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.

Well it’s February 7th, and I’ve just finished my second race of the year. Two third-place finishes to start off 2010, but there was a top field today so I’m really happy with my result.

I decided to travel on Saturday, for a Sunday race, so I didn’t have many distractions with any of the media commitments. I arrived in Geelong in the early afternoon, so I quickly needed to put the bike together, register, and get my bike into the compound, as soon as I arrived. After I finished all of the necessities, I went and had an early dinner with my mate Clayton Fettell. It’s always good to kick back with him, so I was pretty relaxed leading into the race.

As I said earlier, it was a top field, and they gave me number “2″, and I felt pretty honoured to be given a number so low. I had two time World Champion Craig Alexander (number “1″), on my left, and former World Duathlon Champion Leon Griffin on my right. I was also racing with Triathlon Legend Jason Shortis, as well as Olympian Bronze medalist Jan Rehula. I was also racing against my mates Matty White, and Adam Holborow as well as a host of other Australian pros.

I wished I could’ve done this race last year, however my training wasn’t up to scratch at the same time last season. The race has really good atmosphere, and there were nearly perfect conditions when we started the swim. I expected Clayton and Michael Murphy to go out hard in the swim, so my focus was to just stay with Crowie and Griff. When the gun fired, Clayton took off, and Murphy was trying to hold onto his feet, but that didn’t last long. I would guess that we were only 200 m from the shore, and Clayton was already away on his own. I was swimming well and in the group that I wanted to be with, but when we turned at the first can, we got hit with a lot of chop, and it was difficult to see. I could tell that I was swimming side-by-side with Leon Griffen, but I couldn’t tell who the others were. By the time we turned toward shore, I had fallen back a bit, so I was about 15 seconds behind the group that had all the main contenders in it. I wasn’t concerned, and I had a good transition as we led out on the three-lap bike course.

I was able to catch up to the main group within the first 2 km, so I tried to make it up to the front of that group (which now had about nine guys) just in case anybody was going to make an attack. By the time we reached the turnaround, I could tell that it was only Clayton out in front, and he was looking really strong. As we were coming back into town at the end of our first lap, Matty White seemed to surge ahead a little bit, so I went with him thinking that everybody else was with me. As we made a few of the turns going into town, I saw that we had already created a gap of 20 seconds or so, so we tried to make the commitment to pull away from that group. Unfortunately, the group rallied together and hooked back onto us a few kilometers later.

Somewhere along the second lap, we were joined by the second group, which included Jason Shortis, Adam Holborow, and a few others. So other than Clayton who is out in front and appeared to be pulling away from us, we seem to have the entire men’s pro field stretched out in one long group. Throughout the rest of the three lap bike course, a few others tried to surge ahead, and the only one that looked like it was going to last was when Jan Rahula made a move in the third lap, but that also was in vain, because we caught him before we made it back to the transition area.

I was about the fourth one into T2, but we were all within seconds of each other. I normally have a quick transition, but I decided to put on socks, whereas Crowie and a few others chose not to, so I was about eighth place going out onto the run course. I couldn’t seem to find my run legs straight away, and I could see that a lot of the other guys were going flat out from the beginning. I learned my lesson and Busselton, so I decided to run my own race, and ease into the faster pace when my legs were ready. This paid off for me, and as soon as I was feeling stronger, I started to run down some of those that had shot out of the transition area. I first picked off Rahula, then a few of the other guys. Crowie took the lead from Clayton in the second lap, and Leon was next to overtake him. By the time I made it up to Clayton, he was running side-by-side with Peter Schokman, which represented third and fourth position.

It was early in the third lap, and I was feeling pretty good, so I just eased ahead and even though they tried to stay with me, I think the heat had taken its toll on Peter, and I think Clayton was feeling the effects from smashing it in the swim and bike. I could see at some of the turning points, that Crowie and Leon were uncatchable due to their lead, and the blistering pace they were setting. I was pretty confident that Peter and Clayton weren’t going to get a second wind, so I cruised home to take third. I was really happy with my result considering the quality of field that this race attracted. This race really came down to the run, and even though Crowie had taken a whirlwind trip to the US the weekend prior, he was still able to back it up with a 1:11:57 half marathon. Likewise, Leon ran a 1:13:21, and I clocked a 1:14:51 half marathon. So the three fastest runs of the day represented the top three positions of the race.

So now I’m back to Port Macquarie to continue my training for Ironman Australia, as well as doing the Australian Long Course Championship in Huskisson, NSW in two weeks. I’ll keep you posted with my results.

Well this is my first trip across the Tasman to race, but it’s also my first time here as a visitor.  New Zealand is awesome, and in just the three-hour ride from Auckland took me through some beautiful country.  I arrived a few days early, so I was able to do some light training on the bike and run courses, and I had a swim in the bay as well.  The water was crisp, to put it nicely.

The few days before the race, was blue sky and warm.  But the day before the race, the cool weather set in and it was overcast and drizzling.  They promised better weather on race day, and although the rain wasn’t there, it was cold.  While I was setting up my transition area it was blowing pretty good, then about 15 minutes before race start, they called us into the water. I entered the water for a warm-up.  Those words do not reflect the pain I experienced as parts of my body submerged below the surface.  My body went numb after a few minutes.

I was looking forward to the start, so I could get the blood flowing and hopefully some added warmth.  The swim was a small triangular first lap, then onto the beach to run around the BlueSeventy swim flag, then out around a larger triangular loop for the second lap.  I was swimming fine, but the course was choppy and pulling us in towards the beach, so you really needed to keep checking, to stay on course.  The Kiwis tend to be strong in the swim, so I guess I was happy to come out 13th in 27:45, in this field.

Once I got moving on the bike, I was trying to get some feeling back in my legs.  I was still cold and numb from the swim, so it took the first 45 kilometre lap before I was over the swim.  By that time, my 2:20 minute deficit out of the water, had grown to 6:20, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.  I was riding with a few other Kiwis, but I didn’t know any of them and they weren’t interested in sharing the pace setting, so I pretty much drove the whole way.  When I got off the bike, my gap was only 6:40, so I hadn’t added to any damage that I had created in the first half of the race, but I still had a job to do to make it on the podium…

I was in sixth place, and led the group that was riding with me into T2.  I think there were about 5 guys behind me, but I was only focussed on the 5 ahead.  I made a quick transition and hit the run before the rest of those boys.  I got some good support from the crowds, and was able to catch Jamie Whyte around the five kilometre mark.  My rhythm felt good, and I was feeling strong.

After a few more kilometres, I caught Kieran Doe as I came around the mountain on the first lap.  The last time I saw Kieron, he was hammering it on the bike, with a several minute lead over the chase pack, which included the Bowstead brothers (Mark and James), and Michael Poole.  So I wasn’t sure where he faded, but was glad to pass him none-the-less, because I saw him as my biggest threat after Cameron  Brown pulled out several days before the race.

On the second lap I was told I was 3:20 down from the leader, but I still didn’t know who that leader was, or if they were going to be “catchable”.  But I only had 10 1/2 kilometres to chase down the remaining three guys.  I chased down Mark Bowstead around the 14 kilometre mark, but chased the other two in vain because I ran out of road and finished third, 28 seconds behind James Bowstead, and 2:07 minutes behind the winner Michael Poole.  I got to hand it to those boys because they hit it hard on the bike, and held their own in the run.  I had the fastest run of the day with a 1:14:29 half marathon, so it’s consistent with my last few Half Ironman races at the end of 2009.  So all-in-all I think I’ve had a good solid start to 2010, and looking forward to the year, and coming back here in 2011.  Great event, and beautiful course.

Cheers,

Tim