Mooloolaba

The Mooloolaba triathlon weekend is always a great weekend away, and this year was no exception. After being first inspired to do the Mooloolaba triathlon watching the TV coverage of Emma Snowsill win the world cup here in 2008, I was back again to race for my 4th year in a row, this time racing in the Oceania cup section.

The weekend started for me on Friday. Race briefing for the oceania cup was at 3pm which ment missing yet another day of uni. Expecting registration and uniform checks to be held at the same time I decided I had to go. As it turned out uniform checks, bike racking and timing chip collection were at 5am on Sunday morning!! I was mildly annoyed that I had missed class to go to the race briefing which I didn't gain anything from in the end, but that is part of being a proffesional athlete I suppose. On the up side, being in Mooloolaba early meant I had Friday evening and the whole of Saturday to relax.

Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Mens world cup race. With many of the big names racing it was both exciting and inspiring to watch. It always amazes me the speed at which the top runners can run - it almost looks as if they're sprinting the entire 10km!

I headed to bed early on Saturday night as I had to get up at 4:15am the next morning to be at transition at 5am. I must say I have rather enjoyed the lunchtime start of my last 2 races, being able to sleep in, relax all mornig and take my time to get ready. Being the 2nd wave off in the morning at 6:36am however meant a very early start with not much time to waste.
Saturday had been perfectly sunny until the afternoon and I was anticipating my first ever Mooloolaba triathlon in the dry but Mooloolaba did not dissapoint and it started to rain while we were setting up transition. After I'd finished setting up I did my hair, put on my sunscreen and before I knew it it was time to head to the start line.
The swim at Mooloolaba starts from 800m down the beach. It heads out, follows the curve of the beach in an L shape, with a right turn about half way, continues on then heads back into the beach. Conscious of not wanting a repeat of my swim in Devonport I headed out hard at the start of the swim, getting an early lead. The swim was challenging to navigate at some points due to the swell - you had to site at the right time otherwise the buoy was obscured behind a wave. The swim went really well (apart from a minor mishap turning around a buoy too quickly and running into one of the lifesavers on a paddleboard who got in my way) and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Fortunately the water had cleared up from the floods on Thursday which had left the water rather brown. All went well until the last buoy when we turned to head back to shore. I had neglected to check out the swim exit before heading down the beach to the start and so headed towards the Subaru arch on the beach instead of the swim exit. Fortunately being familiar with the course from previous years I realised my error and got back on course pretty quickly.

Running up the stairs at the 'loo with a view' to transition

My swim was back to where it should be and I led out of the water with one of the Canadian girls alongside me and the others spread out behind. I wasn't sure how far back the other girls were so didn't smash myself up the hill out of transition allowing the others to catch up and a pack to form. Looking back that was probably a big tactical error. By the time we got onto the Sunshine highway a pack of 12 girls had formed. The pack worked really well together from the start rolling turns for pretty much the whole 40km. The pace was fairly moderate (for a race) and a few girls - Tamsyn Moana-Veale, Ellie Salthouse, Maddie Dillon put in some attacks early on but no-one got away and the pace stayed the same. I also put in a few attacks early on but just to stir things up and test peoples legs to see if I could form a breakaway later on in the ride. The run being my weakest leg I knew most of the girls in the pack would be able to out run me over the 10km so if I wanted a decent finish position I would need to get away on the bike. By the time we got to the turnaround (the Mooloolaba cycle is an out and back course) I decided that it was time to try and get away. I put in a small surge just before the turn to get to the front the attacked out of the turn. I opened up a small gap on the pack but was caught after only a few hundred meters. Riding in the pack on the way out I hadn't realised how strong the tail wind was and consequently the head wind on the way back. This combined with a pack that was working well together meant that is was not possible for me to get a break despite many attempts to do so. After 3 or 4 attacks I figured my chances of getting away were pretty slim but still put in a few more attacks in the hope that I would wear out the other girls legs for the run or that on the off chance I would get away. About 5km from the end of the cycle 3 girls in the pack crashed splitting up the pack and leaving a group of 8 girls.

