Noosa 2010

They say it’s big. It does live up to its fame. The beautiful town of Noosa in QLD gets invaded by triathletes from all over Australia on the Noosa Olympic triathlon weekend.

It was my second Olympic distance triathlon, and I had stuffed up my feet with blisters in the week before while trying to break into my new shoes. As if that was not enough of a worry, the officials announced it is a non wetsuit swim!

The swim: All my age groupers were marked with age group code “G” on their calves and were swimming in pink caps. It appeared I had a whole heap of clones. 1500m swim took me 35min. I missed the swim exit, and reached the start line where other triathletes were lining up for their wave start. This is the first time I ever missed the swim exit, which implies it must not have been visible enough while swimming.

The bike: The 40k time trial on the bike was fast and fun. I felt great on the bike. Since I came out quite at the back of my age group, I passed heaps of my clones on the bike. The Noosa climb that people talk about was nothing but a false flat. Saw a guy busted for drafting, and another poor bugger had a flat few km from the finish.

The run: Off the bike, I got into form in the first km. Around four km mark, I tripped over a road reflector, but got up and running before the spectators could finish saying “Oh my god!” Around 5km mark, I was feeling my blisters burning. With about 4km to go, I started hammering it at 95%. By 2km to go, I had the pedal to the metal. I crossed the finish line in 2h38, and lay on the ground. The officials told me I can’t lay there. I said “meh...” I lay on the floor for 10 sec, and got my heart rate down. I knew I had given it everything.

The weekend: Did a training ride on the day before with Clownboy (Edward). He thought I only race in budgy smugglers. Afterwards I had a photo taken with him wearing a wolf mask, which he didn’t notice as I am already so hairy. Clownboy is the funniest guy ever. While random people would introduce themselves to me, he would introduce himself to the random people. We went to see Ronaldo at the big hotel. He said that the only person who shouldn't come and introduce himself to others is AP. And guess who came and introduced himself at the expo? AP! He seems to be a nicer in person than on the transitions forum.

After the race, we cracked heaps of jokes over the dinner with Gaz, Downsey and their mates from Harvey Bay tri club. Had some cold ones at the surf club and then headed to the night club. There on the crowded dance floor, a chic lifted me in the air and spun around like a top knocking off a few people who were around. I had an amazing time at Noosa. I got to meet a lot of triathletes including Tyno, iFoz, AP, Snowsill, and a lot of familiar faces. Thank you Noosa for throwing such a great weekend!