Sri Chimnoy Olympic Distance Triathlon

I'll do a very brief report on this race because there will be a more thorough report in MY NEW PODCAST! Yep Dan and I have decided to start a podcast for beginner triathletes in Sydney. Ok I won't go into it now, more in the next post.

So I got up Sunday morning at 6am (or 5am effectively as daylight savings clicked over as I was asleep) in order to be able to eat my brekky 3 hours before the start of the race, as I learnt while training for the marathon. Anything less than 3 hours and the food may not have cleared your stomach by the start of the race, plus when you eat you get a spike in insulin which apparently makes your muscles burn through their glycogen stores more rapidly than they normally would.

Anyhoo, banana and peanut butter sandwich and I grabbed my gear and left Dave's apartment to drive down to the lake, register and set up.

It was a pretty calm morning, high overcast sky and no wind. The lake was looking pretty nice - the water was a warm 19.4 degrees and it was almost completely flat, which was great for getting a nice even stroke going and being able to sight easily.

The transition area was the quietest I've seen, in fact it didn't even look like there was a race going on! Transition was really small (like two little bike racks of 3 metres long each for my age group) and you could wander in and out at any time. As you can see it's pretty mellow.



I racked my bike up as the first swimmers from the long course champions challenge came through and we cheered them on, then took my time getting my setup right. I'm really happy with all the little purchases I've made since Cronulla - a race belt, running cap, tri-suit, profile bars, etc.

There's me lined up for the 30-39 year old male start, right in the middle with the blue patch on the front of my wetsuit and yellow writing on the sleeves. Small waves hey? The waist-deep start was unique, not something I've experienced before. Normally it's running in from the beach, or occasionally a deep water start treading water.

The swim I just took very easy and tried to keep my heartrate down and lengthen my stroke, concentrating on sighting every 10 strokes or so to make sure I didn't go off-course. Sighting was really easy without the chop and there was nobody around me in the water (not like the thrashing maelstrom of most ocean swims) because there was hardly anyone in the wave! Easy and quick.

Transition was slowed down a bit by not being able to get my wetsuit over my feet, especially as I felt a bit dopey with all the blood rushing out of my head as I went from horizontal to vertical. Plus being a little cross-eyed from the goggles didn't help! But once I started pedalling it got a lot easier.

Although at that point my legs felt like crap! Hard brick session the day before was to blame, but that was my whole plan. I liked the variety of the cycle course, it was undulating with some beautiful countryside and some lovely roads. Also a couple of shorter steep bits (nothing too bad) and plenty of really rough road surface which was bloody annoying and rattled the hell out of me - made it difficult to stay aero.

Anyway I wasn't able to keep my legs spinning very well, I struggled to keep anywhere near 90rpm and was often (especially on the rough stuff) closer to 65 or 70rpm. Of course I was passed by almost the whole field, I really do need to work on my bike leg. But I was relaxed and enjoying it and trying to focus on hydrating. Ate a gel with 5 mins to go in order to get set for the run.

Very fast T2, only about 30 seconds, which was nice.

Someone took a lovely photo of me firing along on the run. Funny I don't remember seeing any cars. Maybe I was just in a world of my own. It was bloody warm though, it suddenly got quite humid with the cloud cover and I was burning up on the run, had to keep tipping water over my head and alluringly unzip my tri suit.

By the way that tri suit was awesome, it's a one-piece suit and this was the first time I'd ever worn it, but it was sensational! I realised at the end that I didn't even realise I had it on, which is a good sign because it means that nothing about it was uncomfortable or chafing or anything. I used to think those one-piece suits looked completely geeky (and they do), but I have to admit that it is pretty cool not having a waistband digging into you.

The run was fairly flat and through parkland and some bush which was really nice. There was a muckup with the 2km marker which made me think I'd done the second km in 6 minutes and the third km in 2 minutes, but the rest seemed pretty accurate and I realised I was running between 4 and 4:30min kilometres and couldn't really push much harder. I passed a lot of people and was chasing this one guy but never able to catch him. I did get passed with 2km to go by some younger bloke and then with about 500m to go I thought "screw this" and managed to pick up the pace and pass him right back and hold him out easily until the end. I came within about 2 seconds of being passed by Enda - an Irish guy I know from Pain in the Domain who started in a wave 5 mins after me - but managed the sprint finish to hold him off. So nobody gained a position on me on the run and that I was happy with!

I met a couple of Balmoral Tri club people (Wendy and Dave) at the end, chatted to Enda and his mate who actually won the whole thing, and made sure to drink heaps of fluid, have a jolly good stretch and take advantage of the free massage - all of which helped my recovery. Grabbed a vege burger from the stall and then drove right back to Sydney. A very successful and enjoyable weekend and I felt great and recovered well so I've got nothing but positives to say about the race!