Triathlon

2012 Noosa Triathlon

October 30, 2012 Jon.Gooding Leave a comment

I have never been a fan of Triathlons, namely due to 2 reasons – the 1st is I can’t swim and the 2nd is that the standard course and lack of surprise in the day. I can see where it suits some people, but it’s not for me. I have been doing general training with a good bunch of guys who have the Tri focus, and the pinnicle of Tri’s, being the Noosa one. So last year I got a last minute request from a friend that he had a spare spot, so I thought I would give it a shot.

I won’t bore you with the training history, but I love to ride and run but can’t swim. Even up to the event, I still hadn’t EVER done over 1.2KM in the pool, and when I did that it took me 45 minutes.

I had also completed the cycle leg a few times (even on the mountain bike) and the run leg a couple of times as well, so I knew 2/3 of the course relatively well.

So given the above, I started the event, probably made 30m in freestyle, but then did the rest of the swim leg in BREAST STROKE. Slow and steady, with wave after wave of swimmers from ‘waves’ after me overtaking me (often swimming over me) – with the occasional lifeguard asking if I was ok – which I was. It was just soo slow! Getting out of the water I knew I would be in pain going in the upcoming legs, but I was stoked as in my mind I had competed 90% of the event with the swim completed.

The ride was standard – a bit wet, but hard with my quads absolutely burning from the swim, and the run was also painful, but completed in an ok time.

So happy to have completed this in my targeted under 3 hours and happy to say I probably won’t be back in a hurry, unless someone needs a spare cyclist or runner.

Triathlons

2012 Nissan Corporate Triathlon – Gold Coast

May 31, 2012 Jon.Gooding Leave a comment

Heading down the the Gold Coast at 4.30am for a 1 hour event is never a good idea of fun, but I guess it’s better than the night before. Even leaving at 4.30am, we were pushed to make the bike compound cut-off, but all good. Team this year was Tim Waggett, myself and Haydon Gunn – Team Wagtec!

Tim was the first round, and not feeling too good, from a bug of some sort, we were all skeptical if he would even complete. But he was off in the the first round of the event and as we waited for him to come, we saw Chris Thompson (Zero7) coming through. Knowing that Tim was in the same wave, I thought I’d head to the transition point. Unfortunately for Tim, he was faster than we all thought and had completed his leg, but I neglected to make it to the transition area before him – so unfortunately for us it was one of those occasions where normally we all laugh at the transition where someone doesn’t show it, and this time it was me! Erp Sorry Wags… Anyway I ran to the transition point, got the ankle band and took off for the water, putting on my gear as I entered the water – not the lead in I wanted. Fortunately the tide was still out and the 400m run was really only 300? so that was great. Still had to breast stroke the last 100 (got to work on that). The ride leg was good fun – finally on a bike that doesn’t have knobbies and suspension – and it made a great improvement. The run was also fine – although was getting warm but the 5kms was a nice lap around the spit. Hand over to Haydon was fine and he did well to finish in his usual fast time…

A good event to catchup with the guys and have a bit of exercise and a yatala pie on the way home. Still not sure if the 1 hour event is worth the 10 hour commitment…but I’ll probably return next year.

Triathlons