Tim Berkel

It’s been a busy week, traveling back from New Hampshire on Monday, then only having a few days to get myself situated back in Boulder, before having to head out to today’s race in Boise Idaho. Today’s race was one of the toughest I’ve faced in a long time, and it doesn’t help that I’ve only had five days of rest since my fourth-place finish at Mooseman 70.3 in New Hampshire.

Racing on a Saturday is always unusual, because they tend to have afternoon starts, so this race didn’t take off until 2 PM. Several of the guys that raced in New Hampshire, were at this race, as well as some of the biggest names in the sport like Craig Alexander, and Chris Lieto.

The swim was in a reservoir, and they told us at the pre-race briefing that the water temperature was 11°C. Since it was an afternoon start, the weather had already started to heat up before the swim, so it felt good when I first jumped in. But that quickly turned to numbness, and I could not feel my toes. Nevertheless, I went through my normal routine to warm up for the swim, and then all of us pros went through our normal routine, of jockeying for position while the starter is trying to hold us on the line.

There were no major dramas in the early portion of the swim, but then about three quarters of the way through the swim, I dropped the feet of the guy in front of me, so I lost a little bit of time coming out of the water. I came out of the water in 8th place, but I was with seven other guys, which included Tim Reed, and some of the best cyclist in the field, such as Matt Lieto, and Ben Hoffman.  Matt’s brother Chris was out of the water about a minute ahead of me (and my roomy Matty White was with him).

As cold as I was in the water, it didn’t take me too long to warm up once I got on the bike.  This race has two different transition areas, and the swim is up at the reservoir, and the cycle course is rolling hills which descend down to the town of Boise. The afternoon heat, and winds, were incredible and I quickly forgot about the cold water swim. It was a beautiful, scenic course, which had some tight spots which made it difficult to manoeuvre around the other athletes.

At one stage we passed Matty White who had punctured out on the side of the road. Not long after we passed him, he must of gotten the repair from the spares vehicle, and he flew by us to make up some of the ground he had lost. Both Ben Hoffman, and Matt Lieto had put several minutes into me throughout the bike, so I knew that I was going to have to push hard to regain a decent finish. I came off the bike with a few others, and I got the jump on them out of the transition area, but Tim Reed gave it a big surge, and I was unable to keep up with his pace. The heat and the wind had taken its toll on me, and I was almost ready to pull the pin on the race, but then I decided to see if I could run through the pain, and see if it passed.

Not long after that, I started to come good, so I picked up the pace to see if I could get back up to Tim Reed.  I was off the bike in ninth place, but when Tim surged ahead, I was running in 10th place. As I started to close in on Tim, I went by Kevin Everett, who had been reduced to a walk. Also some of the friendly Boise spectators informed me that Chris Lieto was out of the race. My strength really came back and I was able to overtake Tim Reed, and not long after that I passed Bryan Rhodes.

I could see Jamie Whyte ahead of me, and I knew that if I could overtake him I would be in fifth (which is where the prize money starts…). But as I got close to Jamie I realised that he was running along with Matt Lieto, so I was doubly blessed when I overtook those two guys to move into fourth. By then my spirits had totally lifted, and I felt I had a good rhythm in my stride. With less than 2 km left in the run, I could see Matty White in my sites, and he was struggling. I overtook him with about 1 1/2 km to go, and I had run my way into third position.

Aussie pro Tim Berkel got himself onto the podium with a sharp run - first off the bike

Craig Alexander and Ben Hoffman had built up a commanding lead throughout the race, and in very difficult conditions. I think the entire field of professionals had to dig deep, and I’m glad I stuck with it to finish on the podium.

I am looking forward to a few more 70.3 races in North America, before I venture off to Copenhagen to race in the Challenge (Ironman distance event) in August. I’ll keep you posted with my next few races.

Cheers,

Tim

Well, I just wanted to check in before heading out to my first race, since I’ve settled into my new home in Boulder Colorado. I have been over here for nearly a month, and I’m feeling really comfortable with my training right now.
I was really itching to get out of Port Macquarie last month, because I felt the colder weather was really hampering my training, and I wanted to get over to the North American summer… ha ha. I arrived in Boulder Colorado, and it snowed my first night here. In fact for the first few weeks of training, there was typically piles of snow packed along the sides of the road. Fortunately for me, I brought over some of my Scody winter training gear, so I was rugged-up pretty well.
Matty White, is my new roommate for the next six months, and he had already arrived in our apartment a week before I showed up. It’s been a blast living full time with another professional triathlete, and we have been smashing out the K’s on the bike. Port Macquarie’s young cycling legend, Lachlan Morton, is also living in Boulder and racing with Team Garmin’s development team, and he has been doing a lot of training with us. We also have another Australian Pro, Tim Reed, who is not living with us, but he’s out there doing a lot of the same training with us.

