Tim Berkel

I was fortunate enough to be asked to do an interview with the 220 triathlon magazine a few weeks back. It was just after my race Half Ironman in Busselton, Western Australia.

A big thanks to the guys at the Australian 220 Triathlon magazine.

Today I did my third 70.3 race since arriving in North America. Today’s race was in Providence, Rhode Island. I did this race back in 2008, which was the first year that they held this event.  For any of you that have been following my career, or my race reports, from back then… this is the race where I came out of the water, and found someone else’s helmet on my bike. It was a very nice gesture, because another pro had loaned me his helmet because they were going to disqualify me because my helmet was not approved by the USA sanctioning body. I got fifth place that year, which was one place better than the guy who loaned me the helmet. He’ll never do that again…

This year the quality of the field seemed a bit better than it was back in 2008, and the man to beat this year was Terenzo Bozzone. The swim was uneventful, and I came out of the water in sixth place. I was just off the back of the main group of pros, so I had to work pretty hard for the first 5 km to get back on to that group. Once I caught on to the group that contain Terenzo, I settled in to see who was going to try to set the pace. We were rolling along at a decent pace, and then Paul Ambrose edged away from us, and nobody went with him.

The bike course is a beautiful one-way journey towards Providence with undulating hills along the way. With a few kilometers to go before the end of the bike, I edged away from the group that contained Terenzo, Richie Cunningham, and Graham O’Grady. I might have only had about 20 or 30 seconds lead on the main group, but it was enough to be out of their line of vision. As I was approaching the transition area, I had already taken my feet out of my shoes.

There was a photographer on the back of a motorbike in front of me as I was approaching the dismount line. I was alert and focused, but then the motorbikes started to slow down. I was only coasting towards the line, but I needed to go around the slowing motorbike. Just as I was coming around the back of him, he swerved across the front of me to pull off the course, and I smashed into the back of his motorbike. I went head first over my handlebars, and not so gracefully onto the pavement. I rolled my foot as I came down, and my bike and handlebars got scratched up a bit as well.

The photographer was really apologetic, but the guy who owned the motorbike, was going off his nut that his Motorbike got scratched.  Being a Triathlete, approaching a transition area, whilst a triathlon was in progress, I was pretty certain that I was supposed to be there…  But nevertheless, it could’ve been a lot worse, had my feet still been strapped into my shoes. I tried to get myself composed and get back on my bike. I didn’t have far to go, but once I got moving Terenzo came around me and made it into T2 ahead of me. The others that were riding in his group also followed us into the transition area.

Coming out of the transition area and onto the run, I could feel a pain in my foot where I came down awkwardly from my mishap with a motorbike. My race had been going quite well, and I was afraid that I was going to have to pull out because of my foot. Terenzo and the other boys were out in front of me, but I still had them in my sights.

After the first few kilometers the pains in my foot began to lessen, and I picked up my pace to catch Terenzo and the group he was with. A few of the other guys had dropped off the pace, and I pass them as I was making my way up to Terenzo’s group. I finally made it up to Terenzo around the 5 km mark, and we ran together for the next 8 km.

Paul Ambrose had about a three-minute lead coming off of the bike, but I think we had almost run two minutes into him in the first of the two lap run course. Terenzo was running stride for stride with me, but his breathing sounded labored to me, so I decided to go around and see if he was going to stay with me… he did.

As we are heading on to the second lap we hit a section of Hill, and he put the hammer down, and pulled ahead of me. I kept him in my sight the rest of the run, but I just didn’t have enough energy to surge back to try to take back the lead. Shortly after we started the second lap, first Terenzo , and then I pulled around Paul Ambrose to take first and second respectively. I crossed the line in second place, and I was only 50 seconds behind Terenzo. All in all, I am very happy with my race, and now it’s back to Boulder for a few days, then I will be racing and Racine Wisconsin next weekend at their 70.3 event.

