AJTS Glenelg 2018
My first race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series began with a wake up at 7am on Saturday the 3rd of February in Glenelg, SA. The race was scheduled to start at 11.30am so with a race being so late, I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to have my trusty 3 ingredient vegan pancakes for breakfast. As my race was later on in the day, I thought it would be nice to watch some Netflix in my hotel room to pass by time. As time slowly passed by, it finally was time to head down to the race venue which was a lovely 800 metres away from where I was staying. Once I arrived, I watched the junior boys compete in their race and cheered on some fellow team mates and then went on to do my 2k warm up jog whilst they were racing. After I got back, I set up my run shoes in T2 as there was two transitions in this event to spice things up, rather than just having the usual one transition. Once set up in T2, I rode over to T1 with my gear to put next to Alan.
As soon as I had set up in T1, I went on to continue completing my run warm up with many activation drills. Following completing that warm up, I went down to the beach to do a swim warm up that consisted of easy swimming, fly (cause I love swimming fly), sprints and some in’s and out’s to measure where I could dive in and where I needed to stop swimming to run out of the water. Finally, the junior girls were called to the start line where we lined up in numerical order and then chose our spots on the starting line. Me being a bit distracted walking over to the start line, I missed the spot I wanted to go to because I was number 31 which meant I did not have first choice as to where I would have wanted to start. I couldn't do much about my positioning, so I just went with it and waited until we were in the starters hands. I think it was a whistle that sounded, but to be honest I couldn't remember because I was in such a tunnel vision and just ran straight into the water. Lacking speed, I was one of the last into the water but I knew that I was a strong enough swimmer to make it up over the 750m swim distance, it took me about 300 or so metres, but I got myself into second place and was just focusing on getting onto Jess Claxton's feet so that I would have someone to ride with in this draft legal event.
I ran into T1 and tried my best to have a speedy transition but as I said before, I’ve been lacking some speed but she’ll be right mate. I ran to the mount line, jumped onto Alan and rode on to complete 6 laps of the bike course. It took me almost a lap before a group caught up to me that I was able to jump on for the remainder of the bike leg. This was also a bit of a technical course, so as I was in a little bit of a red zone following the swim, I basically got dropped about 1.5 laps into the bike leg. The chase pack wasn't far behind me, so I just kept on riding until they caught up to me. After making the classic mistake of being at the back of the group around the acceleration points, I knew that I had to be either first or second wheel in the group in order to not get dropped again. I was definitely hurting a lot on the bike and was doubting myself a little for the run that was soon to follow. After 6 laps, I dismounted in the chase pack, had a little bit of a slow transition, but went onto the run and just kept telling myself to build into it as I knew that if I went out hard, I’d die off pretty quickly. I did build into my pace within the 500m of the run but I felt pretty comfortable running at that pace and if I needed to, I could run faster. I somehow managed to drop people who were sitting on me and also run past people which was a first for me at a national series event because usually I'm the one being dropped. The run was 2 laps of 2.6km and I knew that for the second lap I’d have to pick up the pace. I was hurting a lot but I crossed the line 13th overall at the Glenelg Oceania Triathlon Championships, which was a huge improvement from last years results. It may have not been the top 10 I was hoping for, but I know what I need to improve on for Race 4 of the AJTS in a months time. Following this race, I treated myself to a few vegan pasties as that is one of the reasons why I came to Glenelg ;)
