Well I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on my race in Copenhagen this past weekend.  The weather was better than the lead up last year, as the rains in 2010 were the worst they had experienced in years, and it caused havoc with their roads (which caused many punctures last year…).

My preparation wasn’t very good, and I had battled with a virus about 2 ½ weeks out that had been zapping my energy, so my training efforts were not as intense as I would have preferred.  I saw a doctor in Boulder and was on antibiotics up until 4 days out from my departure to Denmark.  Getting to Copenhagen was a little more relaxing than last year, as I had Bel with me, and that was a nice way to settle into the race weekend.

Well the swim start was the usual smash and thrash, until we settled into a rhythm.  I fell off the leaders early in the swim, so was pretty much on my own for most of the swim, and I exited the water in 5th place.  I had Stephen Bayliss, Fredrik Seistrup and Bjorn Anderson out three minutes ahead of me, but Jimmy Johnson was only about 40 seconds ahead, and then there was the main pack of seven over a minute behind me.  I rode pretty well, and was on my own for the first 30kms, then I caught Jimmy, and soon after that, we got swallowed up by the pack I had dropped back in the swim.

The course in Copenhagen is a great mix of straight country roads, and some narrow technical sections with tight corners, and cobblestone surfaces.  You get a definite feel of Europe when racing there.  Last year I made my break off the bike through those technical corners to drop some Danish guys that were shadowing me, but this year the corners which assisted my solo breakaway one year earlier, became my downfall.  Soon after the pack swallowed us up, I was sitting in third position and we were heading into a sharp corner.  The guys ahead of me slowed down for the corner, and I came up to about 6 metres to the guy in front of me, while I was still braking.  I heard a motorbike along the side of me, but was focused on slowing and taking the corner, when I heard him yell “Number 1″ (my race number…) “Penalty” and he held up a card to me.  He then yelled to the guys behind me, and in front of me, that he was giving them a warning.

I was fuming, and it started to do my head in.  I remembered from the race briefing that they said we could dispute a penalty if we thought they were unfair, so I tried to settle myself down and told myself to just finish the bike, then dispute the charge, and get on with the race.  I was feeling pretty strong, so at about 155kms on the bike, I pushed the pace a little, and frenchman Christophe Bastie came with me, and Jimmy, Dejan Patrcevic (from Croatia) and last years second place getter Keegan Williams (from New Zealand) didn’t come with us.  I was glad to see the group split up because I would prefer to set into my run pace without the others breathing down my neck.

By the time I was heading into T2, Bjorn Anderson was smashing the field and he had over a 16-minute lead on me, but the other early leaders of Bayliss, and Seistrup were only a  minute ahead of me and I had opened up nearly a three minute lead over the boys I dropped at the 155km mark.  I knew I had to settle this drafting penalty, so they told me to get in the “Penalty Box” and I told them that I was going to dispute it after the race.  I knew I was not in a drafting position, and that anyone looking at the lead-in to the corner would use common sense and reverse the call.  Note to self…  never assume that common sense will prevail.

I ran about 1km, and a guy road up on a motorbike yelling at me to stop to serve my penalty.  I tried to reason with him, that I was going to dispute the call, because we were told in the pre-race briefing that we could.  He told me if I didn’t serve the penalty, he would disqualify me right there on the spot.  I was nearly 2km into the run, so I was going off at him, and yelling back that we were told we could dispute a “bad” call.  He wasn’t budging so I knew I would go mental if I finished the race and then found out it was all in vain as they were going to stand by their call.  So I stood on the side of the road, while he served me the four minute penalty.  I had already moved into a solid third place before I was forced to stop, but then I watched 4th, then 5th, then 6th and eventually 7th run by me.  Each guy that ran by me, raised my level of frustration.  I hope there weren’t any young children standing near me, and if so, I hope they didn’t have a good understanding of english.  At least the english I was using…

By the time my penalty was served, I was in 8th place, and I hit the road, like a bat outta hell.  I was angry and running out of frustration, and just possibly not running sensibly.  My Garmin GPS watch has me running a 3:20 min/km pace, and I picked off 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, and by the 7km mark I was approaching Jimmy Johnson who was sitting in 3rd.  I ran past him then thought that I still had 35 kilometres to go, and at the pace I was going at, it wasn’t going to be sustainable for the remainder of the race, so I eased back to my normal marathon pace (which is about a 4:00 min/km pace).

