Mooloolaba Olympic Triathlon

Today's the big one!

Alarm went off at 4am and I went through my pre-race routine of toilet, drinking water, toilet, dressing, toilet, organising drink bottles, toilet. I put anti-chafe body glide on my legs and around my bra and Heart rate monitor.

Transition opened at 5:15, so we headed down there just after 5am. We were staying at the Cilento Apartments so we were literally opposite the transition area. This was a bit disconcerting as Mum was watching the security guards last night and we actually saw some guy rack his bike in at around 8pm. There was another guy racking his bike in first thing this morning, so I don't know how that works! Mum was convinced that the Security guards weren't doing their job and kept reporting back on what they were up to.

I was fairly calm, I had written a list of what I had to do, I had to put my Polar S725x on the bike, put the gear bottle on the back, put my two Electrolyte bottles on and set up my towel with bike shoes, socks, run shoes, cap, race belt and number, helmet and sunglasses on the bike. I also put in a bottle of Sustagen sport in transition just in case I needed extra energy after the bike. I had a water bottle in there to wash the sand off my feet.

I pumped the tyres up and I helped Jacque pump up her tyres and we were set. I did a last minute check to make sure I was in an easy gear and that my peddles were parallel with my left pedal at 3 O'clock and I was then happy that all was good.

We went back to the unit to drop off our stuff and prepare for the walk down to the swim. Jacque dropped in her pump to leave at our unit so that she didn't have to walk all the way back to hers. Mum was coming down to the swim start with us to take back our thongs, clothes, drink bottles, etc. We all headed off down to the beach for the swim start and I was chatting to Jude when Jacque realised that she left her goggles in the unit! Craig went back with her and Mum and I headed down to the beach. Luckily there was plenty of time. I was still feeling pretty calm. With about 15minutes before my swim start I went for a bit of a warmup swim, I could see fish swimming around and the water was beautiful. It was like when we went for a swim on friday so I was very relieved. The day looked like it was going to be great conditions. Unfortunately it won't be overcast for the run, but it looked like there wasn't going to be too much wind about.

Jacque and Craig returned and everything was good.

Because of the great conditions for some reason they changed the swim course around to be a M shape instead of straight down the beach, so we watched a few different waves go through so that we knew where we were going.

Jacque's wave start was 3 minutes after mine, which was a bit different, we are often in the same wave start as they usually do the Female 30-39 in the one wave start. However, today was seperate wave starts. I lined up with Sarah, Kaye and Alex although I didn't see Alex at the start.

The buzzer went off and I settled in pretty well for the swim. I was feeling OK and I didn't cop too much jostling. I managed to spot the buoys pretty well and felt as though I was on course pretty well all the way through. The water was pretty calm, I managed to overtake some of the wave in front of me and then I was overtaken by two waves behind me - oh well! Overall I was pretty happy, I did a bit of breastroke just to spot buoys, probably only a handful of times. I had a bit of a struggle getting back in to shore, there were two waves that I ducked under, I got caught in a rip and was swimming towards shore without moving, but eventally a wave carried me in. It was then the horrible run up the beach, then the stairs into transition. I saw Kath at the stairs cheering me on and I think Ixchel and Dan were there too. It was nice to have support along the way.

In transition I watered off my feet, took a few good gulps of water to get rid of the salt in my mouth. Put my bike shoes and socks on, put my helmet and sunnies on and I was off! I was all alone, there was nobody else about, so it was good to have my own space. The cycle course went up around first avenue past the entrace to the Cilento and then on towards the Coles supermarket and around the corner. Then the hill climb up and through to Buderim Avenue. I really struggled with this climb. I always seem to struggle with the bike while not warmed up so I felt like I was crawling pretty slowly! Once in Buderim Ave there are some rolling hills through here and when I got to the downhill I went to shift into my big chain ring and dropped the chain.... I slowed right down and manged to get it back on by downshifting to the small ring and got the chain back on. The next hill I did the same thing - you would think that I would learn by my mistakes! I couldn't do anything about it this time, the chain was twisted. So I pulled over and tried to get it back on without touching the chain - no luck! I eventually got the chain back on and grease all over my fingers and I was away again. Mental note, have the chain in the middle of the cogs at the back before going into the big chain ring!

