Tim Berkel

Well I’m about to head off to the US for six months, so I wanted to get this report out before I take off. Last weekend I raced the Busselton Half Ironman. I flew out of Port Macquarie on Thursday morning, and met up with my training partner, and mate, Mitch Robbins in Sydney, Then we both flew across to Perth.

This was going to be my first race after Ironman Australia, so I wasn’t putting a lot of expectations on myself. I was mainly using this race as an indicator to see how well my body has recovered, and how my post ironman training has been going. I’ve been pretty exhausted lately, but I’ve been doing the training. I knew there were going to be some good athletes at this race, like Luke McKenzie, Courtney Ogden, Tim Reed, and my mate Mitch, who has been killing me and training.

When we arrived in Busselton, we were looked after really well by Brian, and Hayley. Even though this was only a Half Ironman event, it had the feel of a full Ironman. They had a press conference that they invited me to, which was held at The Goose. Mitch Anderson wasn’t racing, but he was on hand to be the MC at the press conference. It was good fun, and we were stirring each other.

On race morning I was feeling pretty good, and I felt comfortable in the water during my warm-up swim. As expected, Luke McKenzie, and Paul Matthews edged away from us, early in the swim, but they didn’t make as much ground as I thought they would. Once we settled into a rhythm, I was sitting on the feet of Mitch Robbins, and when we came up on the beach, I noticed we had Courtney, and Guy Crawford with us.

I’m not sure what happened to Courtney, but once we got out on the bike, he wasn’t with us.The course was similar to the full Ironman course that they use, with just one section of it missing. So in the two lap bike leg, we were able to see how our time gap was to Luke, and Paul. Luke was flying, and I could see he was pulling away from us. Paul looked like he was about two minutes behind Luke, but we were slowly gaining on him. Just over halfway through the bike leg, Courtney finally caught up to me. Not only did he catch the group that I was riding with, but he flew around the outside, and set a good pace.

Ten minutes after Courtney caught up to me, we came upon Paul Matthews, so there was only Luke up the road, but I was guessing that his lead was over five minutes. With less than 10 km remaining on the bike, Mitch got pinged for drafting by the technical official that had been watching us the entire day. I could sense he was frustrated, and knowing that he had to serve a time penalty, he took off pretty hard, and nobody tried to stay with him.

When we arrived back into T2, I heard somebody say that Luke had over five minutes on us, so we all pretty much came out of the transition together to start the run. Paul, Guy Crawford, and Tim Reed were all with me, and Tim seemed to be matching me stride for stride. For the first quarter of the run we were all together, but then Tim and I dropped Paul and Guy as we are returning back from our first lap.

I tried to take a few surges to drop Tim, but nothing was working. He tried to surge ahead a few times as well, but we were pretty evenly matched on the day. As we got into the closing portion of the run, we knew that Luke had the race won, and it was going to be a battle between Tim and me for second place. In the final kilometer, we were both jockeying for position, to try to get the inside track coming into the finish chute. In retrospect, it was quite funny the way we were shifting across the course, to get a better line on the finish. But Tim was more stubborn than me, and he held that inside position. As soon as we turned into the straight section of the finish chute, he put a big surge on, for a moment I considered challenging him, but my legs were dead. He took second place, and I came in 2 seconds behind him for third. I clocked the fastest run of the day, so I was stoked to get the extra prime to add to the prize money.

All in all, I was happy with my race, and I was happy to see my form considering how rundown I have felt over the past three weeks. Next week will occupy my time traveling, and getting situated in Boulder Colorado. Then I’ll still have another 2 1/2 weeks before my first North American 70.3 event. I’ll keep you posted, and check my website for any updates.

Yesterday was the Urban Hotel Group Ironman Australia here in Port Macquarie. For those of you who were not following the lead up to this race, there were a few of the top competitors that withdrew over the last few weeks. The race lost Leon Griffin, Mitch Anderson, and Pete Jacobs (who was last year’s second-place finisher).

While losing some of these top competitors, there was still Patrick Vernay, Scott Neyedli, Olivier Marceau, and Jason Shortis as well as a few others that could upset the mix. I didn’t have the best preparation, as I came down with The Flu about 3 1/2 weeks out from the race. I got myself on some antibiotics, which was great for the Flu, however, it zapped all my energy, and effected my guts in a bad way, but won’t go into those details…

It was frustrating to not have the energy to do the big blocks of training that I needed for the race, but I needed to let the antibiotics take their course. Once I felt that I was over the infection, I got out of town, and headed up to Alstonville to do some training with the boys up there. I stayed at Clayton Fettell’s place, and we got some really good training in. I really like training up in that area, because we are able to push each other in our training sessions, and the roads are better, with a lot less traffic.

