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Back in February Josh and I decided that I would to attempt to qualify for the 2011 World 70.3 Championships which are to be held in Las Vegas in September. The new WTC qualifying criteria for professionals state that the top 25 females on the ranking points as of July 18 would gain a start, with points from an athletes best five 70.3 results going towards ranking points. As of the end of April I had not yet raced in any 70.3 races, so it was always going to be a tough ask to fit in 5 races between then and now. However we worked out a plan that would hopefully provide me with the best opportunity to make the cut, as such I have raced five 70.3's in the past 10 weeks - Port Macquarie (April 29), Busselton (May 7), Kansas (June 12), Buffalo Springs (June 26) and Muncie (July 9). Not surprisingly my best results have come when I have been at my freshest (2nd at Port Mac and 4th at Kansas). 

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When I crossed the finish line in my first Half Ironman at Shepparton in November I swore I would never do one again! However I soon forgot about the pain and managed to find myself on the start line of the inaugural Falls Creek Long Course Triathlon this morning. 



I was really excited to be competing in a race at such an amazing location. For those that don't know, Falls Creek is located in the Victorian Alps, 1600m above sea level. It truly is one of the greatest places on earth and we were all so lucky to be competing there.

I had been up to Falls Creek a month earlier and had done some training over the course, so I had a fair idea of what I was in for come race day. The course is brutal, starting off with a 2km swim in 15 degree water, followed by a super hilly 80km on the bike, and finishing off with a 20km trail/cross country run. The course alone is tough enough, however we had the added bonus of altitude to contend with. This was not your average race, and I knew that the strongest athlete would come home with the goods at the end of the day. I love tough racing, so couldn't wait to get started. 



I had a great swim and came out of the water in 2nd place, about 2min down from ITU racing specialist Liz Blachford. Close behind me were Michelle Wu and Nicole Ward. I managed to have a super fast transition and went about trying to catch Liz, which I did by the end of the first lap (of three) on the bike. We were soon accompanied by Wu and stayed together for the remaining 2 laps. Coming into T2 I knew that I would have to have one of my best ever runs if I were to beat these girls, as they are both amazing athletes and have a number of titles to their names.



I managed to get out on the run course first and just focused on holding a constant pace and getting my nutrition right. As the k's ticked over I started to feel stronger and stronger and knew that if I let my lead slip now then I had missed a great opportunity, so I put all I had into getting to that finish line in the top position. I was super excited when it finally came around and I crossed the line in First Place Elite Female and Victorian Long Course Champion. 

This was a breakthrough race for me. I was really looking at giving it my all out there today and putting in 110% effort. I knew that it was time to step it up and I had to start mixing it with the big girls, especially if I want to have success in the USA this year. 



This would have to be one of the greatest triathlons I have competed in and congratulations must go to SuperSprint and Falls Creek for putting on such a fantastic event. If anyone is looking for a challenging race in one of the best locations in the world, then Falls Creek Long Course is a must for the 2012 racing calendar. Also, well done to all the other competitors out there today, just to get to the finish was a huge achievement!

I must say a massive thanks to Mum, Dad, Sam, Barb, Colin, Susannah and Coop for their race day support. Also to my amazing sponsors in Malvern Star, Peak Bike Hub, Brooks Running, Selle SMP Saddles and Team Barefoot. 

The biggest thanks must go to my coach Joshua Rix, the support, belief and advice he has provided me with is second to none and the future is exciting!

Until next time,

Take it easy...

 Ironman World Champion Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack has signed an exclusive agreement with USM EVENTS; organisers of the inaugural Challenge Cairns that will see the two-time Ironman World Champion compete for the next three years (2011 – 2013).

 

Challenge Cairns will be the only Ironman race the 37 year old will race in Australia.

The multi faceted deal will also see McCormack as a global ambassador for the Challenge Cairns event.

 

USM EVENTS Executive Chairman Garth Prowd said the multi faceted deal also includes McCormack as a global ambassador for the Challenge Cairns event.

 

“We’ve had a long and very happy relationship with Macca over the past couple of decades as he has competed regularly at many of our events over the years, but unfortunately that had dropped off a little recently as he pursued his Ironman goals,” said Mr Prowd.

