Thanks to everyone who sent me images over the last few weeks.

Related posts:

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

Race morning was all good and everything flowed easily. I might have been a little bit sleepy but in saying that it kept me fairly relaxed. The swim was a non wetsuit and I wore my Blue Seventy speed suit over the top of my awesome new Scody tri kit.

My swim was probably one of the worst swims of my career so far. I got absolutely smashed at the start by the other pros – note to self, take a few boxing classes before world champs next year to learn how to through a few down. This terrible start ruined the rest of my swim and saw me come out of the water in a time of 26:33. I think this had me in around 29th position and so I had a bit of work to do on the bike.

The bike course was what everyone expected, hilly, hot and very tough. I was very happy with my bike pushing some good power with the help of trying to keep up with Michi Weiss, that boy can ride well and also a fellow Cannondale rider. He is someone I would defiantly be looking out for in Kona. My SRM was pushing out an average of 282 watts, my overall time for the bike was 2:14:44 coming in at around 9th position. You can see below how I performed during the race.

Onto the run I always knew I would fell the effects of Ironman from a few weeks earlier. In saying that, I gave it a good shot and managed to run myself into 6th place on the second lap of a three lap run course. I didn’t hold this position very long as a couple of boys came storming past pretty quickly. I just didn’t have my usual bounce/turn-over like I am use to because of my Ironman legs. But all in all I was happy with my 8th place result at Vegas Ironman World Championships.

Well Vegas surely lived up to everything I expected and more. Bel and I headed of to the presentation, which was very nicely done by WTC – congratulations on a well run event. Now the fun really started with my mate Luke McKenzie and the gorgeous Amanda (aka Mr and MrsVegas) had us rolling in an awesome Cabana at the XS Encore hotel. we had free Moet and Vodka and partied pretty hard – thanks guys for lots of fun. The party didn’t stop there though! We went out the next night also for a lovely dinner with the Shimano Guys (Dwight and Paul) along with Matty and Danielle. We then partied on for a couple of drinks at Ceasars Casino followed by hitting up Macque night club in the Cosmopolitian with a few mates of mine from back in Australia. Well all in all I had a pretty awesome time in Vegas and I defiantly can’t wait to get back there again next year and hope for an even better result.

Related posts:

1. Post race video interview – 2011 Busselton Ironman 70.3

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

Belinda and I headed off to Rhode Island the Friday of race weekend at 3am. We managed to get our first flight to Baltimore before all the fun started! We missed our connecting flight due to Bel taking to long to eat her lunch, but lucky for us I am a charmer and managed to pledge our innocence’s and get on the next flight to Providence (Rhode Island). So we got onto the next flight and then proceeded to sit on the runway for the next 3 hours due to severe thunderstorms. Whilst sitting on the runway our pilot informs us that we will not be able to take our usual route to Providence due to the weather conditions and that he has made the decision to turn back the plane to refuel up as they will now be going the long route there.

The refueling process is going to take 30 minutes as the pilot informed us, whilst sitting on the plane people were starting to get a little pissed off and tired as the company we were flying with could only offer us peanuts and light refreshments whilst waiting that whole time. While we fuelled up the pilot announces that he wont be able to fly this plane any longer due to his 15 hours being up, so now the company was trying to find a new pilot, this was going to take a further 30 minutes. After waiting those 30 minutes we get an announcement from the pilot that they were unable to find a replacement so this flight was now cancelled and everyone was to get off the plane.

By this time I was losing my cool just a little. Lucky I had Bel there to try and keep me calm! Once off the plane the next adventure was to try and get on the next flight out if possible. At the customer service desk, where every single person off that plane went to, was only one lady at the counter. We waited patiently in line for about 2 hours and I managed to meet some nice friendly Americans in the line with a big family. I would hate to have been them and trying to work out what to do from there. When we were in the line up I was hearing rumors going around from everyone that the next available flight to Providence wasn’t until late Saturday night. I said to Bel to try and get our accommodation money back as where we were staying was rather expensive. Bel doesn’t like to stay in crappy places! So Bel managed to get our money back in full, so I suggested she also try and get our returning flights back also – lucky for us we got them fully refunded.