Cheers,

Tim

It’s been a busy week, traveling back from New Hampshire on Monday, then only having a few days to get myself situated back in Boulder, before having to head out to today’s race in Boise Idaho. Today’s race was one of the toughest I’ve faced in a long time, and it doesn’t help that I’ve only had five days of rest since my fourth-place finish at Mooseman 70.3 in New Hampshire.

Racing on a Saturday is always unusual, because they tend to have afternoon starts, so this race didn’t take off until 2 PM. Several of the guys that raced in New Hampshire, were at this race, as well as some of the biggest names in the sport like Craig Alexander, and Chris Lieto.

The swim was in a reservoir, and they told us at the pre-race briefing that the water temperature was 11°C. Since it was an afternoon start, the weather had already started to heat up before the swim, so it felt good when I first jumped in. But that quickly turned to numbness, and I could not feel my toes. Nevertheless, I went through my normal routine to warm up for the swim, and then all of us pros went through our normal routine, of jockeying for position while the starter is trying to hold us on the line.

There were no major dramas in the early portion of the swim, but then about three quarters of the way through the swim, I dropped the feet of the guy in front of me, so I lost a little bit of time coming out of the water. I came out of the water in 8th place, but I was with seven other guys, which included Tim Reed, and some of the best cyclist in the field, such as Matt Lieto, and Ben Hoffman.  Matt’s brother Chris was out of the water about a minute ahead of me (and my roomy Matty White was with him).

As cold as I was in the water, it didn’t take me too long to warm up once I got on the bike.  This race has two different transition areas, and the swim is up at the reservoir, and the cycle course is rolling hills which descend down to the town of Boise. The afternoon heat, and winds, were incredible and I quickly forgot about the cold water swim. It was a beautiful, scenic course, which had some tight spots which made it difficult to manoeuvre around the other athletes.

At one stage we passed Matty White who had punctured out on the side of the road. Not long after we passed him, he must of gotten the repair from the spares vehicle, and he flew by us to make up some of the ground he had lost. Both Ben Hoffman, and Matt Lieto had put several minutes into me throughout the bike, so I knew that I was going to have to push hard to regain a decent finish. I came off the bike with a few others, and I got the jump on them out of the transition area, but Tim Reed gave it a big surge, and I was unable to keep up with his pace. The heat and the wind had taken its toll on me, and I was almost ready to pull the pin on the race, but then I decided to see if I could run through the pain, and see if it passed.

Not long after that, I started to come good, so I picked up the pace to see if I could get back up to Tim Reed.  I was off the bike in ninth place, but when Tim surged ahead, I was running in 10th place. As I started to close in on Tim, I went by Kevin Everett, who had been reduced to a walk. Also some of the friendly Boise spectators informed me that Chris Lieto was out of the race. My strength really came back and I was able to overtake Tim Reed, and not long after that I passed Bryan Rhodes.

I could see Jamie Whyte ahead of me, and I knew that if I could overtake him I would be in fifth (which is where the prize money starts…). But as I got close to Jamie I realised that he was running along with Matt Lieto, so I was doubly blessed when I overtook those two guys to move into fourth. By then my spirits had totally lifted, and I felt I had a good rhythm in my stride. With less than 2 km left in the run, I could see Matty White in my sites, and he was struggling. I overtook him with about 1 1/2 km to go, and I had run my way into third position.

Aussie pro Tim Berkel got himself onto the podium with a sharp run - first off the bike

Craig Alexander and Ben Hoffman had built up a commanding lead throughout the race, and in very difficult conditions. I think the entire field of professionals had to dig deep, and I’m glad I stuck with it to finish on the podium.

I am looking forward to a few more 70.3 races in North America, before I venture off to Copenhagen to race in the Challenge (Ironman distance event) in August. I’ll keep you posted with my next few races.

Cheers,

Tim

Well, Matty and I began our journey for New Hampshire on Friday morning. For the past two years, I’ve been traveling on my own, whilst staying in North America. It’s great to have Matty as a training partner, but also as a travel partner.

We had heard that the weather forecast was not looking very good for the weekend, but on Saturday we didn’t get the rain they were expecting. It was actually really hot, and I was looking forward to that as I like racing in the heat.