I overtook Christophe Bastie to move into second place at the 9km mark so I only had Bjorn Anderson up the road.  I had Dejan tailing me on the run, and I couldn’t shake him.  He was always 20-30 seconds behind me, but I kept my focus on Anderson, who had smashed us all with a spectacular ride.  I kept getting splits from the crowd, and I knew I was closing in, but I didn’t take the lead until the 23km mark.  I still had Dejan trailing me by 30 seconds, and Jimmy was only a minute back from me as well.

Dejan eventually caught me, and we ran together for a few kms, then I surged a little and dropped him.  After a few minutes, I felt nature calling and needed to make a visit to the nearest port-a-loo. After finishing my business and exiting T3, I had Dejan right next to me again.  So I dropped him again, and ran on my own until I was joined by Jimmy Johnson at the 35km mark.  Jimmy’s a good runner, and it felt like my Jason Shortis dual from Ironman WA all over again.  I used a similar tactic and settled into a pace with him side-by-side and took in a SiS Smart 1 Gel (which has a kick of caffeine…) for good measure.  After I was feeling fresher, and knowing I only had about 5km to go, I surged to drop Jimmy.  He held pace with me, and even then put a surge on me.  We were flying and not letting the other one get an advantage.  I knew Jimmy had put in a pretty good effort to catch up to me, but I also knew I had run the early portion of the race at a silly pace, and I knew I didn’t want to have a sprint finish with him.

I had 2km to go, and dug deeper than I’ve ever gone before.  I wasn’t thinking about anything but the finish line and I did not turn around until I reached the entrance of the finish chute.  I had no idea of where he was but when I turned around I couldn’t see him.  So I cruised in the finish line and lapped up the applause.  I knew the predominantly Danish crowd were hoping to Jimmy there first, but they were awesome at supporting my repeat performance from 2010.  It was my narrowest win over an Ironman-distance race, with Jimmy coming in 35 seconds later, and third place Dejan Petrcevic only 1:03 behind me.  They were great competitors and they pushed me hard to the very end.  Penalty, and nature calls aside, it was a great race, and I was over the moon to be able to defend my 2010 win.

So now I’m back to Boulder to recover and prepare for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas in four weeks time.

Related posts:

1. My first place in the 2010 Challenge Copenhagen
2. Images from Challenge Copenhagen
3. Quick update from the 2011 Challenge Copenhagen

Related posts:

1. Today I defend my title at the 2011 Challenge Copenhagen
2. Challenge Copenhagen Race Report
3. My first place in the 2010 Challenge Copenhagen

The course was a little unusual for an Ironman. I’m used to small country roads and big hills. This was entirely different, but still very challenging. Instead of dealing with long climbs, we faced sharp turns and a single 72 metre hill we had to climb twice. When you added everything up, this wasn’t something that was going to be won easily.

I’ve also gotta hand it to the organisers for managing to cram every scenic destination in Copenhagen into the course while still giving us a run for our money. We passed by Amalienborg Castle, New Harbour, and the Opera before finishing at the Danish Parliament. It was truly great to take everything in.

Copenhagen is one of the few big cities where you can actually swim in the harbour. More and more people are doing swims there every year because the water is so clean. The swim course weaved its way under crowd-filled bridges. This was unlike any other Ironman swim. We could hear the roar of applause as we swam between the pylons. Adam Molnar and Martin Jenson made an early break from the swim and proceeded to put 2 to 3 minutes on the rest of the contenders. I put in a good effort and came out at 49.28 in 5th place.

The day started off overcast, and It was raining by the time I got onto my bike. My pace was not as fast as usual. There were a lot of smaller hills that were difficult to climb because you were slipping all over the place. What a difference the weather makes! We expected sunshine this time of the year, and we got one of the wettest Ironman’s yet.

It was kind of funny. A few of the guys were actually crashing on the slippery roads! We all had to contend with the highly technical course and infuriating “Denmark Flintstone.” It wasn’t going to be easy to get through this. Guys like Jimmy Johnson, Martin Jenson, and my own team mate Timmy Reed all suffered punctures.

I was lucky enough to make it through the bike section. With Martin out of the race, I broke away from the group at the 120k mark. I felt bad for Martin. I know how hard it is to DNF and have a bad race in your own hometown. I know he’ll get through it though. You just have to suck it up when that happens. You’ve gotta move on.

I ended up building a of 2:58 into T2 and riding the fastest time of the day 4.28.01. The whole time, I remember thinking, “what the hell? I’m going off the front? Well this is unexpected” I’m always surprised when I make a big break from the pack. I believe in my running ability, but it’s an entirely different thing when you see the results of that belief. I knew I still had a good Marathon in me at the start of the run.

