Sunday, October 27, 2013

Race Report: Nepean Triathlon

Headed out to the 'Riff' today to have a run at the 32nd Nepean Triathlon, and have to say -aside from the flaming blisters- I'm happy with today's outcomes.

The Tell-All Trailer: Good swim, flat bike, good run. Happy Steve. Oh yeah, 87th OA, 8th in M25-29.

Feature-Length Version:
If you've been following the sparse updates offered on this lowly slice of the interweb, you'll know I've been dealing with a pain in the ass foot. Back in May, I did myself a doozy and picked up a low-grade stress fracture in my third metatarsal (L). As a result, I've run bugger all in the last 5 months or so, and consequently came to today's race with few expectations.

1km Swim: 15:21. Starting in the same pack as a the pros -including the odd Olympian, Long-Distance Champ, and ITU World Champ- was pretty cool. Those guys went hell-for-leather and the rest of us just tried to hang on as much as we could (probably about 10m). Settled in a chugged along. Pretty straightforward swim (literally) and we were upright before long. 



T1: 2:11. Meh. Wetsuit stuck like glue (suprise, suprise). 

30km Bike: 51:35. High heart-rate, crap power. Pretty punchy course with a lot of turns to power out of. Not a great course for me, I guess. No excuses, just need to improve.

T2: 1:50. Racks weren't labelled from the bike-in gate. As usual, ran to the wrong rack (Classic me). Struggled with my shoes, and off.

10km Run: 37:53. Chuffed with that. Second run off the bike since Ironman Melbourne, and one of the longest runs I've done since May. Such a flat course, it was good to settle in to a rythym and enjoy being passed by the pros. 

When I came onto the course, I was right behind Nat VanCovorden, who was in 3rd and just began her 2nd lap. Before long, Aaron Royle made my 3:45/km's feel very pedestrian - he passed me en route to the W. Appo (Who's on a roll!) then Sticksy ran by, also on the way to podiums. I ended up running alongside Charlotte McShane for a K or so as as she ran into 4th spot (I think she was in the hurt box and didn't care for my encouragement :P), but again - too cool running along with the U23 ITU World Champ! The Gong locals were killing it today.



Thanks to USN Australia for keeping me fuelled and to Saucony Australia for the kicks, as always. Looking forward to having a dig out at Husky in a few weeks then Shepparton 70.3 to -with a bit of luck- get myself a ticket to the 2014 Ironman 70.3 World Championships.