Parlouf Relay Race Report

Race information:

The parlouf relay is an annual race held on the 26th of December each year, at Hyde Park, Perth. This year, the path at Hyde Park was dug up, so it got moved to Perry lakes. This is not an individual race and you have to put down your 5km pb or recent time when you register. To work out who should go with who, the race organisers put the fastest person with the slowest person, then the second fastest person with the second slowest person, and so on. Each team is assigned a letter which is pinned to each team members chest. The race starts and there is a clock that goes up to 30 minutes, and when it gets to 30, the race stops. The winner is the team that has done the most laps and has the most distance into the next lap when the clock gets to 30 minutes. To stop everyone, there is a gun fired which everyone can hear. At the end of each lap, there is a changeover box where you can switch partners every lap. Each lap is 1.2km at Perry Lakes and 800m at Hyde park.

Pre Race:

I woke up at 8am on boxing day, not remembering that the Parlouf relay was on today, I went out and had a big breakfast and then saw my mum and sister dressed in running gear. I assumed they were going to go for a run together. When I finished my breakfast, my mum told me to hurry up and get ready to go. At this point I suddenly remembered that I was going to race today. I got my running clothes on, and strapped up my pinky finger, ring finger, and middle finger on my left hand as I had surgery on it last Tuesday and the doctor said I have to have it strapped up every time I cycle or run. I then got my Garmin 310XT and put it on my wrist. Then I got in the car with a drink bottle and left.

Warm up:

When I arrived at Perry Lakes, I turned on my Garmin and ran an easy lap of the course to make sure I knew where I had to run. My Garmin measured 1.22km. The course consisted of about 300m of grass/sand running and about 900m on road. I then did a couple of dynamic stretches before the start to help me warm up some more. It was around now when all the partners got to meet each other and when I found my partner. I was hoping that I was the slow partner so that my team had a good chance at winning, but with my 5km time of 16:59 and my partners of 24:30, I didn't know how well I would go.

Race:

I got to the start line and had about 2 minutes before the start. When the race started, I had a good start, and got to the front to lead. I was sitting on about 2:58 pace for the first 400m, but then I hit lactic and someone that was just behind me overtook me. I sat behind him for the rest of the lap and we were both sitting on around 3:05 pace. I sat on him until the last 50 meters and then dropped back a little. I came in at 3:56. My partner went out and I though he was going to die off. I had a little drink and kept walking around and 5 minutes later, my partner appeared coming around the corner with about 200m lead. I though this meant I was going to go pretty well. I went out for my second lap a little easier on around 3:20 page and held that until I hit lactic again, and dropped to about 3:30 pace. I managed to hold my lead for the rest of the lap and started lapping some of the back people. I did my second lap in around 4:15. When I came in, I tagged my partner and hoped he did another good run. He came back in around six minutes later and I thought he was still in the lead. The clock said 18 minutes when I changed over and thought I would have another lap after this, so I went out and held a steady 3:30 pace. About 800m in, I caught someone who I though was behind me and realised that I hadn't seen him change over and had overtaken my partner. This got me a little scared. I finished the lap about 50 meters in front of the guy I overtook but the person I went out with on the first lap had caught up. The clock said around 22:30/23 minutes when I came back which gave me around a 4:30 lap. I thought I might be able to get another section of the lap in if my partner came back in time, but I didn't see him. When the clock said 29:30, I could see my parter 200m up the road and the person who I overtook in my last lap, had already taken off. I thought we were in second or third now.

Post race/thanks:

After the race, I ran out to see my partner until the lap recorders got out to us with the measurement tools. When they did get to us, we had a distance of 5 laps and 1.1km. At the presentations, we found out that two more people had got in front and gave us a fourth. Apart from that, I was pretty happy with my effort. I would like to thank my mum for reminding me that there was a race on and taking me there, and my coach, stuart durham for coaching me with my running. I would also like to thank my doctor for making me run with my fingers strapped up.

Telstra Triathlon Series 2012/2013 Race #1 City of Joondalup

Preparation

This morning was the state sprint distance championships, held at Whitfords Nodes Park in Hillarys. I arrived at the venue at 6am. As soon as I got there, I headed up to registration where I got my number (77) and had my body marked. When this was all done, I headed down to transition to find my spot and put my bike and gear down. I then proceeded to ride a lap of the course so I knew the course well and made sure my bike was functioning correctly. When I got back into transition, I put my bike in the correct gear for starting the bike course. I placed my shoes on my bike and put rubber bands on the shoes to keep them in place for when I mounted the bike. I set my towel out and put my run shoes and race belt on it, making sure that there was enough room for me to put my goggles and swim cap after the swim, and helmet after I finished the bike. I then put talcum powder in both my bike shoes and run shoes, so that they would slip on easily in transition. I also put my aero helmet between my aero bars to make it easy to put on in transition. About this time, everyone got told that the water was 21.8°C (71.2°F) and we would not be allowed to use a wetsuit. I continued to set up, resetting my bike computer and making sure my bike was still all in order. After I finished setting up, I looked around to find something that I can spot to help me find my bike when I run into transition. Right next to my bike, was a public announcement speaker which was easy to spot. I also put my tri bag right next to it as a backup. I got into my tri-suit and took my goggles and cap with me, and proceeded to walk through transition to make sure I knew where to go. I then headed down to the beach. I swam out into the ocean about 50m, and came back, and then repeated for my warm up. I then moved to the start line, and got ready to start.

