Goondiwindi Hell of the West!

Well, this is the big one!

We had a BTS Fundraiser on the Friday night which meant that we didn't get to bed until midnight which is not ideal preparation! We slept in until 6am on Saturday morning and then madly scrambled around packing up our gear and making a getaway for the 4 hour drive out to Goondiwindi. Dad, Craig and I went out together and because we were all competing we were madly hydrating. Needless to say it was a slow trip out! Many toilet breaks were had!

We got out there and checked in, unpacked, grabbed some lunch and then decided to drive the cycle and run course. I was doing the cycle in a team with my friend Trisha and her mate from Sydney; Ross. Craig was doing the swim and run in a team with Dad doing the cycle, so we were keen to see what we were up against. We did the cycle first and it was good to see that at every 10k they had markers as my speedo has been a bit sporadic with working (it is mostly not working). The road seemed like a very long way out - it is a very dead road with no shoulder.

The run took a different road and it seemed a long way as well, I was very happy to not be doing the run - poor Craig!

We went for a bit of a swim and cycle just to make sure that everything was all in good working order. The water was quite warm, about the temperature that I would have a bath at home! Some places it was cool, but they were few and far between. There was a little bit of weed in the river, but not too much. We found out after the race that the river had a bit of algae in it until the recent rain washed it all away! There was a 3 legged dog hanging around transition area and we were joking that it fell into the river one day and that is how it lost its leg!

We then registered and picked up our goodies and listened to the race briefing. I went back to the unit and heated up my lentils and rice in the microwave whilst Craig and Dad did the Carbo loading dinner. We stayed at the Country Comfort Motel on Marshall Street and it was great. I think we will stay there again next year.

I was feeling nervous, but not too bad. I managed to eat, I was well hydrated, I washed my bike, oiled the chain - I was good to go.

We had an early night and we all slept like logs! Maybe this was attributed to the 12am bed time the night before! The alarm woke us at 2:40am and there was a mad scramble of 3 panicked people getting themselves organised in one room with one toilet! It all worked out and we left there at 3:20 to head to transition with Alex, Trish and Ross. I had a minor panic when I went to put my bike into an easy gear and found that the gears were not changing nicely. Luckily Dad was there and he tweaked them for me and it was all made better again! They didn't give me any problems thank goodness.

There is nothing like not having to queue for numbering and racking, etc. We got in without any hassles and then went to relax and hydrate on the picnic tables near the toilets! We had everything we needed right there! We watched the numbering queue get longer and longer and the time to go to the swim start get closer and closer and it really amazes me that people don't get there 20 minutes earlier as it makes a huge difference to your stress levels pre-event.

Dad, Ross and I went down to the swim start to see Alex, Trish and Craig off and then we headed back to transition to await their return.

My teammate Trish had a blinder of a swim, she actually got out of the water just in front of Craig which she was thrilled with. Craig came into transition first as there is a bit of a run from the swim to T1 and he had overtaken Trish, he sung out to me as he went past that Trish was right behind him. Trish and I must have done a great transition because as it turned out I was out quicker than Dad onto the bike, but he quickly caught me.

Riding out of Goondiwindi felt OK, I wasn't overly nervous, I felt prepared, I had 3 bottles of Accelerade on the bike and 4 anzac cookies. Probably overkill, but better not to take chances. I concentrated on my race plan which was to break the ride into 4 chunks of 45 minutes. I aimed to do each 20km in under 45mins. I wanted to concentrate on keeping my cadence at 90-95 and my HR below 155. I also wanted to sip from my drink bottle every 5 mins. I tend to not get good gulps in so a sip every 5 minutes was going to be the plan.

This plan worked a treat, Cadence - tick, HR - tick, Hydration - tick! The 45 mins was blown out the door though - I was doing the 20kms in 40 minutes. I got to the 40km turnaround in 1hr 20min. I had figured out earlier that I obviously had a tail wind and this was confirmed by Dad yelling out "Head wind!" to me as he headed back in towards Goondiwindi. I managed to discard a bottle and rotate a bottle from my newly setup rear bidon holder to the front and take on a water bottle and put it in the rear without falling off - no mean feat!

The support crew out there were great, they were every 20kms with water and bananas, they did a great job.

I also managed to stay on my tri-bars for pretty much all the way out other than when I was drinking or eating. I had two bits of anzac cookie on the way out. I was a bit concerned with my left hamstring, it had the beginnings of thinking about cramping and funnily enough it was whilst I was not on my tri-bars that I really noticed it. So, that was more incentive to stay down on them.

After the turnaround things got a little bit tougher! I could immediately feel the head wind. I ducked down into my tri-bars and just made sure that my cadence didn't get too low. However, it was shortly after the turnaround that it was really starting to bother me on the bars, my bum was hurting, my shoulders were hurting, it was just getting really uncomfortable! The road was just really hard going, it was very dead and bumpy and not conducive to a comfortable ride. Between the 50k and 70k mark I really struggled with it. I saw others struggling as well, the wind was up, although we did get a bit of a reprieve when there were trees either side of the road which was a welcome relief.

My motivation was that Ross my runner would be running in less heat the earlier I could get back and I believed that the sooner I got home the kinder the winds would be for me. Usually they pick up as the day goes on so I was really keen to keep moving forward.

When I saw the 70k mark I decided that I would really try and hammer it home, I could endure the pain for another 10ks - surely!!! There was a woman that overtook me and then dropped a water bottle, she stopped and pulled over to pick it up and I overtook her and then we played cat and mouse all the way in to town. I was so happy to see the grain silos as I knew that this was only 4 or 5kms into transition from there. Also, the road started to get smooth - at this stage my race plan had converted into just finding the smoothest part of the road and riding on this - it was all that I cared about!

I pulled into transition and ran my bike into the racks and found Ross waiting for me. He took my timing band and he was off - into the heat for the run! It was about 8:40 in the morning and he had 20kms to go - I can not imagine having to run 20kms after that ride!

Dad and Trish were also in transition, I thought that Dad must have already returned from his shower, but Trish tells me that I was only 7 minutes behind him on the bike, so I was tickled pink with this - I was able to do the cycle leg in under 3 hours. I think it would be a time of 2:56.

I was pretty sore, my hamstring and glutes were screaming at me. I guess the lesson for me was that I need to get more comfortable on the tri bars as this is what held me back rather than my fitness. My HR on the way out was mid to high 140's, but on the way back it dropped to high 130's to mid 140's, but I just couldn't ride any harder. I felt good hydration and nutrition wise, I was just incredibly uncomfortable!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, we all had a really great time and Goondiwindi turned on the hospitality in the way that only a country town knows how. Can't wait for next year!