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 Swim
Comments: This was the best swim ever!! Was in the last wave of my age group (4 groups). Lined up in the 2nd row right in the middle. Gun went, off I went. Being a deep water start there was no chance of me getting left behind as I normally do with a beach start! Remembered my water-polo days and starting in deep water was good. Got to the first buoy easy enough, then found some feet for a while. For some reason I felt really strong at this point. I knew I was swimming better, and faster than I had in any of my races before, not sure why but I tried to tell myself to push in the swim more this time. The talking to myself seemed to work! After the big turn around I couldn't find any feet to follow, and I think (think!) I was the lead swimmer in a small pack. Kept running across a few slower swimmers from the waves in front but avoided them, just. Was thinking, with it being a no wetsuit swom, sub 30 would be a good time so when I got out of the water and saw 27:11 I was over the moon!!! What would you do differently?: Nothing. Well, maybe push a bit more.....?  Transition 1
Comments: Official results have T1 and T2 in the bike leg, so I'll use the Garmin times here. Then reality hit, and I had to start running..... Achilles ached, which wasn't such good news. Oh well, I had a bike to ride before I worried about that. First time with the shoes on the pedals (yup, I finally got tri-shoes!!!) so didn't have to worry about putting them on in T1. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Bike
Comments: First time in a race jumping on the bike and getting feet into the shoes. Got my feet into the shoes OK, I think, but more practice would be good so I can do it all quicker and smoother. Used the same type of elastic band to tie the shoe to the bike as I had practiced with, except this one wouldn't break!!!!! Faffed about with that before it finally snapped and I was off and running. It was warming up already, and quite humid, so really pleased I had an early start. First part of the course is through town and very technical with lots of turns and roundabouts. Also with having an early start, the course wasn't too busy and only saw one drafter all ride! Got my HR down, had a gel, and rode out towards the hill, passing quite a few people from earlier starts, but not being passed much which felt nice. The new bike was going great...... :) The hill was good - passed a few, got passed by a few less. Nearly came a cropper when I was looking down at gearing and almost rode off the road into the bush! Not good! Got over the top, then carried on out to the turnaround, nothing major there, saw the pro's on their return at some point. Turned round, headed back to town, all just a pleasant ride, was loving every minute of it...... Got to the top of the big scary hill and decided to just go for it... nobody else was round me so I basically flew down the hill on my own at 75k/hr+. Had to have a little scream and yell half way down like yo do on a roller-coaster :) Rest of the ride back to town was fairly uneventful, but I did start to get passed by a few more people as the quicker guys from the waves behind started to catch me. Hit town, saw my wife just before I started to take my feet out of my shoes. Dismount went well, if a little slowly then it was all over. What would you do differently?: Push more, felt I could have gone harder, I think. Transition 2
Comments: Was wondering whether to run sockless or not, and had left socks in T2 just in case. With my achilles being sore coming out of the water, I thought there was no point risking blisters as I knew the run wasn't going to be quick, so put socks on, and set off. What would you do differently?: Maybe risk sockless, but only with healthy achilles.  Run
Comments: Set off, and felt no pain, not even an ache. That felt good, but I knew with a sever lack of running over the previous month, I had to take it easy or I was going to really suffer later on. Pace was all over the place, but I was more concerned with trying to keep cool, and having a really good time, high-fiving all the kids that were on the course. It felt, at the start, that the whole town was out watching, the atmosphere was awesome! I had a blast! Once I realised that my ankle wasn't going to hurt, but that I wasn't going to run anywhere near a PB, I made sure just to enjoy myself, which I did. The crowds thinned out a bit towards the turn, but soon picked up again on the way back, and the last 2km was just the best feeling as though I was in a real race...! Thought at one point I could go under 2:40, so tried to pick it up. Saw my wife with 500m to go, then realised that the finish line was a little too far to hit 2:40. Oh well, sprint finish anyway, got to look good! I knew I'd gone as hard as I could when just past the finish line, my left quad started to cramp! What would you do differently?: Not get injured 6 weeks before the race with a stupid achilles tendonosis! Post race
Warm down: Stood under the lovely cold showers just past the finish line, had plenty of fruit, water and endura to rehydrate. Got my bag, found my bike and headed back to the hotel for a shower and rest. What limited your ability to perform faster: That achilles. Event comments: The volunteers, locals and all the spectators made this a wonderful event & race! Loved every minute of it, even though I knew I wouldn't be performing at my best. Given what I know, and where my training is, I'd love to come back and go for 2:30, but I think this is a race that is a do-once tick off the bucket-list. Spent another week on the glorious Sunshine Coast though, including the the spectacular glasshouse mountains. Also hit Australia Zoo which was everything I'd imagined it to be. Loved it. Crikey!!!! Profile Album Last updated: 2010-11-16 12:00 AM
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Australia
USM
30C / 86F
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1393/3671
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 205/423
Flew up to Noosa on Thursday to acclimatise to the warm humid weather.... except it was a bit overcast. Still humid though. Explored Noosa Thursday, had a dip in the hotel pool but bascially relaxed and took it easy. No running as I didn't want to irritate the achilles. That was going to be the unknown on race day, not having run for a week, and not run anything over 30 minutes for a month! Still, I kept telling myself it didn't matter, and this was a nice training trip......
Rode half the bike course on Friday, to check out the hill - both the climb and descent. Coming back down the steep side was a little scary as it was wet, windy, humid, and I was on my nice new bike that I didn't want to crash on. Plus the wife would have been angry if I'd crashed and spoilt the holiday..... Even on the brakes, still hit 65 k/hr !
Checked everything in the day before, all the good bike racks were taken so I went right down to the other end, to where you come in from the swim, and got a rack with hardly any bikes around. Even scored a free Specialized t-shirt that they were handing out to all owners of Specialized bikes... result :)
Water temp was then announced as 24.1 so no wetsuit........ didn't bother me, as this should in theory be my best leg.
Woke up early, bit of brekkie, walked the 100m from the hotel to transition, found that I had 1 bike next to me, and nobody else close by. Best decision all week to rack down there, so quiet!
Porta-pottie visit or 3, then time to head to the start.
Had a great start time, first age group off, after the pro's, opens, clydesdales and premium mates. Saw the pro's set off then watched a wave or two then jumped in for a quick warmup. Water was lovely, perfect temp!