DAT Awards Night 2012: The Main Event

I feel ample time has passed since I posted DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel that it is now time to move on to the main event.  But for anyone out there unaware of the enormity of this event check out what went down at the 2011 DAT Awards Night and try to get your heads around the fact that this years edition was hyped up so much that we had club members flying home from holidays just so they could make the event and even athletes from other clubs putting themselves through the torture of a weeks training with us just to attend this event!

But before I go into too much detail I must that the brains trust behind the event.  Craig Buerckner, Nathan Hilderbrandt and Dan Atkins spent countless hours not only organising the event itself but were also left with the arduous task of selecting the nominees and winners of the prestigous awards.  And having been privileged enough to be invited to one of their meetings I can vouch for how tough some of the decisions were, even if the meeting was held at the local Stafford Tavern!  But needless to say that without the work these three men put into this event it wouldn't have been what it was so thanks again guys!

With winter well and truly amoung us and the venue moving from The Grange Bowls Club to the chilly waters of the Brisbane River aboard one of the function boats available the majority of the guys were very proud of their decision to don the suit and jacket option!  And with the threat of the boat departing on time with or without it's guests it was for once unusual to see everyone onboard well in advance. 

The first portion of the cruise provided us with time to wet the whistle and mingle and it was during these early moments that those of us with somewhat of a height advantage were actually at a disadvantage on the lower level of this boat and were forced to either duck or spend our time on the distinctly colder upper level of the boat with poor Jenna Fulton hitting her head no less than six times!

But we will bypass all chit-chat and move straight to the exciting part of the evening involving the recipients of the awards and the following speeches and in no particular order here they are:

The first award of the evening was a new addition for the 2012 edition and what better recipient than a new member for the 2011/2012 season!  Having won the 2011 ITU Age Group World Championship in impressive fashion and further going on to have a stellar season racing in the ITU National Junior Elite Series it was none other than Luke Farrell who had the honour of recieving the Appreciation Award.

With Angus and my well prepared speech being given the flick without our knowledge we were both forced to think on our feet to come up with completely unrelated speeches and while I may be rather impressed with my efforts that's not what I'm here to write about so I'll move on to the Age-Group Athlete of the Year and the Most Improved Athlete of the Year.  Both of these awards could not have gone to a more deserving athlete not only after the season she has had but the improvements everyone has been witness to since the beginning of the season.  It was none other than Courtney Dutton who had the honour of getting up on stage twive to recieve two seperate awards and on that note, having looked back over the DAT Honour Board, she is the only athlete to ever claim two awards in the one season and after some of the results within this club this season that is quite the effort!

In fact, the Dutton family stole the limelight on the evening with Britt being awarded the Junior Athlete of the Year after winning non only the School State Championship but also the School National Championship in convincing fashion and when she has one of her training partners in Sophie Maloewecki chasing her ever step of the way there is no telling what these two superstars can do in the future.

Moving on to the Dominator of the Year Award and although I wasn't up for nomination for this award it was one that I was most nervous about for reasons I will go into soon.  I couldn't be happier with the recipient of this award and also the performance it was picked on as I not only believe it is an outstanding performance in the context of this club but also within triathlon in Australia.  Ryan Fisher claimed 3rd in the 2011 Auckland World Cup event which was not only his first World Cup podium but also only the second Australian athlete to step onto the podium apart from Brad Kahlefeldt for the 2011 season.  But with Ryan unable to attend the event it was left up to me to read the speech he had prepared which I was priveledged to do after spending the entire time both of us have been in the sport training together.

With two of the three the remaining awards being the Athlete of the Year and the Atkins Family Award, both of which have previously been won by myself and Ryan, the winners are to be in a select group!  In fact for the past three seasons the winners of the Athlete of the Year have been myself, Ryan and Brayden and the winners of the Atkins Family Award have been Ryan, Brayden and myself. 

