Queensland State Sprint Championships - 6th

The State Sprint Triathlon Championships this year was a testament to the quality of athletes that the state of Queensland is producing. It was a strong field over a fast course and I was looking forward to it. Truth be told going into the event I had spent a good portion of the last month with a back injury. It was something that I had never experienced before pain wise. Being in bed at 2am and not being able to sleep due to the pain isn't the best feeling. 2 MRI scans, ultrasound and multi visits to doctors, massage therapists and physio yielded no insight into the cause of the pain. This excruciating back pain had slowly started to go away and after just a week of training I just needed to get out there and race to clear my head more than anything else. A week of training really isn't the best preparation and due to the aforementioned weeks off with injury I went through this race never hitting top gear. 

Race morning approached and with no open/elite category on offer (only age group swim waves) I watched my training partners Matt Roberts, Drew Box and Matt Brown head off 2 minutes ahead. I toed the start line in wave no. 2 with no other than Clayton Fettel and spent the entire 750m trying to hang onto this coat tails.  

I dropped off the feet of Clayton over the last 200m of the swin but managed to have a quick transition and head off onto the bike leg with one of the best swim/bikers of the sport. 

Unfortunately thats where things started to go south with Clayton hitting the gas and dropping me like hammer on a nail. I kept riding solid and managed to pick off most of the remaining competitors who started 2minutes in front of me finally hitting T2 with only a handful of competitors in front. 

Onto the run I kept things in third gear and ran within myself to come through in 2nd behind Clayton in the 25-29 age group and 6th fastest time of the day. At the end of the day this race was just about seeing how much fitness I had lost after some decent time off with injury. 

Next weekend I am heading out to the famous Julia Creek Dirt N Dust Triathlon and am attempting win no. 4 in a row. A great record to have and I am looking forward to the challenge ahead.