Ironman Western Australia 2010

Busselton 2010 

This was the big end of season race for Vanessa and I, coming just before the start of the snow season. As we started training in February it was our longest season yet, and we were both looking forward to some down time. Vanessa had recently developed really low iron and haemoglobin levels that left her unable to even jog for a few hundred metres as recently as early November. She had started taking triple doses of iron supplements after some good advice from her Dad (a GP), her doctor and Woody and got her levels back within normal levels just before the race. We’d been lucky enough to get a good training block in at Vanessa’s Dad house in the Hunter Valley.

The WTC (Ironman Company) had taken over the organisation of this race from IMG and soon after arriving in Busso it became apparent they had definitely raised the level a notch or two. WA had just come out of their hottest Spring on record with many days in the high 30’s, but fortunately the weather cooled the week before the race and conditions were very good on the day. The pre-race party was the best I’d ever attended with a stage in the centre and lots of great motivational video presentations and speeches. Mum and Dad had come over on the Indian Pacific (famous train journey from Sydney to Perth) and they brought my sister’s delightful girls Clare and Maggie with them - packing signs to cheer us on and chalk for inspirational messages on the road. They even went in the first Ironkids swim/run race the day before the big race that was great fun to watch - they got finishing medals that were the same size as ours. Although after I finished (and after my customary time in the medical tent) we met Clare who gave me a big hug and quickly went straight for my medal, inspected it and stated matter of factly “It’s just a little bit smaller than mine”.  No way Clare - ours are definitely at least the same size….I think….I hope.

                           Maggie in transition in Ironkids - her running technique is better than her transition....

Vanessa’s Dad and step-mum Jan made the trip over and they picked up her brother Mark, a cinematographer who had been filming a wedding all day before getting a 9pm flight from Sydney,(Mark is making a video on the event - it will be fantastic and finished soon) at the airport in Perth at 11pm as he had to do a wedding the day before. They arrived at 2am when we were out to it. We did our customary pre-race meal of soft drink, chocolate and ice cream and crashed out.

Swim 3.8kms - 55 minutes

We got to race in plenty of time, but I had a funny feeling something was missing the whole time. Preparing for a triathlon is like getting ready for a day in the backcountry – so many things to remember and I’m just the type to get to the mountain without my snowboard boots or goggles. Firstly I realised I had forgotten the tape for the my valve cut outs that I’d schlepped with me all the way from Hokkaido. A quick call to Mark and then I realised the transition area would close before he got in so some stealth ninja action on the tape conveniently sitting on the check in table fixed that problem. Too bad if it was white – it went with my saddle and bar tape.  Then with 40minutes before the start I realised just like the days on the mountain I’d forgotten my goggles!  D’oh. Another panicked call to Mark who turned the car around and went back to get them – the traffic was built up around the race and I didn’t think he was going to make it in before the gun. I’d been reading about how Chris McCormack used to race without goggles and by coincidence did a practice swim from Shelley Beach to Manly the week before with my mate Wayne without goggles to see what it was like. I had gotten my head around swimming without them (was actually warming to it thinking it be hard-core) when Jan (clutching the Goggles) and Mark (clutching about 30kgs of video gear), burst through the crowd on the esplanade to meet me. We had a little jump up and down party before I squeezed through the spectators to get to the swim start with about 5 minutes to go. They’d change the swim to anti-clockwise around the looooong(1.9km) jetty this year (better for me as I breathe on the left and could see the jetty throughout) so I lined up on the right of the field. After the national anthem the guns went off - two genuine shot guns fired by two local police…the say the Wild West for nothing! 

My swim went well without much of a problem. I got in a pack occasionally but there was so much free water around every time I got in a group I got pushed and buffeted and thought “I was much happier a minute ago when I was out on my own”, so shifted out to the side of the second pack. The only issue was a big Ironman logo’d buoy at the end of the pier that I thought was the turning point but when I got to it I found out it was only there as a marker and me and about ten other mates thought what the hell was that buoy there for and had to back-track to get back on course. Turns out (pardon the pun)  the real turning buoy was yellow and smaller than the superfluous white one, genius. I spent the rest of the swim thinking that this has to be the best swim course in an Ironman anywhere– it’s like the swim course (and as a matter of fact the whole area) was made for triathlon racing. The only downside was the renovations on the jetty had stalled and the spectators didn’t have access to the whole area (when completed spectators can watch the whole course from above). I came out of the water right behind Assad Antimimi – a gun Aussie triathlete in my AG who lives in Singapore and saw 55 on the clock and thought – just where I wanted to be.

