Race Report by Rob

So, another early morning start to get to transition on time and get prepared. With the bikes all racked and ready the night before, the morning ritual involved setting out shoes and runners as well as give the tyres their last little bit of PSI treatment ready for a scorching 40 (k’s not degrees celcius like last year!).

The organisers in their wisdom had decided on a couple of changes to the routine. The first was to hold the “compulsory” race briefing at 6:45pm the night before – yeah right – been to enough of those, we’ll be right thanks – rather be home undertaking my hydration strategy of 2 beers and a glass of red thanks! The benefit of a “home” game I say! The second change was the wave start times – 10 minutes to separate each wave. No big deal? Try being the 2nd last wave of about 20 – we all had to be out of transition at 6:45am and the 35-39 wave goes at 9:02am. Brilliant! Rationale for the change was that it was such a draft fest last year (oh, did I mention that drafting [for SPR that =’s “grabbing wheels for a rest”] is illegal!…but more on that later….) the organisers decided to break it up sufficiently that there wouldn’t be any such problems this year….as I say, more on that later….!

The time spent waiting around for our start was actually not too bad – had the chance to catch up with a few of the others – Hunter and his brother Dean + partners were down there and Paul and I even managed to do a bit of a recruitment drive for SPR when we found out that Freo Bike Force is changing their group ride around and there are people out their sniffing around for a quality ride to relocate to – is there any better in Perth???

Anyway – on with the race…

The swim was declared non-wetsuit, meaning the water was above 24 degrees. Does the number 24.1 mean anything to you??! Yep – you read it right – 24.1….not 23.9 (meaning we could wear ‘em if we had ‘em)….24.1. When Paul, me and Dean finally took the plunge into the o’ so special Swan for our start, it was the coldest 24.1 we’d ever felt! No bragging rights for the boys after a swim in this!!

9:02 am and we’re off. Not a bad first 50m as the washing machine of 98 other blokes around you gets travelling and then it really kicks in – literally. I got kicked in the chest and then for good measure took a forearm to the back of the head. My right goggle filled up with water and I swallowed what I estimated to be a good 500ml’s of the Swan. Tasty. No need to worry about popping those salt tablets now!! So, a 1500m swim with a sore chest and one half of my vision cut was going to be just dandy! Trying to sight the first boy and then get a rythym going was certainly a challenge and really makes you question “Why am I doing this again??”Anyway, I think you get the picture – the swim in a tri is never really ‘fun’ – it’s just a part of the race you have to do and it tends to be “kick or be kicked” if you want to survive – especially in the National Titles when you’re out there with all the “big boys”!

Rounding the final bouy to get to the stairs on the way out was certainly a relief and I was pleased to see that upon exiting, I’d managed to swim in 26 minutes – 30 seconds off last year’s time – not bad on the back of no swim training for the last 3 weeks. Heading into transition, I grabbed the race belt and shoes, threw them on and went for my sunnies which were sitting face up in my helmet waiting for quick donning. “MMMM…what’s that on the lens? – Oh, yeh…that’d be bird shit!” Love triathlon. Oh well, on they go – hope there isn’t a big wad in the lid of my helmet too!! It was now that there was a pattern forming – vision through one eye for the swim; vision through one eye (the same one too) for the bike; what may the run hold for me??

Out onto the ride course and I’m off. Would be good to not have massive cramps setting in to my hip felxors right about now!! As soon as I got down on the TT bars they just screamed at me and forced me back up into the more upright position. Great. Where did this come from?? If it keeps up for the whole ride it won’t be pleasant. I then spent the first trip out (5ks) trying to stretch my flexors, take in some much needed water to wash the Swan down with, and get my heart rate under control. Love triathlon!

Well, I finally got the flexors soughted and settled into a nice rythym on the way back. It was as I was coming to end of the first lap that I looked at my speedo and it tells me 8.3kms. Then I start to wonder – “Are we doing 4 or 5 laps?” – It’s supposed to be 40kms – now I’m worried. What was that smug comment about “Race briefings???”!!! I ride up next to one of the other guys and yell to him “Are we doing 4 or 5??” – He looks at me like I’m mad (or an idiot – not too sure really)….”4” he says. OK. Good….got that sorted. But still the doubt lingers. As I round the bottom turn for a 2nd time, a TO on the motorbike is behind so I wave them up beside me and ask the same question. Same facial expression as the other bloke…funny that! But the same answer too. Good. Got that sorted – don’t do 5 laps; get speedo re-calibrated!

I’d like to say that the rest of the ride was uneventful, but what kind of story would that be?? Last lap; last leg; 3k’s from the end. Had overtaken 10 or so in my category – feeling really happy with an average of 38km/h and HR of 158. Then 2 blokes in the 40-45 category who are taking turns SPR style (highly illegal) overtake me but then just drop in on my front wheel and sit there. Now, the “rules” are, if you get overtaken, you have 5 seconds to drop back the requisite 7m. Trouble is, to do that, you have to sit up, brake and lose whatever rythym you may have had. At the same time, anyone who has been cruising along behind you rolls up and overtakes too – then you have to drop back from them as well! So, needless to say, at this point in the bike, I thought “Bugger That” and just sat there.

“Competitor 850. I’ve just issued you a yellow card for drafting. You must report to the penalty box for 3 minutes once you have finished your ride.”

You are !$*%*ing kidding ME!! For the love of &*%#$ that can NOT BE RIGHT you son of &$@% and your &^%#$ can go and &^#$……or words to that effect…..and as for you two cheats up there in front of me….if I catch you on the run I’ll be having words!!

3 minutes in the “bin” is not good for the head, especially when you see 7 other competitors in your category run past you into transition and heading out onto the run course in YOUR PLACE!! Grrrr. And to top it off, the TO who was timing my “binning” had a sense of humour! Great.

Anyway, time served and I bolt into transition and out onto the run. My mind was no longer with me though, so it was at this point that I just had to suck it up and pull out a ‘respectable’ 10k to make sure I at least put in a PB. It wasn’t a bad first 2, but, like with the OZ Day event, the stitch monster paid a visit and hung around until the 5th km. Love tirathlon. The rest of the run was uneventful – saw Paul out there and he seemed to be enjoying himself a heck of a lot more than he did last year (read: “His tounge wasn’t hanging out and didn’t have a ‘I’m suffering like a kicked dog in the street’ look all over his face!).

Rounding the last turn to finish off was a relief with everything that had happened through the course of the race and I was happy to get across the line in 2:17 – 3 minutes better than last year and that includes 3 mins in the bin. Paul put in an impressive turn at 2:27 – nearly 20 minutes better than last year – so a huge improvement. Hunter nailed it with a final 2:04 and brother Dean rolling across in 2:24. All in all, pretty good results for SPR!

Bring on Busso ½!