Race Report: Balmoral Tri Club Race

Club Race 


So after Chicago I ate a lot of lollies, did a bit of training and caught up on study.

But the lure of racing and the fact I have a couple of triathlons coming up in November meant that I was back out there most mornings, still enjoying the training.

It was decided that I would go and have a crack at the Balmoral Club Race, which I have never done before.

It is down on Middle Head Road, with a swim out of Obelisk Beach (it's a nudist beach.....hehe) and a run around Middle Head.

At the start there were about five of us eyeing each other off.

Derek, who had recently qualified for the 70.3 Ironman Worlds.

Jack, who is a bit of a lone wolf (i.e. he doesn't listen to anyone).

French bloke, who has a french sounding name but I didn't bother learning it because we were too busy staring him down.

Cam Dinnie, who we knew would demolish the bike course.

And me, god knows what the others thought of me.

The start of the swim was at a new level of intensity. There were 7 of us off at the front powering away, and the first buoy was approaching.

If you can picture a group of 7 thrashing bodies in the water, trying to squeeze into a gap to take the quickest line to the buoy, it doesn't work.

Paul Bethell, who wisely decided not to join in our childish games at the start, took the lead.

I decided to use my considerable bulk and act as a barge. I surged next to the buoy, stopped, pivoted like a slow moving submarine and swam on. This not only forced the people behind me into my legs, but it slowed them down......LOL!

But someone had snuck through my barge tactics and it was none other than Bruce Thomas, one of the oldest men in the field (kidding, but what a hero) and his left arm hit me in the head a couple of times on the way past. Justice, I suppose.

Jack had decided in his infinite wisdom that he would follow me and tap, tap, tap away at my feet. I felt like a mother duck leading her baby duckling through the water. 

We jumped out of the water in 5th and 6th place respectively and tried to run up the very steep, very distressing stairs to the transition.

The bike course is hair-raising because it is six laps of what could be described as a roller coaster. Speed humps, pot holes and nearly 60 athletes.

We bunched up at the front, with all five of us jostling for a good position on the first lap.

As we headed downhill I stood up to stamp my pedals to try and pass Cam but at that moment several things seemed to happen.

My wheel hit something, my tyre blew up, my chain slipped off and all that momentum flipped me up and over the handlebars and into the road.

Richard, also doing his first Balmoral triathlon, would text me later and say "I was just starting my first bike lap and you flipped right in front of me across to the other side of the road. I was about to stop but you got up and threw your waterbottle into the ground, so I knew you were OK".


A crash is a weird thing because you don't really know what has happened. One second you are riding, the next you are flying and then your body is screaming in pain and blood is everywhere.

My first impulse was anger, because I had positioned myself perfectly for the race and I knew I was done and dusted.

My second impulse was to see if my beautiful bike was OK. The front tyre was absolutely shot, the inner tube had literally exploded.

My last impulse was to to check to see if I had busted anything (I am still checking).

I did the walk of shame back to the start line, with help from a couple of volunteers (thanks Chrissie Thomas!) and made sure I got some good photos of my bloodied back to go on my new instagram account.

Derek finished off a smart race by running to victory, with Cam in second and Jack in third.

Well done to all the Balmoral tri club racers, it was a beautiful morning to race!

Hopefully my bad luck at my recent triathlons stops, and I can get back in time for the Triple Tri in Canberra (Team HMAS Friendship) and Huski Sprint. 

Race Report: Chicago Blues

The Finale 

So sadly, this race became less about competing and more about survival.

I still had a nasty virus that had given me the flu, a fever and a cough and with minimal sleep I was struggling badly the morning of the race.

I did a little run warm-up at the start and was struggling to 'suck em in' (I couldn't breathe), which is not ideal going into the most competitive field I had competed in.

So this meant I would have to be a little smarter in how I went about this race, which is not my usual approach (my usual approach is to go all guns blazing and see how it goes).

The start of the swim was lightning quick. We were in the A-group and I parked myself at the back and tried to breathe. The water was beautiful except I kept swimming through lots of seaweed, which tickled my feet.

