My first 'race' back since Ironman Oz 09 and although it wasn't the the full '3 legs' it was still racing for which you had to train and prepare for. Shepparton 1/2 Ironman signalled the start of my 'comeback' to triathlon and racing. Not long after this I backed up with 2 legs of the Canberra 1/2 Ironman - the swim and ride. Again a steady progression back to what I truely love doing.
I was always going to race Shep i just had to assemble a team. My neighbours and all round good guys Anthony & his son Patrick helped out and formed the 'Rough Diamonds'.
We had a few hiccups along the way. So many in fact that we nearly didn't get to the start line, Patrick is under age so we had to do a 'dodgy' on his birth date, then Anthony, on the debut ride on his Mega quick Carbon Fibre track bike got his front wheel taken from under him at the DISC indoor velodrome track in Thornbury. Usually falling on an indoor wooden track means only burns & splinters but he fell low side and subsequently broke his collarbone - 6 weeks out from the race! It all came together well and the team ended up finishing the race in 5hrs12mins08secs, finishing 21/48 in the teams section. My swim time was a very leisurely 37:20 while the winged warrior Anthony rode a blistering 2:34:46 on a road bike, his time also included my walk to T1 as I can't run yet!! Patrick finished off well in the heat of the day with a 2:00:01 run.
Onto mid December and it was up to Canberra with Gary 'The Gaz' Pertot and myself to stay with a good mate 'The Legend'. Ledge as he is affectionately known is a great mate who I have known since I was 16 and have lived together in various different batchelor pads all over the inner city area. He now subsides up in Canberra where he works as a policy adviser for the government. It's always a trap going up to see Ledge as he is known for his love of an ale and a late night so you have to be ultra disciplined if you are going to be serious about your race. This was the 5th time I've been up to Canberra for the 1/2 so what better time to rake Ledge into a race than now. I asked him at the start of November if he'd be keen on doing the run leg of the race, with myself doing the swim & bike combo. No worries he said so it was job done.
Only 4 stubbies and a Subway foot long tuna & salad roll on Saturday night was part of the carbo load then it was onto race morning. The Gaz & I started off in the last wave, 30mins behind the pro's so there was a lot of swanning time to be had. It turned out to be good as there was a good bit of time to warm up in the water. The swim went off without a hitch in the vile waters of Lake Burley Griffin. The lake stank like dead cows in a few spots & didn't taste much better, still I swam well (for me) and ended up plodding out a 36:28. The walk to T1 took forever, and that combined with getting my road riding shoes and socks on added probably another 5 mins to my ride time. The ride was probably one of my greatest. Sure it wasn't the quickest but I was consistent, attacked the hills hard, even passed Jason Shortis & Sam Hume on the 2nd lap going through the hills (they were about 10km/h faster on the flats!!). I simply road hard all 3 laps, the looks on peoples faces as I passed them on their TT machines with deep dish carbon wheels etc. was priceless. I rode Top 50 overall and 4th in the Team category, ending up with a 2hr 42min 44sec ride. Legend finished off the race with a 1hr 53min half mara. Afterwards was great with takeaway Turkish pizza’a and plenty of Boags being consumed. The Gaz and I left Canberra on the Monday morning and headed home after a great weekend in the nations capital.
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