Earlier this year, when I started getting up to do UCI laps of Kings Park at 5:30am every Wednesday, I never dreamt that I might actually make it to the final…..this could be to do with the fact that I was struggling to hold on during the warm up lap!

Saturday 18 August

Myself, Amanda, Jerry, Lisa and Di set off for Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, about an hours drive North of Durban. Having qualified for both the time trial and the road race, Jerry was wheeling two bike bags around the airport like a pair of Rottweiler bitches.

Sunday

You’d think my trip highlight would be completing the race, sadly it was that a taxi man was waiting for me at the airport with my name on a sign. International athlete status achieved.

Carl  (said taxi man) kindly drove us through the town of Pietermaritzburg before taking us to our hotel,he did this I think to warn us that we should only stay on the main high street and not get adventurous. Excellent. I have also never been to a place where all the houses have ‘Armed Response’ and barbed wire, or where they still have elephants and lions in cages at the zoo.I digress.

Monday

Our hotel was full of fellow competitors, mostly Australian, and on day one we were all itching to get out the door for the first training ride. As with any situation, any more than 2 cyclists together becomes a race, and this ‘training ride’ was no exception. Not wishing to get covered in urine from the p*ssing contest, Amanda and I dropped back.

Tuesday

Day two was a ride of the course. A few words that sprung to mind ‘up’ ‘down’ ‘speed bump’ ‘hole’ ‘long’ ‘windy’ ‘sugar canes’ ‘road hell’ I think that just about sums it up, oh wait, times that by 96km.

Wednesday

The arrival of Jim Flynn, Mike Bonner, Luke Ellis and Ben Madsen to the hotel. Now, imagine a hotel, full of cyclists, all packed with nerves. If you cant, this might help….

“Are you doing the time trial or the road race?”

“How often do you ride?”

“Who do you ride with?”

“What races have you done this year?”

“What wheels are you going to use Saturday?” …….i could go on, but  instead will end with my response to these questions…

“Mate, I wouldn’t worry, I don’t think im in the men’s 50-54 category”

TTT – Time Trial Thursday.

You got your sperm hat, you got your skin suit, you got your booties, you got your TT bike that is just over the legal weight, you got your disc wheel on, you’re on the ramp, you’re looking pro, you da man, 5,4,3,2,un (insert man pressing timer on stop watch) Yes ladies and gentlemen, the timing of the World Championships was manual!

We all went out to support Jerry, Lisa and Di on the nasty 26km course, and congratulated them after, oh except for Jerry who could have done better ;p

Friday

Being an ‘amateur’ event, we thought it only sensible that the day before our road race we spend all day out in the sun on safari and then have dinner a good 1hrs drive from our hotel. If you’d like me to write you a training program anyone, im a pro now!

Saturday – Race Day.

Our race was not until 1pm, so we had all day to eat as much food as we possible could,……then get nerves….then sh*t it all out. It’s a glamorous life at the top.

All week the weather had been at about 18 degrees and most days had had a layer of mist around too, which cooled it down. Nope, race day was clear skies and 40 degrees. Excellent. So not only am I going to chase ex-pros up hills, at altitude, im going to sweat my box off doing so.

On the start line it was only really myself, Amanda and some of the South African girls in country kit. The rest….well they were in their team kit. Not SPR club kit…..team kit. I honestly felt like I was about to be executed.

The first 10kms were just awkward, like any race start, everyone was moving around and finding their position and legs, plus we were on roads with more obstacles than a kids fun gym.Then came major obstacle No.1, the steepest climb of the day out of town.

I felt pretty good to start and in a comfortable pace, but my pace wasn’t comfortable for Miss Lynette Burger, and she wanted to lift it. As my heart rate rose to 204bpm and I started to question fainting, I watched the front girls move away.

