The Australian Long Course Championships

The Australian Long Course Championships (2/80/20 km) brought an end to my perfect winning streak in 2007. I was only beaten by a world champion, and I raced hard from the start to lead the race by myself until 9km into the run, so I was very happy with my race and it was adrenalin pumping fun. Racing, at its’ best.My race plan was to get a lead in the swim, go hard through transition and stay away on the bike while the others rode easier in a pack while I pushed hard on my own. I knew I needed a lead into the run because there would be no chance of outrunning Craig Alexander.

It was bizarre how the race went perfectly to my prediction. There were a few small changes I could have made to improve my race, but nothing would have been enough to beat Craig who ran 66 mins for the run, against my 69 mins.

It was a two lap run course, and after Craig caught me shortly before halfway I stuck on his heals as we ran through the crowd at the turn around/transition/finish point. It was a great feeling to have many people cheering for me as I tried to run with one of the greatest triathletes in the world.

It was a great test of fitness and race strategy leading into Ironman Australia. It did however leave me flat, and for a 2 weeks I hardly rode or ran, but strangely I felt good swimming and swam more and better than I had in years, and I will be swimming a couple of minutes quicker at Port Macquarie for it.

I really wanted to be Australian Champion. But in being beaten by the Ironman 70.3 World Champion, at a very similar distance, I gained a lot of confidence for the year ahead which is full of 70.3 races that I plan on doing and I’m sure Craig will not be at all those races. But if I want to be the best, I have to beat the best. I hope in a year or two I will be capable of doing so.