Newcastle Triathlon- 26 November 06

I went into this race fit but nervous because I knew Michelle was fired up from Nowra and would be looking to smash me….

Anyway the morning of the race Jase Foley, Craig Simonetto and I made our 1 hr drive to the race at 0530 from Sonja’s place at Port Stevens. The weather had changed heaps since the day before- it was windy and overcast. The water even looked choppy and the current seemed to be going in the wrong direction to the one way swim we were about to do. The water was cold and it was once again made a wet suit swim.

My swim was better than it has been lately, as I managed to find some feet to sit on. We luckily weren’t going against the current- just the wind and the top water. The one way 1500m swim felt a lot longer than when you are going around buoys! Transition went smoothly- still need a bit of wetty taking off work but it was ok. Straight onto the bike and into the hill- which was a big hill don’t get me wrong, and it took a lot out of the legs, but there was a good recovery when going back all the down ready to tackle it another 3 times. I could have been more prepared for the hills actually; I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as hard as it was. Getting knocked around by the wind didn’t help a whole lot either. I was worried at the beginning of the ride because my race plan was to smash the ride but due to the unexpected harshness of it I couldn’t quite stick to the plan. Onto the run and my legs were hurting! But they warmed up quickly and I felt really good- I was surprised. I was worried about hitting the wall soon though because I forgot to leave a gu in transition for the run- which I would normally have. I was lucky though and I didn’t hit the wall. Thanks to Davey Hamer too who was the only one to point out to me there was another girl 150m ahead. I had no idea she was there! So I kept running strong and using the “passing people in the run” strategy of keeping calm and picking up the pace ‘with ease’ while passing them I passed her and she didn’t even attempt to stay with me. I kept running strong and finished in 1st place beating her by 1.53 I finished in a time of 2.20.49. The run was slightly slower than my recent times but considering the tough ride course I was happy with it (41.31).

My weakness of the race would have been the ride although it has brought to my attention that I need to swim 2 minutes faster. So for the next race I am going to increase my swimming. The next race is Canberra National Series race next year! So far away...