Gatorade Race 3

Following a short lapse in running, due to a mere overestimate to readiness-for
-progression, I found myself lining up on the shores of Melbourne's Elwood beach for race 3 in the Gatorade Triathlon Series.

Among preparations for the short term goals it was decided, quite uncertainly, that I would enter for this race. Only, with conditions.
Considering the little niggle I had, it was a question of whether or not it would be worth racing. I desperately wanted to have a race before I headed to Devonport for the Australian Standard Distance Championships so eventually Danielle gave me an ultimatum. Either throw elastic laces (or leave normal laces) into joggers for the run, or I wouldn't be racing. So off I went to Rebel Sport in search for orange elastics to match my new Kayano's.

Unfortunately I missed registration on the days prior to Sunday so I rocked up under assurance that I'd be fine entering on the day. To my pleasant surprise, I entered without any dramas.

As goes the old adage "what can go wrong, will go wrong". Due to no registration catastrophe I was concerned what would go wrong. So, I found myself setting up transition with Kayano's on feet staring at my transition area thinking that something was up. I looked to my feet and back to the bare grass and said
It was bound to happen, this morning's first mistake has been made. Fortunately I had enough time to jog then put shoes in transition.
Lo and behold concentration was the cause of drama #2
Of course it wouldn't be normal to be without a #3. That one just came down to pure idiocy.

Despite leaving it a bit late I managed to get in a long enough swim warm up and before I knew it we were walking up the beach with a clock displaying 2:30 till go time.
We lined up and filtered through to the starting area and I picked my spot off to the right. Minimal chop, current and the sheer lack of numbers in the field meant that starting place would be dependant on where the strongest swimmers went. That, there was few of so Pete Kerr, Ryan Fisher and myself were far right and slightly on the inside of the buoy so a quick start was crucial in order to merge in front rather than having to charge through the guts of the field.

#2 - Concentration
No clear indication (from my recall) was given about a start being imminent so there I was standing more so upright with a short bend in my front leg.
The horn went and I did the classic elbows up and lean back as I attempted moving forward. I Found myself at the back with no direct path through anyone so I did my best to follow Pete. As we started swimming I got myself between athletes and on Pete's. Knowing how he swims in the open water I wasn't panicking, I just needed to stick to his feet.
Not long into it I got a glimpse of where Fisher was up the front and I knew I had to get closer to him so I began making my way around the inside of the field. By the time we got the the first buoy I was sitting comfortably on Fisher's hip.

I figured the majority of the pack would still be on us so I didn't look behind after the first buoy.
As we rounded the second one, I had a look and saw we had about a meter between us and Ben Anderson. We were cruising along quite comfortably so I thought I would try and go around Fisher and take over for a bit, as I did we were coming up to a sighting buoy and I was at his hip. With enough room to squeeze between him and the buoy I continued swimming up to the front and all of a sudden he shot to the right and forced me in the direct path of the buoy so I had to quickly manoeuvre around it and as I came back I figured it was his way of saying
Don't worry, I've got this.
So I found his feet again and sat there till we hit the shore.


Running through to our bikes wasn't very rushed, I was just trying to focus on the processes of transition. Once I got to my bike I stripped the wetsuit down to my knees and continued getting it off by the usual lifting one leg after the other and standing on the wetsuit. Whilst doing so, putting on and clipping up my helmet.
Fisher managed to get out quicker than me so I found myself sprinting all the way to the mount line to try catch up lost time. Once I passed the mount line I swung my right leg over and pushed off the ground with my left and tensed as usual to reduce the shocked of impact.
No matter how many times you do it there is always that moment of uncertainty for the future of your family jewels.
I accidentally slipped half of my right foot into the shoe, I either had to pull it out and sit it on top or grab the strap and put my foot in. So I lost a bit more time trying to put my foot in while moving at quite slow speeds.
Eventually I got it in and began sprinting up to Fisher. I saw him looking back waiting for me to catch, so without a seconds thought I yelled, Let's go, as I was meter's away from shooting past.
He jumped out of the saddle and eased his way onto my wheel as I came around.
I glanced back to see if he was on and also who was chasing. I saw one athlete behind us and I wasn't too sure of who it would be. There was no chance I was going let anyone get a free ride so I began ramping it up and settled into a solid pace.
It wasn't communicated but we both knew that given at least 10km of rolling turns as well as no ground being made from the chase packs that they would eventually switch off.

I wasn't too sure if we would extend our lead by much but the idea of this race was to just go for it from the very start so Fisher and I just put our heads down and held a solid pace.
Before we got the the first turn around I was making my way around to pull another turn and I heard Fisher say, sorry mate, I'm ******.
This didn't bother me I just figured I'd sit on the front till he wanted to come around or just call him through for a turn when I needed it. So throughout the next 15km that's what happened. I tried to make his turns on the downhills and flatter sections as it would have been easier, mentally at least, to push himself and feel like he is getting something out of his effort speed wise. Nevertheless, whenever he came through he made it count.

Surely enough a 40 second gap at 5km stretched out to 1:10 at 10km. And through to roughly 2 and a half minutes by the end of the bike.

#3 - Idiocy
As we came up the the final u-turn, 100 or so metres from the dismount line, I had my feet on top of my shoes and between the u-turn the left hand turn into the car park adjacent to transition I had swung my right leg over ready to dismount. I remember looking at fisher and thinking, shit he's leaving it late.
As it turns out, we had to round the corner before we dismounted. So inside leg down and leg poised ready to jump off I was coming into the left hand turn. I panicked and threw my leg back over, turned the corner like a beginner and made it to the mount line slower than when I mounted the bike only 29 minutes ago.

So Fisher had opened up a little gap at this point, and of course - it got worse.
The run through to transition was ok, when I got there I went to put my bike, front end in first like usual. But the finish chute and fencing was blocking my front wheel so I couldn't rack it. I pulled back and turned the bars to try make it fit but that didn't work either so I had to pull my bike back out  and spin it around and put it in the other way. By the time I had done all that Fisher had his helmet off and shoes on.
I got my shoes on eventually and as I started running I noticed he had at least 100m on me. I didn't want to sprint out to try catch up but I went solid enough to make a little bit of ground..

As planned Fisher pulled up about 400m in where Danielle was waiting. So I continued on running.
In the back of my mind I knew there was no chance of the other athletes catching me. Even though I had my joggers on I still wanted to have a hard hit out to see how I'm running off the bike so I went out strong. Once I hit the turn around at about 2.5km I began to pick it up a little more.
I ran a solid 400m after the turn around before I saw Jesse Featonby running toward me.
This cemented the thought of not being caught so I put my mind to my technique.
For the first time in God knows how long I was feeling strong, comfortable and in control.

Feeling like I did the week prior to this race and finishing off like I did gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Knowing that the months of hard work, as tired as I was, has paid off.
It had given me a slight confidence boost for the Australian Standard Distance Championships the following weekend in Devonport.
It was good to dust off the cobwebs at the SuperSprint event and get my mind back on track and thinking about the finer details of racing for D'port.
For the opportunity I would like to thank SuperSprint, perfectly timed event and perfectly run. Can't wait to race again in the great city of Melbourne under the organisation of SuperSprint.