Bike 180kms - 4.49

I had a pretty quick T1 cleverly biting off the corner of my salt and vinegar chips while stepping on my wet suit legs so it would compress into my pocket, and I was right back on Assad’s Ass running the bikes out of transition. I had my shoes on already and Assad had his in his pedals, so I passed him while he was getting his feet in his pedals in the first few hundred metres out of T1. I was thinking if I don’t see Assad’s Ass again today I’ll probably be buying a ticket to Hawaii, but deep down I knew that I’d probably see it again at some stage on the run. The new bike course was still pancake flat (gotta love that!) but was about 70/30% chip seal/ hot seal this year, combined with higher winds I reckon it made it a bit slower than last year, but the lower temps meant times were a bit faster. I passed a fair few people early on and then we settled into a group of 5 about 3 minutes down on the lead pack of 10-15 riders. The new "12m from the back wheel of the rider ahead" rule was working really well and everyone was keeping a good long distance away from the rider in front. There was still a noticeable advantage at 12m though and I was trying to get our group to work as a team and take 5 minutes in the front each but our team was a bit of a motely crew and not really working as a team. Me and one other guy were doing most of the lead work keeping us at a good steady 40kph. One guy in our group finally took one turn at the front and ramped the speed up to 43kph assoon as he got there so we all had to work to catch up to him – thanks mate; that was awesome teamwork I thought.  I told him next time I was passing him to take the lead to keep it steady at 40 when he was in the lead next time; he looked all skittish and panicked and blurted out something about some other guy in our pack being in his age group, so he then sat back and didn’t lead for another 60kms, passing the tail guys in the group and then slotting in 2nd place to make it look like he was doing something other than bludging, but not actually facing the wind.

On the last lap the wind really picked up and the guy finally went to the front and put the hammer down big time and I was caught by surprise and lost him and the other guy who was 2nd as they rode away. I had no problem with him not leading if he was flat out hanging on to the group but when feeling fresh and still not to taking the lead, I guess it’s tactical racing but it’s also dirty pool and not competing with honour. What made it worse was he rode 6 minutes faster and qualified for Hawaii too. Was awesome watching him party like a rockstar at the awards night.

We had a strong shower going into the finishing area at lap 2 out of 3 and me and my 19mm tyres did a double wheel slide on the wet roads in the roundabout in front of the announcers, family and about 500 other spectators going onto lap 3 and was lucky to keep it up-right – I do it all for the fans. I did the whole of lap 3 on my own in no-man’s land behind the lead group and in-front of the massive packs behind. I got some small respie from the increasing winds when lapping people but the wind was really strong and was bemoaning the lack of cover – at least the way my race went I was never close to getting a yellow card for drafting - I heard 10% of the field got busted. I knew it was going to come down to the run so I wasn’t worried about losing a minute or so to the lead guys I was just squirming all over the place on the bike trying to hide from the wind. My speed was dropping below 35 and even 30 into some of the really strong winds.  The last 5kms into town was directly into what felt like gale-force winds and I counted down every metre down to the magical 180 into town. Going into town I saw a cyclist off the road on the left before the roundabout and thought he was heading into T2 when I went around the roundabout and back to the guy I didn’t realise the entrance to T2 was in the roundabout and was headed out onto a fourth lap. I got to the guy I had spotted on the left and turns out he had pulled over to change a flat and then was wondering where the hell I had to go. After weaving around a bit and getting abused by a couple of guys going out on their third lap behind me I guessed maybe I had to go back to the roundabout, did a U turn and rode back to my sniggering fans in the roundabout and sure enought there was the entrance chute tucked away in the corner and sheepishly went back to it and into T2. Awesome way to finish the ride.

Run 42kms 3.42

The run was a 4 loop course along the beach front and into town next to the finish chute which was now in the main drag. There was plenty of crowd support and great aid stations throughout - a really good run course – no respite from concrete but aside from that perfect. I had done a run block recently and hoped to go under 3.30, but it was not to be. I had a pretty good first 12kms, was making sure I went no faster than 4.20 km pace. The lead pros were on their 2^nd lap and I was surprised how long they were taking to overtake me as I wasn’t far in front of them. Onto lap 2 and the inevitable slide in pace started a bit earlier than I hoped for. 12kms in and there it was again – Assad’s Ass. As I watched it wobble into the distance I was thinking – it’s too bloody hot in Hawaii anyway. I had a pretty tough time on lap 3 I kept telling myself no matter how much pain I was in I was not doing it as hard as the Aussie cricket team in Adelaide. But I then realised I had not been drinking much stuff with calories andwas too focussed on the water and ice in the aid stations, so I forced down a gel which I hated and thought I was going to throw up for two minutes, but then I felt much better, and was able to pick up the pace relatively for the last 10kms. 

I calculated I had to run 5 min k pace to go under 9.30 and could tell that wasn’t going to happen but it was enticing enough to make me think maybe it was possible if I had made a mistake with my time calculations. But there was no mistake and my habbit of falling desperately short of the time markers continues (10.00.48 in Vineman etc)– bugger! Going into town just before the chute a bloke says really aggressively “on your right” I looked down and saw he was in my age group – great – then looked and saw he had an orange wrist band which meant he was heading into the finishing chute too. Awesome, I could use a sprint finish I thought. I skipped into the other lane and gave it all I had not looking back. I ended up getting over him by 3 seconds into 15^th in my AG. 

The roll downs went down to 10^th at 9.21, Woody always says to make sure you go to the roll down as you never know……I was much closer than I thought, and for the second time would have qualified in 40-44. I’m starting to think one day it’ll happen.

All in all the race was absoultely fantastic. The locals in Busselton never cease to amaze us with how friendly they are -  even more apparent after spending a month in Sydney. The volunteers were the best trained of any race I’d done (running on the bike course when handing you a bottle and moving their arm with you on the run are personal favourites). The organisation and party at the finish chute at 11pm to get in the last few racers was fantastic and Mike Reilly is my new favourite race caller (sorry Whit). It is very close run with Copenhagen for our best race ever. Anyway onto wine tasting and Cab Sav drinking in the Margaret River and the Niseko powder - off-season baby!!