Luckily I was dropped with two others and I quickly said that we’d have to work together. After 5km I dropped them and I was solo for the next 10km of long, straight, crap roads, with a headwind. And so my counting to 100 began (thank you Busselton training)

After I’d passed Saint Andrew Ballam who gave me some water, I found a Canadian girl who’d been dropped by the group. She was still riding ok up the climb and was telling me about races she’d done, so I was confident her and I would get to the finish quickly as a pair. I enjoyed the next 30km with my new buddy and thought we’d be ok when we turned for home and there was a tailwind. Sadly she was not a climber, and after waiting a few times, I decided it was time to hit the long straight road solo again.1-100, 1-100, 1-100….why do I do this…..1-100, I’m never doing this againAt the 20km to go sign, I was half relieved but half concerned. I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get my body to take me another 20kms. I knew there was a long descent back into town but it just didn’t come quick enough. My legs were pedalling themselves. When I hit the descent, I was more concerned with how on earth I was going to stay up right, I was so tired, and my concentration was not good. My fears only made worse by a guy being stretchered into an ambulance.

5km sign. By now I am pretty much starting to cry, I know 5km is close but I have nothing in my legs or my body to get me there, and I have come this far, I cannot give up now.

Crossing the finish line was pure relief. I was so grateful to have the SPR team around me because all I wanted was to be home, with my loved ones hugging me. Amanda finished just after in identical style.

Reflection

That 3hrs 40mins was the hardest thing I have EVER put my body through but I can say now with the upmost pride that I have now represented Australia and I gave it everything that I had……..including 20mins of stomach contents after!

I do not train every day, I do not own a fancy bike, I do not have a coach, I do not have a special diet…but I do have the balls to give things a go and not worry what other people might think of me.

Give it a go sometime, you might be surprised at what you can achieve.

Hugest congratulations to Mike, Di, Amanda, Jerry, Luke , Ben, Jim  and Lisa, I think we did a recreational club very proud.  A massive thank you to Michelle, Robyn and Andrew for their invaluable support. And thank you once again to everyone who helped us get there.

Anyone doing the State Team Time Trial on the 7 October?!

Thanks to everyone who entered, thank you to Ali and Dale for creating the questions, and to the following for their prize donations: Perth Intergrated Health, Glen Parker Cycles, Jason Ng, Cathi Dixon.

And the winner of the $500 bike hamper is……..

Drum roll please……….

1st place – Jonny Keyes with 85/89

2nd – Lozzer and Ducky 80/89

= 3rd – Jorgy 71/89

= 3rd – Peter Mah 71/89

Below are the answers, if you wish to see where you went wrong.

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW BIKE STUFF_ANSWERS

Ps. Who got hold of poor Jim Flynn’s paper? Or Jim, did you really think  ‘Hardtail’ meant  ‘I wish i’d taken a dump before we left’?

QUIZ NIGHT

Thank you SO SO much to everyone who attended the quiz night on Saturday. I hope you had as much fun as I did. We raised $1400 so thank you again.

For your pride’s sake, I have put the final team scores at the bottom of this post.

BIKE KNOWLEDGE ($500 value bike hamper prize)

I will endeavour to mark all of your sheets this week and will post the winner, and the answers on the blog.

PS. I was upset last night to find out that it is not me who is QOM of Ewen St. Booo hooo

RAFFLE

Some of you may have seen me shaking the tin for $$ on Saturday morning. If you’d like to be in with a chance to win $400 Myer vouchers, and many many other prizes, please hunt down either myself, Amanda Nabi or Luke Ellis, to buy some tickets.

We will draw the prizes this SATURDAY 16 JUNE after the ride. $2 a ticket.

	FINAL SCORE
Dome 1 (Flat Tyres)	52
Crossapples	51
Airforce 1	51
Tour…..	49
Carboniferous	48.5
The Know it Alls/Angry Duck and the Feather Brains	48
Dome 2 (The Boss)	48
Full Carbon	47
Jim Flynn	47
Main 1 + Tranny	46
Focus (Stu I)	46
The Eater Bockers	44
Spandex parading ruffians	44
Hairy Canaries	44
DJ Wong Way	41
Boltons	41
Jerry Ghossein	41
My Amigos	40
Cable Babies	40
The Compact Cranks	40
Max and Steve	38
The Stragglers	36

I have 19 confirmed teams for the quiz on Saturday night but I had a call from Toby today who tells me we can make room for 25! So if you still want to register a team, please leave a comment below.

If you weren’t already aware, Dome are licensed, and can therefore serve alcohol. However, this can only be consumed with food.

The guys have kindly supplied a reduced menu for this very occasion to make it all quick and easy for everyone:

• Bangers and Mash
• Lasagne
• Beef Burger
• Veggie Pizza
• Pumpkin Soup

Please make sure you allow plenty of time to register and order your food before a 7pm start.

