Thursday 23 February 2012

Geelong race report


Two weeks out from race day I was excited and ready to race. My new bike was working well for me and I was feeling fast. Then came the nerves. I don’t usually get particularly nervous but I was sure as heck feeling it now. The nerves steadily grew as race day approached until the Tuesday before when everything fell apart. The final report for my summer research project was due later that day with my presentation the following morning. Neither was completed and I was feeling very stressed! This, combined with nerves for the weekend meant that I was not in a state to train. After talking with Cath I did few laps of the uni on my bike thinking over what specifically I was worried about and to identify one thing that I would do pre race that would mean I was ready to race. My biggest fear was not knowing what to expect. I like to have a mental plan of the race before I go out but being my first ever open elite ITU race and first time racing the likes of Emma Moffatt, I had no idea how the race would pan out. Once I had identified this I was able to focus on how I would race given various different scenarios rather than worrying how everyone else was going to race. My final report was in and I felt happy with the finished work. With my presentation done and having received my green and gold tri suit at swimming the previous day I was starting to feel better about the weekend by Wednesday afternoon. Thursday came and the nerves and apprehension had dissipated to excitement. I had reached the mentality that yes I did have to race some of the best triathletes in the world but heck they had to race me too! I was ready to race. Enjoying being on holiday a little too much I wasted most of my day managing only to pack my bike before swimming training that evening. This meant that I had to hurriedly pack all my clothes and everything I needed to race after dinner as I had to get up early the next morning to be at the airport by 6:15am. I’m not very good at packing as is and given the rush I did an even worse job than usual resulting in me being a whopping 13kg over the baggage allowance. Oops! Thankfully Coach Matt who was travelling with us was able to take my extra bag as his to avoid me having to pay excess.

We arrived in Geelong around lunch time on Friday giving us 48 hours to kill until race start. Saturday was spent checking out the course with race briefing and uniform checks that evening. After a leisurely sleep in until about 6:30am Dan and I had a small bite to eat before heading down to the bay for a swim. We soon discovered that the water temperature was rather fresh! We headed back to our accommodation for breakfast and to warm up. I checked out the bike and run courses before lunch then relaxed for the rest of the day until race briefing. At race briefing we were informed that the water temperature was a balmy 20.9°C, which meant no wetsuits. We were also told that the bike and the run would be done on the right hand side of the road not the left. Thank goodness we practiced left-hand hotdog turns at the Triathlon QLD camp a few weeks ago!

We fuelled up on solid feed of spag bol (thanks Dan!), relaxed a bit more and headed to bed for a good sleep before race day. It was an odd feeling not having to get up at the crack of dawn to set up transition but instead having the leisure to sleep in again with the race start not until 1:45pm. I had a big breakfast before heading down to watch the age groupers race. Clare, Emma, Bronny and Nicola were all racing and it was good to cheer them on and take my mind off the race day gitters. It rained sporadically all morning and bike after bike were sliding around the corners in the wet. My fears were growing at the prospect of going around these same corners not once but 5 times in a pack. Fortunately come lunchtime the clouds cleared and the sun came out so by the time our race started the roads were dry. With a max temperature that day of 22.5°C and water temp of just over 20°C the conditions were perfect for racing, especially as being from Armidale, I prefer the cold!

At 12:30 I headed down to transition to rack my bike and warm up before race start. It was a little intimidating but exciting at the same time seeing athletes such as Emma Moffatt who I have always looked up to racking their bikes in the same transition and getting ready for the same race. 1:30 came around and it was time to finish off my warm up with a swim and get ready for the start.

Being called down into the water
The swim was a 750m swim in the harbour heading out adjacent to the wharf with a short swim across before heading back to the shore. We were lined up and called into the water in ranking order as they said our names. I was number 20 so didn’t get the earliest choice of start positions but still ended up where I wanted anyway – approximately mid way between the two starting buoys. We were held in line approx 5m behind the start until everyone was in the water and we were called up to the start line. The starter announced ‘on your mark’ and the race was off before the hooter! As expected the first 50m or so was a fury of arms and legs, and I swallowed several mouthfuls of seawater before settling into my rhythm. Theresa Adam and Moffatt headed out the swim early with Sarissa De Vries and Liz Blatchford following. Not wanting to miss any breaks I merged across to Blatchford’s toes and hung on. Moffatt and Adam gradually put time in on us exiting the water with a 20 second break and De Vries 10 sec behind them. I lead out the main pack with Blatchford and had a strong transition being the first in the pack of 10 onto the bike.