It's hard to question the recipients of either of these awards this season.  One of the moments that stole it for me was the National Series race down in Sydney where Geoff produced a great race to finish 4th place that cemented his spot in the Australian team for Worlds later in the year.  But the even better moment was to see how much this race not only meant to him but also to Dan with the two shedding a few tears of joy together immediately after the race and it seems fitting that the winner of the Atkins Family award was presented to Geoff who again shed a tear or two when giving his speech!

Similarly the athlete of the year was sealed with a moment of brilliance, this time at the Mooloolaba Triathlon.  Lining up in only her second elite race and after having been unable to finish down in Devonport no one had more reason to be nervous than Sarah on that startline.  But she put all of that aside and produced one of the performances of the season to run away and produce a marvelous performance to claim the victory.  And just incase anyone thought this would be a one off performance, Sarah has since gone on to win her following race over in Japan winning back to back ITU Continental Cups! 

And I think I speak for Ryan, Brayden and myself in saying that both Geoff and Sarah are worthy winners of these awards and their names will fit in nicely beside ours on that honour board. :)

And on to the final awards for the evening which for me is one of the most special awards and just shows that this club is really something special to have an athlete spend close to six months preparing the award.  Every year Geoff spends countless hours painting what can only be described as a masterpiece to be awarded to an athlete of his choice and is fairly named the Geoffery Lemmon award and unfortunately this year the winner wasn't present but nonetheless her efforts within the club are never overlooked.  Lindy-Jo never fails to step up to fill the void of Dan on pool deck whenever it is required and while her efforts are much appreciated by everyone, she now has the Geoffery Lemmon Award for the 2011/2012 season as another token of this appreciation.

So that wraps up the formal portion of the 2012 DAT Awards night but that isn't to say that the evening ended there with plenty choosing to continue onwards once the boat returned to shore and spend the evening celebrating how great this club really is!

And already there are a few athletes out there getting a solid headstart and throwing their name in the ring to be award recipients for the 2012/2013 season with both Ryan and Sarah winning ITU Continental Cups in China and Japan.  And I dare say the performances won't stop there so for anyone who thought the awards were hotly contested this time around better get themselves out on the training paddock and aim for those prestigious awards for the 2013 DAT Awards Night!

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Bryton Cardio 35 Review - Oceania Bicycles

Training with GPS is almost considered standard practice these days and it is becoming an ever more competitive market with the number of new products hitting stores on a regular basis.  And for anyone who follows this blog, you will know that on the bike my preferred method of data collection is via the use of my Bryton Rider 50T.  I did a pretty in-depth review of this computer when I first received it through the then distributor, Next Destination that came in very handy for them and is to this date still my most viewed blog but I've put a bit of time into this review so here is my best bet at topping that!

Up until a few months ago I had been relying on my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 for collecting any data on my running sessions but our relationship came to an abrupt end when it decided on its own accord to shut down permanently.  At first I thought it was an untimely end but after getting in contact with the new distributors of Bryton GPS Computers in Australia, Oceania Bicycles it turned out to be somewhat convenient with the upcoming release of the new Bryton Cardio 35.  Of course for some time I was left technology-less out running but this actually allowed me to ‘run by feel’ and since using my new Bryton Cardio 35 have found I actually have a lot better sense of my own pacing.

The first thing I noticed about the Cardio 35 even before I had the chance to take it out of the box was its size.  It is much more similar in size to that of any normal sports watch instead of the normally chunky GPS watches available.  Just like all of the GPS watches available, the features list seems to go on forever and this was perhaps what brought about my initial downfall as I immediately disregarded the instruction booklet, instead preferring to, like my running; go by feel.  This is probably the reason why it has taken me a lot longer than expected to get this review up and running and after taking the time to look through the instruction booklet I now have lots to share in terms of my thoughts on the watch and also some fantastic data files that I have been able to collect and store on the Bryton Connect page

The watch is actually surprisingly simple to use once you’ve got around to having a quick look through the instructions.  It is a matter of pressing one button before you can be off and running or cycling for that matter and with the unit seemingly picking up a GPS signal straight away there is no waiting around for the unit to catch up.  In fact not only can this watch be used for either running or cycling, it is waterproof so can be worn for an entire triathlon if race data is of importance to you.  The other benefit of this watch is its battery life of up to 30 days and combining this with its size there is no reason why you couldn’t wear this as an everyday sports watch.

