Triman Torquay April 2011

About 8 months ago I decided that if I was going to be living in Melbourne full time, I would need another hobby / sport to keep me motivated and active. So I bought road bike. In the few months that followed this somehow turned into triathlons. Next thing I knew I entered my self into the Gatorade Series in Melbourne and my carrier as a triathlete had started.

A steep leaning curve followed as I noticed my transition technique improve as well as my fitness. During this past summer I competed in 6 triathlons. As I progressed and my fitness improved the idea of a half ironman was brought to the table by good friend and training partner Jaselyn O’Sullavin. At first I though it was a joke, but I slowly got my head around the idea and singed up.

April 3^rd 2011 – Tri Man Torquay 1.9km Swim, 90km Cycle and 21.5km Run.

No mean feat, this was going to be on the most grueling experiences of my life. I do like a challenge!

The alarm went off at 4.30am, I lay in bed trying to force in the food. One of the biggest learning expenses of this race was understanding nutrition, and how to fuel your body while racing. This actual started 2 days before the race with come serious carb loading. By the time I got to race morning I was so sick of eating. I jumped on the scales the days before race days and weighed in at 86.5kgs, the heaviest I had ever been.

By the time Jase and I got to the transition area we could just start to see some light in the east. Start time was 7.30am.

A bit dazed and confused, this race was a bit defferent to the other Tri’s I had entered. Way more organization was needed, by the athletes and by the organizers them selfs.

In my transision area I had a changes of clothes, Bike about 3 liters of water and electrolight drink, 3 peanut butter and honey sandwiches, 7 endura energy gels a powerbar. All these thing need to be either worn or eaten during the course of the race.

Finally the race started, I felt good in the swim. I paced my self as best as I could. I wasn’t in the leading pack, I think I was somewhere leading the packin the middle of the first wave of athletes.

After about 25 mins I was out of the water, feeling pretty fresh. Over to transission it was all happening. Riding nicks on, food packed water ready, on the bike!

Condtions for the race were actually pretty good. Much better than forecasted anyway. Light winds and cool tempretures. As the ride grew on the winds picked up.

My aim was to average 30kms p/h over the 90km course. I achieved this with an overall average of around 31km p/h average.

I tried to keep my mind busy by concentrating on my nutrsision plan so that I proformace didn’t suffer. For the ride I ate ¼ of a peanut butter and honey sandwitch every 20mins, finishing with a powerbar towards the end of the bike leg to give me a boost for the run.

I finally got off the bike in just under 3 hours. Into transission, ready for the run. I was a little nervous about this part for the race, as I had never run this distance before. In a normal situation I sure I would have no problem, but after 3.5hours of swimming and rideing it could be a different story.

My goal was to keen an average of 5mins per km. I soon relised that this was not going to happen. So I tried to find a comfortable pace and stick to it. I found that I was comfortable running about 5.15min kms. I also continued my nutrision plan by eating every 20mins, except I was now eating the energy gels.

By the end of the race these were getting harder and harder to get down.

At one point in the race atvabout the 9km mark my mind started to drift and I found that I was really hurting, I couldn’t focus on my pace and things were getting very hard. I started to have doubts on weather I would finish. Then all of a sudden it his me, I haddent eaten anything in like 27mins. I quickly gobbled down a gel, and with in less then a min I could feel its effects. In a couple mins I felt on top of the world, powering ahead.

Finaly the finish line was in sight, it was an amazing feeling crossing that line. 5 hours about 13mins. It was a big race. Pretty happy that I was able to finish, let alone in a time that I was also happy with.

It was a great experance, during the race I though many times, Why am I doing this? I would never do this again. Now looking back I could see my self doing another, maybe not right now, but it could be done.