Once at the front counter talking to the lady we told her of our situation and it was not going to be. We could not get to the race and the best she could do for us was to get us back home to Boulder free of charge. We took this offer and got home at 3am Saturday morning after starting our travels 12 hours earlier on the Friday.

So now what to do considering I had tapered for the race and needed a start somewhere that weekend. Luckily for me there was a local race here in Boulder, the 5150, which I could possibly try and get a start at.

So later that day after sleeping for around 4 hours we headed down to the race brief to speak with the organizer Barry and see if he could help me out. Barry was kind enough to give me a start. Now it was time to get my head around the fact that there was some big names in this 5150 race plus my track record at racing at altitude isn’t that crash hot either. Plus of cause all the stress and drama off the past 12 hours and lack of sleep will prove to have taken it’s toll come race day. Well a lot can be said from this learning experience. I had a disastrous swim, part way through I had a panic attack and had to backstroke for a few strokes to catch my breath. I got out of the water quiet a fair way down and I pretty much just finished the rest of the race off by having a roll around and finishing in 15th place.

A week later I was onto Racine 70.3 Ironman. This race went a little more to plan. In the swim I was not In the spot where I wanted to be rather in no mans land by myself, in between the front and second pack, having to do a bit of work on my own. The same happened on with the bike, riding solo for much of the whole 90km, and only seeing the front boys within the last 1km coming into transition. I was rather pleased with my bike as I had just put on a SRM Power Meter (Thanks to SHIMANO) and found that it helped me keep to a great power output and keep the lid on myself. I was not to blow my legs up for the run by staying within the range of 250 and 300 watts pretty much the whole time. I had a quick transition and was now onto the run sitting in around 6th position. Within the first 500m I passed Hackett and then I was surprised to catch and pass Crowie followed closely by Cartmell and Rhodsey was just down the road and he was passed at the 7km mark. So now I was in 2nd place and I knew Ambrose was going to be hard to catch as he was a man on a mission. The first lap I managed to put a bit of time into him but later on the heat caught up to me and the wheels started to fall off a little.

In the end I only managed to take 2 minutes out of him, he got a well-deserved win. Although I then later found out that I still managed to get the fastest run split of the day, having thought I did not run to my full potential, this gives me a little bit of confidence!

I have now had a couple of rest days and I am ready to knuckle down into full Ironman training for Challenge Copenhagen in four weeks, which I cannot wait for.

As an athlete, you never quite know how to approach a situation like that. I was as prepared for that race as ever, but no amount of preparation can get you ready for something so unexpected. After a DNF like that, you tell yourself to train harder, but that isn’t always the best solution. In triathlon, it often makes things worse.

So I just kept charging on, trying to put it behind me in the best way I can. I went up to Lennox Head to do some training with Team Aeromax and I spent a good four weeks with Clayton Fettel, Mitch Robbins, Joey Lampe, and Josh McHugh. My training for the Port Macquarie 70.3 started five weeks before the race, so I had plenty of time to prepare and get my mind off of things.

The Bussleton 70.3 was six days after the Port Macquarie 70.3, so I had to be a little more careful about not wearing myself out. I got back to Port Macquarie one week before the race to do a little light training, visit with the family, and get fully recovered before the race. Much thanks for Coastline Chiropractic for the adjustment, and of course to my mum for her amazing home cooking. Exactly what I needed to get race fit.

2011 Port Macquarie 70.3
The field was fairly well stacked for the Port Macquarie 70.3 this year. At the top, you had Joe Gambles, who has won several 70.3 events in the past few years, and 10 time New Zealand Ironman Champion Cam Brown. All of my favorite Aussies were there too. Matty White, Josh Rix, Leon Griffin, and Tim Reed all made an appearance.

