2009 Triple Triathlon

I thought the triple tri would be fun to finally do solo and also a great day out in pace management and training for Jindabyne. Thus I decided to enter solo this year. All was going pretty well, I bought myself a wetsuit, I timed myself on some long hilly runs and got comfortable on them again, I worked on my bike form a bit more so I was not only relying on my cycling base. Then last Tuesday afternoon after a good lake swim at lunch with Julie, I started feeling rather sick in the afternoon at work. By 4:30pm I had to leave work and go fall into bed for two days of rest. Back at work and not feeling great on Friday.

I decided that if I could get on the bike and do some hard efforts without struggling due to illness on Saturday morning I would still compete and simply pace myself slower than I had planned to. However Saturday morning came and I had nothing near top end or hard efforts in my body. I had to pull the pin on going solo this year. Prachar has very kindly let me hold my entry over until Jindabyne. I remember how sick I was for weeks after the 2008 Jindabyne race, I then seemed to get sick more often during the year than I normally do. (this cold I have right now is my first cold for 2009) I did not want to repeat that experience and being unable to do anything energetic for weeks.

So having realised I was not going to be able to compete this year, and taking into account the expected scorching hot weather, I decided to follow the race, and notably a few of my solo friends all day with a camera and an esky full of ice and lots of water to cool them off with. This is what I did, and the photos below are those I managed to get during the day.

fullsize Bobxor said his mtb was in pieces so he had to ride the single speed cyclocross bike for the two bike legs (this and leg 2) he was doing. It didn't slow him down, he did 1h41m on this one and 2h8m on leg 2. fullsize Waiting for the first solo swimmmer to come out of the glassy smooth lake. fullsize Here he comes, with a big gap to the pack behind him. fullsize His name is Nathan, he did the first triathlon pretty damn fast too. fullsize Waiting for the first pack of solo swimmers. fullsize Alex leading the pack out of the water. fullsize Next solo followed by Gary. fullsize The eventual winner of the day, Klayten on the beach. fullsize Steve out of the water. fullsize John on the beach. fullsize Danielle on the support crew side of a race helping Gary. fullsize Sal and Alex. fullsize Dave being helped by Christina's sister Wendy while Christina did the first swim. fullsize If you look closely to may even get hints as to why Baldilocks once was nicknamed Big Red. fullsize Gary heading out for bike leg 1. fullsize Alex on his way out. fullsize Julie finishing the swim. fullsize Out of the water fullsize And already working on one of her traditional lightning fast transitions. fullsize Julie's parents Phil and Dawn as support crew helping her transition. fullsize On the bike, I reckon in about half the time of all the guys. fullsize Davo waiting to start his 13th triple tri, the only competitor to have done every edition of the race. fullsize Anne waiting for leg 1, as is Cassie on the right. fullsize Nathan, who led out of the swim still out in front. fullsize Peter, who eventually finished third climbing the easier top section of Push Bike Hill. fullsize Still riding. fullsize Alex on his way up the first really nasty hill of the day. fullsize Gary sitting behind Alex. fullsize Alex still riding, steep climbs take a fair amount of bike handling skill to stay on. fullsize Gary got off to push up this section for a bit. fullsize Though you can ride this entire section, Alex and Gary are probably doing the right thing, I know my HR goes over 170 to stay on the bike all the way up here. fullsize John on his way up. fullsize Eventual winner Klayten pacing himself early on. fullsize Blurry photo of some more solos. fullsize Less Blurry, Klayten also is walking here. fullsize Nice light bikes like this help a lot when you have to haul them up this hill. fullsize Steve approaching with Pete in the background. fullsize Yes this hill is hard work fullsize Pete hauling his rather light bike up here too. fullsize Baldilocks. fullsize wearing stay cool arm covers, Julie and Dave said they stopped the arms feeling too much heat from the sun, and when damp were rather cool. fullsize This is the steepest section of Push Bike Hill here. fullsize First team coming through, Jason (holder of the solo course record) doing three bikes in a three man team. fullsize Another soloist. fullsize Julie on her way up. fullsize Riding a bit even though it is still frighteningly steep. fullsize Davo and Nathan on their way up. fullsize Even though they just passed Julie she is hopping on to ride, obviouslty tougher than these two. fullsize Davo's team finished 3rd over all, and 2nd mens team of 3, Nathan's team finished 4th over all and 1st mixed team of 3. fullsize Julie on another steep section. fullsize Dave at the top of Black mountain. fullsize Chowing down before the descent. fullsize Davo dragging Nathan along. I wonder if Nathan is beginning to discover why there is a facebook group called "Dave Osmond is a Prick of a man He cause's way too much pain!" and he is alwise smilling while doing it too. fullsize Julie approaching the summit. fullsize Looking calm and collected, as she did for the entire day. fullsize Gary coming past in the first team of 9. fullsize Nathan still in the lead for solos at Dryandra St. fullsize Peter. fullsize Alex fullsize Jason fullsize Gary having a fantastic race. fullsize Davo and Nathan again. fullsize Not the fastest place to cross this fence. fullsize Another solo. fullsize John, showing you do not need more than a middle chain ring on the bike for this race... fullsize Gary had checked out the course and knew the fastest place the cross the fence fullsize Pete fullsize Steve also knew where to cross.