 

“As soon as we decided to launch the Challenge event in Cairns we also decided it was a good opportunity to revisit the relationship with Macca. Quite honestly I couldn’t think of anyone we would rather work with to help profile our newest event around the globe.

 

“Macca is not only one of the finest and most recognised athletes in the world, he’s also one of the people you can count on to do the right thing by the sport and everyone involved. We are simply thrilled to have him on board,” add Mr Prowd.

 

In announcing his commitment to race at Challenge Cairns McCormack said the decision was made easy as he wants to spend more time at home in Sydney with wife Emma Jane, daughters Talia 7 and Sienna 4. The McCormack’s are soon to extend their family with Emma Jane due to give birth in March.

 

“To be honest, the opportunity to race on Australian shores again is super exciting. My career has taken me all over the globe, but nothing is the same as the ability to race in front of family and friends in a race at home,” said McCormack.

 

“I have worked closely with USM over my entire career, and when I heard they had secured a Challenge event for Cairns, Australia, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to return home and support this event. Challenge is a phenomenal brand and USM is a perfect partner.

“Racing in Cairns will be a real treat. My wife and I had our honeymoon in Cairns 8 years ago and fell in love with the city. It will be great to return.

 

“The race will be a real challenge, the venue and backdrop breathtaking, and the race a real test of character and commitment. I cannot wait to be a part of it.”

 

Much has been written about this plucky Aussie but he tells things how they are and is not only one of our greatest sportsman but one of the smartest in how he executes his race plans. In a sport that he has owned for more than a decade, McCormack’s 2010 win in Hawaii has been hailed as the greatest performance in Ironman history and his masterpiece race. A battle won with brains and experience, not only did he declare he was, “Here to win”, he told everyone how he would do it, and did.

 

His desire to always race the best athletes, rather than results based assessments of his performances is paramount to his long list of achievements and why he has claimed two Ironman World Championships, Goodwill Games gold medallist, seven time World Cup Champion, ITU Olympic Distance Champion and 12 Ironman wins to name a few.

 

This year at Challenge Cairns McCormack will be joined by a host of other world class Australian’s looking to be the first name engraved on the trophy.

 

Fellow Sydneysider Pete Jacobs who claimed ninth behind McCormack in Kona last year is delighted to have such a prestigious race at home.

 

Port Macquarie’s Tim Berkel who won the inaugural Challenge Copenhagen in 2010, New Zealand’s Cameron Brown, one of the world’s most revered athletes has won a staggering nine iron distance events at home and has also signed up for Cairns. 

 

Australia’s Rebekah Keat is no stranger to Challenge events claiming the 2010 Challenge Copenhagen title and in 2009 a world record at Roth – 8 hours 39 minutes. The Gold Coast based Keat is passionate about doing well in Cairns this year.

 

Belinda Granger has the well earned title of veteran in this sport with 12 Ironman titles to her name in a career that has spanned two decades; husband Justin will also toe the start line.

 

One of the sports brightest talents and current Australian Ironman champion Carrie Lester has added her name to the list of starters.

 

Challenge Cairns promises to attract many more big names in long distance triathlon with its 100,000 Euro prize purse, the second richest in iron distance racing.

 

Challenge Cairns will be held on Sunday 5 June 2011 and organisers have designed a spectacular course for competitors.  The 3.8km swim will be held in the sheltered waters off Yorkeys Knob, 180km bike leg will wind its way along one of Australia’s most stunning coastal roads towards Port Douglas and a 42.2km run that includes the Cairns boardwalk before finishing in the heart of the city of Cairns.

 

Visit www.usmevents.com.au to enter or for more information.

Expected Winning Times:        Male – 58mins    Female – 1:03:00mins

There are some races that you simply want to win. I was having a little ponder as to why Port Mac Half Ironman is so important to me.  Like nearly every race in Australia, the prize money is embarrassingly small but there was a much deeper motivation driving me that had me being unusually focused in my preperation to this event. After training with Tim Berkel, Matty White and other experienced professionals in Boulder I saw what sacrifices they would make to ensure that they got to a peak for big events. So I set about sticking to the plan my coach Grant Giles and I had established for me. I raced Maitland tri unrested taking a fair knock to the ego as Mitch smoked me in his ever largening pipe of success, maximised my recovery between sessions, turned down casual work  and turned down ‘catch up dinner’ invitations from my non-triathlon friends to minimise the risk of an innocent feed turning into a viscious all nighter.  Small steps for man, big steps for Tim Reed.

