Samoa Half Iron

Imagine you’re riding down an unfamiliar road with no lights in pitch black dark. It’s raining and blowing a gale.  Suddenly you’re being chased by a pack of viciously barking, rabid dogs.

Sound like your typical race morning? Well the inaugural Samoa Half Iron wasn’t your typical race.

Got away from the dogs – just – but it was just one of many challenges faced during the adventure that was Samoa.

The adventure that started exactly four weeks before race day, when Team Latitude boss Guy Besley contacted me with the opportunity race my first pro race there. It was daunting to have three weeks to train for this important milestone, especially as it was my first race in nearly 9 months, as I spent most of the year dealing with a stress fracture in my tibia.

But opportunities like that don’t come around very often – hell, EVER – so I signed up. Of my three weeks preparation I spent one week in Tassie, one week with a cold and one week trying to get my bike set up as a TT bike – a very successful preparation! Before I knew it it was time to taper and travel, it was 9pm on a Wednesday night and instead of packing my books for uni tomorrow I was sitting on a plane to an island that I’d barely even heard of.

It was here that I first met my teammate Tim Berkel who would have the tough job of putting up with me for the next four days. We were about to find out just how well we could cope in the face of Murphy’s law: “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.

It all started right from the very first morning. I couldn’t get my tubular tyres pumped up, which put paid to us riding the 45km from our hotel to the race area. We didn’t know how or get anywhere and had no way of contacting anybody.

Eventually we got a lift to the Samoan capital, Apia, getting to see some of the island’s beautiful coastline in the process.

It wasn’t til we got to the race host hotel in that I noticed the large puncture in my bike’s right-hand seat-stay. A crack that the mechanic, Brendon, said would not hold up over the Samoan roads, which had been wiped out by a cyclone last year, and were still very rough and pothole-y.

In 10 seconds flat my dreams were dashed and I was facing a four-day holiday to watch some other people do a race. Not my idea of fun. I moped around for the rest of the day, but by the evening Brendon had come up with a plan to “fix” my bike. He wouldn’t guarantee it would be safe and I’d have to nurse it around the course, but it was the only hope I had of racing. “Fixing” consisted of gluing a bunch of nails over the break, taping it up and covering it in cable ties.

When I went to pick the bike up the evening before the race, I was faced with yet another drama as both of my tubulars tyres somehow became useless, and although we could find two spares, we couldn’t find any glue! So I ended up riding with the wheels out of Brendon’s bike –complete with commuter tyres, which turned out to be my saviour as I didn’t fall victim to multiple flats like most of the other competitors, including Cam Brown.

Anyhow back to race morning – after we got away from the dogs! We headed into transition which was also pitch black. I was surprisingly calm given it was my first pro race. You couldn’t really help it with the pace of life on the island, everything was just so laid back. Not like in Australia where there’d be hyped up AGers everywhere, lights and music, and commentators counting down until you had to get out of transition. Here there were no cut-off times, no pre-race briefing, and we just left our bags under the transition racks!

It was still dark when we started the swim and as I expected I was dropped at the start and faced a very long and lonely 2km. At least the sun started to come up on the second lap it was very beautiful, which almost made up for the fact that I dislike swimming at the best of times, but the water was 29 degrees and a non-wetsuit swim which was a bit of a shock coming from Adelaide winter.

I got out a bit demoralized knowing I was a long way behind, and dreading finding out about these notorious roads (some random old lady came up to us at the hotel the night before and said “Do you have to ride up there? We went in the car today and it was awful – I feel sorry for you!”). The first 14km was on relatively smooth roads in the city and that bit went well. Then I started to get out of the city and found myself on a road where it was business as normal with busses, cars and people everywhere but no sign of other competitors, police or marshalls. I was convinced I had taken a wrong turn and had to stop and turn around, but encountered a policeman just before I did who eventually assured me I was heading the right way.

