Tim Berkel

Having come out of the Port Macquarie Half a little disappointed with my race, I was excited to return to Shepparton, where I raced my first Half Ironman, and I was far more relaxed (I have to say), than two weeks previous at Port Mac. The calm nerves seemed to be a good omen because I had such an enjoyable race and was relieved and stoked to have some good form and an awesome result !

The swim around Kialla Lakes gave me a good start and by the second buoy I found I was in the lead, and from there I led the swim out of the water with about 12 seconds on the group with a time of 24:49, a great feat for me as swimming is usually my weaker leg.

I got onto the bike where I was quickly joined by fellow Port Mac training mate, Adam Holborow and we had a nice little lead on the chase group. I was feeling awesome on the bike, considering the rain and wind, and ended up averaging over 40km/hr. With about 10 km to go, I was feeling good and got a gap on Adam, entering transition with 1:20 on him and 6 mins on the chase group, with a fastest ride of the day, a time of 2:14.

I got onto the run feeling pretty good and was able to maintain a solid pace throughout, and came across the line, lapping up my first win and PB of 3:58:36, with the legend Pete Murray once again calling me in as Commentator. In all it was an awesome race for me, I really enjoyed it and was happy with the form I had on the day.

A big thanks to all the support from my mates on the day and a congratulations to some notable efforts: Adam Holborow and John Cornish who were doing an awesome job on the ride before they flatted, a bit of bad luck guys.

1. TIM BERKEL 3:58:36
2. Matt White 4:03:48
3. Troy Drinigan 4:05:14
4. Adam Holborow 4:08:45
5. Klayten Smith 4:14:39

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 !