Out training there is the limiting factor that you are limited to only one data screen instead of having the option of up to four with the Garmin but it is only a matter of pressing one button to scroll through time of day, time, distance, calories, average pace and current pace and whenever you press the lap button you are given a brief summary of the average pace and time of that particular lap.  I haven’t really had much reason to complain about only having one data screen except during some sessions where we will run for a particular period of time at a specific pace and I can find myself scrolling through all the data fields to keep tabs on these two.  The single data screen can be advantageous though as unlike the Garmin that seems to squash so much data on to one screen that you can spend so much time trying to work out what you are looking at, the Bryton is so easy to read and with a quick glance I know exactly what I need to.

The addition of a bike mount can quickly transform this watch into a perfect cycling computer and although I prefer to wear it on my wrist when I do use it riding because I have the Bryton Rider 50T on my bike all the time it could be the perfect bike-run watch for triathletes.  The heart rate monitor and cadence sensor can either be included with the watch or added later as accessories only add to the already long list of data that you can collect and review.

 The data that I have already been able to collect from this watch has been great and as my coach said, if you take the time to look through any one of the data files you are bound to find something of use.  My favourite feature would have to be the stride rate.  And while I am not going to even try and explain or work out how it calculates this it is so cool!  I’ve changed my running style dramatically over the years to decrease my stride length and increase my stride rate and now that I can look back over this data in all of my runs is really interesting to compare what it is when I’m going fast or slow and how it compares as I tire. 

With all this available data I could be at the computer for days looking at all the intricate details but instead I am out there pounding the pavement creating the data files.  Instead I will have to leave that up to anyone interested in looking through Bryton Sport and Bryton Bridge and will wrap up my review by saying that the Bryton Cardio 35 is definitely worth serious consideration if anyone is in the market for a new GPS watch.  This watch has a lot going for it and with Bryton making significant inroads into the ever competitive world of sports performance GPS products I am proud to be able to continue working with these guys into the future.

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DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel

The DAT Awards Night may have been and gone for 2012 but after the wrap I gave it last year I thought I had to do the same again for this year.  But even before I get into that I will tempt your tastebuds with what could only be described as one of the most hyped up speeches for the evening!  Myself and Angus Gibson were to give a wrap-up of the entire high performance season and with performances including local victories, National Championship medals in both the schools categories and junior elite series, ITU Continental Cup victories, World Series Events and everything humorous in between it took quite the effort to pen an entertaining yet informative five pages.  However, little did we know that this wasn't to be and we were both put on the spot at different times during the evening to give impromptu speeches about little to do about what we had prepared and while these speeches were on all accounts very impressive, I thought it only fair to acknowledge the performances of everyone in the high performance squad and of course Angus and myself for our speech writing efforts by sharing a somewhat altered version of what we prepared...

Dan’s always said that his report cards for the season are both Noosa and Mooloolaba so we thought it only made sense to use these two races as our guide of what to talk about.  But it would be unfair not to mention a few special performances that occurred pre-Noosa at the end of last year.  It’s hard to look past Holly who only finished off the podium once before Christmas and even that result was a 4th place finish.  These results included a 3rd place at Raby Bay early in the season, a 2nd place at the Toorbul Triathlon and a 1st place at the Robina Triathlon.  Toorbul was another special occasion for the DAT team with both the girls and boys finishing 1st through to 4th.

