I’ve been forced to face the facts. I’m a bit of a tri geek. Not a tri-tech geek, or an avid reader of the brutal triathlon forums but I certainly do love the history of the sport. The Nepean Triathlon is one of only a few races where the organisers truly recognise and respect the history of their event. The website clearly promotes the list of athletes that have won this race some of whom are true legends of the sport such as Greg Welch, Brad Beven, Tim Bently, Spot Anderson just to name a few. In recent times there have also been some successful current guys- Sexton, Jacobs and more, names that have really built on the prestige of the event. Due to my tri history nerdiness I really wanted to put up a fight in this race not just to race the guys this year but because of the well documented results of past races to also see how my times compared to the many other athletes that have raced around the Penrith arena.

I sat in a shuttle bus post Hy-Vee this year still coughing my lungs up after falling fairly ill prior to the event but not feeling too sorry for myself as I was stoked to be able to chat to Greg Bennet about how he won the race. It became instantly clear that it’s not by chance or pure talent that Greg wins the big races. He strategically analyzes his competition, the course, his equipment choices and his tactics. He follows a very well rehearsed mental plan. I’m sure all the greats do. I’ve tried to learn from this and have made a lot more effort into following a race plan since I’ve got back to Oz.

I knew I didn’t want this one to come down to a running race. I had run a hard 21kms only 7 days prior digging deep to try and catch Clayton Fettell at Port 70.3. I figured Mitch Robins and Cam Good could out run me by about 30 seconds if I stayed with them on the bike and saved my legs. So after studying the course maps and noticing how technical the bike course was I decided that my best chance for a win was to take some risks on the technical corners coupled with maximum effort acceleration and fingers crossed I would start the run with some breathing space. I also had one person in mind that I wanted to come with me, young Matty Williams.  Karl, from Trizone had given me the heads up of this guys prowess on the bike,  I wanted him on my team as having one person to take some of the air resistance load 7 meters ahead of you, even for short respites is very refreshing.

I got out of the swim where I needed to be. My transition wasn’t too bad but sloppy compared to the guys that have been racing the ITU format races. A strap on my shoe broke so I rode with one foot not strapped in but I soon caught the main group and stayed near the front for the first few kilometres. As soon as we hit the corners I went for it, as did Matty Williams. I didn’t look back, I have had more seconds then a clock, I wanted a win or to at least go down happy I had taken a chance.  Joey Lampe, the nicest man in triathlon, was up the road by a fair margin but by about 8kms we had reeled him in and at the U-turns I tried to really rev up Matty and Joey to really work to keep the dieting ITU pencils from gaining an time.

I saw the gap was growing so on the 2nd lap I tried to lift the pace even more and Joey dropped off leaving Matty Williams and I entering transition with a small gap on Joey and fair gap on the other contenders. I hit the run and knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. I felt heavy and my breathing was laboured. I’m not sure whether it was the hard ride or the race last week but despite the margin, I knew if Mitch was running well it was going to be very close. Finally at about 5kms I started to find some bounce and felt my pace start to lift. Mitch passed Joey who was moving well. Joey has the fastest run pace per body weight of any BFG (big friendly giant) I know. Mitch then further closed the gap on me but thankfully the finish line came soon enough and I crossed in first place. I wasn’t even slightly bummed to miss out on the bonus $2000 for beating the first female (Nepean has a handicap start based on the average male and female finishing times for previous years) because as soon as I knew Melissa Rollison was racing it was going to be near impossible to close an 11 minute gap especially since Mel normally outruns many of the elite men, which she did. Big Congrats to Mel, it’s scarey how good she is.

I’m very proud to have pulled off the race I wanted and even prouder to look through results online and see that my race stacks up as the quickest of the available results (goes back to 2000). Special thanks to my great friends Wicksy, Pyza and Ky making a surprise journey out to the distant land of Penrith. To my greatest love, the Moncat,  thank you for your constant love and support.

Race morning produced a light breeze and a temperature that would have been fresh for normal people but downright bloody cold for most triathletes or ‘pencils’ as my fiance’s father calls us. It warmed up to a pleasant temperature on the run and the light breeze grew to more of a challenging counter cycling force the later your wave start or slower your swim.

