1600+ participants took the plunge into Geographe bay, some there to try and win the race, some qualify for kona, some beat a personal best, or just hear those sacred words "you are an ironman". I was there to achieve a top five or better finish. I had trained for this, it is a realistic goal and to cut a long story short I didn't achieve it. I finished 9th in a time of 8.54 and was out of the race after the bike ride. I swam average, started the bike well but tried to stay with a bunch of guys who were far better than me on the day and I paid the price of risking too much early. I was beaten physically and perhaps later on mentally finishing the last 60km at an effort that wouldn't even suffice for an easy training ride. I suffered despite feeling like I was doing everything within my power to ride at my goal pace. (Would I do this again? The short answer is yes! In order get what I expect out of myself I have to take risks, push myself to the brink and get through the other side, but to do this I need to develop my cycling further.) I then went about trying to salvage the race with a decent run. I did this until about the 30km mark, when the wheels fell of and my pace slowed significantly. My day in a nutshell swim 53min, bike 4hr57min, run 2nd 59min total 8hr 54min.

Now this brings me to the point of my blog, I had access to the best equipment through my fantastic sponsors, Trek bikes, Champion system clothing, Saucony runners, Ryders eyewear, Winners sports nutrition, Cecil Walker cycles and Nashypix. I had exceptional support from my awesome wife Tarryn, coach Kristian Mannietta, manager Dan from DTR. At the end of the day nothing was left to chance and I couldn't deliver my expectations on race day. It is now time to look at the whole process, analyse my performance with honesty and integrity, then do what is required to achieve what I know is possible.

You may be thinking I am being hard on myself but I must add that I am exceptionally grateful for the opportunity to race ironman, I still embraced the day and in 10+ years I will look back at all my Ironman performances and be proud. I still immensely enjoyed crossing the finish line, the sound of my 20 month old son yelling "Go Dad" at the top of his lungs, seeing my wife each lap of the bike and run, the joy of being introduced to the start line as a pro, burger and chips post race and the comaradarie amongst fellow athletes pre/post race. I still enjoyed hurting myself, pushing myself and wanting to give up. We had a great 9 days in WA and I cherish every moment I get to travel and race.

Driving to the airport on the way home I was listening to ABC national (showing my age) and the lead singer of Gotye was being interviewed. A week or so earlier I had watched what I thought was a great performance ‘live’ at the Aria music awards from Gotye. I was even imagining how good it must feel to be able to belt out a tune like that at the top of your lungs having your fans, peers etc looking on in ore. In his interview he spoke of how humbling that performance was, he found it incredibly difficult in such a big venue (he was not used to performing in such massive spaces). He listened to the performance the next day and was ‘embarrassed by what he knew was a poor performance’. Despite me the tone death musical enthusiast thinking it was incredible. He was objective and spoke of having a lot of work to do as an artist to be able to handle gigs in such venues. This reminded me of my feelings on the race a few days earlier. Several of my friends, family and colleagues could not understand how I could not be satisfied with my performance. Top 10, sub 9, sub 3hr marathon, "your kidding that's awesome". My good mate Beau Miles even dedicated a space on his blog to what he described as a “laypersons take on elite performance” http://www.beaumilesfilm.com/blog.php . I am grateful for the experience and am grateful for anyone of those around me who might be inspired by not only my performance but my dedication to the process. For me however, the minute I am satisfied with repeating the same performance over and over (my last four ironman's I have finished within a 4min window), stop challenging myself and ultimately tell myself to be content with a performance I know I can do a lot better than is the minute I should find a new challenge. Plus at the end of the day I just love to Swim, Bike and Run.

Last Sunday saw the running of the inaugural Falls Creek Triathlon. This event would double as the Victorian Long Course Triathlon Championships. With Leon Griffin and Olympic Bronze medallist Jan Rehula taking the start line the pace was always going to be hot. After a two week period of complete rest over Christmas, I got back into training in early January. I had a good little hit-out at Elwood in early January at the Elwood Xosize triathlon placing 2^nd by seconds to the in-form Monty Frankish. I felt good leading into the race and was confident this was a course that would suite me.  

After a lack-lustre swim I exited the water with known cyclists Chris Bradford and Dave Meade. I set about keeping with these two as I knew they would ride a solid pace and minimise time lost to the leaders. Jan was off the front and Leon, Monty Frankish, Lyndsay Wall were riding together a minute or so down on him. The pace was solid and by the first turn around at 13km we had put some time into the leaders. I was working hard to stay with these boys, pushing the boundaries of my capabilities but still sitting at pace, which should be manageable. I lost concentration at the top of a steep climb after the turn around and Chris and Dave quickly gapped me and I was not sharp enough to recover this deficit. I didn’t worry too much about this at the time as I was keeping them in sight and only about 45seconds down at the end of the first lap. This proved to be a big mistake and I was quickly taught a lesson in racing as these two bridged the gap to the leaders and with all the strong riders now together they put a further five minutes into me over the next 50 +km.