It’s great to have a bunch of like-minded guys to train with, and the fact that they’re all Aussies is just a bonus. Ha ha.
I feel that I’m back into some good fitness, and I’ve adjusted from the travel over here, so I’m excited to head over to New Hampshire, which is on the northeast of the United States, a few hour drive from Boston Massachusetts. The race is called the Mooseman 70.3, and this is the first year that they’ve held this race. I’m looking forward to traveling over there with Matty White (a.k.a. Fatty Black) and I think we are both going to go really well considering our fitness, and training. Make sure to tune into Ironmanlive at the Ironman.com website for race updates. These should be coming in late Sunday evening (Australian Eastern Time).
Cheers for now,
Tim

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

Well, it has been awhile since my last update… my race calendar has not been as intense as it was last season, but that is due to my squeezing in a few full Ironman distance events throughout the year.

My win at Ironman Western Australia last December, has had a lot more impact on my career than I had originally anticipated. Previously, I used to do rummage through the industry magazines, to see if there was any mention of my name, or to see if I showed up in any of the photos… Well, the last several months have been an eye-opening experience in terms of the media exposure that I’ve received since December.

Even in the lead up to Country Energy Ironman Australia Triathlon, I was invited to be one of the four professional triathletes to speak at the VIP Breakfast Function on Friday morning. The other three athletes however, were all past or current Hawaiian Ironman Champions, in Chrissie Wellington, Michellie Jones, and Tim DeBoom. I was honored to be invited, and to be listed with some of the legends in this sport.

Other than that, I had a few other media responsibilities, but tried my best to keep a low profile before the race. That can be a bit difficult when you’re racing in your hometown… even just stepping out for a coffee, took longer than expected with all the locals wishing me good luck for the race.

For any of you that have read some of the reports from this race, you will know that our weather was not ideal in the lead up to the race. Fortunately for me, I knew the course, and I was meant to taper anyway, but we had rain on and off throughout the week. This must’ve been frustrating for a lot of the visiting athletes, that were hoping to get familiar with the course during that time.

I felt well-rested on race morning, and other then having to slog through ankle deep mud on my way to the swim start, I was feeling quite good about the day. For the first time, Ironman Australia allowed the pros to start 35 minutes before the age groupers. I don’t think this had much impact on the men’s field, but I think the women’s race was a bit more honest.

In the swim, I anticipated that the usual group (Pete Jacobs, Cam Watt, Mathias Hecht) would pull away early, and I figured that Tim Deboom would be with them, since he has a strong swimming background. I stayed with the second group, and we made a few errors in navigating the course, so we ended up coming out of the water about three minutes back from the leaders.

Once out on the bike, I settled into a good rhythm. I was feeling strong, but I wasn’t interested and trying to catch the lead swimmers too early. I knew there was some good runners with DeBoom and Jacobs up the road from me, but I had 180 km to ease my way back to the leaders. And with a three-lap bike leg, you get to see the time gaps at each end of the course.

About halfway through the ride, I saw Cam Watt breakaway from the rest of the group, and he was having a crack at it. So before this race gets out of hand, I picked up the pace to bring myself back into the lead group, and then I would look into how far ahead Cam would be at that stage.

Just after the start of our third lap, I caught what was left of the leaders, and I could tell from the turnaround that Cam was another two minutes ahead of us. I made the decision not to do anything stupid, like trying to bridge the gap up to Cam, because I felt that the race was going to be coming down to the run, and I was now riding in the vicinity of Vernay, DeBoom, Hecht, Jacobs, as well as Simon Thompson (who is an unknown over this distance, but still a major concern…).

Fellow Port Macquarian professional triathlete Adam Holborrow came around me, and he was flying. He was powering along, and I felt that the pace may be a little too high, considering it was our final lap, and we still had the 42 km marathon ahead of us. I looked over my shoulder, to see how the others were handling this pace, and I could see that Adam and I had dropped the rest of the field and they were about 30 seconds back. I knew that Adam was focused on catching Cam, but I didn’t think that was the best move for my race, so I eased back and let him pursue to Cam on his own.

I gave my legs a little rest while I cruised along, and waited for the other is to join me. I maintained a decent pace throughout the rest of the lap, but every time I turned around I could see the strong runners still hanging off the back.