During such a competitive swim, people are very very aggressive in the water. They will rip at your ankles, swim over the top of you and try to use you as an ironing board. Luckily I am too big to be moved around, so generally I am the one who glides over the top of smaller, weaker swimmers.

I jumped out in 22 minutes, which I was happy with and proceeded to run the 3 minutes into transition (yeah 3 minutes, WTF). In prior races I've gotten so excited that I've finished swimming that I'll break into a full on sprint and blow myself up in the space of 2 minutes. Luckily, because I was being smarter, and I physically couldn't run hard, I ambled into transition and onto my bike.

The bike course was unusual in that it traversed a number of tunnels and underground areas, which is also where they filmed a lot of the Batman chase scenes. While this made me happy that I was following the Batmobile, I couldn't breathe very well for the first couple of K, and the thought of pulling the pin entered my head. Yet I recovered, and proceeded to have a decent ride (I think it was very short, but aw well).

Now the run. I had actually put myself in a position for a decent overall time if I could churn out my usual 37 minute 10k (with a goal of 36minutes pre-sickness into the race).

Yet it was hot, and that whole breathing thing was really affecting me (who would have thought?), so I was on struggle street for the last 7k.

What do you think about when you are battling hardcore, well below what you can and should have achieved and feeling pretty shitty? Honestly, in the back of your head you want to stop. Put an end to the madness and pack it in.

I had a couple of songs that I was rotating through my head (I was trying to pump myself up with Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio, which you can listen to above, but to no avail).

I was also really keen to go back to bed and finish watching Kill Bill, and it helps having the support crew (Mum, Dad and Fiona) madly cheering and looking on with great concern as I slowly fell apart in front of them.

So overall I was pretty disappointed with how I went, with an overall time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, which is 7 or 8 minutes off my PB and nearly 10 minutes off my goal time for the race. Yet I was happy and proud that I had gotten through a race feeling like I did, and with a truly terrible 2 or 3 day preparation.

What's next? Have a couple of weeks off, cos my body is hurting and then gear up for a couple of triathlons in November.

Thanks for reading, I hope it gives an insight into the life of a friendly triathlete.

Luv,

Murray

The Good News and the Bad News

IT IS TIME


So there is good news and there is bad news.

The good news is that after months and months of training and waiting, race day is tomorrow!

But there is bad news. I've picked up an infection this week, probably from a lack of sleep and the travel. I've been stuck in bed with a fever and a bad cold the last day and a half, trying to sleep and recover.

So unfortunately, I feel about 80% and am honestly worried about what will happen on race day if I try to over-reach myself. I know that as soon as I hit that start line I will be a competitive ass-hole and race as hard as I can but in this current state I have no idea what will happen.

And the second piece of bad news is that it has been raining the last couple of days and the race committee may cancel the swim and make it a duathlon, which would see the race start with a 3k run and then go to the 40k ride and 10k run.

While this would have appealed to 100% healthy, competitive Murray it is making sick, tired and shitty Murray feel anxious.


(This is obviously not a photo from Chicago but it sums up how I'm feeling at the moment)

I still hope that I will wake up tomorrow and feel better, but if not I will just have to get on with it and deal with the situation the best I can.

I'll chuck up a race report tomoz but until then, goodnye!

xo

Post-Airplane Ride --- The Jet-Lag sets in

Jet LAG! 


So it's Wednesday morning in Chicago and we've been here a grand total of a day and a half.

The flight was relatively fun. Watched some very good movies but didn't sleep, so by the time I got into Chicago in the afternoon after 18 hours of travel, I was pretty wrecked.

Tuesday was spent in a daze as the dreaded jet lag took ahold of me. I wanted to sleep but I COULDN"T!!!!

So Tuesday became a bit of a write off. Went for a little jog around the Lake, which is goddam beautiful by the way. My legs are really tight and sore from the plane, which is a bit worrying and it has made me incredibly grumpy, but it will hopefully pull up well in the next day or two.

We are staying in these amazing apartments overlooking the lake and the race course. I will most likely take a photo and post it up but I cannot be bothered as of yet.

