A sigh of relief

The pressure was well and truly on for the biggest and most anticipated event of the Tasmanian triathlon calendar: the RBS Morgan Coles Bay 100.                                                                    It had certainly been on my mind a while, but suddenly between my new sponsorship, the infamous newspaper article, a television interview, and the seeded race numbers, I felt more pressure to perform than I ever had. Until this season I went into every event pretty much unnoticed and that was how I liked it! However the absence of Amelia Pearson and some others this season has shifted the focus and after I was handed the race number 101 there was no escaping the fact: I was the favourite.

I was interested to see how I would perform after an up and down couple of weeks in the lead-in. The week before race week was total chaos - I managed to squeeze in 35 hours of work, 26 hours of training(that's actual exercise time - I'd hate to think what it would be if you counted travelling, putting on 15 different outfits a day, showering, and searching the house for various helmets, shoes, socks, shorts, lights etc), a farewell party, Festivale, a 50th anniversary and an engagement party, as well as committee meetings for both Launceston Tri Club and Launceston Athletic Club.

No wonder I fell in a bit of a heap during race week. I decided to taper properly for a change given that it was a target event for me, so I had Monday and Thursday completely off. Harvey gave me a massage on Monday and I pulled up unnaturally sore and felt very flat through the short training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course this made me super nervous but I just kept thinking 'it'll be right by Saturday'. I love race week because it's a great excuse to eat junk food and justify it as "carbo-loading", but I probably went a bit overboard!

Finally race morning arrived and my stomach was in a knot but I just followed my race plan and my standard race morning procedure which helps keep me relaxed and calm. The wonderful Hannah Geelan has been giving me lessons in believing in yourself, so nervous as I was, I was thinking positively and convincing myself I could do it.

The swim was beautiful, water was flat as a tack and I had a clear lane right from the start. So good not to have to fight people off like in the shorter races! I felt relaxed and thought I was swimming quite well - there didn't seem to be too many people in front of me - but when I got out somebody yelled 'number 6' so then I was panicking, thinking who the heck could be in front of me?! T1 was OK and as I got on the bike Tex yelled 'good swim' which further confused me. The first 20km of the bike was a big struggle, everything was hurting and cramping, and I seemed to be going nowhere fast. Also I kept thinking 'when am I going to catch those girls?' but at the turnaround I found that only one girl was in front of me! That was a relief. The second 20km was much easier though I was still feeling pretty uncomfortable on the bike. By the halfway mark I was only 3 seconds behind Kate Warren, but I missed my drink bottle at the aid station and did the whole second lap with no water :(

I caught Kate up the big hill and started to extend my lead, in fact about 2km from the end I suppose I was getting a bit complacent and was standing up, stretching my legs down a hill when Melissa flew past me. Oops! Caught off guard! She was just a couple of seconds ahead of me at T2 so although I had 18km to go I grabbed my stuff and sprinted off, passing her at the first corner.

After one lap I wondered how I'd get through another two, but the second one felt much better, and the third was just a formality. I was so relieved to get the win and get the monkey off my back!

The main thing I will be thinking about after this race will be my race strategy for target events. In this event I did what I needed to do to win the race comfortably, but at the end I felt a little disappointed in myself that I hadn't pushed to see the limits of what my body could do. When I saw Melissa cross the line after her smashing performance for second, having taken about half an hour off her last year's time, she was an emotional wreck, leaving everything she had out there. And I thought 'I wish I felt like that!' Sure it may not be a fantastic strategy when I get to the stage that I'm racing a long course every few weeks, but I would love to be able to do what Hodgey did on Saturday and extend his lead exponentially without anyone around him to force him to push.

On another note it was great to see the podiums filled with local entrants despite the fact that about a third of the field was from the mainland this year. It goes to show the great standard of our local Tassie athletes, our clubs, our training grounds and our coaches.

I would like to thank Tex, Chris, Padge and Lou for organising a FANTASTIC event for us, an event that will continue to grow in strength and success from year to year. The professional standard of this race is just so impressive, it is something we should all be proud to share with competitors from around the country and eventually the world. A big thanks to everyone from LTC and all the other volunteers, as well as the race sponsors including RBS Morgans, without whom this race would not be run.

Thanks to everyone who cheered for me, it really is the most amazing feeling.

Thankyou to my new "family" at BC - I had to win so I didn't have to put up with your teasing! And so I could keep my wonderful bike :)

Thanks to EFM Health Clubs and Harvey Griggs who also help me along the road.

A big thankyou and well done to my darling Johnno who made it through the whole race without visiting the porta loo this year :D and the same to my friend Bel Fong who had a smashing weekend at the Huskisson tri festival, and has always believed in me.

Until Devonport....

State Series: Three down, two to go

Not a lot of news to ramble on about today, just a quick update on the weekend's race. The third State Series race was held at Beauty Point on Sunday. The distance was 750m/30km/5km and the weather was still, muggy and overcast. It was my first race aboard the new Specialized Transition (see picture).

The water was very flat and the pool swimmers got away to a good start. Just after the first buoy someone grabbed my legs and tried to pull me under the water about three times but after I kicked hard and got away I thought I was swimming OK. However, when I got out I saw lots of people who I usually beat - or who I would like to beat - ahead of me. My bike mount was another disaster, it was quite funny really as I nearly ran over Dwayne Hinds who was TO-ing the bike mount area. (Apparently I wasn't the only one!)

I caught Melissa and we basically rode the whole 30km together with me passing her up the hills and her passing me down the hills and staying ahead on the flats. We posted exactly the same bike time.

T2 was significantly better than T1 but as I ran out I was surprised (to say the least) to see a girl I didn't recognise just ahead of me. She ran strongly too but I passed her early on and to my relief continued to pull away from her. Just before the first turnaround I heard loud breathing behind me and I thought 'oh no she's caught up, but I am dying, I can't go any quicker, I'll have to let her past!' but as we turned the cone it was Natalea who passed me. She wasn't pulling away from me as fast as I'd expected and I could tell she was struggling which, as it turned out, was because she was having stomach cramps. In fact she didn't gain on me all that much and I could still see her towards the end. I thought if I'd had a bit more in me, I could have sprinted and almost caught her. But the lack of running lately has really impacted my fitness and I had nowhere else to go, I was already pushing as hard as I could!

Still 45 seconds is not too much of a gap to one of this country's rising triathlon stars - and it was short course!

It was also awesome to have another competitive girl join the field in Kate Warner, and of course having Tahlz back from her mainland commitments to raise the standard.

Thanks Miss for duelling it out on the bike course with me and keeping me motivated.

Thankyou to my wonderful sponsors Specialized and Bike Central who give me some chance of keeping up with Melissa with the amazing bike and all the gear.

Thanks mum & dad for coming down to watch, even though it didn't make me win like the first two times this year ;)

And a big thankyou to my grandparents who put up with four starving athletes for a night, eating them out of house and home!

So that's two seconds and a first in the state series so far, or three firsts in my age group :) and the best two races to go: Coles Bay long course and Devonport olympic distance. Just 12 days until Coles Bay - can't wait!