the front pack I had a very quick transition and went out into the run in 2nd place. Courtney hit gas early and soon enough Sam and Tim also came through and took the podium positions up the road. 
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. 
I crossed the line is 4th which was for me was an amazing result considering the terrible preparation that I had in the lead up to the event. During the entire run I really felt in control and was never out of breath, however with the lack of run miles in training I was a V6 engine in a running race of V8 engines. With some weeks of good run training behind me I am very confident that I can be up there fighting for the win in my other races to come this year.

Next up is Byron Bay Olympic Distance Triathlon this coming weekend. I am really looking forward to getting on that start line again before heading back home to start a very big winter training block.

Packing for Ironman 70.3 Busselton - VIDEO

I managed to put together a quick video before heading off to Ironman 70.3 Busselton. Checkout the video to see what I pack for an Ironman 70.3 race.