When we were about a kilometer from the transition area, I could hear the race announcer calling in Adam Holborrow, so he would’ve had a minute and a half on us going into the run. My buddy Nathan Stewart got off the bike just ahead of me, so we both entered the tent together. I made quick work of my transition, and I was the first to exit the change tent, and as soon as I came out, I saw Adam standing (well actually he was hunched over massaging his leg, and I knew he had cramped up) just outside the tent. I think he tried to run out with me down the chute, but it must’ve taken him a while to find his run legs.

I knew I still had Cam up the road from me, so I just try to find a good rhythm, and a comfortable pace. Within the first kilometer, I was joined by New Caledonian, Patrick Vernay, and I settled in to a four minute kilometer pace. Patrick was speaking to me, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He has a strong French accent, so I’m not sure if he was speaking to me in French, but either way, I didn’t know what he was saying.

We ran shoulder to shoulder for the first lap, and I could feel him put in a few surges, but nothing that was too difficult to match. After we’d come through for the start of our second lap, he started to pick up the pace, and my Garmin Forerunner displayed that we were doing 3:40/Km’s. I knew this was too fast, but I didn’t want to let him go, so I ran with him for another 3-4 km’s, but by the time we got to the turnaround at Settlement Point, I decided to let him go.

However, I think the elevated pace had taken its toll on me, and I quickly backed off to doing 4:10/Km’s, and even that felt tough. As I approached the halfway of the marathon, I felt I was in a bad patch, and I was just hoping I could get through it as quickly as possible. I could see at the turnaround that Pete Jacobs and Jimmy Johnson were not too far behind, and they look to be running well. The crowd support was incredible, but it wasn’t enough to lift me from the patch I was going through. On the second half of my second lap, I felt Jacobs coming up on me, and rather than try to run with him, I decided to run my own race. He seemed to be focused on catching Patrick, but with 15 km to go, I felt that it was not the right move to try to surge again with Jacobs. Also I was hoping, that if I kept a steady pace, I would be able to catch a tiring Vernay and Jacobs in the final stretch of the race.

But I have to hand it to Patrick and Pete, because on the day they had the stuff, and Patrick walked away with his third consecutive Ironman Australia victory, with Pete taking out second. I finished third, another two minutes and 40 seconds back from Jacobs, but I was really happy with the way I raced. I could have easily sat back on the bike, and let the others set the pace, but I was out there having a go, and I took it to Patrick for the first half of the run, and he is one of the best in the sport.

I have to acknowledge the support I got from “ Team Berkel ‘09” which was the mastermind of my mate, Benjamin “Woodsy” Woods. Woodsy took charge of the project, which involved contacting many of my sponsors to support a fund-raising activity for another mate of mine, Brad Foster.

Woodsy got the support from my clothing sponsor, Scody, to supply 100 singlets, which he sold through a support group on Facebook, to friends and acquaintances that were coming to spectate on the day. Also, Cannondale donated some clothing, gloves, socks, and other items, which were sold and auctioned on the day, to the supporters. And lastly, PowerBar came through with those inflatable noisemakers, which were a huge hit amongst the athletes.

“Team Berkel” set up camp at the top of Windmill Hill, so they were able to see us on each lap of the bike, and each lap of the run. I know these guys were supporting all the competitors, including the other pros racing against me, but it was always the highlight of every lap for me to come up over that hill, and listened to the alcohol-induced crowd go crazy.

I think every athlete will go home with some fond memories of these “fool’s on the Hill”, but the best part is that we were able to raise over $4000 for my mate Brad Foster, who was attempting to raise $140,600 for the K.I.D.S Foundation. He didn’t reach his goal, but we were glad to be part of it, and he’s coming back next year to do it again, and reach his fund raising objective. And I’m sure we will be back to do our part…

My next race will be the Busselton Half Ironman on May 2. I haven’t done a lot of short course training yet, but it will be good to get back into doing some shorter sessions in preparation for some races I’m doing in North America. I’ll keep you posted as the season unfolds.

1 Patrick VERNAY 8:24:53
2 Pete JACOBS 8:29:03
3 Tim BERKEL 8:31:43
4 Jimmy JOHNSEN 8:33:43
5 Maik TWELSIEK 8:34:10
6 Timothy DEBOOM 8:39:47
7 Simon THOMPSON 8:42:21
9 Matt WHITE 8:50:59
10 Chris DMITRIEFF 8:53:06

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