The initial plan was to travel solo, so I booked myself into a room at an airbnb about 1.5km from the race site. Li-Ann and Sebastian decided to come along but we managed to squeeze ourselves on the queen size bed pretty comfortably. With the heavy evening traffic, we finally got to Pottsville just after 5pm NSW daylight savings time. One thing I love about locally run races is that there was no big fan fare at the race packet pick up. We went straight to Cabarita Beach after where the little one had a ball of a time. Just like last year, we had pizza from Cabarita bakehouse - they were really generous with the toppings. And then it was a bit of a struggle to get to bed as our body clocks were still in QLD time. It did not help that the winds were constantly howling outside and made me brace for what could be in store the next morning.
Next morning, 5.30am alarm set me off into the darkness as I rode to the race site. I had my bike lights with me but it was still almost pitch black, luckily I did not hit (or got hit by) anything. It was good to meet with fellow Logan Tri Club members at transition - the casual chats did ease off some nerves. A last minute visit to the portaloo and it was an easy 15-20 minute stroll to the swim start.
Swim 1.9km
Point-to-point swim with some tide assistance in Mooball Creek, deepwater start. I was in the second last wave to go off. There was a fair bit of contact for the first few meters until the first buoy where we turn left and went with the tide flow. From then on, we all had our own space and while I made some attempt to draft off some feet, I was on my own for most of it. Water was crystal clear and while it was pretty shallow overall, it wasn't too shallow like in the previous year where there were some instances we were forced to stand up and wade. Pretty uneventful up until the mid way point where I started overtaking the earlier waves, which gave a bit of a confidence boost. Only to be totally diminished later on when the fast swimmers from the later wave went past me as though I was lying still!
We went under the bridge before we finished the swim, this part always made my heart rate spike up a couple of beats, for fear of swimming into some concrete. I wasted a bit of time getting to shore as I definitely wasn't swimming as straight as I should. The Garmin recorded 2,137m when I hit the first timing mat, which included about 100-200m run on land. Time was 30:49 which is about what I expected, I figured that it'll be unlikely that we get same the strong tide that we did in my first year where I swam 27 minutes.
Transition 1
Didn't forget to remove my swimskin this time, yay! Wasn't too busy at the bike mount line either, so was able to get moving swiftly.
Bike 90km
Four lap course in an L shape - about 8km south, 3km west, return and repeat. Road conditions were patchy and there were some decent pot holes to look out for. I lost a water bottle one year and my tire kit in another. For no good reason other than to reduce weight and to look good, I only had ONE water bottle for this ride and it was the Elite Chrono on my seat tube, which rattles a bit in its cage on good roads let alone these ones. Thankfully it remained in tact by the end of the ride. The roads were pretty wet too from the overnight and morning shower. And it rained intermittently throughout, not heavy but enough to keep the roads wet. While it wasn't as windy as the day before, it was still pretty strong and combined with the rough roads, a lot of effort was required to bring the speed up.
Transition 2
A fair bit of grass got caught in between my rear wheel as it went through the transition area, which made it a bit difficult pushing the bike back to the racks. Once I had my run shoes on, I hastily grabbed my visor, sunglasses and number bib only to lose a few seconds as I had no idea which direction was the run exit. I'm pretty sure it changed from last year, but I guess it always pays to check for these little things pre race. Even for the experienced.
Run 21.1km
3 lap course in a shape of a crooked T. The light rain and overcast skies made this the most pleasant runs in all the years I've done this race. That is of course, in relative. There was still plenty of hurt whilst I was out on the course. Having not done any run-off-the-bike sessions since Robina tri four weeks before, I started the run with some nervousness. But my legs felt good, the carried over cadence from cycling helped with the turnover. The first km split was 4:17 and we all know that this is never the indication of the rest of the run. But surprisingly, I held under 4:20 pace up until just before the 10km mark. It didn't slow down much either and stayed under 4:30 pace for another 6km more. I could see I was gaining ground on Philippe on each turnaround, about a couple hundred meters each time, but his lead was too far to bridge.
Another reason why I love the run the most is the interaction - with the volunteers, the supporters and fellow club mates as well. Seeing other gold kits on the course was encouraging and helped me find that extra bit of energy to push a bit harder. As the temperature rose, my pace slowed down in the final 4km or so, creeping into the 4:40s for a couple of kms but I knew it was the home stretch and my practical mind convinced me it was not worth risking pushing too hard to save about a minute or so from the overall finish. I finally got to the finish with a run split of 1:33:56, the distance was spot on with an average pace of 4:28. Overall finish time was 4:42:41, a course PB by about 30 seconds and 14th in M35-39 (what a tough age group)!
The beer at the finish line was a nice touch. Though I could only stomach half of it, Li-Ann had the rest. We lingered around Pottsville Pantry cafe while Sebastian had his nap and then headed back, stopping by Coolangatta for some Messina gelato. It was a great outing for the family and a rather sentimental race for me, being my last one with the Logan Tri Club as I move to another club (yet to be known) closer to home. I will miss them for sure, but shall see them out there in future races - bring on TCE 2020!
