ITU Long Distance World Triathlon Championships - Perth
RACE REPORT FROM A VOLUNTEER
The day started for me at 3.30am…the alarm went off…I’d just got to sleep at midnight after attending a friends birthday party. I got my gear together and cycled in from Canning Vale into the city on the old Colnago.I noticed how windy it was. I started feeling sorry for the prospective competitors. I checked in as a volunteer and found myself at the bike exit/entry area of transition. The first event away was the Sprint Distance at 7am. This was a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Plenty of triathletes using this event to kick off a new season. I saw Sandy Burt’s new P4. Saw many bikes I’d never heard of (who’s seen an ‘Arthur’ bike before??) Kenji Nener ended up flying around the Sprint course in just over 1hr flat.
At the presentations, Simon Beaumont (6PR radio identity and Ironman athlete) introduced Kenji to medal presenter Craig Alexander as a name to watch out for. I can second that. Names like Kierath, Borg, etc also figured in the placings. I noticed over 200 people doing this Sprint event. Fiona Longden was out there sporting the North Coast Tri club colours, Dave Koopu made this his first ever triathlon and finished well, even managing 6min/km run pace at the end. As a 110kg ball of solid muscle, Dave thought he’d give everyone else a few minutes headstart on the swim….before eventually deciding to join in on the Sprint race. I daresay Dave’s recent Ironman entry will see him suffer just a bit more than embarassment A tough rugby match won’t even compare Dave, I’m afraid. Anyway, he was happy to have finished and stayed intact and his Ironman WA training has been in full swing for some time.
The long course event got underway at 8am with a 3km swim, a windy 80 bike leg and a stifling hot 20km run lying in wait for the athletes. Poor old Bob Thomas, wheelchair Ironman, had his new dentures kicked out of his mouth in the swim. At bike transition he managed to say this was vewwy, vewwy fwustwating (apologies to Elmer Fudd…..ok, to Bob too!!) He had a race of attrition and just a hard day at the office. He’s just a gritty, tough bloke.
Now I made a point of cheering on and encouraging every single athlete that passed through bike transition……. I’m sure that after 3km of choppy, windy swim and 80km of gruelling bike, the last thing they wanted was some bloke to tell them to hang tough, to leave it all out on the course, to hydrate well, to do it for their country. Still, I did all that and more and I hope some got a bit of a lift from the encouragement. It always works for me when I’m competing in a hard race. Well done also to the Year 11 John 23rd boys for helping out as volunteers. They all put in a long day.
The day started for me as a volunteer at 5am and finished at 1.30pm when bikes were being checked out. Not sure if they all heard me but I made a point of giving an extra rev up to Hannah Lawton, Gus Lawson, Stuart Durham, Amanda (the Poss) Smith, Brynt McSwain and several others whose name escapes me for the moment. An older French guy had literally taken a bite size chunk out of his carbon bike frame so this put a premature end to his race…and his beautiful, expensive bike. There were some bikes there worth up to $25000. An amazing array really. C’est la vie - the French guy’s bike was insured.
It was pretty funny how lots of people were posing for the professional photographers, completely unaware that the good old Swan River had delivered to each and every one of them a slimy, greasy bearded film around their mouth. Gotta love swimming in the Swan River. Another guy I saw had cut his foot pretty badly on a barnacle and done the whole bike ride with his foot in a lot of pain. He limped from bike end to do the run but he was in for a long day.
Aside from a few Sprint athletes saying they couldn’t get drinks for the run leg (and I’m not sure how fatal this is to a 5km run in any event), the event seemed to be pretty well run. The freeway closure caused predictable angst to motorists who were simply unaware of this fact. Jodie Swallow was simply awesome in the bike leg and even extended her 6min lead by another 5mins to win the female title comfortably. Tim O’Donnell did a ‘Craig Alexander’ by catching people up on the run to win in the men’s division. I think Brynt McSwain just got by fellow Aussie Matt ‘Bulldog’ Jennings and looked strong heading out on the run. Some people just have astonishing running cadence.
O’Neill and Crowther put in strong performances but it was (obviously) a world-class field. In many ways, it was an adventure race but not the sort that would have given the likes of Sean O’Neill any advantage.
As someone who has ‘driven the train’ against the wind on the bike from UWA back to Narrows many times, I felt for athletes putting this effort in 4 times on the bike ( in addition to the crosswinds heading out and back from Canning Bridge. All in all, it was pretty inspiring stuff. I took some photos of the bikes (and I saw Kath Garnett from Front Runner doing her professional photographer duties)
Things looked well in hand at the finish area with lots of athletes enjoying many massages at the end along with plenty of food, drink and medical assistance.
I think for those that had banked lots of running kilometres in the legs, had solid swimming technique and had practised cycling into hard headwinds, the day brought rewards. I think my day would have finished at the swim to be honest. Such a tough start to the race with an even tougher bike leg to come!!!
After nearly 9 hours of being on my feet and supporting anything that moved in transition, I dutifully hopped back on the Colnago for a 1hr ride home. I slept for just over an hour, a few litres of electrolyte later and I felt like I’d done the event myself.
Well done to everyone involved in the event - Kellie Maren, the whole Tri Events crew, the Kempson crew at their aid stations and of course the competitors and other volunteers. A great Expo of stalls was set up for athletes to snap up bargains as well. Finally, Palis did well (as they usually do) in setting up the PA system…..and they played Thunderstruck a few times. Extra brownie points for that!!
By the way I have now signed up to do the marathon as part of an IMWA team in place of my wife. Her hip flexor and scoliosis are just causing too many issues at present. So I’m putting in big blocks of running as well as some smaller 12 to 15km blocks. I have an ITT (individual time trial) on the bike at Champion Lakes this Sunday. I hope to break 41kph but it will be very hard, even on a 20km effort.
The countdown is well and truly on for IMWA, a total of over 1300 individual athletes and 111 teams will make it huge.
If you see me running up and down Ranford Road around Canning Vale way, give me a honk or just say ‘gidday Christo’ - it’ll keep me motivated.
Cheers
CHRISTO
CHRISTO