Mooloolaba Olympic Distance Triathlon - 2nd

I was fairly disappointed with the result from Ironman 70.3 Philippines the week prior and really wanted to prove to myself more than anything that the result in IM70.3 Subic Bay was not a reflection of where I am at with my training and performance. My plan at Mooloolaba was pretty simple, race as hard as possible and see what kind of result I could produce. The legs were far from fresh but mentally I was prepared to push hard on race morning as well as excited to do so. Since racing Ironman 70.3 Philippines I had spent roughly 5 hours at home in Brisbane before spending the next 4 days in Townsville visiting schools as part of my role as an ambassador for the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon trying to get kids more involved in triathlon. So as you might imagine the preparation the week leading up to the race was far from ideal.

Race Day:

The ocean swim leg at Mooloolaba is probably one of my favorite swim legs of any race I have done. The choppy ocean makes for a fun swim leg where your open water swimming skills are tested. I positioned myself on the left hand side of the beach start and once the gun went off found myself leading the group towards the first turn. American, Tommy Zaferas had started on the right hand side and as I rounded the first turn buoy I noticed that he had put a small gap between himself and me. At the half way point of the swim Japanese triathlete Ryosulce Maeda passed me and I was able to sit just behind him right until we exited the water. Heading out onto the bike course I passed both the Japanese and American athletes early on and really pushed hard to build up a solo lead. Rounding the half way turn around point I checked the time gap which I had extended out to around 1 minute and 30 seconds. 

Photo: Anthony Radford 

The head wind on the return journey was testing on the legs and I just tried to put my head down and push hard. I came into transition still with around a minute and a half lead and proceeded in trying to maintain my lead at the front of the race. My running legs were not their usual self after having done the IM70.3 race in the Philippines the week before and I was not able to hold the pace that I would have liked. Australian Ben Cook was really strong on the run and made the pass on me at the 4.5km mark. I tried to go with Ben but the legs were unresponsive and so I had to settle with holding onto 2^nd place. Although it wasn’t a win, I was still pretty happy to have what I thought was a good performance with everything considered.

Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay - 6th

I was really looking forward to returning to Subic Bay in the Philippines for Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay following some good memories when I won the 5150 Olympic distance race in the same location the previous year. The other great thing that I enjoy about racing in the Philippines is that I know that their events really are the benchmark of triathlon racing in terms of the professionalism and organisation.

Race Day.

The beach start was something I know really favors me as I can usually get a few extra running steps done over my shorter competitors due to my height. This really gave me a good advantage and after the run into the water I took up the lead. After rounding the first turn buoy I made a small navigational mistake and had some trouble with sighting the next turn buoy. The result of this was actually a positive move as it spilt up the athletes behind me meaning that myself and two others were the only ones left in the front group. I took the final home stretch a little more conservatively to save some energy and only made a small surge heading in towards the beach to lead out the swim leg. The run towards transition was a good 400 meters, which gave me time to pull up my prototype Scody sleeved tri top. 

German athlete Patrick Lange managed to get away from me early on but I stayed calm remaining in 2^nd place until 10kms into the bike leg. At this point I was caught and passed by Craig Alexander, Tim Reed and Tim Berkel. Reed and Alexander really rode strongly and I was left in 4^th for the majority of the bike leg. It was one of those rides where I never got comfortable and honestly struggled physically in the hot and humid conditions.

Heading out of transition I led the group until the 1km mark where I started to hit the wall. Tim Reed and Craig Alexander made the pass on me and a few minutes later Tim Berkel also came past. I tried to hang onto Tim Berkel for a few kilometers however the body was cooking and I  just couldn’t respond. The rest of the run leg was a battle and I was relieved to cross the finish line. 

Deep down I was disappointed with the result as I felt like training had been going really well and that I was in better form than what the final result showed.