2013 Cairns 70.3

2014 Edit: If you are reading this report in preparation for doing the race, please keep in mind that the course has changed since I did the race in 2013. The swim is now in a different location and so the swim is entirely different and the long run to T1 is gone. The ride is a different course, but it is on mostly the same roads (and hills). The run is quite different, being all based on the Cairns Esplande, which is great because that was the best part of the old run course. The new run removes the worst part of the old one and spends more time on the best bit. There should be heaps of people around the new run course and so it should should have a great buzz to it. Despite these changes I think most aspects of this race report are still useful. The bike is very similar and the race is still held mostly over the same roads and in the same area.  Some of the advice, about staying close to T1 etc may no longer be relevant, but on the whole I think it should still be useful to you.

In late 2012, when I was planning my events for 2013, Daryl and I chose the Cairn's 70.3 as my first race back after my son was born. The timing of the race was about right, it gave me enough time to get fit again and it fitted well with the rest of the year. It looked like it would be a good point from which to start my racing year. Race selected and entered; I then got on with the business of settling in with a new born and moving interstate.

By the time June 2013 rolled around, I had been living in Perth for the better part of 2 months. I had mostly settled into life here, the training routine was close to being sorted and things were lining up well for the race.

The weekend before the race I picked up a chest infection. Not a major one, but it doesn't really need to be. The cold was bought on by three days of low temperatures in Perth. The cold temperatures led to some congestion, a sore throat and eventually 'the cough'. I know from experience that once a cold gets to my chest it sits there for a few weeks. Once I was sure that the cough was there to stay I started resting, missing two days of training leading up to getting on the plane to Cairns. Jumping on the plane I was tight chested and still coughing a lot. I was taking about one of everything that might help clear my chest, but nothing seemed to be making much of a difference. There were lot of questions in my mind as to whether this was going to be a wasted trip. Not a perfect lead up.

Getting to Cairns from Perth is not the easiest thing. Your choices are either having a stopover somewhere, which makes the trip take all day, or taking a red eye that leaves Perth at 10:00pm and arrives at 4:00am. When I was booking the flights I didn't want to spend all day travelling, so I opted for the red eye. But as I sat in the airport, coughing away, I was wondering whether a night of poor sleep on a plane was really what I needed at this point in my recovery. Too late to change my mind at the airport though.

My plan for the trip to Cairns was to try and sleep on the plane, then on arrival jump in my hire car and try and get some more sleep until morning. On the whole the plan worked okay. In hindsight there may have been better ways of doing it, like booking an extra night and organising after-hours access to a key. But in the end the way I did it worked out. I didn't feel like I had missed too much sleep and I also felt like I had plenty of time to catch back up on lost sleep. Might not do it that way again next year though.

Once in Cairns I started to get a feel for the town and the course. Whilst Cairns is a biggish town, if you stay centrally to the course, you can have everything you need within walking distance, shops, the expo, the swim start, T1, the finish line, coffee etc. It was certainly a convenient place to be. Being able to walk to and from the course, to the shops etc was handy and gave the whole trip a nice feel. That is recommendation one for racing in Cairns, stay closeish to T1.

I arrived early Friday morning and after I had caught up on some sleep. I chucked the bike together and went out for a ride. I only saw the first 10kms of course, but my initial impressions where:

· Lots of corners and roundabouts for the first few kms as the course moves through Cairns, probably a bit slippery if wet

· Nice chunk of highway riding after you get out of Cairns, but some parts of the road's shoulder looked dodgy and riding on the shoulder was probably going to be a good way to puncture.

· It was going to be windy, with a tail wind heading out and a head wind heading home.

· There was a good chance at least some of the course was going to be wet.

Recce ride done, I settled in for a day or relaxing, checking out the expo, getting some food, registering etc. It was one of the better expos I have been to, better than the one at the 70.3 Worlds in 2012. I am not normally much of an expo person, but there was enough of interest at this one to have me takes a couple of wanders through. I got a free visor and a free coffee, which always rates very highly with me.