The organisers of the Canberra Half Ironman (Nick Munting and his crew) were thrown several curve balls in the weeks preceding the race and come up trumps managing to put together a race, which was safe, successful and closely resembled the traditional format. The record rainfall recorded across Australia’s eastern states provided several challenges to the planned course in the nation’s capital. Firstly Lake Burley Griffin was not swimmable due to extreme bacteria levels and floating debris. Therefore the swim was replaced with a 4km run; the event was now a duathlon. Secondly the original bike course was unrideable after the road had been flooded; removing one of the events trademarks the climb up Coppins Crossing rd.

I was disappointed that the swim was cancelled I have been making some great improvement in the pool in recent times. I had my best ever swim six weeks earlier in Port Macquarie, followed by a shocker in Shepparton and was hoping to re-deem myself after a good four weeks in the pool in Canberra. This wasn’t to be and I now had to use the opportunity of having a run in place of the swim to capitalise on my strengths and get myself in a good position coming out of T1. I was first out on the bike course and had a 10 sec gap enough to ensure a smooth transition get my shoes on and some nutrition in before Ollie Whistler come thundering past. I tried to stay in touch early but he was laying down the gauntlet and my power was well above what I knew I could hold. 

Ollie quickly powered up the road and out of sight. Paul Attard and I then set about trying to minimise the gap. After two laps we realised we had company and the chase group consisted of myself, Paul, Richard Munro and Johan Borg. Paul was driving hard keeping the pace high and I was working just to keep him in sight. After four laps Richard Munro increased the pace and rode a minute into Johan, Paul and myself. I was really happy to stay in touch with these boys on the bike, despite perhaps over cooking myself a little. I had spent the previous four weeks working on my bike speed to lots of hard interval work and this payed off on Sunday.

Out onto the run I felt shocking and had already been cramping on the bike. I knew my normal run speed wasn’t there and set about trying to find a rhythm. Ollie was five minutes up the road, Richard about a minute ahead and Paul 30 seconds. I quickly bridged the gap to Paul, who also wasn’t running his usual pace. We then ran together until the 12km mark passing Richard at about 6km. I managed to get a small gap on Paul and then set about trying to maintain it until the finish. I knew catching Ollie was out of the question and it was a matter of survival. In the end I just managed to hold off Richard Munro to come across the line in second.

A result I was ecstatic with. This race highlighted a few things for me, which will form the focus of my training in the New Year. The importance of putting yourself in a good position after the swim cannot be understated and I know my bike is a rapidly improving component of my race. I will enjoy a two week break from training after 4 half ironman races in 10 weeks. Content that I have achieved my goal of improving as a racer. In the process I have come away with Australian Half Ironman Series win.        

On jumping into the Kialla Lake and beginning a warm-up I immediately felt ordinary, this continued through to the start of the swim and as a consequence I was dropped by the lead pack very early. A sharp contrast to the swim I had two weeks earlier in Port Macquarie. Out on the bike course I was not feeling much better. I struggled through a slow first 30km lap, quickly losing sight of Mitch Anderson who started the bike just in front of me. It was to be a solo ride for me once again. I slowly worked my way into the race after a tough start and was able to increase my pace over the second two laps. By the end of the bike I was well and truly out of the hunt for a top five position and was purely focused on beating the four hour barrier, which has been a personal goal of mine for a couple of years now. Looking at the race clock I would have to run sub 1.15 to do so.

I managed to hold the pace required for the first 14km and started the last 7km lap with a tad over 25minutes to reach my goal. Unfortunately I started to fatigue and I slowly lost more and more time over the last five km’s finishing with a 1.16 and change. I was super happy to see Matty White take a well deserved win pushed all the way by Josh Rix and even happier to see good mate Paul Attard take his first Half Ironman podium finishing in third position.

I now look forward to heading to Canberra in four weeks time for the last race of Australian Half Ironman series and hope to put together a more consistent performance than Sunday. Sundays result does put me in the lead of National Half Ironman series points (which I discovered yesterday) and as long as I finish inside the top ten in Canberra I will win the series. Being the only athlete to compete in and finish inside the top 10 in 4 out of the 6 races. Well I guess as they say “you have to be in it to win it”.

A big thanks to all the support from the many friends who made the trip to support or race. This is one of my favourite races simply because of the number of mates racing and supporting. I love the fact it takes 3 hours just to check in on Saturday by the time you stop and have a chat to everyone you bump into down there.