Race

Swim:

The horn went at 8:04am, and we all dove into the water. It was a beach start so we had a little run before we dove in. My wave consisted of the open and junior athletes in the pursuit. There was about 50 metres out to the first buoy and turned left. I was sitting in with the main pack for this first part. As soon as we turned the buoy, I started to drop off the main pack. I realised that I was leading the next pack and this pushed me to go a little harder. We swam south for a couple of hundred metres before turning west and heading a bit out to sea more. We then turned north about 50 metres further out and swam back up a couple of hundred metres. Along this back straight, I encountered a few stingers and got stung about seven times. This was annoying but something I had to put up with and just swim through. When I reached the next buoy, we turned east back into shore. I when my hands hit the ground, I did three dolphin dives before I could easily stand up. I ran up the beach and over the dunes which was really tough as the sand was very soft. I crossed the timing mat at 11 minutes and 30 seconds which was a decent time for me. I ran into transition and found my bike, using the speaker that I found before. I put my goggles and cap down and put my helmet on, and then proceeded out onto the bike course. 

Cycle:

I did a flying mount and took off. I managed to get my right shoe in properly, and had a little bit of trouble with my left shoe. When I was going out onto the bike course, I heard a spectator say that I was 45 seconds behind Cambell Smith, another very good triathlete, who went through the swim in 10 minutes and 51 seconds. He was the only junior in front of me at the time. I headed north along the bike course, through the round about and over the hill, and then I got to the turn around. I saw Cambell coming the other way and counted to see how many seconds I needed to catch up. I was still at about 45 seconds. I headed south, back towards transition and got to the turn around at the transition end. I counted again and I was about 40 seconds back this time. I headed north again onto my second of three laps, and by now, some of the good cyclists, that weren't very good at swimming, had caught me and come passed me. There was one that was going a little faster than me and I decided to pace off him. I sat around 15 metres behind him and kept his pace and didn't let him get away. By the time I got to the northern turn around again, I was around thirty seconds behind Cambell. I headed south again, and overtook the cyclist that I was trying to keep up with. I stayed out the front until Matt Illingworth came passed and the other cyclist went with him. I had to up the speed a little to keep up. When I got to the southern turn around, I did not see Cambell and didn't get to count. I headed up north again for my last lap, and overtook the cyclist again and rode a bit harder to catch up to Cambell. At the next turn around, I counted 13 seconds and really tried to catch Cambell before the end of the bike. I caught up to him around three quarters of the way back and made sure he did not pass me back. I dismounted the bike at 45:37 which gave me a bike time of 34:07. Cambell was close behind me, dismounting at 45:38. My bike computer gave me these results: Distance, 20.74km. Time, 32:16. Average speed, 38.58km/h. Maximum speed, 50.27km/h. Average Cadence, 107. I placed my bike in the rack, took my helmet off and put on my shoes and tightened them up, then ran out of transition.

Run

I entered the run course with Cambell Smith right with me, and headed north along the foot path. There was an aid station and 1km out and 2.4km out. I ran to the first drink station with Cambell still with me, and looked at my watch. It hit exactly four minutes at the drink station. I took one cup and poured it over myself. Cambell was still with me at this point and I was starting to think of tactics to use on the way back to drop him, otherwise I would have had a sprint finish. I was thinking of putting in a few surges to try and drop him after the turn around, and then thinking if he was still with me for a sprint finish to go at a point where he was distracted and I would have an upped edge on him. We got to the second aid station where I dunk a little and poured the rest of the water over me. I picked up the pace a little bit and ran the rest of the way to the turn around. When I turned around, I realised Cambell was  having trouble sticking with me and started to fall off. My watch said I was at 9:30 at the turn around which was 2.5km out. I held a steady pace on the way back, and kept looking to make sure Cambell wasn't going to catch me. I was very scared incase he kicked and caught up to me. I poured water over me at both the drink stations on the way back and caught one person after the last drink station. I picked up the pace to make sure they wouldn't overtake me again. I was really hurting at this point and just kept going to the finish. I crossed the line and stopped my watch and I had a 9:31 split back which shows I held an even pace all the way. My final time was 1 hour, four minutes and zero seconds. Cambell came in 33 seconds behind me and got second. 

Cool Down/Recovery

After the race, I got some food and water, then immediately went and got a massage. After this, I went for an easy run with some of the other competitors and the went down to the beach and stood in the water for a couple of minutes to cool down. After this, I went back to the transition and got my bike and had it rolled out as it is a requirement for state team entry that the gears are locked out to 6.5 metres.

Review

I was extremely happy with this race. I placed first in my age group and 7th fastest out of the open. This is one of my best races I have done and last one for the year. I hope next year I will be able to do even better!

Junior Pursuit podium - Photo by Dennis Tan

Well done to all the other athletes that competed today, especially Cambell Smith who pushed me to my limits in the last part of the bike and run. I would like to thank my parents for getting me down to the event, my swim coach, Mark Brown and my triathlon coach, Stuart Durham.

Have a look at Cambell's report here.