Noosa Olympic Distance 2012 - a race report

SWIM-BIKE-RUN - Noosa 2012

On Sunday 4th Nov 2012, I raced my third Olympic distance triathlon. This is a race report and details of the other updates (including training at Noosa) will be on another entry to keep this one nice as short (as possible).

Dale in transition

On Sunday morning, I was not in a great mood. The thought of the actual race (more specifically, the mount and dismount part of the bike leg due to the lack of practice) really made me nervous. My last race was in March 2012 and it wasn't my best performance. I had done this race in 2011 (first Olympic distance) with a time of 3:05. One of my short term goals was to finish this race under 3 hours and I am happy to report that I completed this race in 2:52.06. The biggest improvement would be in both the swim and the run. The bike leg was done on a different bike (yes, Dale was faster).

My start time was 8:05 which meant that I had plenty of time to relax after I prepped Dale up in transition (transition closed at 6:30). I decided to ride with 2 bottles of hydration (knowing that I will most likely only use up one). I used the Xlab bottle on the tri-bars instead of the Profile Design sippy-thing as I had gotten use to it during the training rides and it didn't have any issues. I also decided to tape some gels onto the bars just in case along with the flask. The intention was to hang the bike off the seat but due to both the height of the bars and the size of my bike, he would be hovering around 60cm off the ground. There would be a big chance that he would not stay that way when I reach him in T1 - No issues, hang him off the handle bars - its not like a few seconds would hurt in my race time (safety first).

This year, there was also a choice to put the race belt on in T1 or T2, I opted for T2 to minimise the bib flapping around. Vaseline and powder in my shoes (I had blisters on my feet from running without socks for the first time during training!). Once I had all my shit sorted in transition, I headed back to the apartment to have breakfast and to apply my race number tattoos on my arms.





Heading back through Noosaville



Headed down to swim start at 7:45am, did a small swim across the canal to warm up as well as getting use to water temperature. I didn't have too many girls from the squad in my field (F 30-34 A-L). The actual swim itself was good. I felt comfortable the entire way through and my sighting had also improved (better goggles). I paid attention to my technique (especially my left arm) and pushed myself beyond my "comfortable" pace. One of the better swimmers from my squad passed me (from a later category) and I used her pace to swim faster for about 100m before I lost her due to her speed. 

Exiting the swim into T1, I sprinted towards my rack (18) and it wasn't hard to find my bike - hardly anything left around that area :) I had a small bottle of fresh water there to wash my face and then it was the usual helmet, glasses on and off I went. I think this played a part into my bike time but at least I was comfortably clean.

No fancy bike mount - didn't have the confidence as this wasn't practiced at all. 



Heading out on bike leg...putting on right shoe



The bike ride through Noosaville was interesting as the roads were still slightly wet and saw a few athlete-wobbles. Throughout the ride, due to the congestion, there were plenty of athletes drafting - I don't like seeing it but it couldn't be helped. The gel flasks worked better than fiddling around with the gel packets so I will aim to use 3 flask for Shep (2 on the bike leg and 1 for the run). To break up the bike leg, I did a few efforts along the flats and used it to my advantage to pass other athletes. Small chain ring (but keeping the gears in the middle), high cadence up Garmin Hill then back onto the large chain ring for the entirety of the race. This time around, I also didn't spin (or take my feet out of the shoes) too early compared to last year so it played a large part in the improvement of my bike leg - winning!

No fancy dismount - too busy around the dismount line and due to the lack of practice.

I felt better in T2 this time around compared to last year. Last year I had to take a break before the run leg (we are talking sitting on the ground). I was slowed down a bit as I had one of the volunteers send me off to the wrong direction but luckily I just followed someone else who knew where to go.

The temperature was also cooler which also helped my comfort levels. I decided to run without a hat or a visor (lessons learnt from my half marathon) and this will be the strategy I will stick with for Shep.

One thing I must change is my lack of "seriousness" on the bike and run leg. I am constantly keeping an eye on the course for people to cheer them on. I know this is great for moral but it does take some energy out of me and I also lose a bit of momentum.

My results are shown below.

Comparing it to 2011, I have the following improvements:

Swim - from 36:28 down to 31:54 (nearly 4.5 min off) - This time around, I knew where to swim and didn't stop on the swim course at all. I actually swam past people in my own category whilst starting the swim from the back.

Bike - from 1:27:41 down to 1:24:22 (nearly 3.2 min off) - New bike made a difference, I was more confident throughout the course and felt stronger riding up the Garmin hill. There was a few minutes before coming down the descent where I had to slow down to avoid collision with a competitor who swerved across when the TO told her off for blocking. This was also the same girl who would overtake but then slow right down so people would have to apply on their brakes which caused a few hesitant moments on the road.

Run - from 1:01:47 down to 55:49 (nearly 6min off) - Really happy with the run time albeit that I didn't take the run too seriously - hugged Nola on the run course, high-5 other TA Athletes, thanked volunteers and chatted with a guy who noticed that there were plenty of Tri Alliance athletes racing on the day.

Goal for next year (2013) is to get close to 2:45. Try and get the swim time down < 30min, bike leg needs work and will try to aim < 1:15 and the run closer to 5min/km to 50min. Oh, if you didn't catch on already, I have already entered into Noosa 2013.