Tim Berkel

Wow – what a day out !. I woke up race day feeling really good and deciding it was going to be a great day with not a bad pro field on the start list. We headed down to Coomera Waters just outside the Goldie for a 6am start, with what turned out to be great, although pretty hot, weather. In the swim I felt pretty strong, coming out of the water in 5th with a time of 24:35. I mounted the bike feeling strong, and along with Oyvind Johannesen managed to get a break on the chase group, picking up race leader Paul Matthews at the 45km mark. The pace shut down after we picked up Paul, all of us motivated to save our legs for what was shaping up to be a very hot run. We came off the bike with about 4 minutes on the chase group, with me clocking a time of 2:17:08, still feeling good and pumped for the 21km run.

We ran the first 1km together, spurred on by my good mate Pete Murray who was going off in the commentary box. Johannessen was the first to be dropped, with me taking a few kms to get my running legs and by the half way mark Matthews had established a gap of 1:50. However I started to come good as he began to fade slightly and I began bringing the gap back, eventually running out of miles however, with Matthews taking the win in 4:03:04 and me coming in 1:25 behind (4:04:31) with a running time of 1:22:47. My good mate John Cornish rounded out the podium with a time of 4:10:01.

Overall I was stoked running down the finish line having the support of my family and the crew from Port Mac, and the 2nd place has only given me more motivation to go one better next year !

The week leading into the Cannibal Gold Coast Half Ironman I spent with my coach Gilesy and his family at Lennox Heads. It was a relaxing week with plenty of surfing, training and a few brews along the way.
Tim Prowse and I headed up to the Gold Coast on Friday and the weather was perfect.
I woke up race day feeling very nervous with such a strong pro field to compete against. We headed down to Coomera Waters to get ready for the race.
In the swim I tucked myself into a group and I swam 24:06 {pb}. I mounted the bike feeling pretty strong and I mixed it up with some strong riders, I came in off the bike{2:20:30} feeling pretty smashed but pumped and ready for the 21km run.

It took me a bit to find my legs, but running with Craig McKenzie for a few km´s kept me motivated, Craig pulled away from me and I dug deep to get a good result. I ran myself into 3rd place with Prowsie 12 seconds behind me finishing 4th.

Running down the finishing line I was lapping it up and it was awesome to have competed in such a good race with such a strong field and especially finishing with Prowsie after all the hard work we have been doing over the couple of months.
Gold Coast Top Ten

1. Chris Mccormack 3:53:05
2. Craig Mckenzie 4:00:27
3. Tim Berkel 4:03:25
4. Tim Prowse 4:03:37
5. Gareth Halverson 4:07:07
6. Peter Schokman 4:07:49
7. Clayton Fettell 4:07:52
8. Charlie Low 4:09:52
9. Klayten Smith 4:10:03
10. Stephen Hemy 4:11:03