The following day was the Mixed Relay Australian Championships. My Junior mixed team consisted of myself, Elliot Roberts, Abby Ouwendyk and Alec Davison. It was a bit hectic with the unorganised time schedule, but I did my best to make sure I had set everything up in time as well as warm up correctly. As my race was due to start at 10.15am, I was chilling at my hotel for a couple of hours after checking in and setting up my shoes in T2. I got a bit bored, so I headed down to the race venue early to watch the Elite Mixed Teams Relay finish. After some waiting around, I went on to do my usual 2k warm up jog and then proceeded to move down to T1 where I went and did a swim warm up, put my bike into transition and then finished off my swim warm up with a couple of sprints and in’s and out’s. I was the first person in my team to start and I was pretty nervous as it was only a 200m swim (it looked a lot less) and I knew that if I wanted to be first out of the water, I’d need to have a fast swim. We all lined up on the start line and I positioned myself on the far left as I wanted to have plenty of space and not get caught up around people. Once again, due to my lack of speed, I had a bit of a slow start and tried my best to put our team in the best position possible, however I ended up coming about 5th out of the water and did not make it onto the front pack. However I managed to have a speedy transition and rode my heart out to bridge the gap. I caught up to the front group quickly and then went onto pretty much leading the whole bike leg with the rest of the girls sitting on my wheel. I didn't mind leading so much as the bike was only about 6.5km and being the same course as the day prior, I didn't want to get dropped around the acceleration points, instead, I was at the front dropping some major watt bombs and getting some small breakaways on the bike as well as dropping a couple of the girls. I came into transition first, racked Alan, quickly put on my shoes and ran out of T2 with four other girls onto the 1.6km run. I maintained my 5th place position and even though some got a gap on me as they were faster runners, I focused on building into the run and found myself catching back up to 4th place. The run finished at the beach where I changed over to Elliot, following onto Abby and then getting passed onto Alec who was our final athlete. We crossed the line 3rd however as it was the Mixed Relay Australian Championships, we placed 2nd as New Zealand is a different country. Following the relay, I once again treated myself, this time to a burger, nutella slice and pie (all vegan, obvs) before heading on our flight back to Perth later in the evening.
I am happy to say that I have been more than proud of myself and my achievements leading up to not only this weekend but for every race I've competed in this season. I am only hoping for bigger and better as I am setting myself more goals. This has definitely been the best tri season I’ve ever had with many promising results from numerous races and I am looking forward to what the future hold for my triathlon career.
I would like to thank my Coaches at Front Runner for building my running up over the winter (before I transferred back to running with Eclipse PC), my coach and training mates, as well as my family, who are always pushing me to strive and achieve in everything I do.
Also many apologies im not that great at writing reports, soz
Photo Credit:
Image 1 - Rylea Giles
Image 2 - Stephen Harman
Image 3 - Rylea Giles
Image 4 - Lejo Ouwendyk
As soon as I had set up in T1, I went on to continue completing my run warm up with many activation drills. Following completing that warm up, I went down to the beach to do a swim warm up that consisted of easy swimming, fly (cause I love swimming fly), sprints and some in’s and out’s to measure where I could dive in and where I needed to stop swimming to run out of the water. Finally, the junior girls were called to the start line where we lined up in numerical order and then chose our spots on the starting line. Me being a bit distracted walking over to the start line, I missed the spot I wanted to go to because I was number 31 which meant I did not have first choice as to where I would have wanted to start. I couldn't do much about my positioning, so I just went with it and waited until we were in the starters hands. I think it was a whistle that sounded, but to be honest I couldn't remember because I was in such a tunnel vision and just ran straight into the water. Lacking speed, I was one of the last into the water but I knew that I was a strong enough swimmer to make it up over the 750m swim distance, it took me about 300 or so metres, but I got myself into second place and was just focusing on getting onto Jess Claxton's feet so that I would have someone to ride with in this draft legal event.
