City of Perth Challenge 2009 - Olympic Distance Triathlon

Today I competed in my first Olympic distance triathlon. What is an Olympic distance tri - well it is 1.5km swim, 40km bike followed by a 10km run. It was a complex day with strange timings for the event such as mandatory registration and briefing the day before from 5pm - 7:15pm and then having to put your gear in transition in the morning before 7PM when the 40-44 age group wave start was 9:20am (last group) - it meant a lot of waiting around and this did play on the mind a little.

Anyway the weather was expected to be 38deg which is very high when competing later in the morning. However there was an easterly wind and cloud cover which seemed to keep the temp down a little mind you at the end of the run it was getting very hot.

Interestingly enough this event was a National series event and many of the competitor were the racing elite from around the country. I was chatting to people from Tas, Vic and Qld before and after the event. It was interesting to see how fast some of these guys race and I did have a lot of difficulty in keeping up.

The swim was in the Swan river just in front of the city and I must say the river water was very dirty and not the most pleasant to swim in. The ride was a good course in some sections a little narrow however mainly flat (the head wind was the only negative). The run was flat pleasant with views of the city and river to take the pain away a little.

THE MAIN PROBLEM FOR ME WAS A PUNCTURE IN THE REAR TYRE OF THE BIKE AT THE 20KM TURN AROUND. This cost me at least 5-6 mins and also put my head in the wrong place for the event and my times did suffer significantly, being that the bike is my favourite leg. Regardless of this I made the change as fast as I could and hoped I did not get another as I am only prepared to make one change in an event such as this. The puncture was caused by a safety pin (as used by competitors to fasten their race numbers), so I guess someone's number came off and the pins separated, then I ran over it - I know this as the pin was sticking out of the tyre when I stopped to change it. Ah bugger - but then again that is racing and it will happen one day or another, I hope that is the end of these issues for the rest of the season.

On to my times:
Swim 28:10, Overall Pos: 642, Category Pos: 61, Speed: 18:46
T1 2:00, Overall Pos: 714, Category Pos: 65
Cycle 1:11:47 (inc Flat), Overall Pos 662, Category Pos: 68, Speed 33.4
T2 1:14, Overall Pos: 679, Category Pos: 62
Run 52:09, Overall Pos: 722, Category Pos: 68, Speed: 5:12

There were 80 males in the category and overall 972 in the Olympic distance event.

So my times were not as good as hoped but hey I finished and had a good time, so onto the next event - Point Walter Olympic Distance in two weeks.