Woke up a little before 4:30am this morning looked out the window, no windy not a cloud in the sky – great day for a tri. By the time I had something to eat to claim any nervous feelings, showered and got ready to go a early morning cloud/fog had set in.
When I got to the transition area got numbered and headed into transaction area and got setup. One thing I noticed the was very wet, as usual the atmosphere was light headed, relaxed and good nature. I went down to the swim start and jumped in and headed out for bit of a swim. The water was warm (water temp was around 19.6c mark) a little murky and fairly flat. Was very happy with swim practice had a chat with a few people doing practice swims and generally relaxed feeling.
During the race briefing we all heard that there we a few fins noticed out on the bay but we were told they we dolphins not sharks and that the race director had sent a boat out to check.
At 7:15am the horn sound and off we went. This time my swim was good and honest but being stuck in the middle of slower swimmers which is never fun. During the middle of the course you either hit your hand on sand or rocks at the bottom, yes the swim course was not in deep water, in places you could stand up and walk if you wanted too. (Quicker swimming) After getting out of the water I headed to T1 which was approx 500m run, got to my bike, off with the wet suit on with socks and bike shoes, grab the helmet and sunny glasses and then the bike and head out. Just as I started to mount another competitor cut me off and nearly caused me to crash as he did crash, lucky for me I didn’t crash.
We were warned during the race briefing that the turn around’s were tight but I found then to be ok. During the bike leg I saw no less than 3 people riding in wetsuits which I thought was a bit funny at the time but more on that later. Once I got back to T2 off with the bike shoes on with runners and out I went again. My legs felt very heavy and I want to give up and walk but I pushed on. At the turn around I grab some water and pushed on the run felt bad and slow but I finished in 35m04s.
After the event I was hanging around the finish shute and I run into 2 of the guys that had wetsuits during the bike leg. I spoke with both of them. 1 had forgot this running shorts and decided to do the event in a wetsuit and 2 was told no shirt no bike or run. Both of them looked stuffed 1 said as he was running he pulled the top of his wetsuit open and he could feel the heat rise up. Good on both of them for doing the event in a full wettie but you will NOT get me doing that.
After the event finished I was wondering through the event marquees and I run into Terry O'Halloran the Owner of Start to Finish, Runners World, and Running Fit. We had a good chat about Running Fit, Run Melbourne, Spring into Shape Race 3, Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake, Sandy Half Point, Olympic Dream and where I came from into running and Triathlon’s Terry is a very down to earth comedian and all around nice bloke.
For the Record Olympic Dream was canceled due to lack of numbers. It requires a minimum of 3000 competitors for both City Link and City of Melbourne to close roads, etc. In addition last year not on Olympian competed in last year’s events, Terry said that the event will be replaced with a different type of event next year with a course that will be very similar to last year’s Olympic Dream. Can wait to see
Here are the times
Overall time 35:04.30
Overall Place 138
Swim 05:31.50 (took 50secs off)
T1 02:02.60 (took some 36secs off)
Bike 15:37.40 (hard to say was this wa sonly 8km instead of 10 which I did in 23:23.80 last time)
T2 1.25.80 (took 1 whole min off)
Run 10:27 (90 secs off)
Gender Place 92
Very happy over all. Photo’s to follow soon.
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