Overall, I was happy with the way the race progressed. I came out of the swim with the main contenders, Gambles, Cam Brown, Tim Reed, and Matty White. I knew I had four people ahead of me, but that didn’t matter too much. The run is my strength, so as long as I was close enough by the time we got there, I knew I had a chance at victory.

Port Macquarie had a new bike course this year. It was a single lap 90Km course. The first 45Km put us right into a strong headwind, and I lost my pace with Gambles and Brown somewhere around the 13Km mark. My legs were exhausted, but I managed to pull off a strong ride back into town. I gained on a few of the other guys, except for Gambles who looked like he was on a mission from God.

Right around the transition from bike to running, I was in fifth place with Gambles a good 5 1/2 minutes ahead of me. There were four other guys in the transition area with me, and as we exited, I made a wrong turn. It took me some time to correct it, and by the time I did, I was back to ninth place.

That’s when I got frustrated and really started to push it. At the end of the first 2 and 1/2 Km, I was back in fifth. It wasn’t too long before I pushed past Joey Lampe and Leon Griffin, putting me in third place.

I kept pushing. Somewhere around the first part of the second lap, I overtook Christian Kemp for second place. By then, I knew Gambles had won the race, but I still managed to get a good three minutes into his lead. Aside from the mishap at the beginning of the run, I’m still very happy with the results. I had the fastest run of the day and ended the race in second place.

Everyone wanted to party after the Port Macquarie race, but I knew I had to stay within reason. The Busselton 70.3 was just six days after that. I also knew I had to fly out to Perth on Wednesday to meet with a group of 20-24 year olds who show promise in the sport. They invited me to visit a nearby high school to, talk to some students, and do a few drills with them. Time flew by, and before I knew it, I was racing the Busselton 70.3

2011 Busselton 70.3
I’ll admit that I still felt a little fatigued at the start of this year’s Busselton race. I kept telling myself, “you’re a little tired. Don’t do anything stupid!” The swim felt good, and just like Port Macquarie, I came out with the main pack. Guy Crawford had a phenomenal swim and appeared to be on his own program for the entire bike leg.

A part of me suspected that Guy would eventually “pay the price” for his lead, so I didn’t pay much attention to it during the bike. The transition went well for me this time (no wrong turns!), and I had all of the top runners in my sights. I put in a big surge to give myself a gap on them, and I managed to hold onto it!

At this point, there was no looking back. I could hear them. They weren’t too far behind me. I overtook Jamie about 500 meters into the run, and then I caught up with Josh Rix somewhere around 3Km. That only left one person. The mysterious Guy Crawford who hadn’t yet paid his price. I caught him at 6Km.

By the end of the first lap, I had Dellow, Reed, and Matty White about 50 meters behind me. Just for good measure, I surged ahead some more to put a little extra space between us. The run felt really good as I slowly pulled away from the other guys. When I made the final turn towards the finish line, I saw that nobody had gained on me, so I eased up and enjoyed the win.

Now the Port Macquarie and Busselton are done, I’ve got my eyes on Challenge Cairns. It’s less than four weeks away, and there’s plenty of work to do. Before I go, I want to thank WTC for putting on two fantastic events. I also want to thank the organising committees and Triathlon Western Australia. You always do a great job of looking after the athletes!

See you in few weeks.

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

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

Related posts:

1. Race Report – 2010 Boise Ironman 70.3
2. Race report for Geelong Ironman 70.3
3. Race Report – Mooseman Ironman 70.3

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

Related posts:

1. Race Report – 2010 Busselton Half Ironman
2. Race report for Geelong Ironman 70.3
3. Race Report – Rhode Island Ironman 70.3

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

Related posts:

1. Prerace report for Mooseman 70.3-New Hampshire
2. Race report for Geelong Ironman 70.3
3. Race Report – 2010 Boise Ironman 70.3