Everyone always talks about Noosa and knows its the biggest Triathlon around, so after 7 years in the sport, I decided to have my first crack at it. This is only my 4th attempt at a standard distance triathlon which is a 1.5km swim, 40km ride, and a 10km run. My first 3 attempts weren't great, with different challenges that I knew before beginning those races. Noosa however, I was in good form, no injuries or illness and was ready to rumble. The start list was stacked and I was honoured to be on the start line with some of the guys.
Race day came and the water had a really strong sweep, I took my time to get to know the water before starting, which really paid off. Our start gun went off in the middle of the briefing as we were running late. We all sprinted off to the right, down the beach to account for the current sweeping to the left. The main pack entered and I kept running along the beach for about another 150m as I was counting on the current sweeping all the way back. For me, this was the right decision as I was one of the first to the swim buoy three hundred metres out, having been swept down at an almost perfect rate, rather than fighting against the current. I wasn't in front for long though, as Henri Schoeman came flying past and spat me out the back. I was in a good position coming back in until I got dumped by a wave, taking a nasty hit (a bit more about that later). I came out of the water and we had an 850m run up the beach to transition. Normally this is one of my strong points, but not today; Today I felt like I was walking, HR through the roof and just unable to move properly. I shuffled my way into transition with people running past me, got to my bike, helmet and sunnies on, and out to the mount line. Got on my bike and had nothing, just couldn't put out any power but felt like I was giving 150%. I couldn't shake that feeling until about 10km in, halfway up Garmin hill it was like someone flicked a switch, my body came back to feeling normal and I picked up the pace, pretty much at the same time that Travis Coleman caught up to me. We pushed each other out to the turn and I was extremely thankful for the Aero bars that V1 Cyclery put on my bike for the race. I learnt from my mistakes last race and took in some nutrition this time at the start, middle, and finish of the cycle leg. At about 30km a similar feeling to at the start of the cycle came back.
Dismounting my bike, the legs were good, I had let Travis get a little ahead in the last few KM's so worked on bringing him back in and settling into my pace; I felt good. At least that was until we hit the 2.5km mark, my gut began cramping and I started to vomit. I stayed like this for the next 7.5km and have some great footage of me being passed by the lead females on the live stream with me vomiting in the background 
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The crowd and event itself was awesome to experience, my race day though... Not quite as awesome. Post-race a concussion from that hit in the swim would explain a little about the race, as I am writing this a day later I have a bloody sore head and neck . Still plenty to learn from and come back stronger. Sunday afternoon I was honoured to be awarded the Garth Prowd scholarship which was a pleasant surprise given my days performance, and I am thankful for the support which it will provide over the next 12 months.
