Tim Berkel

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.

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 [intlink id="380" type="post"]Half Ironman in Busselton, Western Australia[/intlink].

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

Well, it has been a  few weeks since Ironman Western Australia, and I guess I’ve been avoiding writing this race report. Physically, I had good preparation in the lead up to this race, and mentally I was feeling quite strong after some decent results in my last four half Ironman races (one first-place, and three second-place finishes). Unfortunately, I picked up a case of the flu about 2 1/2 weeks out from race day, just as I was returning from Shepparton.
It zapped all of my energy, so I wasn’t able to do any hard sessions. It’s hard to say whether that affected my race day, because some people believe that it forced me into some much-needed rest. Either way, in the week leading up to the race, I felt that I had my strength back, and I was feeling mentally tough for the challenge of defending my title. I had a lot more media commitments over in Busselton this year, due to my winning the event in 2008, but I took all of that in stride.
I was no longer under the radar…
There was a lot of hype in town that the race was going to come down to a run between Patrick Vernay and myself, but I also knew that Über cyclist, Jimmy Johnson was going to give the bike leg a crack. I knew that on race day, I had to be aware of who was going to go up there and work with Jimmy on the bike, and I suspected it was going to be my mate Adam Holborow.  But regardless of the talk around town, I knew that all of these theories were going to be thrown out, once we hit the water, because things rarely go the way of the “experts” predict.
Even though the event had more competitors than last year, there seem to be less of a buzz around the event. Even in the warm-up to the swim, it appeared that the media, and spectators, were giving us a lot more space. The conditions look perfect, and the water was flat as we started to swim. It started smoothly, but I soon swallowed a big mouthful of water, which upset my rhythm. I could see that two guys went off the front in the swim, and I was in the second pack of six. I was happy to stay in the back of that group, and let the others set the pace. The two leaders out front never seem to get more than 100 m ahead of us, so I wasn’t concerned, as it is a long day…
As many of you know, the swim goes straight out alongside the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere, then turns around the point and come straight back into the beach. What appeared to be dead flat conditions while we were sitting on the beach, was not the case as we made it out to the turning cans. The swell was quite strong, and I started feeling seasick just after we turned to come back to the beach. As we got closer into the shore, the swell flattened out, however, my belly was still feeling the effects of that mouthful of sea water I swallowed at the start.
Not much changed as we hit the shore, but as soon as I started to run on the sand, I could feel my stomach churning. When I got into the change tent, I spewed up all the water I had swallowed on the swim. Not a pretty sight, but I was glad to get it out of my system, and I felt a bit of relief at that moment. We got onto the bike, and we quickly chased down the two leaders. As predicted, Jimmy shot off the front, but nobody went with him. I had Patrick Vernay riding a few meters behind me, so I knew that if I stayed with him throughout the bike, he and I would be able to push each other through the run.
The ride was pretty uneventful, and I was feeling good. I didn’t think the pace was too difficult, and we always had Jimmy about 3 to 4 minutes ahead of us, but knowing that Jimmy had some issues with his Achilles, I felt it was safer to leave him on his own, and stay as close to Patrick as I could. There were about five or six guys that were riding along with me and Patrick, but it was mostly the two of us that were setting the pace, and the rest of the boys were just hanging off the back of us.
When we made it into T2, I was one of the first into the transition area, and I ran by Jimmy’s bike which was already racked. At that stage I did not know how much of a lead he had, but I made a quick transition and got out onto the run ahead of the rest of the guys in my group. I had only gone about a kilometer before I was joined by Matty White, and Patrick. I knew it was inevitable that they were going to join me, and I was hoping that we could settle into a nice rhythm to set up a good marathon. However, they had other plans, and the pace quickly grew, until I looked down at my Garmin watch, and saw that we were running at a three-minute/kilometer. That is way too fast for a marathon, but I tried to hang on for as long as I could.
Even though I felt strong on the ride, the nausea that I had just after the swim, was coming back to haunt me. At first, I only gave them a few meters, but then I really started feeling sick, and I had no strength. They pulled away from me pretty quickly, so I tried to ease into a pace that I was more comfortable with. Unfortunately, the pace that I was most comfortable with, was walking… and at this stage I only had 37 km to go. So things weren’t looking too good. I don’t think I need to write much more regarding my run/walk. I strolled the marathon in 4:07, where I was hoping to come in somewhere closer to 2:45-ish.
I was amazed with the encouragement that I was getting from the crowds, as well as the other age group competitors who could see I was struggling in the conditions.  So all-in-all I am happy that I finished the race, but still disappointed with my result.  I’ve taken a two week break, and am now training for Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in New Zealand on January 9th (Saturday race…).  I’ll keep you all posted with that as we get closer.