Forster Half-Ironman '04 Race Report

I had a pretty good race - my dumb goggles filled up with water in both eyes (despite a perfect seal during my warm-up swim) about 100m into the swim so I discarded them and felt my way around the rest of the course as best I could! It is good to know that I can get through a swim like that without goggles, without too much stress and all importantly without losing my contact lenses! I Swam well for my current ablility and clocked just under 29 min. My investment in Total Immersion swimming is definitely starting to pay me some good speed dividends!

My bike leg was strong - I caught and passed heaps of people but couldn't manage to get away. At the first (24km) turnaround I saw the race leader and eventual winner, Jason Shortis out on his own (phenomenal rider) then a 'chase' bunch of 10, then a small group of 3, including my swim coach Steve Croft and training partner Paul Morris. I also realised that there were about 40+ people right behind me, despite my best efforts to break clear on the hills. After 35km I used an aid station and a sharp pinch to get away from the bunch. Determined to stay clear, I was able to bridge the gap to the group of 3 within about 10km :-)

Crofty was riding strong - we worked well together but stayed legal, again determined that we wouldn't be swallowed up by the big bunch. At the end of the ride we were still a couple of minutes clear. My plan for the run was to settle in for the first 5km and then see what I could do. Well as it happened I didn't find my running legs until 14km in and managed to finish 15th overall and 3rd in my age group (the other 2 both made it into the chase bunch).

All in all it was a pretty hard day; especially knowing that I was too far away to run anyone down + trying to hold off the faster runners behind me when I had nothing left in my legs. I learnt a lot from the race - It was the most tactical triathlon I've ever raced and I really enjoyed that aspect. One of my main aims now is to work another couple of minutes off my swim so that I'm not forced to play catchup from the start of the bike leg!

For full results check out the Forster 1/2 IM website.