The Big Beach Challenge 2010

"Epic!" That’s how I would describe it. It has to be the most scenic run I have ever done. The roaring pacific on the left and beautiful sand dunes on the right looked something out of this world. The view of waves cracking on the huge ship wreck was just mind blowing.

Schoey (white t-shirt in photos) is a top bloke from trannies. He allowed me to crash at his joint in Newcastle; force fed me the breaky, and gave me a lift to the start, which is 50km from Newcastle. Thanks to people like Schoey, the tranny brotherhood will be always alive. One our way to the Birubi beach, we saw the free range ch0oks by the side of the road. “Now that’s really free range!” Schoey said. The race registration went without hassle. It was a bit chilly in the morning so I didn’t take off my clothes until 5min to the start.

The first half: The race started on time. For the first half of the race, we ran on flat hard sand along the water line. The strong head winds sand blasted the athletes and the excitement of race made it feel like a war zone. It looked like a race in a desert storm, but thankfully, not as dry. I drafted behind three different athletes at different times and found it works, at least to shield off the sand blast. I was in the front pack from the beginning. While Schoey dropped behind in the beginning, he came back charging strong and overtook me around the 20km mark. He finished 10min ahead of me.

The second half: The first half gives a wrong impression of how hard is the second half. By 18-20km, I was feeling a bit of fatigue, but was strong enough to hammer another 12-14km on the similar terrain. Then the terrain changed. The sand became softer and steeper. The steps started to sink, the muscles started to fatigue and cramp. The running form was gone and we were just wrestling with the sand. After a lot of struggle, what I thought would be the 25km mark was surprisingly the 22km mark. That means I wasn’t running as fast I was thinking, and the race felt like getting longer and longer. The athletes who were running a great form a few km ago now looked crippled. Some of them struggling to even walk. I have huge respek for those who kept pushing from there on, and made it to the finish line. YoYo said “I have heard it’s harder than climbing Everest.” I would have to agree.

I could see the colourful flags at the finish line from about 3kms. It was relief to see that there is an end to this. I looked behind, and saw that no other athlete was close. Cooked, cramped, thirsty, hungry, tired, extremely satisfied with the sense of achievement, I breathlessly hammered my way to the finish line with whatever I had left. It was all over in 3h35, and I was the 11th athlete across the line. The sausage sandwiches after the finish were the best!

The organisers did an extraordinary job in setting up the aid stations on the beach. It is a very awkward task. I was impressed by their enthusiasm to run down the sand dunes to the athletes with cups of water and electrolyte drinks. Saves athletes from running up the sand dunes! However it gives too many expectations from the volunteers. The guy at the 28km aid station was sitting up a sand dune with the aid station table in front of him, and poured drinks as athletes come, otherwise chilling out in the sun enjoying watching pain on the faces of athletes. That aid station felt the hardest to reach. Then he said “You don’t look as bouncy as in the morning?” Funny guy iniit? Chambo (who was 2nd at the PM Ironman beer mile) made a top effort to ensure the athletes get water at the 5, 10 and 15km marks. Then he ran from the 5km mark to the finish. Great job by the organisers and the volunteers who helped the athletes so passionately. Awesome party environment at the finish.

There are many long distance running races held every year around Australia, but this race is mind blowing. I would highly recommend it to whoever enjoys a good running challenge, and the best way to race it is in budgy smugglers! If it is held again next weekend, you bet I will be there :-)

Port Macquarie Half Ironman 2009

With a seeded swim start according to the expected finish time, I started in the 34min to 40min category with a goal to finish the swim in 35 min. But for some strange reason, the swimmers in front of me were slower than me, and swimmers behind were faster. As a result, I was swimming over someone, and someone was swimming over me. It was more like a “drown the other swimmers competition” than a triathlon. Or maybe that’s wot a triathlon is supposed to be.



There was a slow swimmer ahead left, and a slow swimmer ahead right, and I was about to swim past them in the middle when all of a sudden they decided to close the gap between them, and squish me. I had to push them aside to make way for myself. I heard about another guy who was swimming next to a female triathlete. I think he would have been enjoying the company of the opposite sex until she unleashed her deadly weapon – her long finger nails. She scratched his face multiple times (probably unintentionally) and he came out of the swim bruised and bleeding. I think swimming in oysters would be safer than that. I followed the bubbles left by swimmers ahead and finished the 1.9 km swim in 35min, which was my target time.




Wore a sponge bob t-shirt in the transition area and went of on bike. The crowd loved it. The kids loved it. I had installed an aero bottle on TT bars the day before, and within the first km, it started to come out of the bars. The holding Velcro strap failed. So I had to do a bit of mechanical repairs – I used my elastic hair band to hold the bottle in place, and it worked very well. Although it was ridiculously hard to drink water from its pointed straw, and I felt I am just carrying a kilo of unnecessary weight on my bike. Anyways, I started to overtake people.





Someone ahead of me had dropped their helmet number sticker, and it got stuck on my front tire. It started to make “chick chick chick chick chick” sound as it would brush with the brakes in every rotation of the wheel. The cyclist I was overtaking started laughing at wot was going on. I tried to grab it off from the tyre while overtaking him at about 35km/hr, but it got stuck in the brake pads. It now made a continuous sound – “chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirr rr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...” By this time, the cyclist I was still overtaking was about to fall off from his bike laughing. He was a bit nuts. I putted my hand near the brake pad and grabbed the bloody sticker off from the tyre. Got the minor burn on the thumb, but it was worth it.



The Mathew Flincher Rd Hill in the cycling stage was at 36km and 81km. It is quite a steep climb, and I had to get out of the saddle to grind it in a low gear. There was a girl who was cheering “Go Giiiiii” but I have no idea who she was. The climb depleted quite a bit of energy, but hey, wot’s half Ironman without a challenge? A course with downstream swim, downhill cycling course with wind a tail wind, and downhill turn would be a disgrace to Half Ironman, and leave you quite down from where you started iniit?




Well, I finished the bike leg in about 3 hours (2hr55 + transitions), but my legs were jelly in the run. A chick went past me and said “You passed me on the bike, now I pass you in the run.” I couldn’t get a fast pace out of my legs, and I didn’t want to hammer it hard because 21 km is a bit long distance for that. There was a group of girls sitting by the side of the running track, and they cheers “Go Giiii! Go...!!!!!”
I asked "how do you know my name?"
They said "it was in newspaper."
“Wot newspaper?” I asked.
One of them replied “Port Macquarie News.”
I think she was being smart arse. I guess I will never find out who these ladies were and how they know my name! Others who didn’t know my name were cheering me by saying “Go sponge bob!” (kids loved that t-shirt)
“Go budgy smuggler”
“Go Jamaica!” :-S
“Go Predator!!” lol


Great crowd and a great day. I was happy that I gave a good attempt, and a identified that running is where I need to start working on. Looking forward to do that course again in Ironman Australia in March 2010!

Original Race Report on the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club Forum