Shaun Vidler Blog: My First Long Course Triathlon

It wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago I made the decision to compete in the Huskisson long course triathlon. It was a late decision helped made by training partner and professional triathlete Adam Holborow. Only just have turned 18 years old I was a bit nervous about the fact that I was going to be competing in the open category in my first every long course triathlon. In the process of preparing for this event I made a very big move to Sydney to start university which was a real shock training wise. Conditions where a lot different to my home town Port Macquarie but I had to get on with it and deal with what I had.

As the race weekend approached the nerves started to set in after seeing some big names competing in the open field such as Pete Jacobs, Adam Holborow, Tim Reed, Jan Rehula and Ollie Whistler. I didn’t want to make myself look stupid in front of so many spectators and triathlon companies at the event as the move to Sydney made me feel a bit under done. Not having much idea on nutrition in these longer distant events the guys at SIS helped me out to give me a greater understanding on what and when to take during the race.

Race morning we where told it was a non wet suit swim for the open field athletes. Not really a concern to me I made my final adjustments in transition and made my way to the swim start to warm up. As the swim commenced I knew I had to swim with a group, sitting on the front packs feet out to the first buoy put me in a great position. Letting the big hitters go ahead Lindsey Wall and myself swam side by side, stroke for stroke just off the back of the lead pack for the rest of the 2km swim. Exiting the water in about 8^th place I was quite surprised to be only be 55 seconds down on Pete Jacobs and the rest of the contenders in the front group. Entering transition I actually threw up a bit as I swallowed a bit of water in the swim, this being out of my system made me feel a lot better and ready to hit the 3 lap, 83km bike course. As we went through the first few km’s my legs where feeling great and straight away put a SIS GO gel down. Within about 5km I had dragged Lindsey and myself up to Tim Reed and Matty Pellow. Having lived in Port Macquarie (home of half and full ironman) I knew what Reed was capable of and was quiet surprised to have rode up to him. For the first 40-50km it was Reedy and myself pushing the pace off the front with Matty and Lindsey sitting off the back. It wasn’t until then Reedy decided to speak up and tell the boys to pull their fingers out and have a go on the front. This only lasting for about 15km so I knew we had to keep the pace rolling as there was a group about 2 and a half minutes up the road. Hitting the last lap of the bike I decided to take charge on the front and keep the pace moving, with once again Reed coming through and sharing the load. Dragging the front group in by around a minute on the final lap we entered transition only to hear that the front group had only just hit the run course. Completing the 83km bike course in 2 hours 3 minutes and 5 seconds which gave us an average of 40kmph which was solid considering the bike course was fairly undulating.



This stage of the race being very surprised with my performance I knew I had no experience in this distance of racing so I hit the 20km run course at a pace that was comfortable. Maintaining nutrition was always on mind and straight away I had a SIS smart gel which defiantly lifted me with the caffeine hit in it. It wasn’t long though until I started to get cramps in my quads and had to stretch my legs out a bit. Not being the only one to be experiencing the cramps I found myself running up to Holborow who was struggling with cramps himself. The cramps didn’t last long for him as he started to feel good again and ran of into the distance. Unfortunately, the cramps hung around for me and so I just carried on at a pace that could get me to the finish line before other open males and most importantly before the 1^st female. Finally getting myself to the line in 4 hours 6 mins and 13 seconds placing me 11^th in the open field and beating the 1^st female. The race gave me a very positive view on my future in long course triathlon with my swim and bike being at the top of the field with my run lacking simply because of cramps which I feel is acceptable as I have never done a race of this distance before, with some work I feel this can be fixed in no time. As a full outlook on the race I couldn’t have asked for much more really, especially nutrition wise as I kept it going all day with the gels from SIS which I feel worked really well for me, defiantly a product to consider for all long course athletes.

Now with a long course event under my belt I feel I am more prepared for the Port Macquarie 70.3 in 7 weeks time. This positive result would not have been possible without my coach Grant Giles, his work is brilliant and I am excited to keep working with him as I take on the greater distances of triathlon. Also the elite energy group put on a well organised, family orientated event that everyone can enjoy. I don’t think much more could be done to make it any better. Finally for all event images go to www.nashyspix.com

All pro images from wwww.nashyspix.com