Waiting to be called forward to the start
T1

 

The bike consisted of 5 fairly technical 4km loops with a few undulations, a head wind, and a hill. The pack did not work well together and we a bit over a minute to Moffatt and Adam over the 20km. De Vries was dropped from the lead pack and we passed her mid way through the bike. We entered T2 about 50 seconds ahead of the second chase pack containing Ashleigh Gentle and Erin Densham among others. T2 went fairly smoothly and I managed to get my helmet into my bucket despite not remembering actually dropping it... It’s funny how you never remember the whole race! For those of you that don’t know, ITU races have fairly fanatical rules. One of which is that in each transition any used items (i.e. your goggles, wetsuit, helmet etc) must be deposited in a bucket provided to you that sits next to your bike with a 15 second time penalty to be served on the run for non compliance. Having never raced with a bucket before I was concerned I may forget or miss the bucket but I didn’t.

One of the many corners on the bike

About to be passed by Gentle on lap 2
I took the first lap of the 3 lap (5km) run fairly conservatively not wanting to blow my legs too early. I built into the second lap and finished feeling strong on the final lap. In retrospect I probably took the first lap a little too conservatively but am still stoked with my run and my race overall. Gentle and Densham powered past me on the second lap of the run but I managed to stay ahead of everyone else from the pack behind. I finished in 12th position which I am really pleased with.
Moffatt ran away to win the race ahead of Anne Haug and Blatchford who ran past Adams  to finish 2nd and 3rd. Densham had the run of the day from the 2nd chase pack to finish in 4th.

Finished!

Full results:

Race coverage will be aired on Channel 10 at 1pm this Sunday 26th Feb
It was fantastic hearing the voices of my fellow VTC members each lap as I rode and ran past. Thanks so much for cheering! The whole weekend was a fantastic experience and I absolutely loved every minute. I love racing but haven’t enjoyed a race this much in a long time!






Gillian

p.s. sorry for the excessively long post! I got carried away ;)

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Welcome and Thanks

Welcome to my blog!
Over the past couple of months I have enjoyed reading and been inspired by the blogs of fellow club members. This has prompted me to jump on the blogging band wagon with the hope of inspiring others by sharing my experiences while also keeping people up to date on my activities.

I'd like to open this blog by thanking all the people who have helped me along my way over the past 20 years. You never get enough recognition for your part!
Firstly, mum and dad. Without you I never would have achieved anything. Thanks for your support through all of my endeavours; successful, not so successful, and disastrous!
Secondly, thanks to my sister for putting up with me and all the talk of bikes and all things triathlon ;)
Next on the list are all of my coaches over the years; Cynthia Harwood, Di Gray, Mike Hoult, Peter Wilkinson, Greg Lynch, Dion Walmsley, Matt Bury, my current coach Cath Rogers, and all those who have had smaller coaching roles. You have all inspired me to give my best and taught me many things.
Special mentions go to Di and Wilko for first helping me realise that I had potential, and to Cath for helping me fulfil that potential.
Thank you to everyone at Penguins swimming club for your part in helping me learn to love competitive sport and all those at Armidale triathlon club and Armidale cycling club for getting me started in Triathlon.
Thank you to all of my friends who have shown interest in my sport. Your belief in me has helped to keep me motivated.
Lastly, thank you to all my friends at Vision triathlon club. Your friendship and support has made training and racing a real joy.

For those of you that do not know, I recently raced in my first open elite ITU race - Geelong Sprint Triathlon Premium Oceania Cup, finishing 12th. My race report will follow shortly but for now I leave you with a quote from the latest Triathlon 220 magazine. For anyone who has seen (or heard of) my bike collection you’ll know this definitely relates to me!
“The correct number of bikes to own is n+1, where ‘n’ is the number of bikes currently owned”


Until next time,
Gillian