The crowd on the run course was phenomenal. I was feeling good. I had Sebastian playing on the iPod, and it was keeping me in check. At the halfway mark, I had a nice lead of 6.27 over Keegan Williams. I’ve known Keegan for years, and he’s always been a solid runner. He was putting forward a great effort at Copenhagen!

Of course, you can’t keep the same pace forever. It wasn’t too long before I hit the wall, and believe me, the wall almost flattened me like a pancake. It all happened around the 36k mark. My energy was so sapped that I was nearly down to a walk. It was going to be a difficult recovery.

Thankfully, there were 125,000 people cheering me on. With that kind of support, you simply can’t stop running, no matter how you feel. It’s truly exciting to be a part of something so big. If it weren’t for that crowd, I wouldn’t have made it to the finish. It just goes to show how important your support is for all triathletes. You don’t need to do much. We just like seeing your faces at our events.

With 2k to go, all the pain went away. I started to pump my fist and blow kisses to the Danish girls! ha-ha. The organisers setup the most electric finish I have ever seen. Everyone was going crazy, and guess what song they played? I’m too sexy! Ha-ha. Genius! This is the same song they played when I won the Ironman in W.A.

I broke the tape in 8 hours, 7 minutes, and 38 seconds. My total run time was 2.46.54. Keegan Williams also ran brilliantly with a 2 hour 46 minute marathon. He came in 2nd place. Jens Grobeck took 3rd with all around solid performance.

I’ve gotta give a shout out to my girl Bek Keat for winning the women’s race. Her performance was fantastic, dipping just under 9 hours for the 2nd time in a few weeks.

Thanks again to the organisers. Thomas, Andreas, and Kim, we couldn’t have done this without you! The Challenge crew certainly know how to look after their participants, especially their professional athletes. They put on a very memorable race. I know I’ll never forget it. Well done guys!

Related posts:

1. Challenge Copenhagen Race Report
2. Images from Challenge Copenhagen
3. Quick update from the 2011 Challenge Copenhagen

While losing some of these top competitors, there was still Patrick Vernay, Scott Neyedli, Olivier Marceau, and Jason Shortis as well as a few others that could upset the mix. I didn’t have the best preparation, as I came down with The Flu about 3 1/2 weeks out from the race. I got myself on some antibiotics, which was great for the Flu, however, it zapped all my energy, and effected my guts in a bad way, but won’t go into those details…

It was frustrating to not have the energy to do the big blocks of training that I needed for the race, but I needed to let the antibiotics take their course. Once I felt that I was over the infection, I got out of town, and headed up to Alstonville to do some training with the boys up there. I stayed at Clayton Fettell’s place, and we got some really good training in. I really like training up in that area, because we are able to push each other in our training sessions, and the roads are better, with a lot less traffic.

I stayed away from town until Monday, which only had me dealing with the media frenzy for four or five days, which was a good thing. After coming in third at Ironman Australia last year, and considering that last year’s second-place finisher, Pete Jacobs, had withdrawn due to a broken collarbone, there was a lot of local media that were making this a showdown between Patrick and me.

Patrick is strong, and he has the experience, but I knew there was a lot of other guys in this field that were capable of winning this race over Patrick or me. I had several media commitments throughout the week, and all of the questions were geared towards how I would race against Patrick, or how I would go compared to last year…

I tried not to get too caught up in the focus on Patrick, and tried to focus on keeping my head clear, so I could race the race, as it unfolded.

The Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, was doing his first Ironman event, and that took almost all of the media attention away from us professionals. I’ve never seen so many cameras, or reporters covering an event, and fortunately for us, they weren’t in our face while we were preparing ourselves for the race.

The race start was going to be slightly different from last year, so the race organisers were going with a mass start.  Also, in the pre-race briefing, we were told there would be a Canon firing to signify the start of the race.  However, once they had positioned us to form a floating start line, we all began to drift forword, not wanting anyone to have any advantage over the rest of us. We were all jockeying for positions, when someone on the shoreline sounded one of those “air horns”. I saw a few guys make the jump, and suddenly there was thrashing water all around me. I started swimming with the rest of them, but could faintly hear the announcer on the sideline, trying to stop us and call us back to the start line. I could see that no one around me was willing to stop, so I wasn’t going to be the only idiot to swim back. After about another 5 to 10 seconds, they decided to ignore our false start, and the cannon went off. It was a bit unnerving to have a start like that, but I was trying to find a quick rhythm.

