Busselton Half Ironman 2004

The disappointment of a poor performance in Ironman New Zealand combined with the fact that I was desperate to show the WA triathlon community how far I had progressed as an athlete since I left in 1998, were the catalysts of a dedicated and determined preparation for the Busselton Half Ironman.

I made sure I put myself into the right situations in order to maximise the effects of my training. I was swimming with a squad, doing a number of group rides each week and completing a hard track running session each week.

Despite the return of peroneal tendonitis in the last couple of weeks prior to the event, I was satisfied that the hard work had been done, and, as a result, the last two weeks of training disruption were no barrier to a good performance.

I entered the water on race morning confident that the work I had done in the pool over the preceeding couple of months would translate to an exit at the pointy end of the field.

After the calamity of the start, I found that I could settle comfortably into the pace required to swim at the tail of the lead group. As always, there were intermittent surges throughout the duration of the swim that required an increase in power output to remain in tow, but, nothing beyond me on the day, and I exited with the lead group.

Included in the group were Steve Bishop, Blythe Hartnett, Mitch Dean.

Exiting some minute further back was Jason Shortis, who I believed to be the biggest threat on the day.

My effort at the start of the cycle leg was just below red line level. I was keen to dispense with the competition immediately and ride solo at the front of proceedings. Blythe held on for 20 km or so but, in general, things seemed to be going to plan and the gaps were opening up to my chasers - all except for Shortis.

Shortis was making an impression with each passing lap and had erased his minute deficit after the swim by around the 50k mark of the cycle leg. I was determined not to let him get too far ahead, as I knew that he would put in a solid running performance.

The elastic was in danger of breaking a couple of times in the last 40k of the ride, but I dug deep and managed restrict the deficit to Jason at T2 to around a minute.

On the weekend prior to the race I was out with friends having a few drinks, and the question -" how much of a buffer do you need for the run?"- was asked. I replied with - "@#%*-all, I am going to outrun him"- in jest of course. The reality of the situation was that I was very concerned at the time.

My concern was reduced somewhat in the first 500 meters of the run when I found that I had my running legs. It was reduced even more when I found that the gap to Jason was diminishing at a significant rate and then alleviated totally when I had caught and passed him at the first turn-around point of the three lap out and back run.

I was running well, and was very confident that if I was sensible and maintained form for the next two laps, I would end up running out the victor.

That is the way it panned out and I was extremely happy with the result. It brought to an end a bit of a lull in my "career" after an extended period with injury the year before and a disastrous performance in my first race of the year in New Zealand.

I have never made such a goose of myself at the finish line of a triathlon before, and probably never will again, but, it felt fantastic at the time. It was great therapy.