The drive that had me itching to win this event is my personal history with Port Macquarie, the main competitors of this race and the event itself. I was dabbling with the occasional triathlon to keep fit through university and it wasn’t unti my great friend Ollie Whistler started the sport, was training very seriously and improving on a weekly basis that I got really motivated to give triathlon a lot more attention. Funnily enough it was only two years ago that Mitch, Ollie and myself battled it out for the 18-24 age group category at Port Macquarie Half Ironman. People often ask why I didn’t start racing in the professional category earlier and to me I wasn’t killing people in my age group so I didn’t really see it as the logical next step. Ollie Whistler, Mitch Robins, Adam Holborrow and I were always really close. Looking back, when I compare what the 18-24 age group is doing now (no offence guys. Actually take offence- you’re soft) we were a good 30-40 minutes ahead and all four of us were rarely out of the top ten overall in 70.3 and Half Ironmans. Having that competition in my age group played a huge role in my striving to improve and I think I am so lucky that I was able to train and race with a group of friends who really pushed each other. Consequently I’m proud to say we have all progressed to the next level of racing professionally and are still pushing each other to continually step things up.

The race continued its recent history of unpredictable race starts with horn going while I was still about 20 metres behind the line of front swimmers.  No ‘one minute to go’, no ‘get in a straight line’, nothing. Frankly I was pissed off. If you miss the front bunch of guys in an Australian Half Ironman swim you are going to have a very tough time getting back the time on the bike as the 7metre bike to bike gap still allows for significant energy saving through legal drafting. Additionally, Mitch and I have both been putting a lot of time into our swimming hammering each other with 100m sprints and I was hoping to get up the front with him and really try and push each other in the hope of getting out of the water with some space so that we could attack on the bike.  Thankfully my adrenaline allowed me to make up some time and swim over some people to have a very speedy transition and second out onto the bike course.

I straddled Kestrel Kev and set about making back the small gap between myself and Mitch. Tim Berkel caming flying through and set about revving myself and Mitch up to legally work together to gap the rest of the field. So we pushed hard. I was blown away with the surges Berkel was putting in on the bike. For someone who can nearly always run one of the quicker times he was taking no chances in letting the second group get near us and once again increased my respect for him. Ollie Whistler was also in tow pushing his usual cadence of 25 rpm with his elephantitis suffering quadriceps but his usual bike dominance wasn’t showing through so I had a feeling that it was not going to be one of his better days. I took a little bit to get going but the longer the ride went the stronger I felt which is a strong contrast to how I felt in races in the States so I was very happy that my more consistent bike milage was paying off despite the very windy conditions and stinging hills heading in and out of town.

As I predicted Mitch attacked with a few kilometres to go to give him some extra time into transition. I opted for keeping him within sight but not going all out to try and close the gap as I didn’t like the idea of getting into transition with lactate spilling out my eyeballs. I also knew that Berkel and Mitch had to put socks on while my Zoot shoes allow a faster transition through a sockless run.

About 40 seconds down on Mitch, Berkel and I exited transition side by side. Memories of Bussleton Half Ironman earlier this year where we ran side by side for 21kms were haunting me as that sort of racing can be quite mentally draining so I decided to give him a little wack with the hurt stick to see if he would come with me. The gastro he had suffered through the week and the pace he had pushed on the bike meant that his run was not it’s usual self and he lost ground quickly. I never think I’ve got Berkel out of the way however as in many races I’ve put minutes into him in the first 10kms only for Berkel to float by me later on leaving me covered in his dust. I also knew that the harmless trash talk I’de put out about him being undertrained was a big driving force in him wanting to teach me a lesson

I started to claw Mitch back and got the gap back to about 40 metres at best. I could tell he wasn’t going as smoothly as usual and was probably not feeling the best after that bike pace however I was unsure whether to close the gap completely as I didn’t want to spend too much of my energy too early and knew that if I pulled up alongside him he would see that I was hurting too and could push the pace up another notch. It can be very unnerving to have someone behind you where you can’t see how they are feeling or judge from their running form their level of fatigue so I decided it was to my advantage that I stayed where I was. I figured I could save my energy till I saw him slowing and then make a strong pass rather that would break him mentally rather than encouraging him by slowly pulling up alongside him breathing like I was giving birth .

