Gold Coast Tri - Luke Harrop Memorial - TriathlonMini Sprint

Well I can safely say that I am shocked by that swim placing result... What the hell?? I though for sure I'd come BOP... The teams and males were FLYING past!

Honestly I was not expecting this result. In the first 75 metres I was drafting off Michelle Jones' niece. Yes it's her niece. She's been in the last few races as has her mum (who's Michelle Jone's Twin sister - I'm SERIOUS I thought it was Michelle Jones! She's got the entire Jones Kit on including cap, shoes and FELT Bike!)

Anyway I've been keeping pace with her quite nicely until rounding the buoy. I got hit in the head which disoriented me for a bit. But I straightened up and went back on course. I was in a small pack of about 6 when two screamed out... I looked up and they'd hit a Blue floating pipe... Now what the hell is that??? They rounded the pipe as we did when we all realised there was a chain about 30cm below the surface. It was sharp, it hurt, and the people swimming over the top didn't help. I must admit my first thought was "THERE'S BULL SHARKS IN HERE AND I AM BLEEDING!!!!" That freaked me out a little. I rounded the last buoy and was swimming fast to shore. Bloody hand was STINGING. Stupid chain.

Avoid any permanent structures by at least 15m from now on! Who would've known that the guideline was so shallow in the water!!

Time included with Bike.

I musn't of looked good cause FH said I looked terrible coming out of the water. My foot was stinging but my hand was bleeding. I got my goggles and cap off okay and ran up the big blue overpass to tranition and tried my hardest not to slip and fall off. Got the bike. There was a LONG run to the bike start and it was "uphill" too.

Try not to focus on the pain...

Lowest position all season. Hey... I can't compete with Michelle Jone's niece! Just wait until I get a full Tri bike! LOL
When I got to the bike My hand was stinging like anything and holding onto the tri bars was getting sticky. there was a headwind leading up to the first hot dog turn at the lights (to go to Australia Fair shopping centre). After rounding the turn there was a huge gust of a tailwind and I was already above 40 on the flat! IT WAS GREAT! The tailwind was awesome! I regularly looked down to see my cadence at 95 and my speed at 40kph! I WAS BEATING A CAR going in the same direction. GO LEGS GO!
I passed our hotel! WOOHOO! Took a drink.
There was some moron in his driveway with a megaphone yelling "faggot" at everyone who passed. I called back that he was a dickhead. I felt like giving hime the finger but I would have screwed up my aeroposition. :)
Round the second hotdog and I was immeadiatley going 10km slower! It was HARD! That tailwind that had been my friend was now my enemy (and everyone else's enemy!)
Men were forming Packs to shield themselves from the wind. One pack caught up to me near maccas. They gave me a boost for about 1km until we hit the hill. They dropped me but it didn't matter we were almost home!
My foot was starting to hurt... I just thought the velcro on my shoe was rubbing my foot the wrong way...

As a side note, the roadworks from last year were done! The riding surface was as SMOOTH as you could hope to ride on. It was BEAUTIFUL SMOOTH ROAD and my wheels LOVED every minute of it!

Tack onto the illegal drafting sooner! LOL Nah just kidding. I should do some more hill and headwind training. That'll get me good for the next one.

So this is where I noticed the cuts on my foot. I'd taken my cycling shoe off and noticed the velcro was turning red.

It was hard to put my sandshoe on... and the rubbing of innersole on a fresh wound was not great. The girl next to me saw the blood and went, "jeez! You're gonna run on that?" I sure as hell was!


DON'T FOCUS ON THE PAIN!!!

So I was off again over the overpass and out onto the run. The 29th place isn't a shock here. I wasn't fast today.
The tailwind was nice. My gu was delicious (see my blog! FH got them for me for my birthday!)
So I'm getting overtaken left right and centre. my hand hurts, my foot screams everytime i lift it (when the shoe rubs the wounds)and this guy comes up to me and says "Wanna run with me for a bit?"
So he acts as my windbreaker until after the drink station. Then I swap in to give him a break. Didn't matter though as he was stuffed. He let me go on. so I did.
Didn't sprint for the line today.

Try not to focus on the pain. Push through and keep on sprinting

First thing I did was take off my shoe and douse my foot in water then warned the first aid guy that he'd be inundatted in a few minutes. Got and orange and went and joined the queue. :)


Getting injured in the first half of the swim. Focusing too much on the blood and pain on my hands and feet to just "get up!" and get done.


5mins faster than last year. I did enjoy it as it's a good excuse to have a weekend "down the coast". The team at USM did a great job.