Today saw me hit out on my first Kurnell Triathlon down on the shores of Botany Bay. It’s far away, so far that you might say that’s Far Kurnell (seriously, you might want to say that bit out loud).
Getting up at 5am to go do a race is a real bitch, but it’s nothing compared with getting up at 4am. Especially when one is a tad stiff and sore from all the classes I’d been doing with my fave Central Coast boot camp mob over the weeks leading up to it. I wasn’t sure on how long it would take to drive down – especially since the Harbour Bridge was closed for resurfacing – so I thought I’d give it a fair margin on hooning down through Ryde, Homebush, Hurstville and a stop at McDonalds Caringbah to pinch a loaf (TMI?)
I got to Far Kurnell in plenty of time, and was able to register and transition prep in plenty of time. This was my first triathlon since the Huskisson Olympic Distance several months prior, so getting ready should have been no big difference. It wasn’t. It went really smoothly. Now that I think about it, this whole train of thought is a huge waste of time so I may as well move on to the actual race.
The Pro Tour kids took off first, and it was amazing to watch how fast some of these triathletes move through the water, and virtually sprint up to transition. A couple of these were from Newcastle triathlon coaching crew Tri Nova, so I had a quick chat to this client of mine who was down watching them before heading to the bay to hit the water. My wave was dead last at 8:10, so there was plenty of time to have a quick warmup swim before lining up at the start.
Although there were one or two people who were lining up as if they were about to take part in a 100m dash, most of the guys in my wave were just happy hanging back and relaxing before the siren went off 5 mins after the last gal wave.
We hit the water, and although I was one of the few guys who was not wearing a wetsuit, I am not so modest to say I was quite proud of the fact I was able to match it and even outdo many of them. The benefits of being a good swimmer, and just a bugger that the swim only makes up a very small part of an overall triathlon! I clambered out of the water in about 13:30, then a bit of a 1 minute slog up into transition to where my bike was waiting.
This was the first triathlon or multisport event I had done on my new bike – a 29 inch mountain bike with road tyres and aerobars that I had bought from Central Coast Cycles a few months prior. I hit the road and although a couple of serious insects were able to pass me I found myself passing other riders as we headed out through Botany Bay National Park and past some incredibly picturesque bits of coastline.
Did I mention it was an overcast and drizzly morn? If not, it’s probably worth mentioning that it was a somewhat overcast and drizzly morn, and heading back towards the township or Kurnell and then along Captain Cook Drive towards Cronulla there was a light but steady downpour. As I pedalled along water from the road was being flicked up into my eyes by the tyres. This in itself would not be a huge problem, but I am pretty sure that each droplet of water contained oodles of road grit, and as a result I spent most of the ride feeling like I had to keep rubbing said grit out. At the turnaround before heading back to Kurnell, I grabbed my Camelbak Podium waterbottle and not only took a squirt for my thirsty little body but also squirted out my eyes which helped immeasurably.
I arrived back at transition in just under 37 minutes (31.3km/h) – not back for a hack on a mountain bike who used to max out at around 34km/h on a Cervelo P2 when he took this triathlon thing relatively seriously and actually trained!
Off on the run I went – a three lap trek around a 1.6km circuit. This was about half on grass and half on a concrete path, but fortunately for me the concrete path had nice grassy sections beside it so as a result I was able to trot along in my Vibrams just nicely. Now recently I had been able to track along at maybe 5:30min/km, but this day I was able to crack 4:59km/h so I was somewhat chuffed at this.
So after three laps on the run, I crossed the line in just over 1:20. Rough breakdowns are as follows
750m swim – 13:30 (3.3km/hr average)
T1 – 3 minutes
20km bike ride – 37:00 (31.3km/hr average)
T2 – 2 minutes
5km run – 24:00 (4:50min/km average)
Average Heart Rate – 153BPM
Freddo Frogs burnt – 13.5
Full race breakdown for the two people who will actually care are online at Garmin Connect
