my first long course - Australian Long Course Champs

sunday 27 february 2005

5:14am. I beat the alarm up by one minute. Actually i had been sort
of awake by 4:45 and was microsleeping for the next 29 minutes. I
awoke to find that the two girls i was sharing the apartment was were
already awake. I tried to eat brekkie. I successfully got through a
bowl of cereal and crumpet. I left the second one on the plate. Maybe
I'd want it later on... I grabbed the drinks i had made up out of the
fridge and placed them in the bag i had packed the night before. By
now it was 6am and i was grabbing my bag and heading out the door. I
was getting nervous on the walk down to the start. We walked past the
finish chute, and i told the girls i should have walked down it so that
i could at least go down it once today.

6:15am. Transition. I checked in and had my age category marked on
the back of my leg. A huge big C was drawn on my right calf. I
strapped my timing band just above my left ankle, placed my helmet on
my head so it could be checked and walked into the Transition compound.
My bike was there waiting for me, as i had checked it in yesterday
afternoon. Still taped to the top tube were the two espresso love gu's
and some spares were taped to the seat post. I unpacked my bag making
sure i had everything i needed. My gel flask, and more spares were
placed in my helmet and it was rested on the areobars. Bike shoes were
placed into pedals and held flat by the ingenious use of rubber bands
(makes transitions even faster). I laid out my run kit, shoes, socks
(yes very important in long races, no blisters) and run number belt.
Time to use the mens. I returned half put on my wetsuit and sprayed my
legs, arms and sleeves of the wettie with cooking spray and grabbed my
goggles caps and a gu and headed out. I was starting to feel nervous
but also looking forward to the challenge. My first long course race
was only moments from beginning. I walked past club mate and Professional Simon Thompson and wished him
good luck. He told me that someone once told him with a long course or
half, if you think you are going at the right pace, back off a smidge
then you'll be going at the right pace. I said i'd keep that in mind.

6:45am Stood with fellow club mates Billy and Marty and wished them all good luck and
they passed on words on encouragement.

7:00am The Pros had started and finally they let the young guys into
the water for the deep water start. The first wave was males 18-29.
After a brief warm up i stood on a sand bank while the starter counted
down the start of the Australian Long Course Triathlon Championships.

7:07am I left the sand bar and took my place about one body length
behind the front row and tried to hold my position as the tide tried to
take us down stream.

7:09am. WAAAAAAAAAA. The air horn blew and we were off swimming up
the hastings river with the incoming tide behind us. I started out at
almost above my olympic distance pace, before Thomo's words came back
into my head and i settled in behind a few others. The first k of the
two flew by as we swam with the tide. Before what seemed like no time
at all we were at the far turn around and swimming back against the
tide and into the rising sun. Both making the going tough. The tide
wasn't great but you certainly could tell you were not swimming as fast
as you were on the way down. i think all the sponge towing drills that
coach has us do helped with having some strength to pull through the
water as i passed a few people swimming back up stream. 29:56 and i
was out of the water and into the bike transition in 12 place in my age
from 52 starters at this point.

The bike course was 4x20k loops, 10ks of each lap was undulating hills
with two really nasty short pinches, and the other 10k were dead flat.
The hilly section of each lap i carved up, but i really struggled with
the flat section. Each time in the flat section my legs were burning
and i was really struggling to hold a rhythm, my lower back was killing
me and it was really uncomfortable to hold my position on the aerobars.
Each time i was hanging out to get back to the hilly section of the
course. It was getting quite warm and i was going through most of a
bidon of water on each lap. The kids working the bidon exchange were
fantastic. They were loving running along side the cyclists and
handing off the bidon of water or powerade. I was riding ok, and i was
trying to make sure i stayed in front of Thomo and the other pro's. I
managed to get three laps out before they did there 4 so i wasn't
lapped on the bike. However Thomo would finish the 3 laps of the run
before i finished 1 (just) he past me just before he finished, so i was
there to see him finish the race in a course record 3:38. (he ran
68 minutes for 20ks Freak!!) Billy took 75ks of the 80 to make up the 6
minutes his wave started behind me so i was pretty happy with that despite
the fact the 40 flat k's hurt like hell, and he swam almost 50 secs faster
than me. 2:23 for the bike. I could have finished an olympic in that time.
What was i doing this long stuff for! I was 13 in my age group at this point.

Back into transition and on with the shoes, hat and run number belt. I
grabbed a gu and headed out for 20ks of running. My goal was to go sub
2 hours for the run and if i did that I'd go close to going sub 5 for
the whole race, a pretty solid effort on debut. The run was 95% flat
with a pinchy bit of about 400m each lap. So i settled into a rhythm
and was running quite strongly for me. i was estimating early that i
might go about 1:45, but the last 6k's were terrible as i slowed to a
real slow run, but i was refusing to walk. The last k was good and i
picked up the pace again and even past a guy from my age group in the
last 300m. The run took me 1:53 for a 4:48 total. It felt good to
cross the finish line. And a pretty solid achievement on debut for 21st
in my category. Maybe again soon. Whats next on the Calendar???

2:30pm Beer in hand i was spotted at the pub, for the first of a few.

AB.