15days racing in 16weeks. A new course for 2011 looked like a good race had potentially made better with all legs starting and finishing at Minninup Pool. Early start leaving home at 6 for the 2hr+ drive.
25km Road Time Trial
I was one of the last individuals off the start with Billy off with me. I felt good and decided to have a bit of a go on the road bike this year, particularly on the descents. The new course was basically out and back over a single hill. Was picking off quite a few riders, and I thought I might have been able to catch Unit in his lilly white cycle kit who started in front of me, but he was too strong.
00:46:53 15/61 o'all including teams 11/26 category
10km Paddle
Off the bike I ran down to my ski to find none of the IOAR clowns had moved my gear around on me. Felt like transition went well and I started to pick more people off. Came across Jo and Simon and it took me quite a while to drop Jo, she was paddling really well. The new paddle course meant there was no portage, but there was still a little weed to negotiate. Constantly wondering if you have weed tangled around your rudder does your head in! Do I, or don't I......when you hit the weed it's like paddling through soup. The course had us paddle back past transition and down river. I had no-one in view and hadn't studied the course, and headed towards transition only to be waved "go left", bugger! I was putting in and it felt like I had been paddling forever! Back into transition up the chute and it was time for lunch
01:00:34 14/61 o'all including teams 10/26 category
1km Swim
I'm not a fan of the lunch break, getting going again seems to take me forever. The swim is my weakest leg these days but I actually felt like I swam alright. There was a lot of talk that the bouys seem to get further away each year, but my Garmin said it was just short of 1km.
00:18:07 29/61 o'all including teams 13/26 category
22.5km MTB
Out of the water I was really surprised how many bikes were still on the rack. Bit of a laugh with another Ironman, and onto the bike. A bit of mud tapped the legs early, and then team rider Bron rode past. Right muppet time to get going. I managed to hold onto Bron in the distance for the first half of the ride, then we hit some fast descents and Bron and I passed each other for a while. Passing Jo again she encouraged me to burn up my legs for the run, and "See you on the run". I replied "I can see that happening!" On the way home Bron was off her bike running up a nothing hill. Then I saw what looked like a mangled mess that should be a chain. she had a massive chain suck and didn't know what she should do. I stopped and had a look, and it looked bad. I managed to free the chain and I could not believe it when everything just snapped back into place and Bron rode off! Very lucky girl. Pushed onto the finish and into transition only to find they had moved the racks, and our gear......WTF!!! where are my runners!!!!!
01:09:37 13/61 o'all including teams 7/26 category
10km Trail Run
New course took in the Munda Biddi, trail. What a cracker! Most of the run was single track, and I loved every second of it, jumping logs and dodging trees....brilliant! At the turnaround I saw Jo not too far behind so I set to trying to hold her off on the run home. When I hit the bridge I knew I must have had only a bit over 1k to go so I gave it everything. I passed a team runner in a red shirt about 200m from the finish as the heavens opened up and a single bolt of lightening cracked really close and scared the absolute crap out of me. I picked it up even more into the finish and I knew old red shirt was going to put on a sprint. Sure enough he came past and I tried to match him but didn't have enough.
00:48:28 22/61 o'all including teams 10/26 category
04:03:42 12/61 o'all including teams 11/26 category
Great day, great new course, lots of familiar faces. Fantastic result! Straight back to Perth for a birthday party.
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