Tim Berkel

We arrived on the Thursday morning with Matty White and his wife Danielle and we all stayed on the strip. Probably not the best idea and maybe we should have stayed out closer to the race – a few to many distractions and late nights leading up to the race all by accident of cause. It’s so easy to loose track of time in a city that never sleeps!

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.

It’s been over a month since I’ve given my last update, and I sincerely apologise for that. Life has a way of getting ahead of you, but really there’s no excuse. I last left off with a bittersweet update. I got engaged to my sweetheart Belinda Coates, but I also faced a disappointing DNF at the Abu Dhabi Ironman. I simply wasn’t prepared for the extremely high temperatures we faced over there.

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.

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 [intlink id="405" type="post"]New Hampshire[/intlink] 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 [intlink id="405" type="post"]Mooseman 70.3[/intlink] 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