Noosa Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

There was a lot of standing around waiting for wave 18, which was mine, to start so by the time we finally started I was raring to go. The start of the swim was good and I managed to stay away from the main pack and out of trouble. About half way through the race it got pretty rough as faster swimmers who started in the waves behind caught up and swam though and over the top of me. Also I started to get a burning sensation on my neck which wasn't very pleasant. I think I may have pulled my swim cap down too low over my head and it was rubbing on the back of my neck every time I turned my head to breathe (I now have, what looks like, a hicky on the back of my neck, hmmmm.....very nice!!).

I got out of the water and I felt pretty good but my time compared to last years was about 3 minutes slower. I think this is because I haven't done any speed work in training this year, as I've just been concentrating on swimming a straight 1500 meters each session. I'll need to start doing some sprint training again if I want to improve my swim times.

I found my bike in transition with no worries and got my glasses and helmet on in pretty quick time. I put my bike shoes on in transition as I have always done at Noosa and this time for some unknown reason I struggled to get my feet into them. Once I got them in and headed off out of transition I struggled again to clip my shoes into my pedals, this was very frustrating!!!!!

For the shorter tri's that I race in I normally have my shoes clipped into my pedals on my bike ready to go and put my shoes on as I ride. Each year at Noosa I have been putting my bike shoes on in T1 but I can't remember why I have been doing this, which sounds kind of strange and after this years debacle, I won't be doing it next year.

Once I finally got my shoes clipped in, I set off at a cracking pace. The wind was going to be behind me on the way out of Noosa so I thought I would just go as fast as possible and make good use of the wind. I was able to pass a heap of people and maintained a speed somewhere between 35 and 40kph. There were a few very aggressive cyclists who came from team entries which were yelling and screaming at people to STAY LEFT!!!! Numerous times people in front of me came close to touching wheels, at one stage I thought there was going to be a fight and I'm sure somebody was going to stack it. Luckily no one did and I pedalled along minding my own business staying out of harms way. The ride back into Noosa wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I was able to keep pace around the 33kph. I sipped on my water and had 1 gel after about 15 minutes on the bike and another towards the end of my ride.

My time was about 30 seconds faster then last year which was great. I was down on my tri bars as much as possible this year which I think left me with energy to burn in the run. I think I need to combine some sprints in with my long training rides to improve my overall speed.

T2 went well and I was able to rack my bike and get out on the run fairly quickly.

Nothing really, it all went well

I got off the bike and felt pretty good and thought that I had a great chance to beat my run time from last year and also beat last years overall time as well. The first few k's flew pass and I was on target to run under 50 minutes which would be 6 minutes faster then last year. I was taking in small sips of water at each water station and also throwing a cup of water over my head to stay cool. At the 8k mark I felt as if I was running out of puff and it seemed like a very long 2k's to the finish. Thoughts of tucking into some juicy watermelon at the finishing line flooded into mind and this is what kept me going. Eventually I made it across the line, very exhausted but thrilled because I had beaten last years overall time by about 3 minutes.

It seems my training with the running group has certainly paid dividens and I'm really happy with my run time. Next years goal will be to break 50 minutes for the 10k.

After crossing the finishing line a very happy competitor, I headed for the recovery area and downed a couple of cups of water. I made a bee line for the food and found the watermelon stand and saw about a dozen volunteers cutting up watermelon and creating the biggest and tallest pile of sliced watermelon I have ever seen in my life, I was heaven. Can I just say, it was the sweetest and juiciest watermelon I have ever, ever tasted.


I'm very happy with my effort in this race and I thought I went really well. I felt like I ran out of energy towards the end of my run and I'm sure this happened last year as well so I think I need to look at my nutritional needs towards the end of a race of this distance.


I really enjoyed the race this year as I had to work pretty hard to achieve my goal of beating last year’s time. Although it was only a few minutes it was a very rewarding race.

It was also a great social event this year as I met up with quite a few buddies, some from work, some from my running group and even a real live BTer.

They have already set the date for next year’s race, 4 November 2007, and as I said this time last year, I'm looking forward to it already.