I ran into T1 and tried my best to have a speedy transition but as I said before, I’ve been lacking some speed but she’ll be right mate. I ran to the mount line, jumped onto Alan and rode on to complete 6 laps of the bike course. It took me almost a lap before a group caught up to me that I was able to jump on for the remainder of the bike leg. This was also a bit of a technical course, so as I was in a little bit of a red zone following the swim, I basically got dropped about 1.5 laps into the bike leg. The chase pack wasn't far behind me, so I just kept on riding until they caught up to me. After making the classic mistake of being at the back of the group around the acceleration points, I knew that I had to be either first or second wheel in the group in order to not get dropped again. I was definitely hurting a lot on the bike and was doubting myself a little for the run that was soon to follow. After 6 laps, I dismounted in the chase pack, had a little bit of a slow transition, but went onto the run and just kept telling myself to build into it as I knew that if I went out hard, I’d die off pretty quickly. I did build into my pace within the 500m of the run but I felt pretty comfortable running at that pace and if I needed to, I could run faster. I somehow managed to drop people who were sitting on me and also run past people which was a first for me at a national series event because usually I'm the one being dropped. The run was 2 laps of 2.6km and I knew that for the second lap I’d have to pick up the pace. I was hurting a lot but I crossed the line 13th overall at the Glenelg Oceania Triathlon Championships, which was a huge improvement from last years results. It may have not been the top 10 I was hoping for, but I know what I need to improve on for Race 4 of the AJTS in a months time. Following this race, I treated myself to a few vegan pasties as that is one of the reasons why I came to Glenelg ;)
The following day was the Mixed Relay Australian Championships. My Junior mixed team consisted of myself, Elliot Roberts, Abby Ouwendyk and Alec Davison. It was a bit hectic with the unorganised time schedule, but I did my best to make sure I had set everything up in time as well as warm up correctly. As my race was due to start at 10.15am, I was chilling at my hotel for a couple of hours after checking in and setting up my shoes in T2. I got a bit bored, so I headed down to the race venue early to watch the Elite Mixed Teams Relay finish. After some waiting around, I went on to do my usual 2k warm up jog and then proceeded to move down to T1 where I went and did a swim warm up, put my bike into transition and then finished off my swim warm up with a couple of sprints and in’s and out’s. I was the first person in my team to start and I was pretty nervous as it was only a 200m swim (it looked a lot less) and I knew that if I wanted to be first out of the water, I’d need to have a fast swim. We all lined up on the start line and I positioned myself on the far left as I wanted to have plenty of space and not get caught up around people. Once again, due to my lack of speed, I had a bit of a slow start and tried my best to put our team in the best position possible, however I ended up coming about 5th out of the water and did not make it onto the front pack. However I managed to have a speedy transition and rode my heart out to bridge the gap. I caught up to the front group quickly and then went onto pretty much leading the whole bike leg with the rest of the girls sitting on my wheel. I didn't mind leading so much as the bike was only about 6.5km and being the same course as the day prior, I didn't want to get dropped around the acceleration points, instead, I was at the front dropping some major watt bombs and getting some small breakaways on the bike as well as dropping a couple of the girls. I came into transition first, racked Alan, quickly put on my shoes and ran out of T2 with four other girls onto the 1.6km run. I maintained my 5th place position and even though some got a gap on me as they were faster runners, I focused on building into the run and found myself catching back up to 4th place. The run finished at the beach where I changed over to Elliot, following onto Abby and then getting passed onto Alec who was our final athlete. We crossed the line 3rd however as it was the Mixed Relay Australian Championships, we placed 2nd as New Zealand is a different country. Following the relay, I once again treated myself, this time to a burger, nutella slice and pie (all vegan, obvs) before heading on our flight back to Perth later in the evening.
I am happy to say that I have been more than proud of myself and my achievements leading up to not only this weekend but for every race I've competed in this season. I am only hoping for bigger and better as I am setting myself more goals. This has definitely been the best tri season I’ve ever had with many promising results from numerous races and I am looking forward to what the future hold for my triathlon career.
I would like to thank my Coaches at Front Runner for building my running up over the winter (before I transferred back to running with Eclipse PC), my coach and training mates, as well as my family, who are always pushing me to strive and achieve in everything I do.
Also many apologies im not that great at writing reports, soz
Photo Credit:
Image 1 - Rylea Giles
Image 2 - Stephen Harman
Image 3 - Rylea Giles
Image 4 - Lejo Ouwendyk
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