Noosa was the first big indication of how things were going for us this season and it provided some very promising signs for the rest of the season.  In the elite race Ryan not only finished in a very impressive 5th place but also collected the Luke Harrop Bursary and Nick finished in 14th.  In the open category we had Brayden in 2nd position that also meant he could get his pro-licence, Tom in 3rd and also in the medical tent straight after the finish with the drip for his recovery and Luke in 5th position.

A short 3 weeks after Noosa Ryan was set to race in one of the biggest world cup races of the year over in Auckland.  This is the course that a lot of you will be racing on later this year and if his result is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that Dan’s training methods are well and truly on track.  For me this race was truly spine tingling stuff, especially after training with Ryan ever since we both started in the sport way back in 2005.  To watch Ryan cross the line in 3rd was amazing and has to go down as one of our top 5 performances for the season.  And to put this result into perspective, Ryan was only the second Australian to finish on the podium of a world cup race all season with the other being Brad Kahledfeldt at Mooloolaba.

For the ITU juniors the journey began on the Gold Coast at the super sprint weekend, which consisted of 3 days of intense racing.  DAT Racing was well represented with Tom, Luke, Jake, Holly, Emily and Angus all taking to the start line on Friday afternoon.  After a number of time trials the sprint triathlons began and after some gutsy racing in a strong field Tom Ryan and Luke Farrell ended up in the A grade final racing off against the top 16 men.  Both finished strongly and looked to have promising starts to the season.  Jake Freeman, the youngest of the junior athletes racing showed his talent and strength over the weekend after fracturing his wrist on the Friday and continued on to race in the B final showing up a number of older athletes.  The girls, like the boys races, were some of the most courageous and toughest seen.  With another strong field both Emily and Holly qualified for the A grade final.  With an attack of the front, Holly put herself in a good position and ended up in spectacular second place putting her in 4th place overall, off the podium by a mere 1.5 points for the weekend.  Emily raced phenomenally as well finishing 5th out of the 16 girls in the A final, leaving her in 6th position overall for the weekend.

There was little rest of the Christmas period for any of us, even by-passing any New Year celebrations to be up riding the next morning.  This was followed by a weeklong training camp at the Farrell Ranch which we must again thank the Farrell’s for their hospitality and also Mandy Freeman for her care packages for Jake that he made the mistake of leaving open for the rest of us.  On the training side of things we covered upwards of 25km in the pool, 500km on the bike and close to 100km of running throughout the week which was made even more enjoyable thanks to some of the somewhat unorthodox recovery methods that some of us enjoyed on a nightly basis.

Next on the calendar for the junior elites was Canberra, venturing to the capital for a heated day of racing.  This was the first full race in the junior elite series.  With everyone set to perform, the girls hit the water first with wetsuits a must. The race was fairly close with all the girls coming together on the bike, it came down to who had the quickest legs on the day with Emily placing second in what would be her last junior race for the season due to injury but finished in style with a great performance and earned herself a spot in our top 5 performances for the season.  Holly also had another blinder of a race finishing 5th place.  The boys managed to miss the wetsuits by a couple of degrees so they frolicked in the cold water for a bit before heading off.  The race was quick to begin with but with the bike being such a quick course the top contenders came together in the main pack with most of the DAT athletes pushing the pace.  In the end it came down to a runners’ race again with such a flat course. In the end Tom placed a solid 10th, Luke came in at 13th.  The next day Angus and Holly backed up for the age group world championship qualifying race which was not a welcome sight after such a tough race the previous day.  We both finished on the podium with Holly taking out the Australian Championship.

The Caloundra was the next race for some of us where Ryan battled all the way to the finish with Courtney Atkinson to narrowly finish second.  In the other race the girls again dominated with Sarah taking out the win and Emily backing up from her outstanding performance in Canberra to again finish in second.  On the boy’s side of things Jake led as much of the race as he could, being forced to pull out at the beginning of the run due to injury.

