Mooloolaba Triathlon

17 March 2013

The Mooloolaba Tri Festival is a great festival on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. There are events for elites, age groupers and beginners. Over the course of the Festival there are around 9000 participants. The events include 5km runs, kids events, an ocean swim and the triathlon. An added bonus was the ITU World Cup and Oceanic Cup events. It was really great to see the elite men and women race. They make it look so easy, whilst going so fast.

My triathlon was somewhat slower.

I did not run at all in the week leading up to the Sunday. The sore knee I sustained previously was slowly healing, but was not there totally. This, alongside with getting a really sore throat on the Wednesday, was making me feel really nervous about this one.

When we arrived at Mooloolaba, the surf was huge. It was driven by a cyclone off the coast and had caused quite a bit of beach erosion. On the Thursday the organisers made the decision to move to the contingency course which is in the Mooloolaba River. The swim would be around one of the islands. This would mean quite a long run to T1.

This was going to be the first Olympic distance triathlon for Rochelle, my daughter. I'm very experienced, I've done one before :). We registered and collected our wave coloured swimming cap, timing chip and souvenir towel on the Friday to beat the rush and then checked out the Expo.

Saturday was the bike check-in and Rochelle and I attended a Triathlon briefing session lead by one of the local triathletes. This was good, especially for Rochelle as she was stepping up to her first Olympic distance race. In the afternoon, with the rest of the family, we set ourselves up near T2 and watched the ITU World Cup men's event. This was great to watch. Gomez won.


Sunday: Race day

The weather was going to be hot (around 32 deg C), sunny and no significant wind, all leading to a tough run leg.

The Swim:
As the water temperature was 27 deg C this was a wetsuit free swim. After a quick warm up in the river my wave headed off around one hour after the first wave. The buoys were hard to see as they were blue against the water and sky. Also the swim out beside the island was straight into the sun. Oh well, follow the person in front. Largely the swim was without issue, though I could tell when the next wave caught me as people would swim into my feet or across me. This does not worry me a much as it used to. I was reasonably happy with my swim. Not fast, but 35 min (Garmin time) for the 1.5km without wetsuit was fine for me. No panic attacks, no stopping.

I felt ok for the first 200m of the transition run and then with a click I felt my knee go. I hobbled into transition wondering if my day was over already but after a bit of self massage in the transition I decided to get on my bike and see what happened.

The Bike:
This was a pretty straightforward leg. Up the hill, onto the motorway, out 20km and return.

I had a good ride but my knee was sore so I did not go flat out. Even when you think you are going pretty quickly, some guys just blow past you like you're standing still.

Note to self: next time you reassemble your bike after a flight, make sure that the brake blocks are not rubbing on the rims for the whole event.

The Run:

T2 was slow as I tried to squeeze my bike onto the rack and nervously considered what lay in front of me. This was going to be the test. Unless I was in total pain, I was going to finish this even if it meant walking the run leg. The course was a scenic route from Mooloolaba along the coast to Maroochydore and back, twice.

In the Finishing Straight

The new plan, run 4:00 / walk 1:00 (ish). When I came over the Mooloolaba hill I saw many people walking. Clearly a lot of people were doing it tough in the heat, though I was feeling pretty good. Because of the knee, I just got into marathon pace and chugged it out. During the run I saw three people getting carted off by Ambulances (and a couple more at the end). I assume this was because of heat distress. It's unfortunate when this happens but at least the organisation was prepared for this.

I was keeping a close eye out for Rochelle, but there are so many women in black tri suits that I could not see her.

There was plenty of water out on the course so I soaked myself at every water station. This really helped with the heat. I'd learnt this lesson from the Kona Marathon. If you can't keep the heat under control you were really going to suffer. There was also Endura at one of the stations.

As I was coming up the last hill with about 1km to go I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go for it and finish strongly. My personal cheer squad of Elizabeth, Bethany and Kay were there along will many other people all cheering their own people as well as others, recognising the individual effort every person had put into the event.

After the finish it was refreshments it was shoes off and into the ocean for a cool down swim - as much as you can cool down in an ocean of 27deg C.

Wollongong Olympic Distance Triathlon

10 March 2013

Normally the day before a race I don't do any training. As this was only a B race for me I decided to go out and have a nice easy relating 6-8km run. Many people say that this can loosen you up for the race. On this occasion: BAD MISTAKE

My left knee starting getting a bit tight about 5km into the run, so I cut to run/walking. By the time I got home it was quite sore. On the outside of the knee.

I was really unimpressed with this as I was looking forward to Wollongong and have Mooloolaba next week. A decision had to be made. Run tomorrow or not.

In the end the call was, no run. I did the swim and the bike and then pulled out. Shame as I was having fun. I made the call before the race and I'm sure it was the right one. I didn't want to risk trying to run, not finishing this event and injuring myself and not being able to compete at Mooloolaba.

The Wollongong Triathlon "TriTheGong" was another of the Elite Energy triathlons. Again well organised, though by the time the women were heading off in the sprint waves later in the day they were running quite a bit late.

This was the first time I had to set up transition in the dark, and with very little lighting. Next time I'll put a torch in my transition bag. It seems to have everything else.

It was a wetsuit swim and right on 1.5km by my Garmin (for what that's worth in measuring swim lengths). The course was a M shape, heading to the northern breakwall back almost to the beach and back to the southern breakwall. In a flash it was over. Ha, ha. Actually it was my best swim. No issues, felt strong.

On to the bike my leg felt sore but ok. Three laps and really only one hill on the out and one on the way back in each of the loops. I still love it when I overtake people on time trial bikes. I thought it was a bit strange where they had the turnaround at Belmore Basin. The round about 100 metres up the road would have been perfect. I guess it was a road closure issue.

For a few long seconds I was very tempted to run but I reminded myself that I had made the decision. I found an official and gave them my timer so I could not change my mind. The DNF hurt, but not as much as my knee.

Later in the day Rochelle did the sprint and I got some good photos.