I stayed away from town until Monday, which only had me dealing with the media frenzy for four or five days, which was a good thing. After coming in third at Ironman Australia last year, and considering that last year’s second-place finisher, Pete Jacobs, had withdrawn due to a broken collarbone, there was a lot of local media that were making this a showdown between Patrick and me.

Patrick is strong, and he has the experience, but I knew there was a lot of other guys in this field that were capable of winning this race over Patrick or me. I had several media commitments throughout the week, and all of the questions were geared towards how I would race against Patrick, or how I would go compared to last year…

I tried not to get too caught up in the focus on Patrick, and tried to focus on keeping my head clear, so I could race the race, as it unfolded.

The Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, was doing his first Ironman event, and that took almost all of the media attention away from us professionals. I’ve never seen so many cameras, or reporters covering an event, and fortunately for us, they weren’t in our face while we were preparing ourselves for the race.

The race start was going to be slightly different from last year, so the race organisers were going with a mass start.  Also, in the pre-race briefing, we were told there would be a Canon firing to signify the start of the race.  However, once they had positioned us to form a floating start line, we all began to drift forword, not wanting anyone to have any advantage over the rest of us. We were all jockeying for positions, when someone on the shoreline sounded one of those “air horns”. I saw a few guys make the jump, and suddenly there was thrashing water all around me. I started swimming with the rest of them, but could faintly hear the announcer on the sideline, trying to stop us and call us back to the start line. I could see that no one around me was willing to stop, so I wasn’t going to be the only idiot to swim back. After about another 5 to 10 seconds, they decided to ignore our false start, and the cannon went off. It was a bit unnerving to have a start like that, but I was trying to find a quick rhythm.

Several of the faster age groupers made it quickly up to the lead pack of professionals, and I could see on the one side of me a few swim around the outside to move ahead of me.  we were moving along at a pretty good pace, and as we came around to start our second, I slowly started drifting back out of the draft zone coming off the swimmer in front of me. I tried to get back up to him, but eventually gave up, and swam the second lap on my own, with about seven or eight guys off my feet.  A little frustrated,  I led the second group out of the water, and made a quick transition to get to my bike. I needed to find out who the guys were that were out ahead of me, and I would only know that once I got the Pro bike racks.  Unfortunately for me, that group included Vernay, Olivier, Paul Ambrose, and Scott Neyedli. I led the second group out of the water, but we were already one minute 30 seconds down from the first pack.

Once I got out on the bike, I try to settle in to a good rhythm, and most of the groups that came through the transition area with me were all hanging off the back. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to see what the time gap was, until I reached the turnaround at the southern end of the course. I felt we were holding a pretty good pace throughout the southbound leg, but when we pass the leaders on the Ghost Road, I knew they were putting some more time into us.

When I saw the pack was being driven by Olivier Marceau, I was concerned because I know how good of a cyclist he can be. I tried to get the pace increased, but some of the other guys I was riding with didn’t seem to have the legs on the day. So it was frustrating to see the leaders continue to pull away from us at each of the turnaround points.

By the time we reached T2, I think that group had 6 1/2 minutes on us. I had a quick transition, and set out on a pace to run them down. Just after I finished my first lap, I was able to overtake Olivier Marceau. Then halfway through my second lap I overtook Paul Ambrose. And on the latter part of that second lap, I was able to catch Adrian Cominotto along the break wall, but I also was starting to feel the effects of the pace that I had been holding.

Very quickly, I had a feeling of sluggishness come over me, and as it passed through the carpark at Town Beach, I was dreading the hills that were ahead of me. Just as I was hitting the first big climb up Windmill Hill, I had Matty White overtake me. Up until that point, he had pretty much been holding pace with me, but running about 150 m behind me. So I felt a bit demoralized as I realized that the sluggishness I was feeling in my head, had passed on to my legs, because Matty flew by me, and I soon walked part of the way up the hill.

I got some inspiration from the Team Berkel supporters that were camped out at the top of Windmill Hill, so I was able to get into a decent rhythm again coming back in through town and all the way out to Settlement Point. I was feeling quite crook as I was approaching that turnaround point, and I ended up throwing up In a Portaloo (Toilet). It must have been while I was sitting on that fiberglass thrown, that Paul Ambrose overtook me again. But with my body back on track I was able to finish my third lap, but unfortunately I was not able to make up ground on any of the leaders ahead of me, so I ended up finishing seventh on the day.

