Race 4 AJTS Way Out West 2017

The final race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series began early Saturday morning with a 4.30am wake up. I felt pretty good leading up to this race, certainly a lot more confident than I was for my race in Glenelg a few weeks ago. I didn't really have much of a goal for this race but I was determined to not get dropped on the bike as I have been getting dropped all of this season in the draft legal triathlons that I've competed in. 

I arrived at Champion Lakes with both of my brothers and Damon from Melbourne around 5am for the open and under 23 races scheduled to race at 6.30am. My race was at 10am, so there was a bit of waiting around for a few hours which gave me time to rest, watch the U23s, Opens and Youths race as well as preparing for my own race. As time was passing by, it was nearing my time to start warming up. I went for a 1.5km run warm up doing a couple of efforts and felt pretty good and light for once. Shortly after I went and racked Alan in transition and set up everything before heading over to do a swim warm up. I started off with practicing a couple of run and dives off the pontoon and swimming fast for a hundred or so metres as it was a two lap swim to compete the 750m swim and then followed with a few exits out of the water. 

After completing the warm up, everyone was called over to line up in order of race numbers. We were all checked off and then walked down the pontoon to jump into the water ready for the deep water start. It wasn't very clear how long we had till the start, but I tried to line myself up in the best possible position and be next to some of the faster swimmers. The horn sounded and we were off. Just like I had practiced in training numerous times, I put my head down for 15 or so strokes and swam hard to get clear water. It wasn't until the first buoy that I found some clear water and some feet to sit on, but the swim didn't seem to be spreading out that much so I put in a surge and moved up a few placings along the back straight before turning round the final buoy into shore. I knew that I had a weak run leg so I tried to move up a bit more before having to run out of the water and run a hundred or so metres and then dive off the end of the pontoon. I managed not to loose any placings but fell a little behind the leaders. The downside of having to run after a swim and then dive into the water and run again, is that it really is a killer on the body and it takes a while to pick back up your rhythm again. 

I lost the leaders as I was feeling completely dead swimming and went from fourth to seventh over the two lap swim course. The plan was to get into the front pack, however I was unsuccessful and just missed out when running out of the water into transition. I was one of the few floaters in between the front and chase pack. I found a wheel to sit on for the first lap of the just under 20km bike leg and worked with Fern Davies to try and catch the front pack. I got dropped for a few kilometres and so had to time trial it until the second lap where the chase pack caught up to me and I jumped onto them. I thought that I had lost them as I just missed the last wheel but didn't give up and managed to get onto that last wheel. The course was a little technical and learning from previous races, I knew that I had to be at the front of the pack at turn around points and corners so that I wouldn't get dropped. So whenever we were nearing a corner or a turn around, I surged to the front to get around the corners without any issues. As the last lap was nearing I surged to the front of the bike pack to get over the hill first and sat on the front for a little until I called for the girls to start rolling through again. We headed over the bridge and were on our way back into transition. I was more towards the back of the pack so I tried hard to get to the front of the bike pack which I got to and went down a gear to start spinning to get my legs ready for the run leg. 

I dismounted the bike, racked Alan, put on my run shoes and ran out of transition for the 5km run leg (which was apparently 5.3km). It was a four lap out and back run loop along the bottom footpath of Champion Lakes. The run was pretty hot and I felt that I had started to enter the red zone on the bike leg, so the first two laps of the run weren't so fast, however I was determined to finish the run strong, and so I picked up the pace for the last two laps and really brought it home on the last lap to make sure that I wouldn't get caught by the girls behind me. I finished in 18th place out of 21 girls, which was an improvement from Glenelg's race. Once again I was proud of myself for finishing and not getting dropped. I may not have gotten the higher placing that I was hoping for, but I came away with a lot of positives and things to work on to get ready for the final race of the season at Hillary's in about a months time. Although my parents weren't able to watch me compete in the individual race, I knew that they were proud of me, no matter how I performed.

The following morning was the teams race which again started off early, with a 5am wake up to get to the race venue for 6am. I was put in a team with Mitch Lees and Elle Rubotham from WA and Brock Taylor from NSW. I watched the Youths and the mixed relays as they started a bit under two hours before the juniors were scheduled to start. As I was unsure about what time my race was due to start, without knowing I did my run warm up an hour before the race. I went for a quick 1km run with a few efforts as I was a little sore from the previous day. I then racked Alan in transition and set up. We were waiting in transition for a while as we had to wait to get timing chips and numbered up. Finally after a long time of waiting I went off to do a quick swim warm up as I was the first person to go on our team. The relay was a 200m swim, 5km bike and 1600m run. I knew that it was going to be a short and fast race so I had to make sure that I had a speedy swim, got onto the bike pack and then give it whatever I had left on the run. The swim was a beach start, so when doing the warm up I made sure that I practiced running into the water to get the amount of strides right. Then the officials called us over for a final briefing before we lined up on the beach. The horn sounded and I sprinted into the water to and managed to find some feet to sit on. As it was a shorter swim, it made it harder to get more of a gap on the other girls. I came out of the water in the top three with Jess Claxton a bit in front and another girl along side me. I ran hard into transition to where Alan was racked. I quickly put on my helmet and ran out of transition to the mount line that was over the bridge on the other side of the lake and was about a 200m run, or so it felt like it was. I mounted bike and tried to get onto the girls in front but was soon caught by the girls who where behind and we formed into a bunch. It was a pretty speedy ride, holding over 40km/h for the 5km bike leg. I came in to the dismount line at the back of the pack and and ran Alan into transition loosing the pack. I racked Alan and headed out on to the run. I felt pretty good running, however I wasn't speedy enough and was 300m behind everyone else and was last to the change overs. Our team ended up coming last, however we all achieved our individual goals and worked well together. 

From this race, I took away a lot of positives and many things to work on over the off season. Keen to come back in beast mode next season as I will be working hard over the off season to pick up from where I was last season, as well as improving from then. 

As always, a massive thank you to Eclipse Performance Centre, Front Runner, my family and friends who have always been there for me and helped me improve and develop as an athlete.