Brayden and Nick then moved on to Geelong to tackle the National Sprint Distance Championships and were lining up with close to 70 others guys.  Brayden finished the race in 26th position and Nick came in 41st.  We were also joined by a host of age groupers for this trip and I was going to mention Courtney’s 4th place finish but I’ve realized that this was actually her lowest finish of the season so we’ll leave it there…

While the ITU junior races are the pinnacle of elite junior triathlon, for school aged kids the national titles are just as important they are what many strive for, as did the older high performance athletes when they were younger. This year 4 DAT athletes made their way to Busselton to compete. Their training paid off as Britt, Sophie, Wyatt and Billy all performed to their expectations. The boys finished well with Billy 20th and Wyatt 14th but again the two girls dominated the field showing their talent with Sophie placing third and Brittany taking out the national title again 2 years in a row this was an exceptional achievement as they were both racing against girls their own age as well as girls a year older and it is for this reason that Britt has taken out a spot in our top 5 performances.

Devonport was the next stop on the high performance calendar and with Olympic qualification on the line it also drew one of the highest quality fields in Australia in some time.  We were strongly represented in all of the races with Holly and Anna lining up in the junior girls, Tom, Luke and Angus in the junior boys, Sarah in the elite women and Brayden, Ryan and Nick in the elite men.  Unfortunately Emily’s injury kept her away from the start line but she still made the trip and was privileged enough to hear the Kangaroo and the Emu speech courtesy of that so many Australian elites have been witness to.  Anna was the standout in the junior women’s race to finish in 7th place and in the junior men Luke had a great race to finish 7th in a very tough field.

And after such a long season, Mooloolaba was to be one of our final races before a much earned break.  I could sum this race up very quickly because without doubt the race of the day that went to Sarah as she claimed her first international victory in the continental cup and also a spot in our top 5 performances of the year.  In other results, Tom again pushed himself to the limit and again found himself in the medical tent at the finish which seems to be a bit of a trend for him and Maddi finished 3rd in the open women’s race.

As I’m sure all of you are well aware the performances haven’t stopped since Mooloolaba but I’ll keep it strictly triathlon related because if I have to go in to too much detail I’ll have to reveal the event where Maddi managed to defeat myself, Tom and Ryan.  And although Ryan couldn’t be with us here tonight we couldn’t finish this speech without mentioning not only his debut in the highest level of triathlon racing in the world series event in Sydney but also his race in Jiaguyan last weekend where he won his first continental cup in convincing fashion and is now based in France for the next few months in the lead up to see him hopefully qualify for the U23 world champs in Auckland.  We also have Sarah heading over to Japan next week to compete in a few Continental Cups and Luke heading over to USA for a Continental Cup but we’re not sure whether Luke’s more excited about the actual race or the cowboy hats and dancing!  And Holly and Emily also heading over to Japan later in the season for their first dabble in international competition.  Both of these girls have also recently been named in the 6 girl ITU junior elite squad to be later cut down to 3 before Auckland.

So that basically wraps up the season from a high performance point of view and if anyone has been paying attention we only ever mentioned 4 of our top 5 performances for the season, mainly because with so many overseas races coming up and with Auckland high on so many peoples priority list we are sure there will be more memorable moments capable of filling this 5th position.

But apart from the great achievements of all the high performance athletes this season, without the help from Dan, Craig, Nathan and everyone else in this club that has shown interest or support in what we are trying to achieve, this season could not have been done. I’m sure I speak for all of us in saying thank you for a great season and I hope you enjoy the cold, dark, long mornings ahead. 

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Noosa Winter Festival

The domestic triathlon season may well and truly be over for another year but there is no shortage of races on offer and the weekend just gone has been a perfect example of that.  If you ever needed an excuse to escape to Noosa for the weekend the weekend just gone was the perfect excuse, with the Noosa Winter Festival in full swing.  However, some will probably argue that this weekend coming would be even better with the Noosa Seafood and Wine Festival taking over

Hastings St

!

