Busso Half Ironman post mortem

We arrived at Busselton around 3.30pm on the Friday 2nd May so we checked into Geographe Bayview then off to register. Registration was very smooth. I saw a bike called an Orbea Ordu Pro that was orange and black also - I wondered if its owner may want to swap with my orange and black bike. Ok, so his cost around $10000….but its the same colour?

Registration was remarkably smooth. Bought a powerbar, a running cap then headed off for some spaghetti bolognaise. Later in the evening, got to watch our beloved Blues belt the West Coast Eagles. A good omen. When we woke up to our 5am wake-up all, it had been raining but the morning was mostly clear. It was like a millpond once we saw the ocean around the Jetty. Preparation went smooth and on went the qoleum and a bit of dencorub (always wary not to get them mixed up). The swim went smoothly enough with a 42min time. I must admit when we got to the 800m stage, it seemed like we were heading further out then swimming around the buoys. The quicker team swimmers caught me but for someone who’d only done 4 swimming sessions since Busso Ironman in Dec 07, I was happy to be out of the water. The bike went smoothly with a 34kph average. The good weather conditions don’t make this 90km ride any easier. I was stretching out the old lumbar region toward the end a fair bit. The run was just average really. Its hard to know because I’ve done 1hr 37min for a half marathon but at the end of a half ironman, you haven’t got a lot of petrol to replicate near your best run. All in all, I had a 5hr 25min finish which was 5min faster than a couple of years ago.

 My wife’s aim in her first half marathon run as part of a team was to knock it off in 2hrs which she did. Brownie points to her and her team for a great effort. It was equally a good effort to call her over the finish line with a team name like ‘Mucking Refarkables’. The announcer showed some trepidation with this call.

 We had a chance to kick back in Margaret River for a few days afterwards. Highly recommend Colonial Brewing for a great lunch (and a ‘paddle’!!). It was very relaxing and just what we needed. Will we do it again? Well, Dee is lining herself up for an Ironman WA team as the runner with a swimmer and cyclist already on board. I will be a ‘reserve’ cyclist but I expect I’ll just be support crew.

My thanks to all the organisers , volunteers and Busso residents. They put up with this town invasion but I’m sure some of our money ends up in Busso just the same. Now I have to get Dee out on her Trek 1000 and our lives will get back to some sort of normality in terms of training. 

In the mixed team I put together, their runner pulled out a few days before the event. The swimmer, Claire, did an amazing swim as second fastest female and the cyclist pulled out a 2hr 13min effort. They have both said they’ll contest the Busso Half Ironman as individuals next year. Thanks to Brendan and Liz McSweeney for all their support on the day and to the hula dancers out on the run course.

 The next big adventures include cyclosportif, Anaconda Adventure race in Dunsborough, City to Surf, Perth Marathon, Rottnest Marathon, spin training and the Front Runner run training by Raf Baugh. I have also renewed my Central TAFE gym membership.

No punctures on the bike - perhaps I’ll have to change the logo picture and latin saying. We’ll see

 Regards

CHRISTO