 

Out of town there was a very strong headwind and riding on the roads with my super-stiff, nailed-up bike was like riding over corrugated iron. Luckily the villagers had gone to all sorts of trouble to decorate themselves and their towns in honour of the competitors, and provided some welcome distraction and cheering. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and waving and giving thumbs-up to all the kids, who screamed in response. Then it was time for a tough 4km climb which I absolutely crept up, before descending like a nanna thanks to the potholes that I was sure were going to end the life of my bike and possibly myself.

Some of the local women decided to get some creek water to throw over us – my new chain has not recovered! I did quite enjoy some of the local boys trying out their English on me though – “Go baby! I love you!” cracked me up several times.

It was definitely a drag heading back into town, most of the villagers had either got bored and drifted off or gotten extremely excited and tried to run onto the road and touch us, so it was an obstacle course of people, dogs, chooks and the odd wild pig.

I did want to quit several times but I thought of all the effort that had been put into fixing my bike, and I’ve never had a DNF and didn’t want to start now. After what seemed like an eternity I got back to town to start my half marathon in 31 degrees and humidity.

I found out in transition that Tim had had two flats and was out of the race, which was disappointing, and I decided I’d  better get at least one finish for Team Latitude. The run was four out-and-back laps of a very flat, exposed and windy course. The volunteers did a great job with ice and water and none of my competitors were anywhere near me so I just had to get to the end – no sprint finishes like Murrayman!

Ironically at the finish line I found out that I did beat one girl, and thus placed fourth, earning myself about $400 – so all in all not a bad day’s work!

We enjoyed some Samoan culture at the presentation dinner that night but were disappointed to miss out on seeing the island’s major tourist attraction “The Trench” on Sunday due to a torrential downpour.

It was off to the airport at 3am Monday morning (Samoa time) and back to real life - I was at work at the gym by 5pm that evening, Adelaide time! No rest for the wicked! I have been struggling to catch up on the uni work that I missed since, sorting out bike issues but more importantly with the fire back in my belly for racing, making a lot of big plans for the coming season – I finally committed to spending an exorbitant amount of money on my Triathlon Australia pro licence, and will spend even more in the new year for the honour of being able to compete in WTC-sanctioned events as a pro. I’ve made a commitment to myself to be proactive about finding some sponsors. Who knows, I might even bite the bullet and get myself a coach after umming and ahhing about it for years! I’m just worried they’ll look at my uni and work schedule and laugh like ‘you are kidding aren’t you – there isn’t actually time to schedule a training session in there!’

Anyhow back to Samoa: the verdict. If you’re looking for a race that is also a cultural experience; If you get sick of the rules, regulations and “sameness” of domestic events run like clockwork; if you want to get back to the real heart of our sport, the raw passion for swim, bike and run, minus the corporate greed that plagues our sport… then save the date for Samoa Half Iron 2014 in your diary right now.

Despite all the bad luck I had, I had an amazing time and a fantastic learning experience. And one thing is for sure – I will NEVER forget my first pro race! What a crazy, impossible, funny, wild place and race. I am so, so grateful and forever indebted to Guy and Team Lat for trusting me enough to send me; to Tim, for helping me keep my sanity while everything around me was falling apart; to everyone at home, particularly Laura, Nic, Anna, Steve & Anna, Coullsie & Craig from Bike Society, Hannah, John Berryman from the Smart Centre, the Fuse Multisport racing team and of course my parents and long-suffering partner Jason for their belief, support and help; to Brendon and Paul for sorting out my bike; to Scottie T, for being awesome and friendly; and most of all to Seti, Emily, Terry and everyone else involved in putting on Samoa Half Iron - you believed in me enough to pay my flights and accommodation even though I was a complete unknown with no results to my name.

And, guess what? You pulled off that race. And if you continue to put the same heart, enthusiasm, passion and skill into it, it will grow into a bigger and better event that will put little Samoa on the triathlon map. Maybe the Prime Minister will even understand what it is in a few years ;)

Thankyou all.

Holly x

 

I'll pop some more of the beautiful pics up when I have more downloads!