No Sunday long run this week preferring to do the BRAT club triathlon at Heffron Park that also doubled up as the ‘Hanley Farewell Handicap’ in honor of Dubai bound Paul Hanley who’s leaving Aussie shores in April.
Lot of talk (well Trash to be honest) as the Irish boys came out to race, headlining was Ireland’s fastest on the planet – PLOD (Paul O’Doherty) whilst the rest of us were just there for the minor placing’s. ‘Baby Faced Assassin’ Evan, Hanley, and Conor were also there to help team Irelands chances but no sign of Enda who worked around the clock in order to find a flight to China just so he didn’t have to race also in attendance were a few French men but they already had the ‘White Flag’ out even before the race started.
Usual banter before the off and I was hoping to stick on Ev’s feet, that was until some Muppet thought he was faster than me and then let him get away as early as the first 100m and I was in no man’s land once again.
Had Hanley on my toes for the first 500m until I heard a massive explosion that told me he had blown a gasket at this point and that was him done, Happy to get out the pool on 12.30 and only about 30 seconds down on Evan (although POD was long gone by this time).
Out on the bike and worked hard early to try to reduce the deficit and didn’t take long to catch (supposedly) strong cyclist and coach Englishman Danny Moore, told him to jump on and work with me but unfortunately his hearts not as big as his belly and couldn’t respond.
After only about 6ks I saw Evan walking back to transition – race over for this young man as he blew a tyre (KARMA coming back to get him after he let the air out from my tyres in the Feb race J ). Managed to hold the bike pretty steady throughout but saw POD finishing whilst I still had another 2k lap to go as I then came in around the 34 minute mark for the 20ks completed.
Out on the run and I knew POD had injury concerns but even after the first lap I could see I wasn’t making hardly any ground on the ‘Big Man’, Still, it’s a handicap race so tried to push on regardless, upon finishing my first lap I see Irishman NON Finisher #2 for the day in the shape of Hanley walking around heading for the kids playground - yet another Heartstring’ pull with his work for the day done. Managed to hold a steady 3.45 per/k for the run leg to come home in 18.15 for a finish time of 66.27
Pretty happy with that all things considered , POD of course was first and covered the handicap as well as he came home in 62.xx ? So 2nd spot again for me…..Geez, this is getting a common occurrence – I’ve had more seconds than a Fat Kid at the School Canteen it seems.
Conor Mac was the last Irishman standing so took out the final podium spot within our own race,
Will Post results once I get them, but the interim were
1st POD
2nd Lindop
3rd Conor
4th Hanley – DNF
5th Evan – DNF
The Sunday arvo drinks were held at the Coogee Pavilion where many drinks were consumed, killer day as the ‘Pints’ were back on display. Forgot how tough the pints were and for the second time in the day both Hanley & Evan performed badly , and POD showed that he’s more than just a top triathlon with another solid performance over the course of 5-6 hours.
Great all round day, although the alarm was nearly battered when it was going off at 5.10am on the Monday morning.
Busy couple of weeks racing ahead, 3 weeks straight with the Striders 10k, Canberra Half and then the final Kurnell triathlon on the 19th April.
Meanwhile Enda was some 5000ks away telling the poor Chinese people how good he is at running and then acknowledging the crowd – What a Wally.
Cheers
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