Pre race:
I arrived at Champion Lakes at 6am on the morning of the 12th of January, 2013. I was very excited as it was the morning of the first draft legal race I have done. I was not expecting the best race as I had only started swim training four days ago, after having three weeks off due to an operation on my finger. I kept up my running and cycling training but still did not feel the best I could be in all three sports. I walked my bike over to the island in the middle of Champion Lakes and almost lost my bike into the water a couple of times due to the 18kt wind blowing my bike around. I met up with my great mate Cambell Smith and decided to do a little bike warm up. We rode a single lap around the course and immediately realized it was going to be a tough windy course. When we got back, we put our bikes away and went for a little warm up jog, and watched some of the other juniors compete in the enticer and pursuit events. We jogged about two km's before proceeding to rack our bikes in the open transition. I then set up my bike and made sure everything was in place for when I came in from the swim and bike, and then double checked everything. I then walked through transition so I knew where to go when I came in there. When I had finished, the briefing started for open and that went for about five minutes. I then had my gatorade and strapped up my finger as that was what my doctor told me to do. I then jumped into the water and went for a little warm up swim before the start. I moved out to the deep water start line and moved to the far left so that I could protect my finger on my left hand as a big enough knock could make me permanently loose it.
Swim:
The horn went off and I started swimming to try and get into a good position where I could draft off someone but not get any serious knocks to my hand at the same time. I managed to sit on Aaron Richardson's feet and he kept up with the main group for the first half, then it started stretching out and we dropped off a little bit. I sat behind him for the rest of the swim and got out of the water at the same time as him. We went through transition together and jumped on the bike at the same time. My swim time was 11:57.
Cycle:
As soon as I mounted the bike, I put my feet in my shoes and overtook Aaron as he was still getting his feet in, and I led out for almost a km and then Aaron did a turn. We kept rolling over and on the second lap, caught sight of Stuart Denton. Aaron made a suggestion that we try and catch him when I rolled over and then I picked up the pace to catch him. We started doing shorter, but faster turns until we caught up to him just after the turnaround at the end of the second lap. Just before we got onto the back straight of the last lap, Stuart suggested that he would ride into the wind for us so that we were fresh for the run, as he was going to pull out at the end of the cycle. Aaron and I sat behind him for the rest of the lap, and then overtook him and dismounted. Aaron and I both had a quick transition and then went out onto the run. I averaged 37.7 for the 19.9km cycle.
Run:
I sat on Aaron for the first 500m, and got to the turn around. Aaron took the turn around a bit better than I did and pulled away from me a bit, and then I couldn't catch up to him. About half way back, I started getting a stomach cramp, which I ran through at first, but it soon started slowing me down. I got to the turn around of the first lap of the 1km loop with a time of 3:45 for that lap. I went out onto my second lap and tried to hold an even pace. I got out to the turn around at around 1:50, and came back to 4 minutes flat. For the next two laps, I held exactly the same pace, varying by less than two seconds each lap, and then got onto the final lap. I tried to pick up the pace a little to see if I could catch anyone. I went through 500m in around 1:55 and tried to go a bit faster on the way back. I came through the finish line which is 50-100m further than the turn around point in 4:08, which gave me a 19:52 run.
Post race:
After the race finished, I drunk two bottles of water and immediately went down to the water to cool down. Cambell Smith, Stuart Denton and I all sat in the water for about 5 minutes before getting out and clearing up transition. I finished 12th in 1:04:05, about 6:20 behind the leader. I did not expect to go very well, but I though I would go a bit better than I did. I would like to thank my coach Stuart Durham and swim coach Mark Brown for preparing me for the race. I would also like to thank my parents for the support and trievents for letting me race in the open category.
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