Not one of my better outings, and I’m still a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to stay with the lead swimmers back in the earlier stages of the race. But it’s all a good reminder to me that I need to stay focused at all times. I would have loved for this to come down to a running race with Patrick, Scott, Courtney, Matty and me. It would have been interesting…

But it’s no longer time to dwell on the past, and put all my focus and training into racing the Half Ironman in Busselton in early May. After that race I will be heading to the USA for six months of racing in the northern hemisphere. Looking forward to that, but I will keep you all posted on my website, and twitter.

Cheers for now,

Tim

After what was a long week leading up to the race, Sunday the 6th of April finally rolled around, and despite the ominous weather I was geared up and ready to race. The rain cleared just as the cannon marked the start of the swim, and I managed to pull out an okay first leg, coming out of the water 7th in 51.30.

I jumped on my new Cannondale Slice, and what a difference a light carbon frame makes over the rolling hills.  I rode the first 25 km solo before getting caught by Mitch Anderson, Nathan Stuart, Matt White, along with training partner and fellow Port Macquarie Triathlete, Adam Holborrow. We then picked up Luke Bell on the 2nd lap.

The bike went well, although the rain returned this time accompanied by a strong southerly, and I was focusing on keeping up my nutrition, which let me down last year.  I was stocked with Powerbar Gels and Bars and kept up with the fluids so that I would not be depleted to start my Marathon.

By the last lap there were three of us left.  Nathan Stewart, Matt White & myself were still riding together, but Luke and Adam had dropped back, and in a show of power, Mitch rode off the front of us, and I felt it was wiser to hold back rather than wasting my legs, just to keep up with Mitch. I came off the bike in 6th in a time of 4:56 feeling really good for the marathon, and having a newfound confidence in this last leg after considerable work on my marathon over the last few months.
I whacked on my Newtons, which are like running on a cloud.  I’ve been using the Newtons for several months now, and I can really feel an improvement in my running, and my legs feel much fresher during long training runs.  My transition went quick and even though we all entered T2 together, I ran out with about a 200 metre lead over the other two boys, which were never really a threat after that.

Starting the run I was over 13 minutes behind the race leader Luke McKenzie, and Switzerland’s Mathias Hecht was 12:35 ahead, with Mitch Anderson in third (and still 10:46 ahead).  My closest competitor was Patrick Vernay, who was only 7:42 ahead, but I knew he was strong in the run.

I had a great run and my legs were feeling great.  The local support along the way, which was just amazing and I was getting splits along the way. On a three-lap course I could see myself getting closer to the leaders, but Vernay was also plowing through the field so my targets kept changing.  I was adding space to the guys behind me, and I could see McKenzie and Hecht coming into my sights.  I moved into 4th with 3km to go, picking up Mackenzie, however with about 2km (and Hecht within striking distance), I blew up.

I felt like I was walking and even stopped at the special needs station to get a can of Red Bull I had stashed for an emergency.  I was only about 400 metres from the finish line, but I skulled half the can, and was able to make it home in 4th with a 2:55:49 marathon, the second fastest run of the day behind Vernay, who ran 2:50:44.  In fact it was only Vernay and me that posted a sub 3-hour marathon, so I am proud of that accomplishment.

Coming down the finish shoot, I was totally over the moon to come 4th in my hometown, shaving 13mins off last year’s 7th place with an overall time of 8:44.

I decided to go back to Busso this year, it´s a beautiful place and it was great to go there again.
The field was pretty tough with 26 pro´s racing and I had my work cut out for me!
Race day began at 8:30am so we were all awake early. Before the race began we all stood up for the national anthem and away we went.
The swim leg was pretty tough for me, I hit the beach in 15th position, my swim time was 28:03. The bike leg began with Pete Jacobs in front; he ended up winning the race. I had a good bike leg and came off the bike in 12th position, riding a PB with 2:18 Got off the bike felling pretty strong knowing that I could make up a few spots in the run. I had the fastest run of the day with 1:18:31, very happy with that leg and ran my way into 7th overall. I am stoaked with my position considering the field. My overall time was 4:04:51 (a PB!)
The top eleven positions were as follows:

1. Pete Jacobs 3:54:36
2. Mitch Anderson 3:56:13
3. Tom Jepsan 3:56:53
4. Paul Ambrose 4:02:34
5. Steven Bishop 4:02:47
6. Boyd Conrick 4:03:36
7. Tim Berkel 4:04:51
8. Tully Lyster 4:05:29
9. Adam Conquest 4:07:29
10. Sean O´Neall 4:08:10

Overall The trip to Bussleton was excellent, had a ball on Saturday night at the meltdown party with the boys, special thanks to Macca who came all the way from Albury to watch and give support. Thanks mate! Also want to thanks Rouley for the laughs, and my sponsors.