 

Post race Gibson family albumn cover @ Voyager

Nepean Triathlon

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 29^th 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 4^th 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!

Murakami Olympic Distance

Murakami Race report



Race results here: http://www.iwafune.ne.jp/~triathlon/2010/2010results-k.pdf


After last week’s race showed everything that’s bad about triathlon racing in Japan, this was a great redemption - displaying everything that is good about tris here. A great crew of ex-pats (about 40 of the 600 starters were gaijin – largest ever percentage of a race I’ve done in Japan I think – the word on quality is getting out), a great amount of pre-race smack talk to spice things up, a quaint Japanese fishing village that were all right behind the event, some tetrapods off the coast showing they are useful for more than just looking hideously ugly, spoiling Japan’s coastline and making profit for their manufacturers – they decrease waves and give you shelter to swim a tri swim leg in! A great TT bike course up the coast and run around a traditional village, they even had decent prizes for all age groupers, a T shirt for entering and a towel for finishing and a great post race meal, including free beer! All for 17,000yen – good value for money. This was my third time doing this race and it has become my favourite in Japan – as soon as I got into Murakami and stood in front of the station, I had a look around, took a deep breath smelt the sea air and thought – “Back in Murakami…. Love this town!” It doesn’t seem to rate much of a mention with Japanese, who look at you like you’re a bit crazy when you tell them you’re going to Murakami. The bike course was lined with retirement village and the largest section of the chemist was for adult diapers made me think maybe it had a reputation as a ‘departure lounge’ in Japan. But for me it was refreshing and reminded me of good times.



Thanks to Thierry we’d bagged the most convenient hotel there was and could see the start line, beach and transition area from our bedroom windows – sweet! I got in at 6.30pm the night before the race and just had time to throw the rig together and get to the dinner at 7. Good food and with a great crew of Frenchies all very thoughtfully talking tri rubbish in English.



The race started in waves from 9.30 – much more civilised than the 7am starts of some other races. The race for gaijin honours was going to be tight between Eric, myself and new ring-in Pete Jenkins, who had come 30th in Nagoya the week before – well and truly handing me my ass. I had lost a bit of my mojo in training and racing recently, probably a bit of let down from the two IMs and a bit of a training break afterwards. I was wondering if my ‘mo’ would be enough to compete with the quickies and turned it didn’t quite get me there, with Peter taking honours then Eric then me a few minutes back. Never did like Frog’s legs much anyway.



Swim

24.45

I wanted to concentrate on swimming the whole race hard and not drifting off mentally and swimming easy for long periods. The 35-45 age groupers was the second wave to start, 3 minutes after the under 35s (yellow caps) which contained Pete, Eric, Alex, Laurent and a few of the other young(er) foreign crew. I got caught lying on my back when the gun went off and went out hard early – there seemed to be only one quick guy going with me and he moved slightly ahead. I tucked on his feet and was feeling great. I don’t mind a few waves as had spent enough time body surfing as a young ‘un in Sydney’s beaches to be comfortable with swell. Unfortunately we soon ran into the dreaded ‘yellow caps’ brigade. I spent the rest of the first lap fighting through the yellow caps and the rope. After the first lap I felt pretty tired and was paying a bit for going out hard and not enough swimming recently. I then started to run into some pink and green caps too, but thought I’d kept the pedal on the metal more than any race I’d done - it felt like a 22 swim to me, but was disappointed to find the time later.



Bike

1.01

I was glad to have my legs back under me after my terrible bike leg last week. Coach Woody had given some great advice when I was trying to work out what exactly caused me to bike so poorly – just to put poor races behind you and move on. That’s triathlon, there’s always something to work on and perfect races are few and far between. I felt good through the whole ride, it was a pity I didn’t have any riding buddies and even more of a pity that I wasn’t I the same starting wave as Eric and Pete as would have been better to have a more achievable target and have them as possible riding buddies. I think I should have pushed the first 20kms into the wind harder as it tends to benefit the bigger guys who can put out large absolute watts rather than the light high watts per kg guys, but I only started to feel really good after 15kms, just before the turn around. I got a couple of sling shots off Alex and Laurent, but most of the time it was just me and the retirement village crew they had wheeled down to the side of the course to cheer us on. It felt great hammering back to T2 at high speeds with the wind in your back, but everyone was doing the same, so it’s harder to make ground. The packs of 30+ forming behind me looked like a TdF peleton, lucky sods! I got third best bike split of the day, the top two times were 1-2 in the race and seemed to do the whole bike together (pretty closely behind eachother when I saw them). Eric lost a minute or so with chain issues so our times would have been close.



Run

42.45

This was the big disappointment for me of this race. I was hoping today would be the day to go sub 40 in an Olympic distance race, which is definitely on my bucket list. I’d gone through 10kms in about 40.10 in a Watarase race earlier in the year (15km run) and probably something similar in my first 10kms at IMUK (I know, I know….). Unfortunately I felt pretty terrible right from the start and it never got better. I had tightness in my chest and shortness of breath and struggled to run 3.50 mins k’s for the first 2kms, my plan of running 10 x 3.50’s was feeling pretty shaky. I got more out of breath, the legs felt pretty fresh but not fast –they’d become a bit too used to the ironman shuffle I think. Was kind of glad I wasn’t coming off the bike with Peter and Eric, as I was running that crap and in a lot of pain, it would have only been more painful/depressing to watch them run away from me. Ended up strgulling to maintain 4.20’s and was really cactus when I crossed the line.