OTHER INFORMATION:

$10 a person – pay on arrival

Bring some $2 coins for the raffle and other planned evening activities.

Looking forward to it. Thank you again for all of your support.

REMINDER

Date: Saturday 9 June

Location: Dome, Westralia Plaza

Time: Register your team from 6pm for a 7pm PROMPT start

Cost: $10 per person

If you’ve not registered your team, please do so in the comments below. I’d hate for you to turn up and have no where to sit.

If you dont have a team, but wish to play, please contact me as there are others in the same boat.

Teams that i have so far:

Main 1 + Tranny

Full Carbon

Carboniferous

The Know it Alls/Angry Duck and the Feather Brains

The Stragglers

Crossapples

DJ Wong Way

Airforce 1

Kat/Bec/Jen/Sis

My Amigos

Cable Babies

Spandex parading ruffians

Carol & John

Boltons

The Compact Cranks

Hairy Canaries

 

Don’t forget to sign up a team for the fundraising Quiz Night on Sat 9 June.

If you don’t want the hassle of find four people to make a team, let me know and I can make some ‘blind date’ tables.

Details on the original post:
https://southperthrouleurs.com.au/2012/05/spr-quiz-night/comment-page-1/#comment-13456

When: Saturday 9 June

Where: Huge thank you to the lovely boys at DOME for providing the venue.

Time: Anytime from 6pm to order food and and drinks. 7pm quiz start.

Cost: $10 per person.

Format: Teams of 4. Maximum of 25 team capacity. So post your team name and members in the blog below early.

Purpose: “FUN”draising for the UCI qualifiers heading to South Africa in August.

Note: This is not a cycling quiz so please bring your family and friends.

More details will be provided closer to the date.

5 years ago I arrived in Australia with big aspirations of changing my life for the better……what I actually did was live in a backpackers hostel for 4 months and get wasted every night on boxed wine which may or may not contain egg and fish. My exercise routine consisted of running/walking 1km on the beach once a week.

Following a stern talking to from my father, after he’d picked me up on Christmas Day with a hangover and I slept for 2 days straight, I figured it was perhaps time to think about that life change.

As much as people moan about Perth’s lack of entertainment, it was my saving grace, and so I discovered running. A 3km loop around Cottesloe, a 4km loop around Mt Lawley Golf Club, a 5km loop around Lake Monger (yes, I get around!), two loops of Lake Monger, a City to Surf entry.

My first triathlon was the BRW corporate event at Barrack St. A 400m swim, a 10km cycle and a 4km run. I borrowed a heavy yellow Zeus road bike with cage pedals.  I have no idea what times I did but I know that I loved it. Even the attractive Swan River beard.

Despite me having to brush the rust and dust off the borrowed bike when I gave it back, I decided that I would buy a bike of my own. Here come the famous words “I only want to spend around $500”. I blame Jen 100% for my cycling addiction, as he bought me my beloved Malvern Star that Christmas.

I VERY reluctantly went along to my first novice SPR ride after running out of excuses; oh I don’t think the weather is very good this Saturday, oh I cant I have breakfast with friends, oh im not fit enough. You know them all.

Welcome to SPR Shorty Shorts.

This time last year, my Dad announced that he had entered the Port Macquarie Ironman 70.3. My initial feelings were of pride and admiration, my second was ‘sh*t, I gotta do one now’.  With a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, I watched my Dad cross the finish line in 6hrs 30mins. However, as much as I loved watching him race, I’m not a spectator, and so along with 2000 other people I hit that ‘register’ button at 10am on the dot to enter the Busselton 70.3 Ironman.

And so it begins. Preparing your body to endure a 1.9km swim, a 90km cycle and a 21km run, without two days rest in between! How do you do this? Well you can either remortage your house and join a tri club, or give it a go yourself. I went for the latter.

My goal: To not drown, not puncture and not walk. To finish.

The best advice I ever got whilst preparing for this event was to never lose sight of that goal, no matter what everyone else is doing.

I think the week prior to the event was the worst of all of them. I was hormonal, I was tired, everyone in my office was sick, and it was a full moon (they send me mental I tell you). I was not feeling race ready.

