When my age group was called up to the start line, I slipped on my goggles and the strap snapped in half rending them useless. OMG! I got over the shock pretty quickly and decided that I would just have to swim without them so I threw my goggles away. I very nice lady picked then up and tied them into a knot and handled them back to me. I tried them on but again they snapped OMG!!!!!!. The lady then turned to the crowd and yelled out if anybody had a spare pair of goggles. It was to be my lucky day.

A guy (spectator) raced over and offered his pair that he had in his pocket. I was so thankful and tried to organise how to give them back to him at the end of the race but he said not to worry, what a champ!!! The next thing I knew was that the hooter had sounded and it was time to start. I thanked the lady and guy again and took off into the surf. The actual swim itself was very uneventful (thank god) and before I knew it I was out of the surf and running up the beach.

Don't be a tight arse and replace my goggles when there start to get a bit old!!!

I found my bike, got into my shoes, donned my helmet and headed out. I found out later that the 40+ guys (this was the section where my bike was racked) had started about 5 waves before I did so my bike was the only one left in their section, easy to find. Is that cheating??

Nothing it all went well.

The bike section was the first time I saw and heard my family and they gave me the biggest roar as I went past. I tried to push the bike as hard as I could for the full 40k's. I made it out to the turn around point in about 30 or so minutes and tried to get back in the same time and I came fairly close. I think I averaged about 37kph going out and about 33-34kph coming back and overall my bike computer said it was 34.8 which was just fan-bloody-tastic!!!! I had one gel on the way out and one on the way back which seemed to work well and I felt like I still had energy left for the run.

Nothing it was great!!!!

I racked my bike, put on my shoes and socks and took a couple of gulps of water and headed out for the run.

All good

I started the run on a high after finishing the bike section in good time. I also passed my family again and they were just yelling so loud and slapping my hands as I went pass that I couldn't help but feel good. The run course included a couple of steep hill climbs and although I ran up all of them it was a bit of a struggle and my time for this section suffered a little. I started running under 5 minute k's for the first 2 or 3k's but as each k went by I got slower and slower. In the end I was a tiny bit disappointed with my run time as I would have loved to have kept it below 50 minutes. I had heaps of water on the run and one gel.

Maybe some bricks and some hill training just for this race next year.

I passed my family for the last time as I came into the finishing chute and that spurred me on to sprint the final 500 meters across the line. I quickly headed into recovery for some water and watermelon and then headed back out to catch up with the family and thank them for all their support. It was brilliant!!!


The Mooloolaba tri is a fantastic event and should be on the top of all Aussie’s “to do” list of tri's (right up there with Noosa). The volunteers were all fantastic (I tried to thank as many of them as I could) and you receive heaps of encouragement from spectators and even spare goggles if required (how lucky was I?).

I had a great day and really enjoyed the race and just loved having the family along for support. I'm very happy with my swim and bike effort and my overall time is a personal best over the Olympic distance and sets up a tough new goal time for Noosa at the end of this year.

PS There was also a great goodie bag with Tri mags, hat, singlet, water bottle and food.