Never the less, a group of DAT athletes had already committed to the Winter Festival so the Seafood and Wine will have to wait for another time.  The weekend offered any number of swimming, cycling and running events to suit athletes of all abilities but the events of choice for myself, Ryan Fisher, Tom Ryan, Robbie Mullins, Maddi Allen and Anna Coldham were the ocean swim on the Saturday morning of either 1km or 2km distances and the run held on the Saturday over either the half-marathon or 10km distance.

Personally it was a last minute decision to compete once I’d gotten over having a bit of the flu earlier in the week and was heading up there more so for a solid training weekend, like most of the others.  However, I can pretty safely say that running a half-marathon is always going to hurt and the subsequent DOMS are sure to put a bit of a dampener on the next few days!

The ocean swim was held on the Saturday morning and it was myself, Ryan, Tom and Maddi tackling the 2km event in the elite categories and Anna and Robbie tackling the 1km event.  In all the years I have been competing in triathlons I have actually never competed in an open water event so it was to be a first for me.  Standing on the start line surrounded by some of Australia's finest open water swimmers in the Grimsey brothers was somewhat intimidating but perhaps even more intimidating was having the elite women starting just two minutes behind us!  After hanging onto the feet of the front group for as long as possible I soon found myself swimming the remainder of the course without much company until the final stretch where I was catching the wave that started ahead of us.  After finishing the race I found out that both Ryan and Tom had been in a similar situation, all be it hanging on longer than what I had and none of us were present to witness what I am discovering is a fairly common occurrence in open water swimming, a Grimsey clean sweep of the podium wit Trent taking the victory over brothers, Codie and Ridge.  It wasn’t until later on when the results were actually released that the three of us had been well and truly beaten by Maddi who finished 7^th in the elite women’s race.

In the 1km event we had both Robbie Mullins and Anna Coldham competing.  Robbie covered the course in 19:35 while Anna went through in 17:52.

I wouldn't have thought the swim would take that much out of us, being used to continuing on with a ride and a run but the remainder of the day was taken up with plenty of much needed rest in preparation for Sunday's events.  But that wasn't before breakfast in Noosa where we were lucky enough to run into Bondi Vet Chris Brown and get a photo with him!

The Sunday was the running events with myself, Ryan and Robbie lining up for the half-marathon and Maddi the lone DAT representative in the 10km event.  For the boys the aim was to tackle this as more of a training event and to get through the distance without any hiccups (and considering my last half-marathon resulted in a stress fracture this is not as simple as it sounds!) but needless to say there is a competitive streak in all of us that takes over at times.  The results show that me and Ryan finished 10^th and 11^th respectively in times of 1:16:01 and 1:16:05 but we both ran very different races.  I took the first lap out fairly solidly and went through the first 10km in about 35:00 before backing it up somewhat whereas Ryan went out slower but brought it home over the last 10km in just under 35:00 and given any extra distance we would’ve crossed the line together.  I haven't included the data file from the race from my Bryton Cardio35 for a couple of reasons; firstly I haven't actually had a chance to look at it myself yet and also because I am just in the process of finalising a review on this watch and thought it would be good to include some files with that so keep a look out for that in the near future.  Robbie also ran a very controlled race to finish in a very respectable time of 1:35:22.  In the 10km event Maddi finished in a time of 40:23 to just miss out on her goal of cracking that 40:00 barrier but still managed to record a 10km PB, be it fresh or off the bike.

That brought the weekend of racing to completion and with a stunning day on the sunshine coast there was no better way to enjoy it than by lazing around on the beach for the entirety of the day.  It was a very solid weekend of training/ racing that has cured those competitive urges within all us for the time being before we look to tackle the next winter challenge.  For myself there are likely to be a few more half-marathon events in preparation for a debut in the Ironman 70.3 distance in the coming months whereas Ryan will be leaving us shortly for his European stint of training and racing that begins in two weekends time in China.

