In the quest for WTC 70.3 and 5150 world
ranking points I made the decision late last year to add the 70.3 Asia Pacific
Championships to my 2013 race calendar. Another big draw card for me to enter
this race was that I wanted to challenge myself to race some of the best
athletes in 70.3 and Ironman game. In the weeks before, seeing the names on the
start list like Bevan Docherty, Paul Ambrose, Luke Bell, Cameron Dye, Cameron
Brown, Tim Berkel & Terenzo Bozzone admittedly
I was a little star stuck. These names amongst others on the start list have
had numerous 70.3, Ironman wins along with 2 Olympic Games medals in their
résumés. I knew that this would be both a challenge as well as an opportunity
for me to establish myself as a true contender over the 70.3 distance.
With the USD 75,000 pro prize purse on
offer I was very keen to claim a share along with the aforementioned WTC
ranking points. Being a young pro athlete my financial situation is less than
ideal at this point in time and thus there was also the added pressure of being
able to pay for my return international flights and accommodation in New
Zealand.
Simply put, I was hungry for a good
performance, prize money and world ranking points.
Having the weather being stupidly hot where
I live in Australia in the weeks before I left, stepping off the plane onto New
Zealand soil was a welcome change with the temperature being around the 20
degrees C mark.
Race Day:
Race morning soon approached and the body was
feeling good. After setting up transition and heading down to the swim start I
completed a quick warm up before the start. Soon enough the gun went off to
begin 4 hours of racing against some of the best names in the sport of Ironman
70.3 triathlon. I attacked the swim start quite aggressively and found myself
leading the 40 or so pro mens field. Unfortunately I spotted the wrong swim
marker after the first swim turn heading towards the second turning can and by
the time I corrected for my mistake I slipped back into around 8th
spot. My goal for the swim was just to emerge with all the main contenders so
rather than pushing hard to get myself back in front I played it smart and sat
on a good set of feet emerging from the swim only 15 or so seconds off the
lead.
After a quick T1 the front group started pushing
the pace over the northern part of the course, out and back over the Auckland Harbour
Bridge. With 40 or so kms in the bank we heading back towards transition to
complete the 2 southern loops of the bike course just as the rain began to
fall. This is where the pace really started to heat up and I noticed that we
were hitting 50kph consistently despite the rain and very windy conditions.
Others in the group really started to hurt at this point and riders in front of
me started dropping wheels, which forced me to bridge a few gaps that opened up.
Add this to the many athletes receiving drafting penalties, flat tires and a
few crashing on the wet roads and by the time I hit T2 there was only a handful
athletes left from a group that started out as close to 15 athletes.
As I started the run I played smart and
held a pace I knew that I could hold for the 21.1 kms. Admitted it was slower
pace that I had planned to run but I knew that because of the tough bike course
my legs were not capable of running the pace I had in my head before the race.
I let a few other athletes escape up the road knowing that if I played my cards
right I would bring some of them back in the closing stages of the run. The run
ended up being closer to 23kms than 21.1kms (I found this out at the finish) and
this played into my hands well, as I was able to lift the pace towards the
finish and catch a few runners who had started to blow up in the final kms. I
crossed the line in 6th place, $2000 richer (paying for my trip and
then some) and claiming 560 ranking points towards the WTC 5150 and WTC 70.3
ranking points.
It’s easy to forget that I am new to the
game of 70.3 racing only having raced 3 times over this distance. But with a 2nd
at Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon, 3rd at Ironman 70.3 Canberra and now a 6th
at Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships I can see that I’m heading in the
right direction.
The other good news is that I now move into 15th on the WTC Ironman 70.3 world ranking points table.
Thanks to everyone who sent me messages on
twitter and facebook after the race. Its really means a lot and I love reading
them.
Next up for me is Ironman 70.3 Geelong in 3
weeks time.
Name
|
Country
|
S
|
B
|
R
|
Time
|
|
1
|
USA
|
0:24:20
|
2:10:46
|
1:19:41
|
3:56:03
|
|
2
|
NZL
|
0:23:49
|
2:11:39
|
1:19:55
|
3:56:37
|
|
3
|
NZL
|
0:23:36
|
2:11:49
|
1:21:42
|
3:58:24
|
|
4
|
AUS
|
0:24:47
|
2:09:30
|
1:23:53
|
3:59:27
|
|
5
|
AUS
|
0:23:31
|
2:10:31
|
1:24:26
|
3:59:58
|
|
6
|
AUS
|
0:23:43
|
2:11:46
|
1:23:59
|
4:00:56
|
|
7
|
AUS
|
0:23:34
|
2:11:56
|
1:25:01
|
4:02:01
|
|
8
|
AUS
|
0:25:20
|
2:16:48
|
1:18:38
|
4:02:22
|
|
9
|
AUS
|
0:24:14
|
2:15:04
|
1:21:48
|
4:02:28
|
|
10
|
Cartmill Frazer
|
GBR
|
0:23:40
|
2:11:44
|
1:25:50
|
4:02:46
|
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