Well it took about 4hrs to get there. After finding our room, collecting our club shirt and getting unpacked we heading downstairs to join the club for a BBQ. The hills club has fully booked out 3 motels in the area with the one we were in considered party central. The motel in nothing to fancy but it has everything that is needed. Had a bit of socialising that night but not a late night.
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| Our motel view in the morning. |
The next morning we were greeted to cloudy but dry conditions which was good as it had rained most of the night. After some breakfast we headed to the beach to watch the kids do their aquathon events. The water was calm and flat which we hoped it would stay for the rest of the day. Unfortunately my race start wasn't until 12:55pm so I knew it wasn't going to be as nice as it was in the morning.
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| Early morning view of the swim area |
We headed back to the room, changed and got the bikes sorted for the race before heading down to register. Nothing special really happened. We put our gear in transition and made our way down to the club tent near the finish line. We still had a few hours till race start so we just hung around and talked. Later we all headed up to the race briefing and then it all started. Wave after wave of starts. I was in wave 6 so it didn't really take that long to get in. By now we had a few nice waves rolling in so that made the beach start a little more interesting. I had never done a beach start through surf. Oh well I thought lets see what happens.
The signal went off and we raced towards the water. I beautifully hurdled the first rolling wave passing a few people as I did it. I looked ahead and a wave was breaking just ahead of me. Some people held their ground and shouldered it while others dived into it. With my past success I though no wait I can dive over the top of this one and look really cool. You see the life guards do it all the time. Can't be that hard. Well I don't know if it was lack of height, lateness of my leap or the fact that I kind of suck but I didn't make it. I really don't know what happened but I remember my legs and body kind of getting pulled back while my head smashed into the wave. Now I have my goggle half off my head and I had to stop like a fool to put them back on all the time trying to look cool. With that sorted I started to swim. Luck it was only a short single wave break I had to make it through or i could have really looked stupid. It was hard work for a while as we made it slowly out. I just didn't seem to be getting very far with the water moving around us.
I had stayed out to the left side of everyone so I didn't have to deal with the kicking but by turn one I was in the mix. Kicked and bashed I made it around heading to the second turn. There I looked and thought this is ok I am on target for a nice close turn. Next thing I know I am under the buoy thinking how the hell did I get here and how do I get out. With a little stop and swim to one side I became free of my home under the sea. So that was issue number two. I got through turn three without much problem and turn four was like turn one a lot of kicking about by some. Heading into the beach was good but to get to transition you had to run up a nice long soft sand hill. Oh boy the legs were burning after that.
I changed as fast as I could and headed out on the bike. The bike leg was tough. Lots of hills and turns. You never really had a good change to get down on the bars and smash out some speeds. Well I couldn't but it didn't stop some people from coming past me at a great rate. I did take one turn slightly too quickly on the first lap. I didn't know if one of the volunteers from our club was cheering me on or saying slow down but half way around the corning I thought "oh this could be interesting". I did make it but on the second lap I took it a little easier.
Off the bike and into the run I was tired as usual but I took the run easier than normal. I wanted to get into a good pace that I could hold till the last km and then pick it up for the run into the finish. It went really well actually. I was feeling pretty good and passing a number of people. Yes as usual I got passed by a bunch as well but I wasn't feeling like I was going to fall down any moment and worked on my running style a little. I have been told to change a few things as it would make my running better so I worked on that a little as a ran along.
Over the last km I picked up the pace as I wanted to and powered into the finish line being cheered on by the club members who had already finished.
For the next few hours we cheered on the club members heading out and coming back from the run. I also got to meet a few people that I knew from other clubs and talk to John who looks like will be my new triathlon coach. So I did get to do a few things done while I was there.
John works for Summit fitness studio and I had him as an option for a triathlon coach. We had a good chat about what I want to do and what I had been doing. We exchanged some details so I can get him my old training plan and race results so he can work out a good starting point for me. So the real training will start soon.
Unfortunately my lift was heading back that night so we didn't stay around long enough for the clubs annual undies run around the main street or the clubs party but maybe next year. All up it was a good little trip and race.
My results for the weekends 1km swim, 30km ride and 8km run was 1:59:22..
| POS | NAME (#) | TIME | CATEG (POS) | GENDER (POS) | SWIM | T1 | CYCLE | T2 | RUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 424 | Stefan JANKOWSKI (462) | 01:59:22 | 35-39 (56) | Male (355) | 00:19:42 | 00:02:55 | 00:57:01 | 00:01:38 | 00:38:04 |
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