I ventured 90min north of Brisbane to Mooloolaba for the big Mooloolaba
Triathlon on the weekend. Took some rec leave from work, and turned it
into a 4-day long weekend, staying in a lovely apartment overlooking
the ocean on the Esplanade....
Here is my race report - c-&p'ed from my blog
(absenthusband.blogspot.com)
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1.5km Swim - 0:31:23
Swim was moved from the beach to the river (due to some humungous wave
action courtesy of Cyclone Wati), so it was a triangular
course in the river bend behind Mooloolaba Wharf (where Underwater
World
is). There was a HUGE tidal current sweeping around that bend, which
made navigation pretty tricky.
After watching all the other individual waves go off, and seeing them
all swept to the left, I swam way out to the right hand side. A bit too
much though, because I almost missed the first RH turn!! I went 10m
passed it *doh!*, and had to swim back against the current to get back
to it. Got bashed a few times around the buoy, but then got back on
track. Missed the final buoy as well, for another 10m swim against the
current, but I figured I was getting my money's worth... *grins*, and
was pleased to finally make it out of the water. Time was slower than
anticipated, but I was feeling OK.
T1 - approx 0:07:30
A long T1 time - but that was due to the 500m (yep, half-a-km) run from
the swim to transition. It was mostly on bitumen road too, which my
bare
feet didn't appreciate!!
Finally reached my bike, but when I stopped running, I thought I was
gonna hurl. So took my time and did some deep breathing - by the time I
was dressed and unracking the bike, I felt fine again.
40km Bike - 1:19:30
Had a great bike ride!!! Nic and the girls were waiting at the top of
the first hill on Buderim Ave (next to the apartments) and gave me a
huge cheer! Wind wasn't too bad, but built up over the morning. I was
comfortably holding 32-38km/h over most of the first half. Turned
around at the 20km mark, and straight into a headwind - yuk!! I was in
the little chainring the whole time on the way back, sitting on around
27-31km/h.
Lots of packs formed into the headwind on the way back (cheats!!), but
when I passed the drafting 'penalty boxes', they always had at least
half-a-dozen people in them, so the draft-busters were pretty busy!!
Flew back into Mooloolaba, and saw Nic & the girls again down at a cafe
on the Esplanade. Nearly stacked it trying to wave to them as I was
getting my feet out of the bike shoes, and was very pumped to crack
1:20
for the ride. I wanted to average at least 30km/h and stay relaxed -
and
achieved both.
T2 - approx 0:01:30
Nice quick T2. Whacked the number belt on, put socks on as well for the
10km run, and dashed out for the final leg...
10km Run - 1:10:16
This was HARD!!!! Ran out feeling OK, but with legs feeling a bit heavy
from the bike. Then straight into the long climb up the hill, which
totally killed me. Legs just died on me, and I struggled to keep any
sort of pace. I knew though that I had heaps of time, so I just
mentally
locked myself into that slow, 7min/k pace and kept on truckin'...
Legs complained heaps, but after a couple of laps, was very pumped to
climb the hill for the last time on the way home. Saw my 7yo daughter
Caitlin, who said,
"Where have you been, we've been waiting for HOURS!!" which made me
laugh. She ran with me down the hill for the last time, and then I saw
Nic who was cheering like crazy. Finally made it into the finishing
chute, and pumped the air like crazy with joy and elation at finally
making it!!
Total - 3:10:34
A slow time, but the goal was always to finish, and I was very, very
pleased with the result. Learnt heaps about where I'm at with the 3
components, and what I need to do to get better. And most importantly,
had a great time at the race, and an awesome long weekend with Nic and
the kids.
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Apologies to all who are offended by sw#mming or (even worse)
r#nning....
Cheers all,
Abby