Tim Berkel

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in third at Ironman Australia last year, and considering that last year’s second-place finisher, Pete Jacobs, had withdrawn due to a broken collarbone, there was a lot of local media that were making this a showdown between Patrick and me.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

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.