Oceania Champs

There's nothing quite like racing in your home town and seeing as Friendly Feilding will never play host to a triathlon, Wellington is home town racing for me. Having had possibly the best spell of weather in the wet and windy city since ages ago; I was sure the capital would return to it's former self come race day, but it was not to be. We had a slight southerly and overcast conditions, nothing on what it could have been.

At 11:45am we stood on the start pontoon looking out on a millpond. Into the starters hands.... and we were away! Still not keen to get my freshly healed tit into too much biffo, I dealt with the riff-raff a bit like a girl and was getting bullied backwards through the first 100m before manning up and moving forward through a few guys. Once around the first can I could see I was just off a breakaway bunch and had to put my foot down to get across to it. In the water is just like jumping across a gap on the bike, just go hard and fast and recover once you get there, which is what I did. Plus, by going fast you're much less likely to drag people with you. Swimming in a breakaway bunch compared to the masses is bliss, so I was happy to nestle in and wait to hit Waitangi Park where it'd be all on again.

I spent a good 10 seconds trying to do my helmet up, which in transition time feels like 10 minutes. Luckily it didn't cost me and I was on the bike and safely in the front bunch. We had about 8 of us, which means there's enough of us to just look at each other until we get caught, or the perfect amount to work together and stay away. All but one of the Aussies were there to ride and Kiwi's tend not to shy away from honest work so we were into a good roll and going well. The gap to the second bunch wasn't much, but it wasn't really changing. A few attacks went in to soften the legs up but nothing of any significance. I was trying to ride smart and not work any harder than I needed to, which tends to be the opposite of how I like to ride. Tim had found this out in a race a while ago so I was now rationed to one attack and one attack only. I felt good so thought I'd have a dig with a lap to go in case we got caught by the second bunch, and to see if I could smuggle some easy time up my sleeve. Once off the front I dangled there waiting for someone to join and it didn't take long before Ryan Bailie and I were working well together and stealing time. I think the national coach almost fell over his whiteboard when he saw us come past off the front - it's taken me a while to learn how to ride a bike.

Another ho-hum transition before getting the running legs going. Crikey, I felt pretty good! I tried to keep a lid on it while I started to wonder - was this the day it was going to come together for me? I was sitting just off Ryan when I came past the coach who simply said "on his shoulder" and like Flash Gordon I seemed to be there with ease. A couple of kms into the run we were caught by the front runners from our old bunch and we both tagged on to their freight train. It was about here my guts opted out and I got some horrible stomach cramps which made it an 8km battle. Going backwards on the run for no good reason is not something I've experienced before and not something I'm keen to do again. I hated it. Running past family and friends while guys ran through me was rubbing salt to my already sore guts. From having a great race I faded to 5th New Zealander and 13th overall. What could have been...

Just like Ripcurl says, the search continues.

Nugget.

PS Thanks for the hometown support.

Takapuna Contact Tri

With the sour taste of missing Geelong still ripe in my mouth, I jumped on the bird to Auckland for a grudge match. I wanted three things out of the race; number one was amending last year's blunder of tearing off on a extra lap on the bike; two was to test the tit out in a short sharp swim; three to just let off some steam!

Taka treated us to a rip snort of a day and my tired body was quietly fizzing for a tester.
I was off to a tentative swim start, then put the gas on and managed to swim the long, but less messy, way around to the front guys where as I just started to get into my stroke, the beach came up to meet us. The 500m swim must be measured on the king high tide and we were right on the bottom of it, not to worry I'd survived and ticked off one of my key processes.

After seeing my heart jumping out my throat coming up that nasty hill to transition we were on our bikes and away. I'd talked to Tim, (the coach), and we'd agree I'd work hard from go if there was the chance of a break, which there was and a group of us made the most of it. It is amazing how fast you go, with relatively little effort, when in a small bunch with everyone organised and working. And that was the that for bike ride. No real attacks were thrown out there, although a Korean rode away for a small gap towards the end, which I think none of us actually realised, I definitely knew nothing of it.

A good T2 and I had my legs running for their life - another thing Tim had said, take it out hard. So was me and the Frenchman Moulai forcing the pace through the first kilometre. It was about then my legs sent an urgent memo to my brain asking wtf I was going on.I had done bugger all running, let alone anything at that pace, since Kinloch and 1km was about as far as I could fake it. I tried to hang tough but about halfway through I did a silly thing and started thinking backwards. Four of us had broken clear, but I couldn't sustain the pace - how far behind was fifth? What if I pushed to hold on and then exploded and got run through? Two questions that shouldn't have crossed my mind. I was in defence mode and watched the front three run away, only to see one drop off just up the road - if only I'd been 'just up the road'...

I ended up coming in comfortably in fourth and even stopped to lap up the outstanding atmosphere Takapuna streets put on for us - it really is an awesome place to race, possibly my favourite so far.

Lesson learnt - hang on as long as you can, then hang on some more.

Until next time,
Nugget.

Kinloch Sprint Oceania Cup

Well, boy oh boy I came into this race fair humming and hungry to cut my teeth in the first race of the year. Of course, there's also those pesky brainwaves wondering what everyone else has been doing, and has anyone really been on the sparkling water and sleeping pills? With a freezer of venison, I certainly had not.

Having never raced well in Kinloch I was a bit on the nervous side but pre-race head-space aside, I was ready. Got off to an average start (these young upstarts really bring the biff) and had my usual 100m in panic that, oh shit I'm at the back. I'm actually at the back. Shit. This is generally what it takes for me to really kick it in the guts and start swimming furiously towards the first can, which I did and managed to round it near the front. After swimming up a little further I was happy I was where I needed to be and settled in beside Doddsy for the rest of the swim.

T1 was good, but I playing superman onto the bike wasn't. Somehow both my rubber bands had broken and mid air I realised I didn't have anywhere good to land my feet, luckily the baby makers stepped up and took it for the team. After faffing about here I looked up to see I had my work cut out to get back in the front bunch. With the blood squashed out of my groin I had plenty in my legs and made the bunch ok. Good start.

From here it went downhill. My legs felt great, but I had nothing every time I stood up and soon found myself second bunch, hanging on for dear life. I couldn't work it out. I felt like I had the stitch and no strength in my arms to work the bike. I can assure you I was calling myself all sorts of colourful names by this stage.

Please to get off the bike and still in second bunch I was ready to run. First km was good and I found my rhythm quick. Then BANG I had the stitch. Cue more colourful names. Whoa! I really had the stitch and I was slowing a great rate of knots. Even more colourful words, I mean, who lets the stitch slow them down on a 5km run?! Then I stopped in, to be frank, agony. I was not a happy chap but managed to pull myself together and jog it out to finish. Head in my hands, it was an incredibly disappointing day and I couldn't understand how I'd let myself be beaten by the stitch of all things.

The next day my tit was quite sore, but I wasn't too worried, and after all, my mind was still focused on fuming after the disappointment of yesterday. However by the time I arrived back in Wellington Sunday night I was in a fair bit of pain and realised I must have actually done myself a mischief. Off to the doc and a few scans later I had a torn tit (pectoral minor in doctor speak). Despite being well pissed off, I had a chuckle that maybe I'd get a boob job? Crushed, I was advised not to go down that path. Slightly more concerning was that I'd have to miss Geelong ITU race and Takapuna Contact Tri was a mmmmmaybe. Wonderful.

Chin up and truck on.

Nugget.