The path by the lake is full of triathletes who have come for the race. Over 6,000 people have shipped in and some of the bikes that are on display are absolutely ridiculous. It sort of becomes like a little parade, where everyone is sizing each other up.... peacocking, if you will.

We are going to do a couple of architectural tours in the next couple of days and roam the city. It's hard because I want to relax and get ready for the race but I also want to check out the surrounding area. A Catch-22 if I ever saw one.

Went for a gentle swim this arvo with Chris Hislop from Balmoral Tri Club. Here are our photos!

So hopefully everything comes good in the next couple of days. Our age-group is split into two starting groups and I've managed to snag a spot with the A-team, which I think is the faster heat, which will be interesting. 

I will bang up a post on race day and then a race report! 

Until then 

hex hoe 

The Airport, Farewell and a Surprise?

Adios Amigos


So I made it to the airport this morning, bike packaged up and ready to go.

My taxi driver explained to me that his plan when he hit 80 would be to rob a bank, wait for the cops to arrive and then spend the rest of his life in what he considered to be luxury in prison.


Am I an accessory?


Moving on, I did my last couple of training sessions on the weekend.

It's an awkward stage because you want to be going hard but at the same time, you don't want to hurt yourself, your bike or your ego.


So fronting up to the final session on Sunday morning, I felt a mixture of relief and enormous fear! (Like this clip from Ice Age)



After I successfully navigated the minefield that can be the final hard session, I returned home to begin some Sunday morning gorging.

However, my numerous attempts to start on multiple helpings of muesli, toast and fruit were halted by Camilla and Sagar (housemate, friend and king of the Curry Rolls), who were trying to throw me a wonderful surprise brunch.

Unfortunately, one of our friends (she who shall not be named and shamed......Ellen) had given the game away on Saturday night, and the constant stream of friends coming into the house at 10am for no real reason raised some questions. Also when Matt "Activities" Coulton walked in and said "Happy surprise brunch"........



So while I wasn't completely surprised, it was a great way to see everyone and eat a lot of good food.



Back to the airport! What's the plan for the flight? Watch a lot of movies and try to relax and enjoy the long day of travel.

I managed to charm the absolute shit out of the Qantas lady at the check-in desk, who gave me an aisle seat in the emergency exit row. Which for a lanky, long-limbed larry like myself, is very very very exciting.


I'll get into Chicago on Monday afternoon, and then the preparation begins!

Until then.

Ex oh

Hello, Goodbye....Chicago!!!!

Welcome 

Hello and welcome!


This will be my blog for the next week as I, Murray Robertson, go to Chicago for the Triathlon Age-Group World Champs.

So needless to say, I'm fairly excited.

I've been training for this race for nearly a year. I had to qualify to get invited, so I went to Townsville, Brisbane, Wollongong and Canberra to do Olympic Distance races (1.5k swim, 40k ride and 10k run) and accumulate enough points.


Obviously I got enough points but not without some high-end, soap opera drama.


At the Canberra race I had come out of the water in 6th or 7th place overall, and stayed there for the ride.


It was a 4 lap bike course, and coming to what I thought was the end of the bike section, I called over to Mum, Dad, Fiona (my sister) and Camilla (the Girlfren) to check that this really was the end.

"HOW MANY LAPS TO GO!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

I was confused, (and I look confused, caught in the act) because my Garmin was telling me I had only done 30k, so I should have one lap left......... So I did another lap. An extra lap, as it turned out (the course was very short).

Coming into the run, I saw people who I had been beating were now miles ahead of me.

This meant that I spent most of the run passing people and then politely asking them how many bike laps they had done.

I finished and realised my mistake.... Luckily I wasn't the only one who made such a rookie error. But still, words were said and hands were waved around.... and we move on.

My training has been really good. I've had a couple of injury scares (hamstring and calf problems) but they have been managed and obliterated.

I'm almost ready to leave and with only 8 days to race, I'm pretty  scared but raring to go.

I'll do updates each day on how Chicago is, what is going on and my daily activities.

Until then!


ex oh


P.S I got a write up in my Tri club's (Balmoral Tri Club) newsletter, you can check that out herrrreeeeeee