Race report from Yeppoon 70.3, 2011
Contributed by Kristy Hallet
I’ve raced Yeppoon for the last three years now and there is a reason why I keep coming back. It’s not because I love air travel – it takes two flights to get there and a 50 minute drive. It’s also not because I’m racing in Kona this year - I didn’t last year and I still travelled to Yeppoon. The reason is simple; it’s an escape from our winter in Melbourne! It is warm, the beach is amazing and the race is superbly organised. This year’s goodie bag was outstanding!
Yeppoon 70.3 is held in the surrounds of the Capricorn Resort approx. 8km north of Yeppoon. I arrived to calm, blue-skied, warm Rockhampton Friday afternoon and was greeted by my Coach, travelling companion and Kona training buddy, Sean, who had arrived earlier that day. Sean seemed very relaxed already, the product of a sneaky little nap before coming and getting me – nice! The rest of the MTC/FM team, Nathan, Al, Rad, Ben, Tamara and Gavin had also arrived earlier....GO TEAM!
The rest of Friday and Saturday consisted of doing all the usual pre-race prep.- putting the bike together, eating, sleeping, eating, taper spin and run, eating, swim with the Team, eating, register, eating, relaxing, eating, evening walk on the beach, eating, sleep and bingo, it’s race morning!
Saturday had been a magnificent blue skied, calm, warm day, however on race morning just after managing to get some breakfast into me, it started to rain – not misty, or light but heavy tropical rain. Thoughts of Ironman NZ came back to me. Please, please, please not this race too! Fortunately, it seemed to blow over pretty quickly. Sean and I got numbered, did our transition stuff , got into our wet suits and it was time to walk down the beach 1.9km to the swim start.
My wave started 10mins behind the Pro females. It was a run in from the beach and into pretty decent chop breaking quite heavily. The waves were rough but after a good warm-up, I felt comfortable and the swim went pretty well. There was one incident where I face planted into a buoy thanks to a wave pushing me straight into it, but I didn’t feel so bad because two other girls ended-up on the buoy with me. As I ran out of the water and up the beach I could feel my lats twitching and I was very happy – it was a sign for me that I’d finally managed to ‘push’ a swim.
Into T1 and onto the bike and I was able to push hard quite early. My wave, being one of the first, meant that there weren’t that many athletes out on the bike course yet. For the first lap, there was a lot of space. This was great considering the new 12m drafting rule was being used for this race. Even once all the competitors were out on course, the wave starts and drafting zone seemed to work to space everyone out. I felt strong and pushed as hard as I could for the entire 90ks. With approx. 15kms to go, I passed a girl from my age category who was riding well. She stayed with me until we got to T2 and then the commentator called out her name and I knew who she was. I was pretty excited to have caught her on the bike and be in T2 with her – she was the most likely to win our Age group and was also going to Kona. Knowing that, I burned out of T2 with tingling hands, (thanks to the rough road surface on the bike course), and decided to run hard for 3-4 kms to put some ground between her and I. It did cross my mind briefly that I might pay for my hard effort later on in the run but I risked it... and it was worth it!
The run course weaves in and around the Resort. You run along grass, brick paths, bitumen and sandy cross country style paths. So, after I was comfortable there was no threat of being passed again, I settled into a good rhythm. I then saw another girl about 200m ahead of me who I knew was a good runner so I thought it would be good to try and keep up with her. To my surprise I was actually gradually catching her. Going into the bush section of the run on the last lap, with about 4k to go I passed her. She stayed with me for a while – which I didn’t mind because it was pushing me and then after a while I couldn’t hear her anymore. I kept running hard and rounded the last bend going into the resort- the quads and glutes were about to give way but as soon as I went across the finish line and was told I was the 1st Female Age grouper finished, all the pain went away........(it did come back later, but that’s ok). Pool party time!
Thanks to Sean Foster, my Coach and travelling buddy; my Swim Coach Ben ‘turn over turn over’ Street; the MTC/FM athletes that raced also; my MTC/FM training partners; Cam @ LSDsports for making sure Ruby was in tip-top shape; Craig at Aqua Shop; Rich Squires for a great pre-race massage; Brunetti who make the best coffee in Melbourne; my friends and family and all their love, care and encouragement and most importantly, thank you to my biggest supporter, my husband Dan.
Lastly, ‘motivation’, plays a big part in racing for me. My motivation to race this time was fuelled by a couple of tragic incidents that had happened to fellow triathletes and training partners in the last few weeks before Yeppoon. I know how much they loved racing and training. Whenever I felt like I was tiring or needed to go harder or faster, I thought of Dan who can’t do what we all love at the moment. So Dan Norman, this one was for you and we all wish you the fastest and smoothest recovery ever!
Next stop the Big Island, Hawaii.