I’m looking forward to a bit of a lull in the racing now to get in solid training block in the lead up to IMWA. Racing so often is great because you get much more lounge time as you’re usually recovering or tapering, but it is hard to keep it up top form for a long time. It feels like I haven’t had a solid training block since mid July when I started the IMUK taper. Also for anyone interested (and you must be if you’ve read this far…)Vanessa has now a full set of fangs and is doing great in Sydney. She’ll be back in Japan after IMWA.

Japan Half Ironman 70.3

Ironman Japan 70.3 Boat Race Centrair Tokoname Triathlon.

I think that is the official name for this race, but for me it can be summed up in three letters – NVG. Not Very Good. My performance, the race organisation, the course, the expense – all Not Very Good. After being a bit scathing of IMUK and Watarase races recently I’m wondering if I’m too harsh/negative on some of these races but I prefer to think I’m a realist. It’s an interesting dilemma - we all want to be ‘positive people/glass half full and all that’ but if something’s not good, why say that it is? Then you’ve got no credibility when you actually rate something highly but you think everything’s great. As I didn’t do so well in IMUK or Japan 70.3 I was wondering if my opinion on races is tainted by my own performance but I probably did my best ever all-round race in Watarse this year and still rate it the worst triathlon I’ve ever done so I hope my opinion has still has got some cred.

This was the first ever ‘official’ half Ironman (70.3if you must) in Japan. We had hoped this race was going to come to Lake Toya near Niseko, but the local cops scuppered that idea. It’s very difficult to get roads to ride bikes on in Japan, as the key to society here is social harmony, and races upset this. This race was in Nagoya - a place I didn’t know much about except they like pork cutlet soaked in miso sauce and the headquarters of Toyota are here – it’s sometimes called “Toyota Town”. The race web site had some graphic of a plane and said the expo was in the airport, so I had visions of some unused airport terminal and a runway we could hammer at 45km/h on. I wasn't the only one, but unfortunately not so much. The race sold out in about 6 hours to general entries and if you wanted to enter after that you had to book through the JTB (Japan Travel Bureau) but this had to include flights. As we thought we’d be coming from Hokkaido this was no problem for us, but Ness had to go back to Aus for dental work and I had to come back to Tokyo to cover staff shortage at Tokyo Physio, so there was no point flying. When they told me the flights were going to cost 78,000yen ($1,000) I dropped out of the race. They told me the fee we had paid for the entry (40,000 yen each for me and Vanessa – about the most expensive race I’ve ever done was non-refundable). Still no way I was going to pay that for the flights to a “C” race - I was still out.

About 5 days before the race friends started telling me my name was still down on the official start list so I thought maybe I could make a cheeky appearance and travel by train –which I did. When I went to register they had a “cancelled” next to my name but I played the dumb gaijin (foreigner) and they gave me the timing chip and race numbers.
The race-briefing they made such a big deal of attending was a bit of a joke. Whit Raymond ran it, and though I think he’s the best announcer in the business he is not a race organiser and knew nothing about this race. It was as if they grabbed him from the plane and threw him in front of us. ‘I think the swim course is shaped like this and we’re going anti-clockwise not clockwise’ – scrawls on the board. We don’t have any big buoys so we’ve got some sailboats at the turning points to sight/as buoy. ‘The start of the bike is rough I hear be safe’. The question time: “Is the run course two laps or one it’s not clear on the map?”. 'Umm not sure just follow people, next question’. “Is the bike hilly or windy?”. ‘It might be not really sure’....and on it went until poor ol’ Whit wound it up mid sentence before anyone could ask anymore questions. The whole atmosphere of the meeting was farcical with an underlining ‘isn’t this a bit ridiculous’ in everything he said. The kicker was that there was only one aid station on the bike and they would give you PET bottles of water only, not in a bidon (normal cycling bottle). For 40,000yen entry this pissed me and many other people off, but was typical for triathlons in Japan at least they weren’t serving water in cups on the bike like they sometimes do here. Transport to the start was to cost 2,000yen and the pre-race meal was convenience store style sandwiches – we were wondering where our 40,000yen went to? I thought this race being an official M-Dot race might be a level up on the typical races, but it was becoming apparent it was just the same, just with a triple priced entry fee that was flowing back to WTC, the police and the race organisers.

Swim 32minutes
I started in the second wave of the swim – 5 minutes after the first wave (pros and under 35’s). Not a big fan of the age divided wave starts, nd the faster under 35 Agers got to swim and ride with the slower pros which is an advantage, but there you go. I lined up at the swim start next to Jenson Button who was doing the swim and bike legs with another mate doing the run. He’s a pretty similar level to me so I was disappointed not to race him overall (beat him off the bike and his relay team by a few minutes, but he’s a 37:xx oly distance runner – so it would have been interesting!

I started the swim really well and after 300m was in front of our wave, but due to the race briefing I was navigating to the boat as I thought we had to go around it. Turns out it was only for sighting and was 100m from the buoy so I had to change course and had lead my merry crew of followers down the wrong path too – sorry guys! Navigating was tough with no sighting buoys so just kept heading in the general direction trying to visualise Whit’s rough sketch on the whiteboard that looked like a rectangular lollipop. After the last buoy I thought I had to pass one more buoy (at the T of the lollipop) before heading in, but couldn’t see the buoy and people around me where heading into shore (actually swimming in all directions). After stopping and swimming breaststroke several times to look for the buoy and decide what to do, I decided to head into shore and hope I was not DQ’d by a paddle boarder. I think everyone did the same. Enjoyed swimming in the ocean for a change but aside from that – shitty swim. They landed us about 300m from T1, so there was a looong run to get to the bikes – hate that after a swim – the heart-rate skyrockets.

Bike 2.48
I had a host of mechanical issues recently and got my bike back from the mechanic at the race (my mechanic was the official mechanic at the race). I took it for a ride and it felt so weird I returned it to him telling him it was dangerous. No – I found out – turns out I’d been riding it with a sloppy head set/steering for a long time and he had fixed it. My ‘weird’ was actually normal. He fixed my warped disc that had been rubbing and convinced me to race with it despite me carrying a more friendly road wheel from Tokyo – this was a mistake due to the hilly, tight and rough nature of the course but I didn’t want to let him down. Coach Woody had told me to ride the first 30kms moderate to hard, and then hammer the last 60kms as fast as I possibly could. I was salivating at the prospect a first to have a licence to smash it! Unfortunately from my first pedal stroke I knew my legs were not at their best today. And further evidence to my theory pretty much everyone races their bike leg as fast as they can anyway, they just kid themselves they are holding back. I’m not sure why my biking is inconsistent – some days I bike like a rock star some days like a chump. Today I was a chump.After my pre-race Facebook proclamations and a subsequent slow bike time I’ve since received letters of condolences from Tobjorn Sindballe, Bjorn Anderson and Chris Lieto and they asked me to return my “Uber-Biker-Blow-Up-On-The-Run’ membership card to them – fair enough, will do guys, I'm all talk.

Despite being told it was 3kms - the first and last 12 kilometres were done on the horrible beachfront elevated pathways / esplanades town planners in Japan decided were a good idea some time ago. I’d ridden on these on Tour De Chiba social rides before, but it was a bit embarrassing to have to ride on them in an ‘international’ race. The concrete was about 2metres wide and had many large cracks that had separated. Lots of sharp turns and short rises made this area ‘interesting’. A French pro who had travelled for the race afterwards was telling me how disappointed he was in the race and said “I would not even take my mountain bike to these placez”....but maybe we triathletes are just too precious?
The ride had many very sharp tight turns and over 100metres of climbing - I was very happy I had my bike serviced before this race or I would have been into some barriers for sure. The one (in)famous Aid Station was classic Japan. On the first loop I missed it completely (I never thought you could ‘miss’ an aid station on the bike but I did - went straight by not even knowing it was there...). You had to leave the course completely, go into a parking lot and stop to receive some of the PET water bottles. It was the sort of aid station/lunch spot you get on social rides and cringe worthy for an M-dot race. To make matters worse the ride on the cracked footpaths saw maybe 50% of athletes have water bottles eject; so there was this double whammy of thirsty riders and this crappy aid station. D’oh. I did the whole ride by myself and was bored/frustrated throughout. Legs just weren’t co-operating at all.
Run 1.42
The run course was pretty good, but a few too many U turns. The Japanese love to run you up and down dead ends on run courses to make the most of space. The support from volunteers throughout the race was a highlight. There were 1,200 of them on the course (most without much to do except say “Gambatte” and “Fighto”), but they did so with gusto and it was well received. I’ve always been a fan of wetting myself when hot (It was 32 degrees), so love the hoses and sponges. One trio (I called them the Toyota family) – seeing this was Toyota town...were out with the daughter holding a hose and Mum and Dad a big bucket staggered one after the other on the pathway. I agreed to the hose first then came to Mum and Dad and said yes to the bucket – WHAM – got knocked by a full bucket of water right in the face/body from Mum and as I was reeling from that - WHAM - Dad hit me with the same full bucket of water – “Oh What a Feeling......”.....sorry outdated gag I know. My poor ‘water resistant’ Garmin 305 got a big drop in its screen after that....hmmm. Hopefully it comes good. Anyway struggled through the run without feeling too bad – the half IM is so much easier mentally than the full. Time was a bit shite though - glad it was over as usual and managed to finish pretty strongly out-sprinting a guy in the last km.
Overall the event was NVG and speaking and eavesdropping on the pros that had travelled here to do the race I was pretty embarrassed for Japan. Don’t get me wrong I love Japan and there are so many good things about living here, but in many ways they just don’t understand what international Western standards are and how to meet them. As I mostly live in Niseko – a town that was built on foreigners providing services for international standards that the Japanese couldn’t, it’s something I’m acutely aware of. I really want people to come to Japan for a holiday, and international tourism is probably Japan’s only way out if it’s economic malaise but most of the locals have no idea what foreigners want – a bit like me in my teens and early twenties trying to understand what women want – no idea! Here’s your $150 a night room sir: a smoke stained tiny tatami mat space and for furniture you get a coffee table and a 20 year old TV in the corner. I always thought some animals get more furniture than the humans here..... “But don’t worry for entertainment we have a nice bath at the end of the hall”. It won’t cut it in an international market just like this race won’t either. Fortunately for them’ the race organisers are not aiming at an international market and I’m sure it will sell out just as fast next year....but you won’t see the name Colless on the starter’s list.

Anyway, next weekend I’ve got Murakami Olympic distance, which is a much better event and race – so really looking forward to that – a chance to get some redemption and a decent result on the board too maybe.

Challenge Copenhagen

Wow what a race! This was the first running of the Challenge Copenhagen Full Ironman distance triathlon and there was a feeling amongst everyone that we were part of something special. It was Vanessa and my first “Challenge Family” race and the organisation and feeling was the best of any race I've done. “Challenge” is a fast growing race organising brand in triathlon – a competitor to the “Ironman” brand (WTC or World Triathlon Corporation) that is now owned by a private equity group and very much focussed on the dollar. Challenge is growing all the time and they have races in Roth, Germany (the most famous and biggest), Austria, Wanaka in NZ, Barcelona, somewhere else in Germany (Krachau?), and I believe two more half IM distance races in 2012 in Cairns and Gold Coast. The CEO Felix seems to know everyone in triathlon, has an unbelievable passion for the sport, boundless positive energy and greets every finisher at the finish line personally. They are famous for being about the sport and the athlete more than the dollar.

This was the first ever Iron distance race held in a capital city and Copenhagen has got to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world with a real cycling culture and nice flat roads. We were lucky to ignore the official race hotel and book at the Axel Hotel Guldmeldsden where instead of being one of "those blood triathletes" we were treated like royalty by the manager as he was into sports and we were the onl ones doing the race in the hotel. He shouted us a dinner and breakfast and kept handing us food and drinks for free every time we came in. Sweet. The day before the race from 3pm until about 2am there was the biggest rainfall they had in Copenhagen for 50 years. We didn't know it, but the bike transition area got a bit flooded, with pointy helmets floating around and the racks used to hold up transition bags destroyed. Big chunks of the bike course were under water and the organisers were being told to postpone the event. They ended up getting it almost completely sorted by morning and the athletes were none the wiser. As we had to check in the bikes the day before we were lucky Challenge supply bags to cover your bikes and we took some extra care to secure them well on the bikes, so when we arrived in the morning our bikes and helmets were dry and just how we left them. Our transition area was concrete too so no flooding there either, about half of the bikes were on racked grass that was almost completely under water. I realised when I got there I'd left my water bottle with a concentrated mixture of calories in the fridge at the hotel. I'd planned on using this for most of my calories on the bike and only had about 6 gels on the frame, so was a bit screwed. Luckily this was the first race I'd done where they supply gels at aid stations on the bike. High 5 gels too, my favourite as they which are the easiest to get down, I just needed to slow down and made sure I got what I needed, which I did the volunteers were great and well trained. The bike was even more aero now without the bottle so there was some upside too.

Super Aero

Swim 59mins

Vanessa was nervous about getting back on the horse and the water was cold here too (19 degrees) and it was still raining in the morning. On the advice of our coach Woody we took an insulated water bottle with hot water to the start to pour down her wetsuit. Unfortunately it was only lukewarm by the time she was ready to start. The swim was one lap course in a lagoon (Amager Strand) about 5kms south of the city, and they had a wave start with pros, then women, then 6 other waves on predicted swim times. Ness went in and looked strong as far as I could see, was hopin like hell she got through it. Our wave was next and my swim didn't go so well, or more specifically my navigation didn't go well. They could not put most of the buoys in the water because of the storm so there were only the turning ones which were often a long way away. For some reason I kept getting disorientated and went way off course, I'd try to correct but in a minute or two, when I thought I was orientated in the right direction I'd be way off again. My swimming was actually better, with a good “spearing the fish” catch phase and a pretty high cadence, I just felt almost dizzy and the shore was never where I thought it was. I forgot Woody's third swim tip (anchor) which means keep the arms wide away from the body too keep you going straight. I had to back track quit a bit to make it around the final buoy and was bloody glad to get on land. I wasn't sure if I'd passed Ness as we passed quite a few of the pink swim caps (and got frog kicked by several of them too). I forgot to look to see if her bike was there exiting transition so didn't know if she got through it or not.

Bike 5.05

They had warned us that the course was technical and a couple of cobblestoned sections but I expected it to be my kind of course, flat and cool with good road surfaces. The ride was great with lots of Danes in the surrounding areas of Copenhagen having picnics on their front lawn and cheering you on and many small shopping areas that we rode through had big groups of people out cheering. They were so into cheering these weird looking people with funny shaped bikes, pointy helmets and disc wheels it was great. I was wondering why the weren't thinking 'why should we cheer these freaks' – and that we all looked like a bunch of wankers, as I kind of think that and I'm one of them, but not these guys. I heard there were over 130,000 watching the run and bike on the day – just awesome support.

The first 15km to get out of the city was pretty hair-raising. It was still raining pretty steadily and there were lots of potholes because of the heavy rain and plenty of tight corners that you didn't know how much road there was to turn into so you had to take them slow. I had a visor on my aero helmet that I'd stuck in but you couldn't raise it so was trying to see through this wet visor which made visibility really poor too. I ended up extracting the visor and throwing it – it was only $25 and was scratched too. After an hour the sun came out and I spent the rest of the ride squinting and clearing bugs out of my eyes, but was worth it to get of the city without crashing. I must have seen 5 punctures in the first 15kms, considering there were probably only 70 ahead of me that was a pretty high rate. Punctures and drafting calls (more on that later) were the theme of this bike leg. Some of the pros punctured three times and I lost count of how many people I saw on the side of road fixing them. Despite thinking I had punctured a few times, and using latex tubes which are said to be more prone to punctures than butyl I got luckily got through without one. Ness avoided one too. The 115 psi pressure we run helped I reckon - many people go to 140-150 thinking it's faster (it's not). My puncture kit was just a CO2 bottle, two levers and a tube taped together and stuffed in my jersey pocket and another tube and CO2 taped and jammed under the seat – very aero.

Once we got out of the city the course became really fast. I wasn't sure if there was a tail wind or if it was my super aero set up or fresh legs, but I had to concentrate to keep it below 40km/h. I got in a good group of 4, Tim the German, Henrik the Dane, and a Spanish guy whose name I can't remember (race numbers had the country's flag and first name printed on them – pretty cool). We rode through about 60kms together I took the lead a few times but Tim and Henrik were keen to lead so I let them. Tim the German ended up losing his rear bottle cages (the whole thing came off the seat post, as the bolts came undone). This was my/our Contader/Schleck TdF moment, should we wait for him as he went back? He had been doing most of the work....hmmm. Henrik sat up and I did too to have a think – I thought Tim could have just kept going....in the end I/we decide to get back in the aero bars and say Auf Wiedersehen. I promised him in my mind that if he got back up to us I'd do more of the work for him......and I was always in the Contador camp anyway – Tim should have tightened his bolts and Schleck shouldn't have been using that Sram shit.

About 55kms in and I ended up getting dropped off the back of that group by a hundred metres or so. I wanted to stay with the group so I worked really hard up a hill to get back on. At the top of the hill I was pretty knackered and had a rest going down the long straight hill, got into a really aero position with my head down looking at the road and coasted. The guy ahead must have sat up as when I looked up I was close to his wheel, I usually go faster downhill, because of my weight. I not only saw I was on his wheel the Marshall (draft buster) appeared out of nowhere and gave me a yellow card! Damn – that meant 4 minute penalty at the next aid station. It was funny that the next aid station came just after a key spectator spot at the top of a big hill where there were a thousand or so spectators doing a Challenge Roth/TdF style spill onto the road leaving only a narrow gap to ride through, I even saw Felix's face there leading the “hop hop hop” German cheer, just when I got through that, I stepped off into the sin bin, hoping they didn't turn around.

Drafting is a pretty massive issue in triathlon, almost like drugs in cycling. Everyone does it a bit, but everyone's against it. Well OK in cycling everyone does it a lot....As most non triathletes/cyclist don't know about this and friends often ask me, I'll explain the way it works – Drafting means to ride really close to the back wheel of the cyclist in front which makes it much easier to ride because of the wind break – 30% is the number most say, even more if it's in the middle of a pack (peleton). Most cycle races are draft legal (hence how it becomes a team sport with guys sheilding their top guy from the wind), in stage races like the Tour De France they often have one day that is not a draft race and everyone does the same course against the clock (time trial – known also as the race of truth). This is why triathletes are obsessed with aerodynamics and cyclists with weight. In all longer distance triathlons and almost all amateur Olympic distance/shorter races drafting is not allowed meaning you have to stay a certain distance away from the wheel in front, usually 7 or 10 metres from front wheel to front wheel. However at this distance there is still an advantage (maybe 15-20% easier). So when you have a big group of guys come out of the water in the top 10-20% they are usually all pretty strong/similar level cyclists, so you get a long line of riders in a line (a pace-line). Most guys including me, want to do the right thing but also want an advantage so you try and stay right on the required distance, there are some who really try and wheel suck for long periods and this is the behaviour everyone wants stopped. There are other rules about how to pass in a pace-line that I won't go into and also 'sling shotting' which is a big advantage for slow swimmers/strong cyclists or on tight looped courses when you start lapping people it's riding up into the persons wheel you are passing before moving out at the last second – it's illegal but they never bust people people for this.

In a pace line, when the guy ahead slows or you push a tiny bit more it's pretty easy to go into the “draft zone”, there are draft busters on motorbikes whose job is to police this. Drafting usually a bigger issue on flat courses (like this one) and there had been a lot written about how to stop it on the race web site and they are passionate about cycling in Europe so were determined to have a 'clean' bike leg here. The Marshalls handed out a lot of cards on this day. I heard a quarter of the pro pace line of 20 got done at one stage. So although I didn't think my one was a legit call (they usually won't call on a downhill and not when your head is down and the guy ahead has slowed), but I thought about other times I'd drifted into the draft zones in the past and not gotten busted. I did my 4 minutes in the sin bin (guy let me go and pee so that was a bonus), and German Tim/Schleck passed me while I was there – I thought I saw him smirk - I'm sure he enjoyed that and fair play to him too, I just had to cop it sweet.

Back on to the bike and I thought I'd have renewed power after the rest but it took the wind out my sails a bit and was getting passed by a few Jespers, Kims and Nielses. I was terrified of getting another yellow (which meant red/DQ) so was staying way away from other riders. There was a massive pace line of about 20 that came alone and I was sitting a long way from the 2^nd last one (Draft buster was riding with these guys constantly) but they ended up dropping me too. I limped along for the last 70kms without much in the legs, or maybe there was a headwind or my wheel was rubbing or my bike wasn't as aero as I thought or something but was feeling slow and it was tough to go 35. Was very glad to get into T2 and onto the run. Still had yet to see Ness and wasn't sure if she'd made it onto the bike at all, and was worried about her riding the first 15kms as she had the visor set up too and doubted she waste the $25...very frugal our Ness.

Run 3.35

The run course was something special. A 3 x 14km course up and down the waterfront through the centre of Copenhagen. The police said there were 120,000 people out watching and they lined every part of the course. They weren't as vocal as the spectators on the run at Busselton but I don't think a lot of them knew much about the sport and weren't on the sauce having picnic parties like they all are at at Busso. Amazing sights and atmosphere throughout the whole run, a really special experience.

After I'd been told by many people that I'd biked too quick in previous races, I'd never really believed this totally. There are a large group of bike-pace Nazis in long course triathlons who think there is an inverse relationship between your bike and run times – usually they are 55kg runners, but I never really bought into it totally; some of the things that make people good cyclists also make them slower runners, and I reckon what's the use of having a strength if you don't use it. I loved that the women's winner Aussie Rebekah Keat said that she had been instructed by her coach (Brett Sutton who is a bit of a hero of mine and whose philosophies mirror Woody's) to “ride the bike course as fast as you bloody can and you'll win”. She smoked it in 4.48 after crashing in that first 10kms and won the race by about 20 minutes for her first win in 3 years.

However what I'm definitely convinced of now is that a much bigger problem of mine is running too quickly off the bike in the first 5-10kms (as I did at Vineman and IMUK). I was determined to take it easy and keep it at 4.35-4.40 pace for the first 10kms. I wanted to hit the fist lap at 14kms at 65minutes. I ended up stopping for a pee and did it in about 67 just about perfect – 3.15 marathon pace and thought if I faded to run a 3.20-3.25 I'd be stoked. I wasn't feeling great though and found it tougher to keep the pace up on laps 2 and 3. There were so many good runners there too, I was getting passed by guys running 3hr pace the whole first two laps. The third lap came and kept waiting for my melt down but fortunately it never came. I started to pass people and was actually feeling pretty good. I was looking out for Ness but never saw here and was sure she'd dropped out in the swim again. I think my legs were pretty heavy from the recent race in UK, but I was more used to the pain and managed to keep the pace pretty good.

The finishing chute was lined about ten deep and packed with people giving fives, must have been 5,000 there I reckon and doing the aeroplane while giving about 200 low 5s was something I'll never forget – felt the love big time. I ended up doing 9.44 my first time under 10 hours – got about 70^th out of 1,600. Did not have a fast bike or swim and Woody reckons I can do a 3.15 on the run but I'm not so sure. Will need to spend the winter on the treadmill.

Hot showers!

Probably the best post race in the world..

The post race area was the best I'd seen. Just a great spot for only athletes, free massages, a shower truck with hot clean showers with fancy shower roses, great selection of food, and as much beer and wine as you could drink. I tend not to wear finishers T-shirts (no problem with people who do – unless it's wearing a Hawaii finsher's shirt to a race registration for another race - that is just wanky), I just boast by spraying stuff on Facebook and not on my body....but this race they gave you a proper cycle jersey in the Challenge red that looked awesome. I hung out with all the Aussie pros in the finish area who'd mostly had a good day (1^st and 2^nd in the women's and 1^st in the men's), getting on the beers with the men's winner Tim Berkel who was already on his way, having necked his winner's champagne. I'd sent him a message of good luck on twitter befroe the race and as triathletes who like to drink we hit it off immediately. He was stoked as it was a very big win for him, a really funny guy from Albury – dresses like a rock star, and likes to party – he told me “I was in the big pack of 20 and they were all going so farkin slow I just rode away from 'em”. He had been known as a run specialist and maybe a one-hit wonder after winning IMWA in 2008, so he proved a lot of people wrong. I was stoked for him and felt lucky to have his company for half an hour after the race – not many sports where that can happen. I still hadn't seen Ness and was wondering if she was watching me in the chute like she was in UK. But then I saw her in the line for the massage looking absolutely terrible. I was elated! I punched the air as I ran over to give her a hug. I was so so happy she had finished and (as I found out) had a good race. I was feeling guilty for choosing these cooler races because they suit me and it would have been horrible for her to have another DNF after everything that had happened. She was in a bit of a bad way and had to go for a IV drip, and was sick a few times when we got home. Too many gels I think, but she was fine the next day.

75 year old Kiwi Ironman legend - gotta love this sport

I went back to the finish for the last 2 hours to watch the late finishers, that was a great atmosphere, a 'tired' Tobjorn Sindballe (Danish IM legend and a bit of a hero of mine) on the mike and a 75 year old kiwi guy come in 10 minutes before cut off and everyone going crazy for him with ABBA blaring and race organiser Felix bow down to worship him after he crossed the line. The Aussie crew of pros were all going off and there were fireworks to close it out. A great finish to an unforgettable day. I feel so stoked to have fallen into this sport, I can't think of anything negative about it except that it costs a fortune – can't take it with you right....I never wanted to be a 50 year old soccer player and the petulance and boastfulness of the players (including myself in that) is just embarrassing when you are older. Love this sport! And I don't think you need to ask if I'd recommend this race. Next up Japan Half Ironman September 19.

Tobjorn interviews Felix