With only about 3 hours sleep due to talking footy on the radio then watching a little bit of it around midnight I was then forced to get up at 4.30am in order to get out Penrith in time for Australia ’s oldest triathlon that was on the cards for my first race since Thailand
Met up with Pete Walker, The Champ and Taffy James prior to the 1k swim, 30k bike and 10k run, Taffy James got me a bib for this race and it then meant I was racing in the 20 -29 age group that was first off with the Pros’, I did mention to Brad Kahlefeldt whilst waiting for the gun to go off in the water that he could sit on my toes in the water if he wanted to save any energy…. He looked at me as if I was mad J
Settled OK in the swim although it was tough enough and it seemed to go forever, happy though to stand up out of the water to see 17.06 on my watch, Seemed to spend a lifetime in transition, struggling to get the damn wetsuit off and was even forced to sit on the floor at one point in order to remove it. I could have got done for loitering I was in there that long.
With Dusk just about to set I was away and out on the bike, Haven’t been on the bike for months (last ride was with Angry boy and co over the 3 Gorges) so was unsure how I’d go – Surprised myself then when I was moving well with no one coming past for the whole 30ks coming in around 47 Min's. A better transition for T2 and with the temps starting to increase and the air quality poor it was out for the 2 x 5k loops around the regatta to make up the 10k run leg.
Once more just didn’t have the drive in the leg to be able to push it and was just happy to sit on 4 minute ks for the first loop, tried to lift for the 2nd but in fact I think I went even slower (4.05s) for 40.30 all up that gave me an overall finishing time of 1.49:59
Pretty happy with that to be honest, the Swim and Bike legs were pretty solid and its just the run part that is once more letting me down – Hard to believe I did Noosa 2 years back and run 36 OFF the bike in 30 degree heat and now I struggle to break 40 minutes
The rest of the HuRTS boys also went very well with Pete Walker winning his A/G coming home in 1.40, Taffy James just missed out on a podium (by 2 seconds) to record 1.43:24, MrAce and Dave Casey weren’t far behind me, and I cleaned up on ‘The Champ’ who was out for his ‘Timmy Pound of Flesh’ and wanted a bet with me giving him a 5 minute handicap start. Great work from Irishman Bill Batt as well to finish with a 2.04:52 (does this make him the NEW Irish #1????)
Official Times were (with swim/bike run splits):
Pete Walker 1.40:06 14.00 /45.34 /38.04
Taffy James 1.43:24 14.32 /49.31 /36.36
Timmy 1.49.59 17.14 /48.23 /40.52
Dave Casey 1.50:23 18.33 /47.30 /40.42
MrAce 1.52:37 16.23 /51.57 /39.19
The Champ 1.55:27 19.49 /50.58 /41.16
Bill Batt 2.04:52 20.42 /55.28 /42.19
Had a cracker of an afternoon having a few beers up Newtown
Will be back out in the morning; have been doing the 800s with Kanser for the previous 2 weeks so will see if he’s around to continue with that.
The Chairman Tommy H sent me a quality bit of video, reminding us all things that happened in the 80s to the tune of Billy Joel’s’ ‘We didn’t start the fire” - Sure he wont mind me sharing
Take a listen (sad part is I think I remember about 99% of it all)
Cheers
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