Out on the run

I led into T2 but had a horrendous transition and was the last in the group out on the run. I identified my spot on the rack by what I thought were my run shoes, racked my bike, went to put on the shoes and realised that my run cap was not there. I was confused to a second or so before I worked out I'd racked in the wrong spot and my shoes were a few meters back along the rack. I then had to un rack by bike, go against the flow back to my proper spot on the rack and try again. In the end I lost about 15 seconds which is not much but it meant that the other girls were already down the road and I had no one to run with. It had been my race plan to try and stick with some of the other girls for as long as possible in the run to try and get my pace up but instead I had to run solo and push the pace by myself. The Mooloolaba run course seems to always get the best out of me though and with my head space right again after getting away from me in Devonport I was able to pull off a sub 40 run - just (39:59). Not quite the 38 min I had hoped at the start of the season to achieve by now but a solid run none the less. I ended up finishing in 9th with 2 of the girls who had crashed on the bike passing me again on the run. I'm happy with this result but more importantly I have regained a huge amount confidence after Noosa being able to really push the 10km run without any fears of collapsing.
In retrospect I probably should have pushed the first few kilometres of the bike so that only a smaller group was able to form but I can’t change that now. I can however work on my tactics for next time... which need a lot of work as this draft legal racing business is so different and much more tactical than the non drafting that I’m used to! I also need to work on my run which will come with time (and lots of training) :)

Oh, and never, ever, ever, no matter how windy it is am I going to make the same fashion error I did last Sunday and wear my cap backwards during the run...

Running down to the finishing chute
- sporting the atrocious backward cap style

Gillian

Déjà vu

It is an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes everything works out perfectly and sometimes everything goes wrong. The lead up to Devonport was one of those times when everything went wrong. I did however learn quite a few things!

My first learning experience was rather stressful. When I attempted to change over the wheels on my bike to my race wheels my rear derailleur fell off. How on earth did you manage that I hear you ask. I have no idea. I have taken out the rear wheel of my bike many many times and never encountered this problem. Anyway. I consequently found myself at 8pm the night before a race with my derailleur detached and with no knowledge of how to fix it. After 5 mins of running around in circles frantically wondering who I could call to fix it I decided to have a look and see if I could do it myself. It turns out that rear derailleurs are attached by two small screws which must have come loose. I managed to find the screws on the floor and after sourcing my smallest allen key (these screws are tiny!) screwed my derailleur back on. There's nothing like facing a race with no bike to teach you how to fix it!!

I then hurried off to bed in anticipation of my 4am wake up the next morning. Race day dawned and I woke with a sore throat. Hoping it was just dry I got up and got ready anyway but it didn't go away. When Clare arrived at 4:30 to pick me up I decided to pull the pin and just go and watch. It wasn't worth running myself down only 6 days out from Devonport. It was a tough decision but I'm glad I made it.

Unfortunately I had come down with a cold. I felt a bit below the weather but not too bad so decided to train lightly in the hope that it would help clear it out and I wouldn't lose too much fitness before the weekend. That seemed to go ok until Wednesday when I started feeling really retched and it threatened to turn cheasty. Worried that my race was over I took Thursday completely off training and slept in. The sleep in worked and I woke feeling the best I had all week with slight remnants of a cough. Thursday morning was spent at uni then it was time to pack. Having learnt my lesson when packing for Geelong I started early to make sure I had time to pack well. Miraculously I managed to pack everything I needed for the weekend with my bag weighing in at just over 23kg - 13 kilos less than last time!

As the race was to be a wetsuit swim, I did Tuesday nights swim set in my wetsuit. I usually spray oil my legs before attempting to put my wetsuit on to help it slide on as it is rather tight. Stupidly I decided to avoid getting oily and just used plastic bags to help get the wetsuit over my feet. Plastic bags do work wonders but they only go so far up your leg. When it’s a humid afternoon and you sprint to training on your bike because you're running late major stickage can occur. I was able to get the wetsuit over my feet but then I struggled to pull the plastic bags off my feet as they were stuck to my legs thanks to the sweat. I ended up tearing off the plastic bags and ignoring the plastic still trapped under the wetsuit legs. That's the hard part over right? Wrong. I then had to pull (or should I say wrestle) the wetsuit up my legs and as it kept sticking to me this was a rather long and painful task. I finally got the wetsuit up to my waist. Relieved, I gave it one last pull to make sure the crotch was high enough to give me full leg movement and I felt a rip... I had torn my wetsuit. Panicked I consulted the others at training as to the severity of the rip and was told it was not too bad and I'd be able glue it back together with some special neoprene glue.