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Hervey Bay Triathlon

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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Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon

While I couldn’t have been any further away from the Gold Coast and the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon I thought it was still worthy of a short blog entry for a few reasons.  Firstly, it is a race that means so much to so many people and had extra significance being the 10^th anniversary.  Secondly, with some special performances from many of our DAT athletes I just couldn't let this race slip by without a mention.

Rumors and speculation were rife throughout the week with the possibility of certain members of the DAT family coming out of retirement for only the second time since the 2009 world championship race on the Gold Coast.  The trash talk that followed when the rumors were confirmed that the one and only Dan Atkins would toe the start line were nothing more than entertaining to say the least!  Dan wasn’t the only person making a comeback to racing, with Emily Bevan making her return following a lengthy layoff with a stress fracture to team up with Katie Atkins.  Needless to say the stakes were high and the winner of this battle would have bragging rights for some time in the Atkins household. 

The winner of the battle was somewhat divided with Dan’s overall time beating that of Katie and Emily but Emily’s swim and bike times combined were faster than that of Dan’s and it is a sure sign that Emily’s recovery is well and truly on track and it won’t be long before she is lining up to complete the full race herself and I’ll go out on a limb and say beating Dan as well!  Together Katie and Emily also claimed the title of the fastest female team of the day so I'll leave it up to everyone else to decide on the winner of this battle...

Moving on to the main event, Ryan Fisher was representing DAT in a large open men’s field and although he was pushed all the way on the swim and bike by some of the strongest in the sport, he showed his class once on the run to win in convincing fashion and in doing so also claimed the Luke Harrop Bursary for the second year running.  Also in the open men’s field was Angus Gibson who raced strongly to finish in 14^th position and will surely enjoy his weeks off training after a very long season in the junior elite national series.

Similar strong performances occurred in the open women’s field with none other than Maddi Allan leading the swim out in her normal fashion and holding strong throughout the bike and run to finish the race in second position.  Following closely behind her was Holly Grice and besides her third place was probably more proud that her overall time was faster than that of Dan and has given her bragging rights for the time being.

In other results, Brittany Dutton claimed a familiar victory in her age group and being the 10^th anniversary of the race picked herself up $100 for her troubles.  Dave Sangster just missed out on the prize money to finish in 2nd position and a very impressive 36th overall.  Robbie Mullins again managed to better Dave's result to finish 25th overall in a super quick time and 4th in his age-group.  Similar to Robbie, Rob Murdoch is on the improve with every race he enters and is probably on the hunt for more races to continue this trend after finishing 8th in his category.  Dave Kelly added an impressive 5th place to his seasons results.

It was a great day for DAT down at the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon and one that will surely be on the calendar for years to come but unfortunately for myself it was one that I had to give a miss this year, instead choosing to make the journey up to Hervey Bay to compete in the Olympic Distance race on offer that will have its own story up for viewing very shortly. :)

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Sydney Triathlon Weekend

The dilemmas involved in travelling to compete in a triathlon often involve that last minute panic of fitting everything in your bike bag, packing and re-packing to make sure you’re under the weight limit and of course getting that thing through the airport without taking out every sign or person who happens to get in your way, and that’s before you’ve even boarded the plane!

For the contingent of DAT athletes making the journey down to Sydney for the opening round of the ITU World Series and the final round of the Australian Triathlon Series this is part of what they would have had to tackle but for myself, Holly Grice, Anna Coldham and Brayden Tucker it was a rare opportunity to travel without our bikes and enjoy ourselves down in Sydney for the weekend.  I would include Dan Atkins in this list but after the amount of running around he did making sure every one of the DAT athletes was ready to go for the race it was probably far from relaxing until the last athlete crossed that finish line on Sunday morning!

It was perhaps our largest contingent of age-group athletes with a total of ten making the most of the final opportunity to collect valuable points for World Championship selection.  We also had DAT’s very own Ryan Fisher making his World Series debut in a field containing 70 of the world’s best triathletes and with many countries using the race as Olympic selection it was always going to be a fierce battle out there. 