fullsize Steve settled into a pace he could maintain, he knew it was going to get hot in the middle of the day. fullsize Still smiling too. fullsize Dave fullsize was also fullsize smiling fullsize And Julie was fullsize never very far fullsize behind. fullsize Nuru heading up Majura on run leg 1. fullsize Gary in transtion fullsize About to put in a fairly solid run. fullsize Sub 2 hours is not sitting around on this leg. fullsize Gary doing all three run legs today for the second place mixed team of three. fullsize John coming in to transition. fullsize Nathan chatting to Jane and Tim, Jane had some bike shop caused bad luck with her bike on this first leg too, good to see she could still smile. fullsize Baldilocks. fullsize Following the while line, though Dave knows the course pretty well so was unlikely to get confused when arrows were scarce. fullsize Steve fullsize holding his pace. fullsize Gary approaching transtion. fullsize Looking comfortable after putting in a very fast first triathlon. fullsize Chasing Danielle to the transtion. fullsize Changinig and eating before the long swim. fullsize In his wetsuit. fullsize Walking into the water fullsize and on his way toward Acton. fullsize Ben showing his pain face finishing the long run. fullsize Christina helping Dave transition. fullsize About to get wet again. fullsize In the water fullsize and on his way. fullsize John in transition. fullsize And heading in to the water fullsize A nice long swim to Acton now. fullsize Julie running in. fullsize Trevor rocked up to help Julie's parents do support, his wife had their second child 6 weeks ago so he had not been able to get out and train for racing solo, after winning for 4 years in a row he had to have a break. fullsize Julie walking into the lake fullsize And swimming toward Acton. fullsize Steve running to transition. fullsize Managing the heat as well as he can. fullsize In his wetsuit fullsize walking into the lake fullsize And off swimming for a while. fullsize Libby finishing her run. fullsize Sam looking like she went through some pain just like Ben to get through this run. Funny isnt it, whenever they palm their three girls off on someone else for some time they go out and try to hurt themselves a lot. fullsize Alex in transition, I unfortunately had not yet noticed how blurry the lens was on my camera. fullsize Mark, Celia, Selina, Heather and Jules had all rocked up to give Alex a hand too. fullsize Off he goes for the hottest leg of the day. fullsize Danielle coming in in the kayak after accompanying Gary for half of the long swim leg. fullsize Gary doing a head check. fullsize And finishing the long swim. As tall as he is I am sure he could have started walking earlier. fullsize I am sure he is glad to have the swim done with, I know I would have been. fullsize Peeling off the wetsuit. fullsize Dave in transition. fullsize And off on the bike. fullsize Pete into transition. fullsize John using the lake water to cool off a bit before starting the long hot bike leg. fullsize Julie about to hit the shore. fullsize Finishing her swim fullsize and about to head out on the bike, having transitioned so fast I blinked and missed it. fullsize Julie on the move, Paul in the foreground was doing all three bike legs today too. fullsize John heading out in the heat. fullsize Libby waiting for the tag from Sue who is getting out of the water. fullsize Getting tagged fullsize And heading on out for a strong bike leg of 2h19m in the heat. fullsize Dave finishing the bike leg. fullsize And heading up for a run over Mt Taylor. fullsize It is as hot as it looks, Dave's hat is filled with ice.