One thing with registration, they say in the competitor info that registration will be busy early, so to come later if you can. It isn't kidding. The queue on Friday morning was massive, which isn't surpising, since there are two races going on. Rather than queuing in the sun I ended up waiting until just after lunch and walked straight up, no worries. Also if you can go when it is raining, that gets rid of the queue pretty quick. So there is Cairns recommendation two, register after lunch if you have the time.

After a bit more relaxing it was time for a bit of a run on the last bit of the course, which seemed quite pretty. The run felt okay; even it was punctuated with coughs.

Saturday morning and it was time to check out the swim. I woke up not feeling a whole bunch better, but figured a short swim probably wasn't going to make me feel much worse. The swim start is at the end of a jetty. From the jetty you head down a ramp to a pontoon and from there into the water. The organisers have a special wetsuit ruling from Triathlon Australia which allows wetsuits to be worn in temperatures up to 26 degrees. This is to protect competitors from any chance of jellyfish stings. On the Saturday morning, the water temp was 23 degrees, so a wetsuit swim was very likely. The walk to the end of the jetty is about 500m and doing it makes you realise that you are in for a fairly long T1 on race day.

Swimming in the ocean at Cairns is a bit like swimming in the ocean in Darwin. On the whole people don't. The usual response to questions about crocodiles was ‘don't worry, the bull sharks will get you first’. Given that, the organisers were taking note of everyone's number as they entered the water. It was a slow process. I probably spent more time queuing to enter the water than actually swimming. I had finished my swim and was getting out, while others where still queuing to get in. It was like trying to get into a very strange nightclub. It was a frustration, but an understandable one.

Once we were in the water it was murky, but pleasant enough. Apparently in 2012 it was quite muddy, but this year we were a bit luckier. Testing out the swim course also showed that the swim was probably going to be a bit choppy. Not big waves or anything, but certainly not flat. The water temperature was very pleasant, cool enough that I wasn't getting warm in the wetsuit, but certainly far from cold.

For the rest of Saturday the activities where, attend a briefing (you have a choice of three times), rack the bike and put the gear into the transition tents. I was also keen to take a drive over the course. All these things went pretty smoothly.

In Cairns, T1 and T2 are in different locations; as a result you need to drop off all your running gear in a gear bag on the Saturday. You drop your running gear bag at T1 and then the organisers transport the bags up to T2 for you. Also, since there is also an Ironman going on, they use change tents. This is standard for an Ironman, but unusual for a 70.3, if you haven't used a change tent before, it just means that rather than having helmets etc on bikes in the transition area, it is all put in a bag in the change tent. It can be a little stressful having to put all your gear in place on Saturday, knowing that you can't get any more access to it. But in reality the system works very well, it just requires some forethought. The organisers do a good job of spelling out the sort of thing that you should be putting in each bag, they also provide the bags.

On the Saturday I had a minor panic getting the bike into transition. On the Cervelo P5 the rear brakes have a very tight clearance on wide race rims like Zipp Firecrests. I am a bit paranoid about rubbing brakes these days, so before taking my bike to transition I had been fiddling with my rear brake trying to get more clearance. After I had finished fiddling I decided it was time to take the bike down to T1. It was around 1:45pm and transition was going to close at 3:00pm, so I didn't want to leave it much later. I jumped on the bike ready to ride off and as I pushed on the pedals the back brake completely jammed on the back wheel. What is going on!! I thought. I quickly took the bike back to my room to sort out the brake. Once the back wheel was spinning properly again I headed back outside to ride it to T1, only for the same thing to happen again. This time I really struggled to get the back brake to release. I was a little stumped and was just starting panic a bit, since transition closing time was fast approaching. It was then that I noticed that during my fiddling I had forgotten to do up one of the little screws that normally holds the brake pads in place. This screw was jamming against the frame causing the back brake to lock up the wheel. However, the screw only jammed when the bike was under the pressure of being ridden. It was easily fixed. But it occurred to me that if I had walked the bike to T1, like I had considered doing, rather than trying to ride it, I wouldn't have discovered the fault until I jumped on it at the start of the bike leg. It was very close to being a race killing disaster and a little bit too close for comfort. Such a small thing, but it could have destroyed a race. Lesson three and four, just before racking the bike is not the time to be fiddling with the mechanics and always check your gear, little things can have big consequences.