Another super early morning saw us flying out of Brisbane at 5:30am. After a long morning of travelling we arrived in Devonport just after lunch. That afternoon we went out for a spin on the bike course followed by race briefing and uniform checks. The course was super windy with a strong cross wind blowing Dan and I all over the road in some spots. N.B. A fully carbon bike with 50mm race wheels doesn't need much of a cross wind to get blown...

Race briefing was exhilarating but still a little intimidating with some of the best Aussies and Kiwis racing. I think it's going to take a while for me to get used to mixing it with the big names!!!

Similarly to Geelong, the women’s race did not start until 1pm with the men at 3:30. Race day began with a sleep in (until about 7 haha). I then had a big breakfast and attempted to ‘relax’ for the morning until heading to the race venue at 11:30. Nails painted and hair done I rode over to transition to register and rack my bike. I made sure I did my run warm up nice and early to ensure enough time for another wrestle with my wetsuit. Fortunately with the aid of my every trusty spray oil my wetsuit slid on a treat.

Lined up to enter the water

The swim start was different from any I’ve done before with us all lining up in the water holding on to a barricade. When I entered the water I chose a start position in about the middle of the start line; my first wrong decision of the day. In the first hundred meters or so a group formed to my left and to my right leaving my trapped in the middle on my own. As we approached the first buoy the two groups came together and I was somewhat sandwiched in the middle. I’m not used to swimming in the middle of a pack as I’m usually out the front leading the swim. Because of this I’m not practiced at fighting to get around a buoy and was hit, kicked and pulled under losing about 5 positions going around each of the first 2 buoys. I field spread out a lot more after the second buoy as we headed back towards the beach for our second lap but the damage was already done. My goggles had been knocked and one side had completely filled with water. This combined with the fact I hadn’t listened to my own advice given to Dan and touched my goggles with oily hands after putting on my wetsuit meant I couldn’t see a thing. Completely out of my comfort zone I lost my mojo and longed for the swim to be over. I made up a few positions on the second lap of the swim, exiting the water in 12^th position, 45 seconds down on the leaders.

Finishing the swim

I came out of T1 just behind a couple of other girls but was unable to bridge the gap to them. Charlotte McShane and Ashleigh Bailie rode past and I stuck on with them for a kilometre of so before dropping off the back of them too. After being run down with a cold I was not ready for the fast paced first couple of kilometres of the bike and was also scared of going out too hard. My last Olympic Distance race was the Noosa Triathlon which did not end well for me. Dehydrated and overheated I collapsed in the last couple of hundred meters and was not able to finish the race. That experience scared me and I am in no hurry to experience that again. As a result I was a bit apprehensive on the first lap of the bike, not quite willing to give it everything after being sick. I am truly not proud of this but at that point I wanted to pull out of the race. I seriously considered stopping but did not. I asked myself what sort of athlete I wanted to be and the answer is (and hopefully will remain to be) one that carries on to finish the race and doesn’t give up no matter what happens. Too many times I have seen top athletes call it a day and pull out when they’re having a bad race. That is not what I want to become. Towards the end of the first lap I was caught by Laura Wood from NZ. By this time I had got my head back in the right place and we worked well together for the remainder of the bike, catching Alessia Orla mid way though the bike and Kiwis Penny Hayes and Rebecca Clarke on the final lap. Thanks to Bronny for cheering so well for me and keeping me going! After 8 windy laps on the bike with 6 speed bumps per lap (that’s 48 speed bumps total) I was very grateful to get off my bike and run.

On the bike

T2

I went out fairly conservatively on the run, still a little nervous about completing the 10km. By the middle of the 2^nd lap I was feeling good and a bit more confident. I was able to increase my pace a little and catch the girls I had finished the bike with who had gone out harder than me at the beginning of the run. I ended up finishing in 14^th position.

I was really disappointed with my race, more so with my application than my result. It’s so easy to let things get to you when they go wrong. I won’t be racing like that again. I learnt that day that I really need to have more faith in my training and not worry so much about things that may have happened in the lead up to the race! Despite the disappointment I still had an amazing weekend. Going back to Devonport brought back many good memories of the last time I was there. I love racing, and travelling and staying with the Triathlon QLD squad has been an unforgettable experience.