Slowtwitch.com - 'A few words with Sam Betten'

Slowtwich.com is arguably the biggest triathlon website in the world. So as you can imagine I was stoked to see a twitter private message in my inbox asking if I would be interested in being interviewed for the website. You can check it out what I had to say in the link below:

SLOWTWITCH.COM INTERVIEW (CLICK HERE)

Back into the swing of things....

My last 8 week racing block included a local sprint distance non-drafting triathlon in Australia, St Anthony’s 5150, St George US Pro Champs 70.3, Florida 70.3, Coral Coast 5150 and finally Cairns 70.3 so really a pretty massive block of racing for my first year of 70.3 and 5150 racing. Since my last race in Cairns I had 2 weeks off completely. To be honest I really needed the break and some time out to take in what I had learnt over the last few months and most importantly look at how to move forward.

I won't know for sure until the July 14th announcement however at this stage I should have qualified for for both Hy-Vee 5150 (the richest prize money race in triathlon) and Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships. I am currently sitting in 8th on the 5150 world points rankings and 23rd on the 70.3 world points rankings which is great news. I will be spending the next few months in Australia training for these two big races held on the 1st and 8th of September. A lot of km's and training hours ahead in the Australia winter!

In media news I am on the cover of the lastest issue of Triathlon & Multi Sport Magazine's 'Triathlon Training' guide. It's on news stands now so check it out if you get a chance. Inside are a few of my training articles as well. 

Ironman 70.3 Cairns - 9th

 Ironman 70.3 Cairns was set to be my last race of my very ambitious 8 weeks of racing both in Australian and the USA. The last 8 weeks have been crazy with 3 x Ironman 70.3 and 2 X 5150 events. So as you might be able to imagine, my body was feeling a little fatigued. Heading into the race I was surprisingly feeling quite good in the days before and swimming especially felt better than it had in many weeks. A big thank you to David and Juanita for taking care of me and letting me stay with them in Cairns. Seriously amazing people and a big thank you! 

Race Day:

Race morning started early along with some very wet roads due to the heavy rain the night before. After setting up the day before for an ‘Ironman style’ transition (which means going through the change tents grabbing your gear bag) it was time to rock and roll. Most of the strong swimmers started towards the far left side but I stuck to the inside right which proved to work to my advantage as it meant that I soon had clear water and no flying arms to deal with. Once the strong swimmers on the left side merged towards the turn buoy on their right I slotted nicely into the top 6 swimmers finding a good set of feet to sit behind. To be honest the swim felt really slow and not much quicker than my usual warm up pace in training. I exited the water in 6^th and headed out onto the bike course feeling great. 

After working through some tight turns I hit the main highway at 3km’s in. I noticed that Courtney Atkinson was up the road with New Zealand bike powerhouse Graham O’Grady. For me there were  2 choices, play it safe and sit in the big chase group with the likes of Brad Kahlefeldt and Pete Jacobs amongst others…. or hit the gas to establish a breakaway group and make the others chase. For me the choice was easy and I lay the pace down and made the move up the road being the first to catch Courtney who was leading the race at 8kms in. This move proved to be the key as it meant that Courtney, Graham, Casey and myself were now building up a good lead over big players such as Pete Jacobs & Brad Kahlefeldt. Graham and I worked well to push the pace out to the bike turn around and on the return trip I noticed Tim Reed pulling out the ride of his life. Full credit to Tim to making the move and riding like he did to bridge all the way up to our lead 4 to make it 5 men. The final 10km’s were brutal with the wind really picking up. 

Hitting T2 with just our small group of 5 I was feeling pretty good about my chances for a podium finish. Heading though T2 I went to grab my gear bag only to see that mine was missing! My heart skipped a beat until an official shouted to me that he had seen someone else take mine. I ran into the change tent just as Courtney Atkinson ran out again with my bag having mistaken mine for his. I quickly put the run shoes on and grabbed my run nutrition heading out of T2 in 3^rd. The legs were feeling good and I was running comfortably at my pre planned half marathon pace. After 4kms I was in 4^th and really content with how the race was unfolding. At kilometer 5 however the wheels fell off completely! I went from running at 3.30per/km pace to walking the aid stations and just trying to get home. I was passed by a few more of the pro men and was struggling just to keep the body moving. After so much racing over the last 2 months the legs were fried and this run was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. 

The entire run I battled with myself to just keep running and put one foot in front of the other. I came across the line 9^th which was quite disappointing result wise.

Honestly through after so much racing and traveling I expected Cairns 70.3 to be a battle. I made the key move on the bike and once again put myself in the position to stand on the podium. There are a lot of athletes out there that aren’t willing to make the big moves and always play it safe… but I am not one of them. I’d prefer to do what I did and blow up going for a podium spot rather than sitting back and running for 5^th or 6^th. I am sure that racing this way will reward me sooner rather than later with hopefully my first 70.3 win. As Chris McCormack once said ‘a win comes about by making a move at a critical point of the race’.

Thank you for all those who have supported me and for the people that took time out of their race to cheer me on while I was racing. I was really amazing about how many people were cheering and yelling out my name while I was racing on the course. There had to be at least 30 or more people I heard yelling out ‘GO SAM’. I really appreciate it and I can honestly say it makes such a big difference while I am out there racing. I wish I could thank everyone personally for it and I hope this blog is some kind of thanks if you’re reading it. I think it just goes to show how great this sport is and the support we all give to each other. 

Coral Coast 5150 - 5th

Coral Coast 5150 was a race on my radar since the start of 2013. An opportunity to secure some good qualification points for the 5150 championship race in Hy-Vee later this year and hit 2 hard races back to back with Cairns 70.3 the following weekend. With my previous 6 weeks consisting of 1 X non-drafting sprint distance triathlon, 1 X 5150 and 2 X 70.3’s I was a little unsure of how the body would pull up for yet another hard race against a stacked professional men’s field. With names on the start list including swim/bike weapon Clayton Fettell, multiple ironman world champion Chris McCormack, Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt and many Australian Ironman/70.3 heavy hitters such as Joe Lampe, Luke McKenzie, Tim Berkel and Matty White this would be one hotly contested race! Checking the 5150 world ranking points the day before I saw that I was currently the number 1 ranked pro male for the event (but no pressure right?). The body the day before felt a little sluggish but ready to go for an early Sunday morning start.

I woke up early on Sunday morning (I have a great home stay in Cairns for the week), which meant an hour-long drive to Coral Coast for the event. A big thank you to Tony at Triathlon Queensland for giving me a ride to the event! Check in sorted, bike racked, warm-up done and soon enough it was go time. The swim start was quick and running into the water I lost a few meters on the top guys but by the first swim buoy had rejoined the front pack. The race split early with just 6 of us in the front swim pack. I spent the majority of the time sticking close to Brad Kahlefeldt’s hip/feet at the back of the 6 man strong group. In the final few hundred meters I ever so slightly lost contact with the group and after a fast transition headed out onto the bike in 6^th just 30 meters or so off the front group.

The first 20kms of the ride was ON with Clayton immediately putting the hammer down with his ‘Fettell to the metal’ approach to racing. A few tried to go with him and personally I found it hard enough just bridging the 30 meters I lost going onto the bike back up to the group. 1 athlete dropped off early on and so it was down to 5 men. After the first of 2 X 20km loops Luke McKenzie hit the afterburners establishing a gap pretty quickly. Soon after at 30kms Joe Lampe attacked but only managed to limit Lukes gap to 40 seconds and then 10 seconds back to myself and Brad Kahlefeldt heading into T2. The entire ride was very tactical with attacks going very regularly & the pace really on. Although I didn’t have a bike computer my 52.50 ride time works out to be an average speed of 45kph+ if the course was correct.

T2 Transition with Brad on my tail

The run consisted of 4 by 2.5km loops on the beach and I headed out of T2 next to Brad who quickly put the hammer down and dropped me within the first 200 meters. My legs really felt batted and I really couldn’t get them moving fast enough to attempt a chase on Joey and Luke who I desperately wanted to run down as to get myself onto the podium. Over the course of the run I continued to loose time to the 4 men in front. I had to watch my back as Tim Berkel was ripping up the sand behind me putting time into my lead on him every lap. I really had to dig deep over the entire run leg with my legs and entire body in some major pain.

Crossing the line in 5^th was a solid result and meant that I picked up some great points for my 5150 world points ranking which will now hopefully move me inside the top 10 in the world.

I will be keeping things pretty light on this week in preparation for Cairns 70.3 this coming Sunday. It will be another tough race against a stacked field. Bring it on! 

Top 9 Professional Men Coral Coast 5150