I turned right to go down the Sunshine Motorway exit which was closed off to traffic, so I pushed it a bit down the hill to try and get some speed up. I was starting to feel OK. The Motorway was great, the road surface was smooth and because I was on an early wave start it was relatively quiet. I managed to overtake a few people and settled into my tri-bars. I was struggling to keep my cadence at 90, I had to keep changing gears, I prefer to ride at a lower cadence. I really need to work at this! I ended up riding with another 2 girls - I would overtake them and then they would overtake me, after playing tag several times when I overtook again I said 'my turn - we'll play tag', then she would overtake me and say 'tag - my turn'. It was quite good actually as it probably kept both of us consistent. If I was drinking from my bottle she would get away and vice versa - I need to work on that too!

The turnaround was good, I hit it at just over 40minutes. I would have preferred to be a bit quicker, but never mind! The way back was a bit more windy and a lot more traffic. A lot of the faster girls and guys were in pelatons and at times they don't give much space as they overtake. I saw one girl overtake and it looked a beautiful tactic. She was moving quite quickly, but she would draft behind, duck out and overtake cut back in and draft off the next one - because she was going so quickly she was within the rules of 15 seconds to overtake, I would like to one day get to this stage. Because I am not quick o the bike it takes me a while to get to overtake. I would be using up all of my 15 secs in some cases!

I managed to stay on my tri-bars the whole ride other than when drinking. I should probably start to practice using my tri drink bottle, this would make more sense! I can change gears pretty neatly while on the bars, I tried to relax and keep my head low. Can't say I fully succeeded with this but at least I was conscious of it.

I tried to have most of my first drink bottle gone by the turnaround and then I started on my second. I was feeling a little bit queasy and I wasn't sure why. I think my accelerade was just a bit too strong and sweet. It smelt like fairy floss! I think next time I will make up the drinks with just 1 1/2 scoops of Accelerade.

Whilst the wind was definitely stronger on the way back it didn't really bother me, I was feeling OK. My HR was around the 140's for most of the ride, so I really need to figure out how to push this more. Somebody called out to me on the way back along Buderim Ave, I think it may have been Ria. I scooted back along the Esplanade to transition, I got off my seat and stretched my calves and hamstrings.

Overall I was pretty happy with my ride other than the problems I had with the chain coming off - twice!

I got into transition and took my helmet off, I skipped the Sustagen sport as I didn't want to mix it with the fairy floss accelerade! I took another few gulps of water though. Put my running shoes on, did up my laces with double grabbed my hat and race belt and I was off. I put on my hat and race belt whilst running out of transition - not that I was doing a quick transition, but still!

The run was awful, there's a bit of a hill out of transition which was hard work, my legs were threating to cramp, I decided to do small steps until I settled into the run. Unfortunately I had to run like this for the first few kilometres. Every time I tried to step out my legs threatened cramping, so I shuffled along. Mum cheered me on, Trish, Kate, Ixchel, Dan and Trent were all there cheering - it was nice to have the support. I had no idea what pace I was running at but it sure felt slow. I glanced at my HR though and I was at 160 - 170 so I had a bit in the tank but not a whole lot. Eventally I managed to get a bit of rhythm happening and find my pace. I walked through all of the drink stations and the hill certainly sucked! Garry and Jo were up on the hill and the first time I came up the hill I was not in a great way, Garry called out "I know you can do this Emma!". So I took a last gulp of water and started suffling along again. The last time up the hill Shannon from work overtook me and gave me some words of encouragment. I knew that Jacque was very close to being only 3 minutes behind me so I tried to really push it home. I managed to finish fairly comfortably. My overall time was 2:57:18

Splits were as follows:
Swim: 31:33
Cycle: 1:29:46
Run: 55:58

I did the run last year in 1:10:19 in a team with Dad, so I wasn't running off the bike, so a 14:20 PB on the run this year off the bike is a fantastic improvement.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't beat my Noosa Triathlon time of 2:54:58 which is 2:20 slower, but what do you do. It's funny, I thought that I did better at the cycle at Mooloolaba, however it was almost 6 minutes slower than my Noosa time, so I'm not sure why. I can only put it down to different conditions. Apparently it was much windier today than last year. Many were saying that today's course was up to 10 minutes slower than last years.

58:24 is the time that I did the Noosa Triathlon run so I was thrilled to run 2:26 faster than that today considering the hills.

In summary, I need to focus on my cycle. I really struggle with this. I'm going to have a few weeks off and then reassess my goals through winter and work out a training plan forward.

I am pretty happy to have achieved my second Olympic distance triathlon and for it to be Mooloolaba as I always said I would never do this one due to the ocean swim!

I pulled up very sore in the legs and shoulders, so I will be happy to have a few days off. I had a really uncomfortable nights sleep after the tri as I was too sore...