All of these tactics went out the window at about the 10km mark as I got a quad cramp and needed to slow to absorb some of my High 5 nutrition. My plan switched to damage control as I took my mind to a neutral place and focused on doing what I could to do to get through the run. Mitch continued to extend his lead although I thought he was much further ahead then the finish times ended up. The Port Mac residents were so supportive that when Mitch was 30 seconds ahead they were letting me know he was 30 seconds ahead and when he was a minute ahead they were still yelling that he was 30 seconds ahead to try and encourage me so I really wasn’t sure where I was.

Mitch went on to delight his home crowd finishing in 3:59:09 and I was hugely satisfied to come in second in 4:00:29. Berkel then proceeded to show his class rounding out the podium a few minutes later despite a tough day for him. To finish on the podium with two great friends was extremely cool and I was so happy for Mitch. I had spent Friday night arguing with his Mum that she needs to get Mitch doing online university and racing overseas where he could make a really good living. Hopefully now she is starting to see my point!

As always thank you so much to Kestrel, High 5, Zoot, Oakley and Bugdy Smuggler for their continued belief and support.

To my coach Grant Giles, you are the man. I feel that I have an unfair advantage against those that have not utilised your genius.

To the small number of personal training clients, friends etc that I coached up to this event it was amazing to see you guys progressed and achieved your goals so well done and thank you for reminding me how cool this sport is and that anything is possible. 

Where do I start.

The hype, excitement and pain is all over.

What I love about what I do is the challenge, learning and the personal development I gain. It is really hard to know what the outcome will be on race day. The only thing that you can do is get yourself in the best form possible, mentally and physically.

Look at Chrissie Wellington. She wasn't to know that the day of the race she was going to be sick. It goes to show that we are all human and it's natural for these things to happen. 

My lead up to this race wasn't the best prep I would have liked but I dealt with the circumstances I came across and did everything possible to be on that start line.

The morning of the race I didn't feel the nervous energy that I normally do. I did my warm up run and swim then we all lined up. When we took off I paused for a bit as I was scared that I was going to get kicked in the face.

Once I settled into my rhythm I didn't feel the way I had been in training. Patiently I waited to get the feel of the water and I found the swim quite tough.

I exited out in 1hr flat not too concerned about my time as I had more to focus on for the rest of the day. Once heading out on the bike I found it really hard to pedal. My legs didn't have the power they normally do. I saw where the others girls were and I was passed by several girls out on course waiting for my legs to get into it. The sun was hot and the wind was strong especially riding Hawi. At one stage I felt like getting off and giving up!

I grabbed water at almost every aid station as I was getting a headache from the heat.

After having turned at Hawi, the cross winds were strong and I was a bit shaky. Mentally I started to feel better once I got back onto the queen K. The power I was waiting patiently for came through in the last 1hr of the bike. I passed a few girls and felt awesome in transition, just a little shaken. I got off the bike in 5hr25min.

I was so fast in T2 that I forgot my nutrition and I had to run back in to get it. Not concerned and feeling great I could actually smile on the run. The crowds were awesome. I had people, seemingly, cheering me on everywhere.

The first out and back loop along Alii Drive was great. I grabbed fluids,sponges and ice to keep me cool and hydrated. I got into such a good rhythm that I was really enjoying the run. Once I hit the Palani hill my glute and hip flexor jammed up. I got to the top of the hill and walked to stretch it out.

As I ran I had pain shooting down my right leg into my calf. I was so determined to finish and if I had to walk the whole marathon I would have. I walked and ran until the 21-mile mark and gritted my teeth and pushed through the pain. I ran so fast and had one of the best finishes ever.

I ran the last few miles so much faster than any other part of the marathon that I got there before Josh did - and he apologised that he wasn't there for me (:

I finished in 10hrs 12min and 27th pro woman.

Ironman is one tough event and I admire and am inspired by every person who competes in it. I am not in a rush to do another one yet but have learned so much from it for when I do decide to do another one.

It is amazing how much support I have had to help me accomplish this goal.

I look forward to racing at Noosa in 3 weeks.

Achieving is believing! 

http://www.lisamarangon.com/