fullsize Julie in transition. fullsize And running toward Mt Taylor, lovely big straw hat to keep the sun off. fullsize John coming off the bike leg. fullsize And heading up the hill on foot. fullsize Steve coming off the bike, he had the horrible luck to crash pretty badly on Mt Stromlo, his right side was scraped and bruised. fullsize He was incredible in his ability to keep going after cooling off a bit and getting cleaned up, the medical guys ended up following him through each trantiion and cleaning and taping his leg to keep him going. fullsize Gary changinig from swim to bike, Danielle had soaked his jersey in icy water which must have felt nice once he got it on. fullsize On the bike fullsize and heading off toward the finish. fullsize Dave strufggling up the cramp filled ladder from hell at the end of the final swim. fullsize Randall helping him toward transition after he finally made it up the ladder and over the wire. fullsize Wet suit off and time to go ride bikes. fullsize Danielle packing up Gary's transition in the background while Randall keeps Dave moving. fullsize Julie getting out of Lake Tuggeranong with her dad looking on. fullsize Heading to her transition fullsize though as usual if you blink Julie will have changed and dissapeared on the next leg before you know it. fullsize Michele heading off for her final leg of the day in the Velocity Vixens team. fullsize Annette on Sam's team coming toward the Erindale drive underpass. fullsize Someone right on her tail. fullsize Gary coming in to the underpass. fullsize Baldilocks approaching the gully. fullsize And along the fenceline before the underpass. fullsize Julie on a mission only 2m30s behind Dave. fullsize And looking damn fresh still. fullsize Dave about to climb Isaacs ridge to the top of Mt Stanley. fullsize Starting the climb. fullsize Julie coming through with Dave now in sight. fullsize Dave had just disappeared around the corner in this shot. fullsize Randall and Danielle waiting to see Gary come through the tunnel, for someone as tall as Gary the tunnel is not the easiest part of the race. fullsize He got through fine and looks ready for the last run. fullsize So keen he gave Randall his bike and ran over to transition. fullsize Shoes fullsize Hat, drink something fullsize and run up the trail fullsize Julie came out of the tunnel first fullsize into transition fullsize followed a few seconds later by Dave. fullsize No more bike riding fullsize and a week before their wedding they head off for the final run leg together. fullsize How cute fullsize Jen agreed and took a photo of them fullsize Still running together over the top of Red Hill. fullsize I was interested to note how significantly different their running styles are. fullsize Still they both seemed comofortable even though they had been ouot in the heat going hard all day. fullsize Down the steps toward the road crossing fullsize I have cramped up down here in the past, neither Dave or Julie seem to be hurting though. fullsize It always amazes me how fresh Julie looks at the end of triple tri. I guess this is the woman who has been known to head out for a 20 km run and accidentally do 50 km. fullsize Cheered on by one of the Sri Chinmoy volunteers. fullsize Sue chasing them down, trying to ensure that three fit and fast women (Sue, Michele, Libby) can finish in front of one ultra fit woman (Julie). fullsize Alex crossing the line 2nd in a fantastic time of 12h2m fullsize Gary finishing in 4th place in 12h20m fullsize Sue bringing it home for Velocity Vixens fullsize Dave (5th male) and Julie (1st woman) crossing the line in 12h35m. fullsize Stu finishing the final run for his team, still looks fit fullsize though I hear he has not been training much recently fullsize at least he can finish in style champagne in hand. fullsize Pete and Jude after Pete did a 13h14m triple tri. fullsize Michele and Sue enjoying post race wine. fullsize The Velocity Vixens put in another good race, though were beaten by a team of leg specialists rather than the Vixens habit of doing a discipline each. fullsize Steve soldiered on with his painful post crash knee and managed to finish in 14h31m, spectacular and brave effort there. fullsize Crossing the line. fullsize And being congratulated by his wife Wendy. fullsize Sally and Nathan being presented with 1st mixed three. fullsize Michele, Sue and Lib, 2nd womens three. fullsize Davo and Trevor 2nd male three fullsize Steve thanking everyone for being out there with him. fullsize John after his first triple tri. fullsize Gary finishing off a spectacular race, for his first solo triple tri in 9 years, great job. fullsize Julie and Dave, Julie telling everyone how much fun triple tri is to race through all the wonderful nature parks in Canberra.