Nepean Triathlon 2005

Second year I’ve competed in this wonderful triathlon. A great flat and fast course, well organised with heaps of freebies and spot prizes after the race.

Caught up with Plu, Lonewolf ,Podrunner, Boof and Steve Lennox before the start.

Dusted off the wetsuit for the swim, it had been almost a year since I last used it.
Felt good in the water, the added buoyancy no doubt helping. Felt like I had a good swim but when I hit my stopwatch on 17:42 as I exited the water, I was rapt! A further 200mtrs or so to the timing mat would give me 18:27 total split.

Bike transition went very well, wettie came off easily and I was out on the bike in a flash. I really enjoy this bike course, a quick lap of the lake and then out onto the traffic free roads, down on the aeros and hammer it. Two laps of 15km, the roads themselves aren’t very wide but this year I seemed to find more space. Passed quite a few riders and a few flew by me too. I saw Plu not long after we exited the Regatta centre just before the first turnaround. The turnaround on Castlereagh Rd seemed to be further up the road this year and so it proved as many reported the bike leg to be long, at around 33km. My odometer gave me 33.35km.
Got through the bike in good nick, feeling like I had a faster bike than last year.

Coming into T2, remembered where my gear was (unlike last year), racked the bike, slipped on my shoes and CR cap and bolted out of there. Shit, should of done some more brick sessions, in fact I think I only managed one this year in training. Running with “trampoline” legs was fun, so for the first 2-3km felt like I was running with someone else’s legs, with my hips burning from the hammering I gave them on the bike.
Started passing a few runners on the first lap of the lake, which surprised me as I didn’t feel like I was moving all that fast. Caught Plu at about 1.5km and another Coolrunner a few hundred meters ahead.
Got through the first lap (5km) ok, grabbed a scrunchie and decided to up the pace for the second lap. Shame my legs didn’t want to participate. Highway man came screaming past with about 1.5km to go, finishing very strongly.
Managed to get it together for the final few km hitting the finish line in 2:02:51.
Given the bike was long this puts me about 3-4minutes ahead of last years 1:59:10.

Swim was a good minute faster than last year and the bike was faster too, averaging 33km/hr. My run was a few seconds slower but all up I’m very pleased with this years race.

Hung around afterwards with Lonewolf and Highwayman, trying to win a lucky draw prize, but ended up going home with nothing. They give away an incredible amount of stuff at this race; from swim goggles/ powerbar packs to the big one a brand new Felt bike! Some of the Age group winners did some incredible times.

A good mental and physical diversion from the monotony that running only can be.
I’ll try to keep up this cross training in an effort to ward off any potential injury.

Splits (including transition) were:

Swim: 18:27
Bike: 1:00:26
Run: 43:57
Total: 2:02:51