Ironman 70.3 World Championship – 18th

This race had been the goal for me all season long. It was time to roll the dice and match myself up against the world best and see what I could do. I had confidence in my training and how I had prepared for the race, which had also included 4 weeks of sleeping at altitude. In the week leading into the race I spent my time getting in some light training at my base in Vegas about 40 minutes away from the race venue. A big thank you to Dennis for letting me stay at his house and Kim for driving me around to check out the course not to mention Dave for making my S-Works Shiv immaculate! Dennis kept me well feed with his amazing cooking and I couldn’t have asked for a better race week leading into the event.

S-Works Shiv ready to go!

Race morning soon arrived along with very heavy rain. It was a surprise as in the days before it was really quite hot and humid in Vegas. After a quick run warm up I heading into the water with the rest of the 57 professional men to get ready for the swim start. I lined up next to Craig Alexander and Bevan Docherty and soon enough the gun was off. The swim was a straight out and back course, which I really love as I could keep a pretty good eye on where I was positioned. It was a solid but not overly fast swim and I keep out of trouble emerging from the water in 8^th just seconds off the leader. Onto the bike I keep cool and worked to move up into the front group while still conserving my energy. Once I hit the main section of the course about 10 minutes in the gaps opened up which put me in the lead group along with 7 other athletes. 

The bike course was tough however the pace wasn’t as quick as I was expecting and just before the turn around the chase pack caught my group and before long there was a sizable pack of around 30 men. I tucked in and tried to stay as aero as possible while conserving energy within the large bike pack. The ride was taking it toll on those who had worked hard early on and just before T2 I rode past a few people who had paid the price. I hit T2 feeling pretty good and after a quick transition I was out onto the run. Feeling pretty good I settled into a solid pace that I hoped I could hold for the entire half marathon. 

I had only 1 athlete run past me and in the last lap picked up a few more athletes with Craig Alexander hot on my heals. Craig was smoking on the back end of the run and I dug deep to keep him at bay. I crossed the line in 18^th very pleased with my result in just my first year of 70.3 racing.

A huge thank you to my coach, family, sponsors and supporters for helping me to 18^th in the world for 2013 over the Ironman 70.3 distance. I will now be having a few easy weeks and enjoying some fun in Vegas and Utah before my favorite race of the year, Noosa 5150.   

Hy Vee 5150 Championships – 22nd

 Hy-Vee 5150 Championships was a race on my radar all year long. A great stepping stone before my battle at the 70.3 World Championships the week later and of course an opportunity to race for a piece of the $500,000 on offer.

I left Australia and flew into Vegas before driving to St George (2 hours away) to spend the week prior trying to recover from the jetlag and get use to the heat. Once again a big thank you to the Johnson family for going completely above and beyond to make my travel and stay while in the USA amazingly easy.

I left St George on the Thursday before the race and with a delayed flight out of Vegas, I ended up taking an extra 10 hours and 3 flights to get to Des Moines. Another downer was the fact that my new Specialized Shiv wasn’t able to keep up with my flight changes and therefore did not arrive until Friday night.

Race pack waiting at the hotel

 View from my room... not bad

The days before the race I spent my time doing some light swimming and running (no bike), driving over the course and of course catching up on sleep! The temp was HOT in Des Moines and close to 40 degrees C however waking on race day I was greeted with heavy rain and strong winds causing the race organisation to delay the race start. Lucky enough the rain and wind cleared quickly which only meant a 1 hour delayed start time.

Lining up on the start line being ranked 8^th meant that I had the opportunity to start right alongside of some of the stronger swimmers (Russian of course). This meant that I was quickly up the front getting dragged alongside the powerhouse swimmers. The swim felt very controlled and I didn’t really have to exert much energy to stay inside the top ten. 

After a quite transition I headed out onto the bike course and positioned myself up towards the front. The pace was pretty quick right from the first mile and I really struggled to keep up. The high speeds (50-55kph) along the flat sections were quicker than what I was able to hold which meant I dropped back into the 2^nd bike group. Unfortunately at 30km I dropped from that group as well. It was pretty disappointing being that I usually consider myself a stronger rider however I keep pushing and hit T2 just off the 2^nd bike pack. After a quick T2 change as I hit the run course feeling quite strong and passed several athletes within the first half of the run. After that I couldn’t quite push as hard as I would have liked and only passed another 2 athletes on the homeward stretch. I came home in 22^nd which was somewhat disappointing result wise however with my major focus being 70.3 World Championships I was pretty happy with where my body was at.

Heading into the race I was ranked 8^th on the 5150 World Ranking Points and finishing 22^nd at this 5150 championship race in my first season of non-drafting racing is something I am really proud off. With another season or two I have no doubt in my mind that I will be right up there fighting for a podium spot.

Next up Vegas 70.3 World Championships.

Custom S-Works Shiv

What you see before you is my latest ride. A partnership between Specialized Australia, Shimano Australia, Paint My Bike and Triathlon and Multi Sport Magazine. I am totally blown away with the final product and can't wait to race on this machine at the Hy-Vee 5150 Championships and Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships in a few weeks time.

A full feature is coming soon exclusive to Triathlon and Multi Sport Magazine Australia (September issue).

Training continues...

The last 2 weeks has seen a large increase in my training volume in preparation for my major races of 2013. Although nothing is confirmed for me until the July 14th announcement from the WTC (World Triathlon Corporation) I have done what I could race wise this season in order to hopefully make the cut.

A Saturday morning ride with James Hodge:

Over the weekend I have the opportunity to get in a solid 6hr20min ride with Australian 70.3 young gun James Hodge. A very hilly and tough ride over Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious (4hours of climbing) before a quick coffee shop stop in Samford and then onto the last few hours of the ride. All in all a solid loop which I hope to keep doing in the weeks to come.

I'm hoping to post a few more of my sessions up online to give you an idea of what I get up to, training around in amazing part of the world which I call home.

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.