While racing was far from my mind for the weekend, training was still involved but when the location for our Friday afternoon swim; North Sydney Olympic Pool gave us the opportunity to see Luna Park, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House all from the pool deck who could complain!

Although the elite women were off and racing early Saturday morning I’ll admit that like many of you I was watching from the comfort of my hotel room and I can only hope that this kind of live coverage on OneHD continues for the remainder of the season, especially with Ryan set to tackle the third round in Madrid which happens to be on the same night as the DAT Awards Night!  But I did eventually make my way down to Sydney Harbour in time to see a brilliant finish by our Australian girls and let me say I am glad I am not an Olympic selector with only three spots available and any number of girls capable of filling them!

The men were up next and even though I was only on the sideline I’ll admit the nerves were creeping in, especially when the ITU music started playing as the athletes were introduced and lined the pontoon.  Ryan exited the water with the main group in a fierce swim and was well positioned throughout the bike, fighting off the big Russians as they rode all over the road through the narrow streets of Sydney and although he couldn’t stick with the front runners raced superbly to finish in 46^th position and 4^th Australian and with a big block of training ahead of him before Madrid things look good for the upcoming international season.  And even though all our age-group athletes had their own races to prepare for every single one of them could be heard on the streets of Sydney, Ryan even commenting that Lawrence Sangster was one of the most noticeable voices on the entire course!

With the elites out of the way it was up to our age-group athletes come Sunday morning who had the opportunity to ride over the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of their course, a privilege that not even our elites were granted!  I must say it is a hard job keeping track of 10 athletes, all going off in different waves and I take my hat off to all of the spectators and especially Dan who does it at every race but thanks to modern technology I was able to track all of them on my phone and know exactly where I should stand to be able to cheer for them. 

And one of the first DAT athletes to cross the finish line was Courtney Dutton as she claimed what is becoming an ever familiar position on top of the podium in a dominant performance that even scored her some impressive television time on the ITU highlights video.  With her performances in Geelong, Devonport, Mooloolaba and Sydney Courtney has cemented herself as the Australian athlete to watch in the 20-24yr age group at the Auckland World Championships and will be determined to show the world that it is not only within this country that she can dominate a race in such convincing fashion!

In the same age group Elyza Codner finished 13^th and will be eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Australian team to see if she will be joining Courtney in Auckland to make the step up from Australian representative over the sprint distance up to the Olympic distance but after posting her quickest Olympic distance time that included personal bests over the swim, cycle and run, she has staked a firm claim for that green and gold uniform.

Taking overall line honors amoungst all of the DAT athletes was Robbie Mullins who is progressing quickly up the ranks and showing significant improvement with every race.  In one of the toughest and most competitive age groups he finished 21^st.  What was even more impressive was that his long term nemesis, Drew Westbrook finished less than a minute in front of him and if Robbie’s trend is anything to go by it won’t be long before Drew is not only looking behind him but will be the one trying to do the chasing!

In other age-group performances it is no surprise that after watching these guys in so many local races going toe to toe, Dave Kelly, Dave Sangster and Dave MacDonald all finished an incredible 8^th in their individual categories!  Simon Leeper finished 16^th, Rob Murdoch finished 32^nd and Kate Gibney finished a very impressive 14^th. 

But without doubt the performance of the day has to go to Geoff Lemmon.  Geoff ran a fantastic race to finish in 4^th position and was the 2^nd Queenslander across the line and all but cemented his spot on the Australian team for Auckland.  To see how much this meant to him when he found out his position and the embrace with Dan after the race that brought a tear to his eye was absolutely amazing to see how much it meant to him and is the very reason why we all do this sport!

That evening we all met up again to share the stories of the day and to do so with not only all these athletes but many of their families was a great way to top off a fantastic weekend!

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