My First Race Report for the Site

Happy Sunday everyone! What did you get up to? Me? I did my 9th yes that's right my 9th 70.3 distance race! How'd it go I imagine you all asking through my powers of ESP. Well considering it was more of a training day pretty well. I did a new PB with 4:31!!! To make it even better I beat my mate, the same guy who got me into triathlon in the first place for the first time by the huge margin of 11 seconds (and he ran the 2nd fastest run split of the day out of EVERYONE). The race was Challenge Forster which is run by Elite Energy and Forster is the original site of IronMan Australia before it relocated to Port Macquarie. Firstly, this event was pretty poorly organised with issues with gear bags and different transitions but to give the perfect example, the pro's had to swim through the age groupers swimming out to their start to get to the swim exit (not to mention the fact that the first group of pro's could not even tell where the swim exit was). But look it is a great race so I will break down my race.

I really did not expect much from this race. This has been another big week of training for me. On Thursday I did my main speed set which is 800's and this week it was 16 of them averaging about 2:55 for the 800 metres. Throw in the big Administrative Law exam I had on Friday and the two exams I have next week. My mind has been on other things. Still I rocked up today not expecting anything.

Wetsuit swim - Water was salty and warm and because it was an inlet there were no waves or currents. I was in the last age group to start and it was a 2 lap swim course (for what reason I can only imagine) and I went out real hard. Throughout the swim I was really overtaking a lot of people and only had one prick try to get a bit physical. But with Macca's words of wisdom in my ears "Don't be a victim" a solid kick to his body seemed to get rid of him. The sun made sighting almost impossible but I was feeling strong. I came out of the water. 22:56 ( I am going to check my Garmin to see how long the swim actually was because that is super fast) 

Transition was one of those things that was more complicated than it had to be and was located on a field covered in bindis (little things that hurt when you step on them and can give you a flat tyre). We had to put all our swim stuff in a bag. Got it done and carried my bike out of transition to avoid any nasty little passengers. 1:56

The bike, god the bike... I love the bike. It is my strongest leg and I normally fly. Not today. The road surfaces in Forster were horrible. I felt like I was sitting on a jackhammer the whole time and my forearms have got marks on the from where they rested on my aero bars. It was also quite windy and it always felt like a headwind but never a tailwind and no, I am not being a melodramatic cyclist. There was also some serious packs riding well within the 12m draft zone. I yelled at some technical officials after I got passed by one who then proceeded to slow down after passing me. There were so many officials out there but they didn't seem interested in the packs. I am sorry but it is cheating. It is a non-drafting race and if you can't do it solo find another sport. Sorry, I ranted a little. Anyway the bike was a hard slog and I came in with a 2:29:28 and that is well below what I am capable of. 

T2 was surprisingly well organised and I flew in. Again, there were bindis on the field but my feet were numb. 1:11

The run. I knew straight away it would be hard. My legs felt heavy and tight straight away (those 800's caught up with me).  I battled through and was happy to see I did my best ever run split. The run course is AMAZING. It really made finishing the race more enjoyable and the support was amazing. I really found the run course easy to deal with mentally, it never felt like to far to run for each lap and you got to run past the finish line 6 times which was a real boost. 1:35:52

Overall I am stoked with my result. It has given me a lot of confidence going into Western Sydney 70.3 that I can finally crack the 4:30 barrier. The organisation and road surfaces definitely let it down but I have done many other Elite Energy races and they are usually stellar. The pro field was strong and there were some seriously impressive results out there. Anyway I am tired and this is long enough so have a good week everyone. Next week's entry will come to you on Monday because I am in Victoria for a wedding.

As always a massive shout out to my Super-Coach Ben Hammond and all the MaccaX guys who keep me motivated and support me!

Happy training, have fun and remember to TRI!

Check out a nice little summary of my day here