Once the bike was in, I dropped my T2 bag at the designated spot, went and placed by T1 bag in the change tent and then walked the transition a few times, just to get it clear in my head. It was pretty straight forward and my bike was only three from the end of the rack, so it was going to be nice and easy to find.

All the preparation done, I headed out to drive the course. It all seemed pretty straight forward. I had heard people mention that the middle section of the ride (near the turn around) gets hilly and I was surprised to see just how hilly it was, continuous rolling hills. Questions were coming to my mind about just how well my body would hold up, riding on those hills once I was also riding back into the headwind. If my body was going to give way, I was expecting it would be there. After driving the course it was time to head home, start relaxing, have some dinner and then head to bed.

Race morning came along as they usually do. I had managed to get a good night sleep, which was a nice change from some pre-race nights I have had before. My morning preparations went smoothly. I had given myself plenty of time to get ready and get into transition for the final set up, so all that worked out fine. Air in the tyres, bottles on the bike, double check and then nerviously triple check everything, drop off the after race gear bag and that was it. Time to shimmy into the wetsuit and head out to the jetty to start waiting for my start time.

After a little bit of a wait, it was time for my wave to enter the water. Since the swim starts at the end of the jetty it is a deepwater start. One criticism of the course comes at this point, whilst they say you are free to warm up between the pontoon and the start line, in reality there isn’t much room. Oh well.

Now, before the race starts, is probably a good time for a description of the Cairns half ironman course.

As I have said the swim course starts at the end of the main jetty in Cairns. From there it heads out to sea for 800m , turns 90 degrees to the left, goes another 200m parallel to shore, turns 90 degrees to the left again and then head 900m back to shore. It is kind of trapezium shape. There is a little stair up out of the water onto a pontoon, a ramp from the pontoon to the jetty and then a 500m or so long run to the T1 change tent. This long transition is reflected in the T1 times in the results.

Once out of the change tent, it is into the racking area for the bike, out the exit and onto the ride course. The best way to describe the bike and run leg of the Cairns half ironman is as one big loop. You ride up the coast for around 55km turn around and then ride back for about 35kms to get to T2. That leaves you about 20kms or so from T1 and the finish line. The run back follows much of the same route as the ride out.

The first few kms of the bike course follow the esplanade through Cairns and have a few roundabouts, speed bumps etc. After this section you quickly get out onto the Captain Cook highway, of which they close a lane for the race. This is a big road with a pretty good surface, but a couple of deceptive roundabouts that caught some people a little unawares on race day. About 15kms of so into the bike course you turn off the highway and onto some smaller local roads. These roads are closed for the race, which is great, but the surface is not as good as the highway and the course winds a bit more through this section. Around 20kms or so you pass T2 and get back onto the highway. After negotiating an off and on ramp to get you pointed north again you follow the highway towards Port Douglas. At around 25kms the dual carriageway highway becomes a single lane each way and the entire road becomes closed for the race. After about 30kms you pop out on the coast and the ride starts to get pretty. It pays to keep an eye out once you hit the pretty bit, you never know what is by the side of the road. The below waterfall is around the 40km mark.

 

This first section of the ride is quite flat, with a few false flats, but nothing really of concern.

A bit over halfway through the ride course you start to hit the hills. The first hill is also the meanest. It heads up to Rex’s lookout and is only about 900m long, but on the steepish side. It is not that vicious a hill, but requires a bit of a spin to get up. After Rex’s lookout the course undulates all the way to the turnaround point, which is located at about the 58km mark. Once you turn, you then ride back over all those rolling hills, back up and down Rex’s lookout and head towards T2. All up you gain and lose just over 600m of elevation over the ride course. Not heaps, but it certainly isn’t flat.

