Saturday, April 05, 2008
Shock to the system... racing again!
Today's 2008 XTERRA Australia heralded the return of the globally popular off-road triathlon series to Aussie soil. I jumped at the chance to do check out this race format, one which i had been eyeing since i did my first triathlon.
Elaine from Melbourne Uni' was also keen to have a crack at the dirt. I arranged to pick her up on race morning, with our bikes on the car rack, gear bags in the back seat, and Up n' Go in our stomachs....
Del's bike (foreground) and mine after unloading from the car.
Just 1.5 hours' drive from downtown Melbourne, heading up for this race was a chance too good to miss, it being my last semester here. This race i considered my last big training day before the 5-day, 4-stage Keen adventure race. Clearly, i had to have my priorities in order - aka, no crazy stuff or big risk-taking today.
We took off from town at 0930 and reached one hour before the race. Rather chilly, so we quickly jumped into the wetsuits and headed for the starting buoys on Daylesford Lake. The pros started on the dot at 1230, i started in the next wave three minutes later, and Elaine's wave another six minutes back.
Preparing transition: all grins now, but will the smiles last when the hurt starts?
Swim: 1000 metre of ice-cream-headache lake water. Had a shocker of a swim start: could not breathe properly on one side and got dropped by the main pack. Methinks i wore my wetty improperly on the left shoulder. Oh well. Still, i got into a rhythm after the halfway mark and made a bit of ground on the field, came out middle of the pack in my category. In transition, i was groggy as hell and had to sit down to take off the clingy neoprene. Elaine's swim split beat mine, alas she also had the groggies upon exiting the ice-cold lake. On with the full-finger gloves and into the saddle!
Bike: 30km off-road? More like 35+km, according to the newly-calibrated speedometer. Generally no major dramas or technically demanding bits. A couple of unclips when the bike started drifting sideways in the mud patches, but other than that pretty straightforward, open and fast. The old flat coke trick (first tried in last year's Anaconda Lorne) seemed to pay dividends, although i would have liked to have a bit more for a little extra alertness on the run leg. Elaine found the bike ride to be the most challenging bit of the race (first time riding a MTB off-road... respect!), but made it through on Del's commuter bike and borrowed MTB shoes with nothing more than mud spatters and an eagerness to get onto the run.
Run: A 2x 5.5km loop of undulating singletrack, steps, walking trails, a double creek crossing (really just a stack of slippery rocks), and the ubiquitous 'Heartbreak Hill' asphalt climb just before transition. Regulated the pace here at about 90% (there's still Keen!), particularly on the first lap. Walked fast on some of the uphills as i saw no point in running them; downhills were just a matter of letting gravity do the work. Elaine mentioned having to remind herself not to jog... it was a race, after all. I saw a couple of guys turn their ankles... ouch!
Elaine heads into the finish chute.
Race overview: I finished with good form (something i always look forward to pulling off, yet not always accomplish), all in all enjoyable, good training, and glad to have made it under the 3-hour mark. I believe Elaine enjoyed her race as well, even as a first-timer MTB racer. She even mentioned wishing for more uphills on the bike (as opposed to the more imposing downhills).
See the results here.
Jane Harries (the rogainer) did the sprint event; my TEVA team mate Mark Bubner was there doing the full distance; so did Liz - she came in second in her age group; Steve White and Snowy from swim squad had a bash too; while Jarad the trail running guru made good with a third-place pro finish.
I keep seeing the same faces at the races, but certainly the standards of competition keep fluctuating, depending on who's attending. This one was certainly a step up from the TriX three weeks prior. This time there were international pros and age groupers from Japan, NZ, the US having a go.
The format certainly appeals to a wide range of athletes, and the crossover potential between adventure racing and traithlon cannot be ignored. No wonder XTERRA is huge in the US.
Post-race snack. Where's the Powerbars?
We met up with a dude called Ryan who would be doing the Singapore 70.3 Ironman this September, and he enthused that an ideal spot for an off-road triathlon in Singapore would perhaps be at MacRitchie. I certainly agreed with him, but it may be some time before that becomes a reality - swimming in the reservoir needs approval. I say, if kids can paddle their K1s and K2s (and, by extension capsize countless times) at MacRitchie, surely, there can be provision for swimming as well?
