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I had heard a rumour that this race was going to be in the pipeline some years ago, so when I heard it was on I was keen to be one of the ‘pioneer athletes’.
Coming off the bike
The concept worked on me (pretty well). A down river 1500m swim – sweet, easy to swim but possibly technical. A long 33km MTB ride mostly on the technical Craters of the Moon track – my skills aren’t great and I didn’t know the course but I have been riding single track ok of late. The final leg, a 11km trail run – I know this course very well and knew it was going be a very testing leg. All up a great combination of events, which would have been made even better if the sun was shining. But no, as was the theme at Ironman, this was another solid wet day.
Setting up in transition was pitch black and raining. All good, I was the 1st bike there so got the pick of the transition spots. We drove to Cherry Island which is where the race started and I suited up. Doing my swim warm-up was great, just point up-stream and swim into the flow, like an endless pool.
I had done a bit of homework the day before and had a good look at the flow in the river and the activity of the water in the first few hundred metres. My river reading skills from paddling came in handy here, I could see there was a definite eddy flow tight on the 1st bend and then it cut back across the other side of the river quite soon after, so this was sorted. I also knew there was an island half way down and that the right hand side was the best line to take.
The swim start was great. I was right into a good position next to Scott Thorne and thought that I would just stay there for the remainder. I was having trouble sighting as it was still dark and my eye-sight isn’t flash, and this became evident when I couldn’t see the island properly – shit, I was heading down the left branch, and it was too late to change my direction. I just had to go with it. The flow there was very boily and shifty, and I was getting washed around a bit. My mate Dave Allaway was following me and he ended up coming my way too. I swam really hard to get back to the main flow, and managed to slip into a long line of swimmers, gutted that I had just made such an easy mistake. I exited the water in 15:53! And that was still 90 seconds down on Scott – GUTTED! And to make things worse I kicked a rock, and partially tore my big toenail back.
Onto the bike I quickly got into a rhythm, as best as one can on MTB trails, and tried to make up some time. Thing is there was no-one in sight in front, and I could only hear the brakes of the guy behind me. My plan was to not let him catch me, and hope that I might pull some of the guys up front in as the ride went on. I found the bike course tough and technical, however Scott, Cabin and co probably found it quite straight forward. It was a lonely ride for me, the bloke behind had fallen back further and I still hadnt caught anyone. It remained this way until the last km on the bike when I caught Graham Pearson, which cheered me up as last year he wasted me in the Xterra ride. Ride time of 1:48, and my quads were beginning to protest the work I was making them do. It was nice to see Al Campbell and Kellee out there in the pouring rain cheering us on, as it wasn’t pleasant for the spectators – they should have gone to the movies.
I started the run hard as I knew Graham would probably catch me. My quads were cramping, but I kept telling myself that its only for about 50 minutes and just put up with the pain. I was surprised Graham wasn’t catching me, and apart from my legs the rest of me felt pretty good, so I kept the intensity up and kept digging in. The last 2km was a brutal tight track with some stairs, and I was certain I would get caught there, I even had to have a bit of a walk.
By the end of it I was well spent, 3 weeks after Ironman I guess I should expect. But I really enjoyed this race, and I will certainly be back next year to tackle it again. Well done to Scott, Cabin and Tim Wilding for dominating it, those guys can do some amazing things on mountain bikes. Wayne Reardon puts on good events, and it will be good to see this race get supported more next year.
