Bussleton Ironman - Sunday 27th November

It sounds as though this event was an epic. It was a stormy weekend across much of Australia and Western Australia seemed to get more than its share! Race start was postponed for an hour to give the weather a chance to die down. By all accounts the swim was still pretty rough, times seemed about 5 minutes slower than usual. The bike was really windy too - "...hardest conditions I have ever raced or trained in..." (Dingo).

It sounds as though people were happy to get to the run leg and none more than fellow Inner City Cycles athlete Charlotte Paul, who had the race of her life to finish 2nd Pro Female and 39th overall in 9:47 with a blistering 3:10 run split that decimated most of the pro women. Angela Milne, however, was never headed, despite a drafting penalty, and finished 16 minutes ahead to claim the only available Pro Women's Hawaii spot. Charlotte has certainly proven that she is capable of racing with the best in Hawaii.

Other notable results were John Mergler, fresh from his 2nd place in Kona, who won 40-44 by a country mile in 9:34; Tony 'Dingo' McClement, who finished 4th in his last year of 25-29 with a time of 9:50, narrowly missing out on a Hawaii slot in the process; and Jarrod Hudson who was 9th in 30-34 with a 10:12.

Mitch Anderson took out his first Ironman title in 8:27, racing cleverly and patiently for the whole day. Luke McKenzie led for much of the race, tried to break Mitch Anderson on the run and succeeded only in breaking himself, ending up withdrawing, his 2nd DNF out of 3 IM starts. Surely the race goal for this young talent must be to FINISH his next race, regardless of placing!

McKenzie wasn't alone, as 13% of the field failed to complete the race, most of them falling victim to the extreme swim conditions. It is an achievement to complete any Ironman race, but it seems that Bussleton '05 will go down in history as an epic test, with those that rose to the challenge achieving success.

The official race report can be found here

PS - OOOH I nearly forgot to mention, Charlotte's husband Kristian is the official cover boy for IMWA! Can't wait to get my signed copy of the poster ;-)