Ironman 70.3 Geelong - 9th

Geelong has always been a happy hunting ground for me. In 2006 I won my first ITU Junior Elite Australian Championships at Geelong. At the time the race was a turning point in my development as a young triathelte as it qualified me for the ITU Junior Elite World Championships in Switzerland later that year and also awarded me a scholarship into the ‘Queensland Academy of Sport’ triathlon program. Coincidently it was also my first race under my coach Stephen Moss.

The race was announced as the Australian Long Course Triathlon Championships and with this title up for grabs I was motivated to produce a result worthy of the title. The course was a fitting battleground with a hilly and windy ride and an even tougher hilly run. Add this to the 40 men racing and what was described in the days before as ‘the best 70.3 men’s field ever assembled in Australia’ and I knew I was in for a hard and fast race.

I arrived in Geelong on Friday afternoon and used Saturday to catch-up with some of my fantastic sponsors who were at the event as well as doing some light training.

Video of the Friday and Saturday before the race:

Race Day:

Sunday morning soon approached and started with a 5am wake up. I had my usual pre race meal of toast with banana and honey along with a bottle of Dextro Energy sports drink. With a quick warm up done it was time for the gun to go off to start the 2013 Australian Long Course Championships. I started hard and found myself as per usual in the front swim pack swimming alongside Commonwealth Games Champion and Australian Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt. The swim felt solid but not overly fast which I took as a good sign of things to come. I exited the water in the front group of 10 men with gun swimmer Clayton Fettell who had around a 30 second solo lead.

Onto the bike I made the brave call to go after Fettell and really put the hammer down to hurt the others in our group and try and get away. I was quickly joined by James Hodge, Christian Kemp and Luke Bell and I made the call to ride hard early to catch Fettell and establish a lead over the rest of the field. Honestly the first 10km’s of the bike were insanely fast with speeds over 50kph being held. Fettell and Hodge really pushed the pace with Kemp, Bell and myself all content to sit back and hang onto the coat tails of these two amazing cyclists. The hilly and windy course was a real battle but despite this our group managed to ride through the first 45km lap in an hour flat. 

Going onto the second lap I was forced to dig deep to stay with the boys and fought through a really bad patch.

 The entire ride took its toll on me and by the time we hit the run my legs were in a less than ideal state. I pushed hard to stay with the boys however my legs were having none of it and so I just pushed as hard as they would allow.

 Battling with Estonian Marko Albert on the run

I was getting passed by athletes that I would usually run away from which was hard to take but I started to come good again with 5km’s to go on the run and gave these final km’s everything I had. I managed to catch one athlete with just a km to run to move myself into 9^th place overall.

Honestly I was really happy with how I went about the race. I swam hard and initiated the move on the bike that took 5 athletes up the road and put myself in contention to be on the podium. The run wasn’t there on the day for me but I gave it everything I had and didn’t die wondering so to speak.

At risk of sounding cliché I’d prefer to come 9^th and put myself in the position to win, than sit back and watch a chance for the win escape up the road and then run for at best a 5^th place.

As Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack affectionately titled his book ‘I’m here to win’ 

Pro Men

	Name	Country	S	B	R	Time
1	Kemp, Christian	USA	00:21:59	02:09:26	01:13:38	3:47:21
2	Bell, Luke	AUS	00:22:02	02:09:27	01:14:07	3:47:53
3	Hodge, James	AUS	00:21:53	02:09:18	01:16:11	3:49:48
4	Griffin, Leon	AUS	00:22:58	02:12:09	01:12:30	3:49:55
5	Fettell, Clayton	AUS	00:21:36	02:09:50	01:17:06	3:50:48
6	Berkel, Tim	AUS	00:23:06	02:12:00	01:17:05	3:54:27
7	Albert, Marko	EST	00:21:57	02:13:10	01:17:18	3:54:45
8	Pellow, Matthew	AUS	00:23:07	02:13:37	01:16:22	3:55:30
9	Betten, Samuel	AUS	0:00:00	0:00:00	0:00:00	3:57:01
10	Seear, James	AUS	00:21:58	02:13:08	01:19:52	3:57:15
11	Anderson, Mitchell	AUS	00:26:17	02:10:24	01:19:26	3:58:55
12	Millward, Callum	NZL	00:22:48	02:16:46	01:17:50	3:59:55
13	Skipworth, Todd	AUS	00:21:58	02:13:01	01:23:00	4:00:40
14	Appleton, Samuel	AUS	00:21:56	02:13:13	01:23:41	4:01:15
15	Polson, John	AUS	00:23:00	02:16:29	01:19:00	4:01:40

*No times shown for me as my timing chip fell off

Post race photo

Kedron Brook run post floods

Brisbane has taken a battering in the last few days with epic winds and non stop rain. I ventured down to Kedron Brook, where I usually do most of my runs while I'm at home in Brisbane to see what the flood waters had done to the bike path. GoPro video evidence below

Open water swim camp

Less than 24 after landing back in Australia after racing Auckland 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships I headed up the coast to join the rest of the squad for some camping and training. The camp had a strong swim focus component with a few rides and runs thrown into the training schedule for good measure. Over the course of the week we seemed to have a stark contrast in weather with very hot temperatures for the first few days, then pouring rain for the last 2 days. I'd ordered a GoPro Hero 3 and it turned up less than an hour before I left home so I used the camp to try it out as well. Stay tuned for more videos.

A few shots from the around camp

Open water session 

 Put together a little video as well

Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships - 6th

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 8^th 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 6^th 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 2^nd at Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon, 3^rd at Ironman 70.3 Canberra and now a 6^th 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	Kemp, Christian	USA	0:24:20	2:10:46	1:19:41	3:56:03
2	Docherty, Bevan	NZL	0:23:49	2:11:39	1:19:55	3:56:37
3	Ellice, Clark	NZL	0:23:36	2:11:49	1:21:42	3:58:24
4	Ambrose, Paul	AUS	0:24:47	2:09:30	1:23:53	3:59:27
5	Hodge, James	AUS	0:23:31	2:10:31	1:24:26	3:59:58
6	Betten, Samuel	AUS	0:23:43	2:11:46	1:23:59	4:00:56
7	Appleton, Samuel	AUS	0:23:34	2:11:56	1:25:01	4:02:01
8	Reed, Timothy	AUS	0:25:20	2:16:48	1:18:38	4:02:22
9	Bell, Luke	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