Nepean Triathlon Race Report
Results are here
This was our final tune-up race before Ironman West Australia. The timing was good, as it was a few days after returning to Australia and three weeks before the big one. This was the 29th running of this race (actually the longest running triathlon in Australia) and I did do it as my first ever triathlon in 1991 when I was 19. My sister entered and had to pull out at the last minute, although I was completely unfit, I pulled myself away from the bong for long enough to slog through it at a very slow pace, and quickly deciding not to do another one of those, which l stuck to for about 15 years.
As our training tends to do the long stuff only just before the race, I had been doing long rides and runs on Saturdays and Sundays recently. Woody asked me to do the long run session on the Saturday regardless as it was only a training race. The day before the race was very hot in Sydney so I was waiting as long as possible to do the run. I’d also arranged to catch up with my brother’s in a pub the night before the race, so with a 7am start in Penrith (far western Sydney). It made for an interesting last 14 hours before the race. The countdown went something like this:
| Time before race | Activity |
| 14 hours | 30 x 800m @ 4.00-4.30k pace, with 200m easy jog. Done at local grass 400m track. |
| 12 hours | Get bullocked by Vanessa’s Dad for using up 2/3rds of his monthly internet downloads in 3 days. Did not even view any porn! Remind self to stay living overseas until Oz gets unlimited downloads |
| 11.5 hours | Meet brothers at pub. 1 x Schooner of New on 5 minutes. 2 x Schooner of water @ 3 minutes. |
| 11.4 hours | 2 x Schooner of new @ 20 minute pace. 1 x steak chips and veggies. |
| 11 hours | 1 x Schooner of trendy Aussie wheat something beer @ 30 minute. 3 x schooners of iced water |
| 10-11 hours | 2 x schooner of new @ 30 minute pace, 1 x sticky date pudding. 2 x shcooner of water |
| 9 hours | Watch New Zealand beat Oz in Rugby League final |
| 7 hours | Bed |
| 3 hours | Alarm. Snooze button x4 @ 5mins. |
| 2 hours | Drive to race |
| 1.5 hours | First pee since run – expelled maybe 200mls – where did all that fluid go?? |
| 1 hour | Arrive at race – set up |
| 30 minutes | Watch Vanessa start |
| 10 minutes | Swim in front of the aqua coloured caps ready to start in their wave |
| 9 minutes | 100 aqua caps realise I’m actually wearing blue cap and all let me know about swim. |
| 8 minutes | Accept the cheers and blame my tinted goggles. Exit water. |
| 2 minutes | Back in water with fellow blue caps. |
| 0 minutes | Gun goes |
The event was really well organised and fun. Peter Jacobs was racing frsh from his 10th place at Hawaii and Michell Wu fresh from her wins at Japan 70.3 and Taiwan 70.3 as they tuned up for IMWA and Phuket 70.3 respectively.
Swim – 1km 16.21
The swim was in the lake that the rowing events in the Sydney Olympics were held in. A long straight 1km swim; with no turns or deviations and little buoys to keep you going straight the whole way. I drafted quite well and was able to speed up and slow down when almost losing someone’s feet (probably helped that there didn’t seem to be any really quick swimmers in our wave. The waves were spread out well so it was only in the last hundred metres that we caught the stragglers from the aqua caps’ wave. I came out about 4th in our wave.
Bike 30kms -49.16
I had a pretty quick T1 and got onto the bike equal with the guys ahead of me on the swim. I soon went to the front and rode away from them. This really felt like a real race just among our age group, which was quite cool. I’d had issues with my back brake rubbing and thought I’d fixed it befor the race but didn’t do it properly due to running late (again – some people never learn). I just thought I won’t use the brake as it didn’t snap back after use and rubbed afterwards. After about 20kmsI used the brake by mistake and felt it / heard it start to rub again. I thought about getting off to release it but it’s tucked right under the bike so just went on. I ended up being caught by one of the guys after another 5 kms. He didn’t look much like a runner though and had a handle-bar moustache for Movember which is a pet peeve of mine (if you’re doing Movember it has to be a porn star / cheesy 80’s mo – the idea is to look like a chump not look like a member of the Hell’s Angels), so I thought I’d be able to run away from him. Then two more joined, including Trent Chapman’s (3rd overall at IM Australia brother Cory and I was fourth into T2 (missed the firstoffthebike.com.au but felt fresh).
Run 10km – 41.14
Onto the run and I was surprised my legs feeling great after the aforementioned 30x1km and 6 x schoeys of newys. After 3 kms I had run by the other three guys and was leading the age group. Was nice to know I was in front as normally you’ve no idea where you are in your AG. I was running 3.50 k pace and feeling good. It started to get really hot and I got pretty tired – I missed all the aid stations so maybe was a bit dehydrated too. My pace dropped to 4.10-4.20. One guy ended up going past me with 4kms to go and I couldn’t go with him. He ended up winning – ran a 36 something so no shame in being beaten by that. I still missed my sub 40min goal – but ended feeling pretty good. As our age group was the last wave to start was nice not to be passed continuously on the run actually the guy who won was the only one who passed me and I ran by lots of the waves ahead – a pleasant change indeed.Got a little trophy and some podium time, was great to see all the tri clubs having BBQs and hanging out together. Ness and I were wishing we belonged to one of them....
After the race we had the best BBQ ever at Justin’s house with Ness, Yasmin and her whole family – Justin even busted out a bottle of Grange Hermitage (my first ever) as the lunch turned into dinner. So a fun race with a podium, great friends lots of meat, salad and sausages, a pavlova and a Grange. It just might have been the day of the year. Remind myself I should move back to Oz as soon as I can.
All in all a good tune up for IMWA, just got 10 days more of hard training and then taper time – race- off-season baby!
