Kingscliff

Last Sunday I had my first win of the season at the Kingscliff triathlon, and with it took my second consecutive Australian University Championships title. After having my best race of the season here last year I was eager to return and defend my title.

Despite the weather report threatening yet another wet race the weather smiled on us and it was a beautiful sunny day. The swim was held in Cudgen Creek beginning 1500m up from transition during an ebb tide so was a fast, tide assisted swim. Knowing that Maddi Allen was a strong swimmer my race plan had been to try and stick on her feet for the swim then try and take the lead on the bike. The plan worked and starting a minute behind the open men we caught the tail end of the field within the first 500m and the second pack with about 200m to go. It was quite a strange experience swimming past the boys as even the slower swimmers are usually faster than me, or at least less than a minute slower!

Leading some of the boys out of the swim

I had a good T1 and mounted my bike in the lead. The bike was windy just like last year, however I think this worked to my advantage and added an extra element to the otherwise fairly flat course. Over the 4 laps on the bike I could see I was opening up a gap on the other girls which gave me confidence heading onto the run. The run was hot and hard with a steep hill to negotiate straight out of transition. I held a solid pace for the first 5km but running over the section of sand at the end of the first lap and then up the hill for the second time took its toll on my legs. Knowing I was comfortably in the lead, in the last 5km I was just holding on until the finish.

Before I had time to catch my breath I had the TV and newspaper reporters wanting interviews. I have never been good at interviews at the best of times and trying to give coherent and sensible answers when I could barely stand up was interesting but I think I did ok!

Gillian