Nepean Triathlon Champion 2009; PJ
The Nepean Triathlon is one of the oldest triathlons in the country, and still one of the cheapest and best value for money races you will ever see!
It was a special day for me and my fiancé Jaimie. She was doing her second ever triathlon, her longest ever triathlon, had only ridden the bike twice in the last 8 months, and we’d only spent about 1 minute talking about race stuff. For me, it was my first race since Hawaii, I had done 3 weeks of running, had only ridden about as far as I’d run, had done 5km swimming per week for 3 weeks, and felt it would be disappointing to not win since I was to be presenting the age group awards.
We drove out to the Chiffley Hotel at Penrith Panthers Saturday night and had a nice dinner with a couple of sponsors, Matt Harris (commentator) and his wife Brig, Aaron Farlow (2 time winner of Nepean). It was great to be out there the night before, and we really appreciate the assistance of the Nepean organizers. They do an awesome job all year to arrange this event, and I was very proud to be able to be of some help.
Race morning went as usual, without the nervousness of Ironman race days. I mixed some red bull and Gatorade into my bike bottle, kept a red bull handy for the swim start, checked in, kissed Jaimie goodluck, and she was off. The girls got a 12mins 53 seconds head start. The overall winner (female, or male if we caught them) was to get a $1000 bonus!
Jaimie is a great swimmer, and without trying (and with stopping to clear her goggles at halfway) she had the 2nd fastest swim in her category! I had suggested she take it easy on the bike, and save it for the run. But when you are out of the water in the top 10, there are a lot of reasons overtaking you for you to go hard. So with all but no bike training, she started the run a bit buggered, but ran well. Her goal was to finish, and be buggered at the finish line. She certainly achieved that and beat almost half the 700 starters too! She loved every minute of the race, and it’s very infectious to see someone so close to you, as a beginner in the sport, be so excited and thrilled by the challenge and adventure of triathlon.
I’d swum hard at the start, but was not quite clear of everyone, so I settled down a bit and they followed on my feet for the last 400m. Onto the bike and the fun started. All the corners, flat smooth roads, and chasing the girls over 30km was great. Aaron and myself had a break from the other guys early, and I just tried to stay with him as he set a fast pace and I was still warming up (it takes me 40km at Ironman pace usually, hah). I took a few turns on the second lap, but Aaron was setting the pace mostly. We hit the run and I was happy to let him continue to set the pace. It had been a long time since I had raced a 10km run off the bike, so I sat behind, protected from the wind too, and waited to see how I faired as we got closer to the finish.
With 2.5km left, I lifted the pace and went past Aaron, I was careful no to go too hard too early, and as he stayed close for a few hundred meters, I kept my cool and settled into my pace. As it became more comfortable, and the adrenaline kicked in as Aaron dropped off a little, I kept pushing in slight surges, easing off when I started to hit my limit, recovering, then running scared I lifted again. Having had to sprint the last mile of Hawaii when I was being chased by Andy Potts, in comparison, this 2km sprint at the end of 10km was pure fun.
I was so happy to have won, and to get my name in the record books. Unfortunately there were still 2 females in front of me, but maybe next year I’ll catch them.
Congratulations to everyone who raced. I’ll see you back there next year!
train smart, not hard
PJ
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