But when Sunday morning rolled around, we got the bad weather they were expecting. There was a wave start, so we didn’t have to contend with any age grouper’s trying to swim over top of us. The professional field wasn’t huge, but there were several really good names to look out for. I came out of the water in eighth place, in 25:20. Matty was with me as well as two other guys, and one guy was about 30 seconds ahead of us.

This was the first year they had the Mooseman 70.3, so all of us professional were in the same boat in terms of knowing the course. The bike course was tough, and there were a lot of hills. The hills themselves were not all that difficult but it was raining the entire time which made the descents pretty hairy. It was cool weather, and with all the rain, I was freezing. I’ve never been that cold during a race before, and I thought I was going to die.

One of the guys that came out of the water with us, was the eventual winner Maksym Kriat (from the Ukraine). He took off early in the bike, and we lost sight of him. Another American that came out of the water with me was Tyler Butterfield, and he rode along with Matty and I throughout the bike leg. We were going along at a really good pace, and about two thirds of the way through the bike leg, we could see that we are closing in on Kriat. He must have spotted us, because he really kicked up the pace, and ended up coming in nearly 5 minutes ahead of us at T2.

I typically have a good transition at T2, however I struggled getting my socks on, and Tyler and Matty got a bit of a jump on me. The boys were holding a really good pace in the early part of the run, and Matty started to pull away from Tyler. After my deficit that I had created in the early part of the run, I started to close in on Tyler. Once the numbness had subsided a little bit, I started feeling my legs again, as I overtook Tyler. Not long after overtaking him I picked up Tim O’Donnell, who I thought was going to be the race favourite.

Matty was setting a blistering pace through the middle portion of the run, but I was starting to make up some ground on him. At one stage he had a 40 second lead on me, but I was able to get within 7 seconds of him as he crossed the line to take third place. I was happy to take fourth, in my first hit out in North America.

Matty clocked the fastest run of the day in 1:15:22, and I was the second fastest only 2 seconds slower. Not a bad result for the two of us considering the conditions we were racing in.

Well, Sunday afternoon we took off to head down to Boston. We didn’t have to fly back to Denver until Monday afternoon, so we were looking to get into some mischief. We only have a few days back home, then we will be heading off later in the week to go to Boise Idaho to do the 70.3 there next Saturday. I will keep you posted…

Cheers,

Tim

Well, I just wanted to check in before heading out to my first race, since I’ve settled into my new home in Boulder Colorado. I have been over here for nearly a month, and I’m feeling really comfortable with my training right now.
I was really itching to get out of Port Macquarie last month, because I felt the colder weather was really hampering my training, and I wanted to get over to the North American summer… ha ha. I arrived in Boulder Colorado, and it snowed my first night here. In fact for the first few weeks of training, there was typically piles of snow packed along the sides of the road. Fortunately for me, I brought over some of my Scody winter training gear, so I was rugged-up pretty well.
Matty White, is my new roommate for the next six months, and he had already arrived in our apartment a week before I showed up. It’s been a blast living full time with another professional triathlete, and we have been smashing out the K’s on the bike. Port Macquarie’s young cycling legend, Lachlan Morton, is also living in Boulder and racing with Team Garmin’s development team, and he has been doing a lot of training with us. We also have another Australian Pro, Tim Reed, who is not living with us, but he’s out there doing a lot of the same training with us.

It’s great to have a bunch of like-minded guys to train with, and the fact that they’re all Aussies is just a bonus. Ha ha.
I feel that I’m back into some good fitness, and I’ve adjusted from the travel over here, so I’m excited to head over to New Hampshire, which is on the northeast of the United States, a few hour drive from Boston Massachusetts. The race is called the Mooseman 70.3, and this is the first year that they’ve held this race. I’m looking forward to traveling over there with Matty White (a.k.a. Fatty Black) and I think we are both going to go really well considering our fitness, and training. Make sure to tune into Ironmanlive at the Ironman.com website for race updates. These should be coming in late Sunday evening (Australian Eastern Time).
Cheers for now,
Tim