Race report – Blokes Triathlon Series, race 1 (of 3)

Here is my first foray into race reporting - enjoy the pictures.

I’ll start with the build up – I went for a ride the weekend before and ended up getting sick, so much so I stayed at home and spent 2 days in bed (Mon and Tue), went to work Wed and felt like crap, on Thurs and Fri felt less crap and Sat the same. No swimming, biking or running all week – not the kind of “taper” I had in mind.

There has been a bit of pre race “ribbing” between myself and a friend/work colleague Lyndon, as to who would come in first and I have to say that as I was feeling so “crap” – all I wanted to do was to finish. My nose was clogged and I felt as though I had someone sitting on my chest – not the ideal preparation.

That said.


Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the weather was just like winter, rail, hail, sleet and southerly winds and I’m sure that everyone was thinking the exact same thing as I was – the race on Sunday is going to be horrible BUT Sunday dawned cold and crisp, 5 degrees, blue sky and sunshine. The set up was great and as my office was a supporter of this event, my warm up was basically setting up the gazebo, blowing up beach balls and getting some flyers set up.

I had organised a bunch of cycle shirts, shorts etc for our company a few months ago and they did me a tri suit with the same graphics so this was its first outing and it was AWESOME!!!

Anyway – we turned up at 6.15am for the setup, got my bike in transition with plenty of time to spare before the 7.15am cut-off, went for a “nervous one” and then back into the main area for a very short race briefing/warm up – all set for an 8.00am start. As the swim was in the pool (open water is still too cold and this is an “entry level event”) we were all divided into waves, I was in the 2nd wave with 1 minute between starts. My goal was to get out into some clear water quickly and then settle into my stroke, target about 1min 30sec for the 100m swim – I did this and came out of the water 1st in my wave in approx 1min, 28sec – all good but still feeling as though I was struggling.

Running from the pool to transition, all I was trying to do was catch my breath and I kept thinking, just get out on the bike and get into a rhythm.






T1 went really well – I toyed with the idea of having my shoes attached to my pedals prior to the race but decided against it this time. Ran up to my position dropped goggles and grabbed my helmet and glasses, got them on quickly, on with the shoes and race belt and off – very happy with this and no complaints.


The cycle leg I really struggled with and this is where I felt the worst – I just couldn’t regain my breath but there was no way I was going to give up. I normally take on water as soon as I get myself into a rhythm but I just couldn’t swallow anything so I just basically rinsed and spit it out (I know, gross!!!) kept an eye on my Speedo and sat on between 32 and 35 km/ph and was passed by quite a few guys. I’m not too worried about this as I knew I would have a few issues and I really wanted to save some energy for the run.

All things considered, I was happy with the bike leg.


T2 was AWESOME – near the end of the bike, I slipped my feet out of my shoes and left them clipped in the pedals and ran to my spot in transition, racked the bike and took my helmet off and in one fluid motion, bent down and slipped my shoes on, grabbed my cap and took off. I put heaps of talc powder into my shoes so my feet slipped into them “like butter”. I had purchased a couple of “toggles” for my laces the day before and they worked great – didn’t need to do up my laces, just pulled the toggle down, done!!

Started the 3km run with lots of stuff going through my head but the biggest issue was that I hadn’t taken on much water and I was still struggling to catch my breath – I still had the feeling of that person sitting on my chest (that’s what it felt like) BUT I had a quick word to myself and said “suck it up”, got myself into a rhythm and just got on with it.

I mentioned right at the top about a little pre race ribbing – the other guy (Lyndon) and I have been quite similar so we have been giving each other “heaps” about this for ages and it’s always good to have a rivalry – well, Lyndon has a son Ben, he is 14 years of age and he swims like a fish and Lyndon and I were both keen on beating him. Pretty unrealistic really when you think I am 30 years older than him??? Ben started 1 minute after me (him and Lyndon were in the 3rd wave) and here is a picture of me coming into the finish chute and Ben is about 5 seconds ahead of me, just crossing the finish line – well done you little bugger!!!!

Finished the race and still felt average BUT I was very happy that I finished.

My goal was to beat last years’ time and I did that – I have to be happy with my performance and this is a good start to my season and it was good to get this one out of the way. Next race (tri) is Dec 5th so time to get back out training.

Preliminary results:


Bragging rights – I beat Lyndon by 1/100th of a second – crazy huh!!

Me – 40min 10 sec

Lyndon – 40min 11sec



I finished first between Lyndon and I

I finished 16th in my age group out of 21

I finished 42nd overall out of 80 competitors