A Successful End To The Season

This past Sunday, March 16, I competed in the Portarlington Triathlon over a distance of 800 metre swim, 26km ride and 8km run.

My goal was to complete the race in 1 hour 25 minutes and finish 1^st, or at least on the podium.

It was a windy morning and I battled through the choppy swim in 13 minutes flat. I was aiming for 12 minutes but I was reasonably happy with this result.

I went through transition in good time as there is a long run after exiting the water. Competitors, essentially, have to run three full lengths of the transition area before reaching the bike mount line. Then I struck some trouble. Normally, I am brisk and smooth at jumping on my bike and getting my feet in my shoes quickly but there is a steep hill immediately after crossing the bike mount line.

I jumped on as normal but I was clumsy at getting my feet in my shoes first go and then immediately lost all of my forward momentum as I hit the up slope. I had to stop and I almost over balanced and fell off, just as many had already that morning. I took one shoe off the pedal, got my foot in the other one still fixed to the pedal and took off again. This cost me at least 30 seconds and was disappointing since I am usually one of the quickest in this part of any race.

I got over the short but steep hill and looked to make up for lost time on the subsequent downhill section along The Esplanade. It wasn’t long before I was into my rhythm, with my head down in my aero position.

Approximately, the first 13km of the bike course followed the coastline around to St. Leonards, which was assisted by a tailwind. Then, there was a right hand turn inland which took competitors into a head wind for about 5km before one more right hand turn onto Portarlington-Queenscliff Rd. This final 8km stretch was undulating with the added difficulty of a strong crosswind. I was really noticing the decline in my bike strength since the Geelong 70.3 race and the less bike training that followed. My legs felt more lethargic than expected and it showed in my bike time of 42.19 minutes.

I flew through the second transition out onto the run. The initial 200 metres includes a tough flight of stairs and then some more uphill terrain. After that, there is a predominantly downhill run to the turn-around point at 4kms. Of course, once the turn is made, it is a predominantly uphill run to the finish.

I was really happy with my run technique for the entire 8kms. Although, my legs didn’t begin to feel good until about the 3km mark, my stride turnover remained high for the whole distance and I felt really strong going back up the hill. My time for the 8km run was 30.20 minutes.

My finish time was 1 hour 28.32 minutes. This was enough to see me in 3^rd place and my first time on the podium in a triathlon. It was a very satisfying result and another step in the right direction towards greater future success.