Rainbow Beach Triathlon

This is a bit of a delayed blog after last weekend's Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon but never the less well worth a read if I don't say so myself!  I was hoping a few photos might have popped up by now that I could have included but unfortunately that hasn't happened.

Rather than dwelling on what could have been after the disappointment of Yeppoon I decided to jump straight back into racing as soon as I could.  And while Dan's suggestion of packing up the car and continuing the trip north up to Airlie Beach might have seemed like a good idea and certainly would have got some decent kilometers on the car for dad, I'm not sure mum would have appreciated not having her car for the week.  Instead I made the journey to Rainbow Beach and I can safely say I have spent more than enough time driving to and from races the last two weeks!

The race was a somewhat different format from your standard race with a sprint distance race being held on the Saturday afternoon and another sprint distance on the Sunday morning.  Competitors had the option to compete in either one of the events or combining both events and adding the times together to get an overall Olympic distance winner.  I decided to do both events to make the most of an opportunity to race and with all my training aimed at the longer distances, the longer the better.

I made my way up to Rainbow Beach on Saturday morning and while the drive was a lot longer than I thought having never ventured there before the venue was supurb!  It was such a relaxed atmosphere and with the sun shining and views along the entire coast it was almost hard to get into race mode.  Checking out the race course during my warm-up I was surprised how similar the course seemed in comparison to Yeppoon from last weekend.

Swim: The swim was a point to point swim with the first 100m out through the surf and then the remainder along the shore line with the current.  More importantly the run from the water to transition; Yeppoon has what seems like a mountain of soft sand to climb when you exit the water that left even the fittest pro short of beath but I can assure you that it doesn't even compare to Rainbow Beach!  While the soft sand run may be flat, you then have to run up what seems like a never ending STEEP hill before you even get close to transition.

Cycle: Having only completed one of the five laps at Yeppoon, the Rainbow Beach course in my mind is almost identical!  It is a one lap out and back course on some handlebar rattling surfaces.  However I felt at an advantage being armed with some very useful race tips from the boys last weekend and a different wheelset while last weekends wheels remained in the naughty corner for not co-operating.

Run: I can't really comment on the run course in comparison to Yeppoon but what I can say is that is a very challenging 5km.  It is far from flat and the fact that the lead bike chose a motorised scooter option instead of the standard mountain bike

The first of the two sprint races kicked off at 3:30pm on the Saturday afternoon which only added to the relaxed atmosphere but none the less, after a fairly standard warm-up I felt ready to go.  I was one of only a few that opted against the wetsuit option, instead choosing I’d rather focus on other aspects of the race and it wouldn’t make a significant difference over the sprint distance.  The swim went off without a hitch and I was out of the water and chasing hard up the lengthy run to transition in pursuit of the leader, Ben Shaw.  With the female wave starting ahead of us I had them to pick off as well as Ben as I began the bike.  And with all the bike training I’d been doing I decided I really wanted to push the bike as hard as I possibly could and once I’d closed the gap to Ben made sure I continued to push and try and open up a gap on him.  Coming towards the end of the cycle leg I got a quick glance of my bike computer and say that my average was up at 43.5km/hr for the 20km course which had given me a decent lead starting the run.  I’d gotten the inside tip that the run course was somewhat challenging with a few hills and that was certainly right as I felt as though I was hardly moving at a few points throughout the 5km but pushed hard enough to hold off Ben for the win, very pleased with my efforts.

Following the completion of the race I made my way back to Mooloolaba for the night to save myself a few more hours of travel all the way back to Brisbane and with the Sunshine Coast Marathon being held on the Sunday was able to sneak in on some accommodation with a few of the boys having a crack at the half-marathon.  A very enjoyable dining experience at one of the local surf clubs was a great way to end the day and as disappointing as it was to not have any karaoke available it didn’t stop a few of the boys getting amongst it.  Plenty of shenanigans occurred back at the accommodation but with an early morning ahead for everyone it was all kept very tame.  And from all accounts the boys all finished the half-marathon in great shape!

Following the very early start to the day to drive back to Rainbow Beach it was an even harder task to get the body motivated to go through the warm-up routine again.  It’s safe to say the body was still feeling the effects of the previous day but that’s what I expected so no excuses!  After Saturday’s race I had decided I wanted to back the bike off a little bit and instead push the swim and the run harder than what I had and try and improve those times.  I felt as though I did push the swim much quicker Sunday morning and without Ben in the field for the morning race I was able to lead out of the water and onto the bike.  I continued to extend my lead on the bike while also being able to conserve a bit of energy in comparison to Saturday and plan how I was going to attack those hills on the run.  Right from the outset I felt as though I pushed a lot harder on the run and thankfully the data backed that up with a run split close to 30 seconds quicker than the previous day.  I crossed the line in first place again and with two wins from two starts I also took out the Olympic Distance category.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to stick around and enjoy what Rainbow Beach had to offer, instead having to race back to Brisbane for the day job to pay the bills!  But I did drive away very satisfied with what I achieved for the weekend and after the disappointment of Yeppoon gave me an opportunity to race and see where my race fitness is at and what I can work on over the next few weeks in the lead up to my next race.

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