Several of the faster age groupers made it quickly up to the lead pack of professionals, and I could see on the one side of me a few swim around the outside to move ahead of me.  we were moving along at a pretty good pace, and as we came around to start our second, I slowly started drifting back out of the draft zone coming off the swimmer in front of me. I tried to get back up to him, but eventually gave up, and swam the second lap on my own, with about seven or eight guys off my feet.  A little frustrated,  I led the second group out of the water, and made a quick transition to get to my bike. I needed to find out who the guys were that were out ahead of me, and I would only know that once I got the Pro bike racks.  Unfortunately for me, that group included Vernay, Olivier, Paul Ambrose, and Scott Neyedli. I led the second group out of the water, but we were already one minute 30 seconds down from the first pack.

Once I got out on the bike, I try to settle in to a good rhythm, and most of the groups that came through the transition area with me were all hanging off the back. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to see what the time gap was, until I reached the turnaround at the southern end of the course. I felt we were holding a pretty good pace throughout the southbound leg, but when we pass the leaders on the Ghost Road, I knew they were putting some more time into us.

When I saw the pack was being driven by Olivier Marceau, I was concerned because I know how good of a cyclist he can be. I tried to get the pace increased, but some of the other guys I was riding with didn’t seem to have the legs on the day. So it was frustrating to see the leaders continue to pull away from us at each of the turnaround points.

By the time we reached T2, I think that group had 6 1/2 minutes on us. I had a quick transition, and set out on a pace to run them down. Just after I finished my first lap, I was able to overtake Olivier Marceau. Then halfway through my second lap I overtook Paul Ambrose. And on the latter part of that second lap, I was able to catch Adrian Cominotto along the break wall, but I also was starting to feel the effects of the pace that I had been holding.

Very quickly, I had a feeling of sluggishness come over me, and as it passed through the carpark at Town Beach, I was dreading the hills that were ahead of me. Just as I was hitting the first big climb up Windmill Hill, I had Matty White overtake me. Up until that point, he had pretty much been holding pace with me, but running about 150 m behind me. So I felt a bit demoralized as I realized that the sluggishness I was feeling in my head, had passed on to my legs, because Matty flew by me, and I soon walked part of the way up the hill.

I got some inspiration from the Team Berkel supporters that were camped out at the top of Windmill Hill, so I was able to get into a decent rhythm again coming back in through town and all the way out to Settlement Point. I was feeling quite crook as I was approaching that turnaround point, and I ended up throwing up In a Portaloo (Toilet). It must have been while I was sitting on that fiberglass thrown, that Paul Ambrose overtook me again. But with my body back on track I was able to finish my third lap, but unfortunately I was not able to make up ground on any of the leaders ahead of me, so I ended up finishing seventh on the day.

Not one of my better outings, and I’m still a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to stay with the lead swimmers back in the earlier stages of the race. But it’s all a good reminder to me that I need to stay focused at all times. I would have loved for this to come down to a running race with Patrick, Scott, Courtney, Matty and me. It would have been interesting…

But it’s no longer time to dwell on the past, and put all my focus and training into racing the Half Ironman in Busselton in early May. After that race I will be heading to the USA for six months of racing in the northern hemisphere. Looking forward to that, but I will keep you all posted on my website, and twitter.

Cheers for now,

Tim

Related posts:

1. Ironman Western Australia Race Report
2. Country Energy Ironman Australia Triathlon
3. Port Macquarie Half Ironman

Related posts:

1. Ironman Australia – Port Macquarie
2. Ironman Australia: My best result yet!
3. Country Energy Ironman Australia Triathlon

1. Pete Jacobs 3:54:36
2. Mitch Anderson 3:56:13
3. Tom Jepsan 3:56:53
4. Paul Ambrose 4:02:34
5. Steven Bishop 4:02:47
6. Boyd Conrick 4:03:36
7. Tim Berkel 4:04:51
8. Tully Lyster 4:05:29
9. Adam Conquest 4:07:29
10. Sean O´Neall 4:08:10

Overall The trip to Bussleton was excellent, had a ball on Saturday night at the meltdown party with the boys, special thanks to Macca who came all the way from Albury to watch and give support. Thanks mate! Also want to thanks Rouley for the laughs, and my sponsors.

Related posts:

1. Race Report – 2010 Busselton Half Ironman