Friday 4 May 2012 – Jen and I rode the bike course. Road was immaculate, no wind, this was going to be a fast treat. Went for breakfast at the jetty, ocean flat, people swimming, even the swim was going to be good. Friday night……thunder, lightning, and rain that sounded like a flock of birds hitting the roof of our house. I didn’t sleep well.

Saturday 5 May 2012 – I have never waited so long for a single day to come around…and now I wanted to wait/train a bit longer!

The rain had stopped but the wind was coming in and the ocean can only be described as a giant washing machine, which I was sharing with 82 other people. I couldn’t sight the buoys, my goggles got kicked, I fed the fish my bacon and egg muffin breakfast, and I couldn’t get into a rhythm breathing bi-laterally. It was a long 41mins for me.

I love cycling. I only had two concerns on the bike; maintaining a 12m gap, and making sure I saved enough for the run. I got off the bike with a 34km/hr average feeling that I had left some energy still in the tank.

Now, for anyone who knows me well, one of my biggest concerns in this event was racing for 5hrs+, eating Gu, and having to stop for the toilet. My fear is not without reason!

Lap 1 of the run, 34mins. Not bad. So lovely to see some familiar faces; Megs, Lennie, my Dad, Mary and Jaz. Pass ‘Best Boyfriend in the World’ Jonno Bolton with his Go Emma Go flag.  

Lap 2 39mins, I probably didn’t need to chat to that girl about her polkadot race belt. I didn’t look at my Garmin for my time as by now I just wanted to finish.

Lap 3, I’ve just been over taken by my triathlon nemesis who I was so excited to have overtaken on the bike, but she is still within sight, so I will just pace behind her……….and then the Gu hits the fan! Lap 3 took me 40mins, even though I was sure I felt faster.

Finishing shoot, Ironman carpet, under the clock, cry, hug my family, get my medal, eat, drink and go to watch Jen finish his cycle leg for a team. ‘Best Girlfriend in the World’!

I can now confess that I secretly wanted to do it in 5hrs however, 5hrs 21mins and 12^th out of 82 in my age category still gives me goosebumps.

I said ‘never again’ when I finished but today I am saying ‘what will I do differently next time’.

The moral of my story is that yes there are people who are born with natural athletic abilities, but it is possible for everyone to achieve their goals with a bit of hard work, determination, and love and support from the people around them. I encourage you all to set yourself a challenge and make it happen. Life is too short not to.

A HUGE congratulations to everyone who competed in the individual and team event on Saturday, it was so lovely to see you and your families down there:

Jen Siah, Emma Goodwin, Sarah Bolton, Kat Buckley, Jerard Ghossein, Mike Bonner, Michelle Bonner, Jen Watkins, Ryan Fynn, Brendan Nicol, Jess Huston, Louise Crawley.

Every week we b*tch and moan about how bad Perth roads are and that there arent enough cycle lanes, blah blah blah.

The City of South Perth have put out a Bicycle Plan 2011-2016 for public comment, closing 29 Feb 2012. Similarly the Town of Mosman Park have a draft plan for comment.

So if you really do care, be productive….

http://www.southperth.wa.gov.au/old/out_for_comment/Draft-City-of-South-Perth-Bike-Plan-2011-2016.html

http://www.bwa.org.au/better-biking/571

No I’m not going to bore you with a day by day account of what we did (In summary it was: coffee, ride, climb, coffee, ride, climb, eat, descend, shower, street festival, sleep) but I just want to say that for anyone who would love to go to the Tour De France but doesnt have the money to spare then go to Adelaide TDU next year. This week has been amazing.

The tour is so accessible. With very little hassle we were able to see Starts, Finishes, Sprints and Climbs as well as getting to meet lots of the riders, managers, cycling personalities etc.

The city really turned on the charm; friendly people, lots to do in the evenings, loads of freebies (just be careful of your luggage limit).

The riding was fantastic. Great climbs, great descents and some extremely stunning scenery that I had not expected. It was really easy to travel with a bike too (even though mine is currently still in Adelaide with Qantas baggage handlers!) 

Despite having ridden more kms this week than I would in a month, when i was getting my coffee this morning all i could think about was how much i wished i was jumping on my bike and heading to the Adealide hills with my SPR buddies.

OK, back to work Anna. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz