ITU Premium Asian Cup, Chengdu - 16th

With some solid results behind me I left Australia with the confidence of being able to perform at what would be my first ITU race of 2012. This would also mark what would be my 4th race in 4 weeks after having raced a Ironman 70.3, sprint triathlon, cycling crit race and now an Olympic distance triathlon. The body felt ready and so did the mind.

After spending 3 days scouting the course and eating not a lot other than rice (such is the case when your racing in China) race day soon approached. To be honest I just had one of those days that you dread as a professional athlete. I struggled just riding the 25 minutes down to the race and all through my warmup with the body feeling very flat. None the less I had a solid swim leg and emerged from the water in around 6th place and right in the mix of the front group. The swim felt quite slow but I just played it smart and sat in the pack.

Once on the bike I quickly hit the front and tried my best to get away solo or with a small group but every attempt kept getting shut down by the pack. Finally in the last 3km's I got away solo and put around 20 seconds into the chase pack by T2.

The run was one of the longest and worst of my life. The only way to describe it was that it felt like I couldn't even get out of 1st gear let alone into 5th gear. I came home a disappointing 16th by the time I crossed the line. Looking back all the racing in the last few weeks just took its toll on the body. Its often good to see where your limit lies and I well and truly found mine when it comes to how many races my body can handle at the moment.


Run turn

Some of the other Aussie athletes and our translator