Welcome back guys, it's been a while since you've visited my blog. Between work and training, I have been a bit slack and neglected a few blogs, sorry for that. Mum Dad and I arrived at Mooloolaba Friday lunch and I rushed straight down to registration to pick up my race pack before Scomo banned all events. Fortunately, the event was still going ahead, albeit with a shorter swim.
The course ended up being a 750m swim, 1.5km run along the beach to transition, 40km ride, and a 10km run. I had a decent swim and made the most of the 1.5km run to transition, moving up through the field to about 7th by transition. Mounting my bike I noticed I was probably the only one on a roadie, but the Cannondale System Six stepped up to the task. The first 3km was a little hilly before hitting the motorway for 34km of straight and flat riding. There was a tailwind on the way out, but I didn't realise quite how strong it was until I turned around... It was quite a rude shock to see such a drastic change in speed but I put my head down and tried to stay consistent on the power. Soon Keegan, Hamish and Travis came past, and I let them set the pace. I have no idea how you boys didn't get a drafting penalty, I learnt my lesson last week with my first penalty, and was chilling 20m behind most of the way back. Once we got back into town there were a few hills and corners. Being on a roadie I was able to move to the front pretty easily by nailing the turns and dismounted first in our little group. I saw this as a crucial point for the race as transition was extremely narrow and you could not run beside your bike at some points, let alone pass someone!
I had a clean transition and hit the run with Travis hot on my heels. I pushed the pace on the way out and let Travis be the sucker that sat in front on the way back into the wind. Having never run a good 10km off the bike I was happy to let Travis pace and I would just push it a little every now and then.
By the 8km mark my legs started to go numb and slow their turnover a little, I tried to utilise the downhill to bring my cadence back up in preparation for a sprint finish that was sure to go down between Travis and I. The key word in that last sentence is tried... It didn't go to plan and my stride just got longer and slower, 9.7km deep my legs didn't have the speed to match Travis and I crossed the line 8th in the Open category. Today was probably the best race I have had over the standard distance (even if it had a short swim) and I still have plenty more learning and improving to go at this distance