Hervey Bay 100 - 1st

Hervey Bay 100, as the name suggests is a long course triathlon held over a 2km swim, 80km ride & 18km run to make up the ‘100’ kilometer distance of the event. I have wanted to race this event for many years after first hearing about it. However every year the timing didn’t quite fit into my race calendar. So this year I was quite excited to line up on the start and try to add my name to the winners’ list. With 2 races in 2 weeks (1^st 5150 Bohol & 2^nd Challenge Shepparton) the HB100 would be my 3^rd race in as many weeks. In the days leading into the event I was feeling quite good in training and was looking forward to my last big race of the year in the beautiful coastal town of Hervey Bay.

Race Day:

The swim course start was a 2km walk up the beach from transition and hugged the shoreline of Hervey Bay. I used the beach start to my advantage and went about setting the pace up front before local, Tayte Dixon took up the lead. Tayte and I swapped the lead a few times with David Dellow (3^rd place at this year’s Challenge Roth) making up the lead group of 3. Tayte put in a late surge towards the shoreline to lead out of the water. The pancake flat water of Hervey Bay made for a stunning swim course and I really enjoyed every swim stroke in the bay.

After a short run into transition I hit the bike in 2^nd place and quickly started pushing hard to test the legs of Dellow and Dixon. It was evident early on that Dellow just didn’t have the legs on the day which left Tayte Dixon and myself in the lead.

I lead the first 30km or so before Tayte and I swapped the lead during the remainder of the 4 X 20km looped bike course. Unbeknown to me Tayte was given a drafting penalty in the later stages of the bike leg when meant that I automatically had a 5 minute gap once I started the 18km run course. 

 It took me a few kilometers to find my run legs and with temperatures rising I was very vigilant with my hydration as well as cooling myself down with ice at every aid station. During the first 6km lap I kept up a solid tempo before lifting the pace on both of the final 2 X 6km loops. I kept a close eye on my GPS run watch and tried to drop my time every kilometer, challenging myself to run faster and faster.

I crossed the finish line very happy with my performance taking a convincing win. Having done three races in three weeks with one 2^nd place and 2 wins it was a dream end to my 2015 race season. In the last month or two I have taken a different direction with my training and it seems to have really paid off with the results on race day. I will now have some downtime before ramping things back up again in preparation for next season.