After copping too many elbows to my already ugly head last week I decided to start very wide to avoid swimming with the pack as I had confidence in my swim and my brand spanking Zoot prophet wetsuit that I wouldn’t need to draft too much to get through swim to be where I needed to be. Bryan Rhodes, Dave Dellow and Guy Crawford made the expected break soon after the first turning bouey. Guy put the surge on Rhodsey pipping him for the swim prime with Dellow getting out on their feet.

I exited with a huge chase group hot on my heels meaning that the bike pack was going to be big and tactical. With so many riders and such a flat fast course even at a 12 metre drafting distance there is a small advantage by riding with the group. Guy Crawford was putting it on the line a couple of minutes up the road and held that gap to T2. I tried to keep my legs fresh waiting for what I thought would be imminent attacks from Ollie Whistler, Rhodsey, Josh Rix and possibly Matty White however no such attacks materialised until 5kms to go. I think Ollie Whistlers recent patch of illness and a lot of guys backing up after a really tough ride last week at Port Macquarie 70.3 had left everyone a little bit conservative. 5kms to go and Rix and Jamie White got away. Most of the field didn’t see them slip aways as the course was getting pretty crowded with 1^st lap competitors so only Ollie and I really noticed. I wasn’t fussed opting not to chase as I was too busy looking down admiring how sexy my Kestrel 4000SL was looking beneath meJ and I felt that I could run Josh and Jamie down. Ollie considered chasing but after consuming 8 bottles of fluid was too concerned with getting through his 12^th ‘on the bike’ urinating procedure. 

Berkel tactically moved to the front towards the end of the ride and I got caught a little off guard as we hit transition and he gained a small gap of 15 seconds from the outset of the run. I was in the chase group with Matty White, Leon Griffin and Dave Dellow. Matty’s recent record speaks for itself and Leon is a former duathlon world champion who when uninjured and feeling good has ‘Crowie’ run speed. Both had taken it easy last week so with Dave Dellow a gun over both ITU racing and non drafting racing I was pretty nervous and knew the run ahead was going to hurt. Aerobically I felt fantastic but I knew with my run session distance peaking at 12kms in training and the fatigue from last week that my muscles weren't going to have the strength endurance so I had to make hay while the sun was shining. I started winding the screws before the inevitable fatigue set in.

Matty and Leon dropped off so that by 8kms it was just myself and Dellow holding the 15-20 second gap to Berkel with Jamie, Josh and Guy having been caught early on. Dellow was breathing like a four pack a day smoker so I was thinking in the next km or too he would drop off. Instead, he surged and dropped me! That guy is seriously tough. Not long after that he pulled up short holding his calf area. I’m not sure whether it was cramping or whether an achilles injury was plaguing him. Commiserations are due because he was looking strong and I was starting to fade.

At 14kms I had kept the gap to Berkel under a minute but I was done. My quads felt like they were filled with glass and my calf muscles were starting to cramp. I had negotiated with Grant Giles that we would get me fit for the States through a lot of racing and not much run training to ensure I fully recovered from injury but still got to do what I love. I still think it was the right way to go but now I was paying for not doing those longer runs. Matty White was just getting started and cruised past me to get 2^nd. Matt has been knocking out some really big 120km run weeks which should hold him in really good stead for the upcoming Challenge Cairns. Berkel went onto win recording another blistering half marathon time (1.13!) after only 6 days of rest from his last race. His running technique and biomechanics is nothing short of majestic, I just wish I could have been closer to him to watch him glide around the course for longer.  I was happy to hang onto 3^rd, Josh Rix 4^th, Jamie Whyte 5^th and Guy Crawford 6^th.

Honourable mention to Dr Mitch Anderson who backed up after racing Ironman Australia last week to finish a freakish 7^th overall with a sub 4hr time. I’m sure after 18 months of injury that completing a half ironman a week after an Ironman was against the Doctors orders, unless you are your own Doctor and not worried about the litigation ramifications against yourself.  

Until next time.

The beer loving gnome.

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.