My initial plan had been to compete in the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon last weekend but the opportunity to compete in an Olympic distance event was just too good to turn down. And after only what could be best described as a disappointing season thus far, the possibility to turn this upside down was at the fore front of my reasoning.
It's fair to say that my training has been somewhat on the backburners and slightly neglected since Mooloolaba Triathlon due to some extra work commitments but never the less I was ready to race. The weekend was off to a great start before it even began with the ever hospitable crew involved in running the Hervey Bay Triathlon offering to accomodate me in one of the local hotels for the weekend. Even the 300km drive, while it wasn't riveting entertainment was more than enjoyable.
The race offers some fairly significant prize money with a prize pool totalling over $32000 with the winner taking $2500 in cash plus $500 in prizes. And with this sort of money up for grabs there was always going to be some solid competition. Early in the week the name that I'm sure everyone was quick to recognise was Clayton Fettell and being one of the fastest swim/ bikers in the sport I knew it was going to be a fast race. However early Saturday morning he had to withdraw from the event and while this may have been somewhat of a relief to many of the other pro male competitors it was soon changed as news travelled through that Pete Jacobs was throwing his hat in the ring. It wasn't the biggest of fields but the quality was high with Pete and myself lining up with Joey Lampe, Tim Reed, Callum Millward, Marc Widmer and fellow DAT training partner Luke Farrell amoung some of the names on the start list.
Saturday night before the race I was treated to a great meal at one of the local Italian restaurants courtesy of the winner of the Pier to Pub Ocean Swim Classic, Codie Grimsey and race organiser, Darren Everand and his wife while we shared many stories and had a great night. And on a side note, Darren is also running in tomorrows election so all the best! A very smart man who I'm absolutely sure everyone could learn a great deal from :)
Come Sunday morning we couldn't have really asked for better conditions with the water as calm as any swimming pool I've ever swam in and the sighting of the swim markers made even easier with the massive helium balloons attached to them. With such a small field the start of the swim was somewhat calm in comparison to some of my last few races that have had well over 60 testosterone fuelled guys all fighting to be first to that first turning can. There was little to no contact between any of us as we all settled into our positions as we navigated our wa through the course. While I wasn't at the front of the field that was being lead by Joey Lampe I was well within contact and sitting rather comfortably on the feet of Tim Reed for the majority of the swim. Exiting the water I had one of my fastest transitions and was out of there quicker than ever and set my sights on chasing down the few athletes that had got out ahead of me. I was quickly joined by Tim and Callum as we reeled the athletes in one by one. Soon there was only Joey and Pete ahead of us but after about 15km we caught Pete but Joey still had a sizeable advantage. We were by no means riding slowly with my bike time being the second fastest of the day at 57:58 but Joey was just a class above us clocking a very impressive 56:50! Towards the final stages of the bike I wasn't exactly sure how my running legs were going function because these guys had certainly made me work just to stay in contact but I was certain that I wanted to give it a red hot crack and made sure that I moved my way to the front for the transition. Again I had a super quick transition and was out of T2 well ahead of Tim, Pete and Callum. Unfortunately my Bryton Cardio 35 (I'll have a review of this watch coming shortly) struggled to pick up a GPS signal but I felt as though I was running pretty well but after about 4km I was caught by both Tim and Callum and then again at 7km by Pete. By this stage I was really starting to feel the effects of my lack of training but wanted to push as hard as I could to the finish. Unfortunately I just didn't have the legs to go with any of these guys and had to settle for 5th place behind a very impressive start to finish victory by Joey Lampe followed by Tim Reed, Callum Millward and Pete Jacobs.
The race was a significant improvement on my last few races and I have walked away with a lot of confidence in what I am doing in training and being able to transfer that to racing performances, in particular in this non-drafting format.
Once again I must thank all the organisers of the event for putting on such a great race and for looking after me for the weekend. The weekend was topped off in fantastic fashion as I was not only joined for the 300km return journey by Codie Grimsey but upon my return I was able to not only share my stories but hear the stories of my fellow training partners from their successes at the Luke Harrop Triathlon at a BBQ to mark the end of the domestic season and a very successful one at that for so many of my closest training partners :)
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