Once back at T2, you find your rack, drop off the bike, grab your gear bag, head into the change tent, get ready and then head off for the run. The run follows much of the same course as the ride out of Cairns. It starts off in small local streets for the first 11kms or so, then comes out onto the Captain Cook Highway. It follows the Captain Cook Highway for 5 or 6 motivation sapping kms and then gets back into Cairns. Once you are in Cairns you run along the pretty esplanade until you hit the finish line. There are no big hills on the run course, but a few false flats. If you have similar winds to this year, then you run into a head wind for most of the return trip.

Sitting on the start line, I had the above ahead of me.

 

The start line was pretty standard for a deep water start, with the jostling and the slow creep forward. After a couple of minutes of waiting our gun went and we were off. With my wave there wasn’t too much argy bargy and people seemed to spread out a fair way, which meant a good bit of room developed pretty quickly. A few guys got off the start quickly and I jumped on to their toes. They managed to get a bit of a gap, but after the first frantic couple of hundred metres, they were no longer pulling away. After about 400m or so we hit the back of the wave in front of us and it made keeping track of the lead pack a bit more tricky. When I last saw them I thought the pack was probably about 4 or 5 strong. After we started passing people from the group in front of us, we didn’t really stop for the rest of the course. By the turn we were passing people from two waves in front of us and then by the end of the swim, people from 3 waves in front. While I spent much of the swim moving through people, I was never really impeded since the course was so wide. The course was also very well marked, with regular, massive buoys, making sighting a breeze. So that was nice. It was far from an easy swim though. The middle half of the swim (the bit furthest from shore) had a bit of chop being blown up by the wind. While it wasn’t choppy enough to present much of an obstacle, it did mean a few more mouthfuls of water etc. It wasn’t enough to slow you down, but just enough to make the swim a little unpleasant. I am also not 100% sure, but I suspect the swim back was into the outgoing tide. Once again it wasn’t enough to make much of a difference. It just made the return trip a little slower I think.

As I got to the end of the swim, I put on a little bit of a spurt to make sure I wasn’t hitting the stairs at the same time as a big group from an earlier wave. I didn’t want to have to push over a little old lady to get out of the water. My trip up the stairs and up the ramp was reasonably unimpeded by little old ladies, so I was out of the water and away.

Once I was up on the jetty it was time for the long run down to the change tent, which at least gave me plenty of time to get the top half of my wetsuit off. I hit the gear tent, grabbed my bag, got into the change tent, got the wetsuit off and the helmet out of the bag on the 2nd attempt. I left the volunteer to deal with the wetsuit and ran out into T1. I had no idea where I sat in the field, or really how I was feeling, but at least that was one leg dealt with.

 

After nearly colliding with a lady who was unracking her bike without looking who was behind her, I was out of T1 and onto the course.

It was easier to go fast through the streets of Cairns that I had initially feared, but I was still very careful on the corners. It had rained quite a bit the night before so the roads were still wet. I was only a few kms into the course when I saw my first bike by the side of the road where a guy had slid out on a corner. I told myself to keep patient, the couple of seconds gained on a fast corner are nothing compared to the time lost to a stack. Once out of the city streets and onto the highway it was time to take advantage of the tail wind and really hammer. I spent much of this time working through people from the waves in front so I was over to the right overtaking a lot anyway, but even if I wasn’t I was being careful to stay off the road’s shoulder, after my observations from the day before. At each of the first two roundabouts on the highway there were people picking themselves off the ground after taking the exits to quickly on wet roads. Each time I reminded myself to take it easy when I had to. Lesson number 5 for Cairns, if the road is wet (good chance) take it easy on the corners.

 

The first hour or so of the bike leg passed in this way, moving through the field on pretty good roads and in pretty quick conditions. The first hour my average speed was just over 40 and I was feeling okay. The longer the race went the less I was overtaking as I started getting to the pointer end.

Around this time I first noticed something that was minor, but was going to annoy me for later part of the bike course. At the bike aid stations, they had two different coloured bottles, white and red. At aid station one I had called for electrolyte and got a white bottle. It was indeed electrolyte. Great I thought, white bottles equals electolyte. That was backed up at aid station two. At aid station three I called for electrolyte and was offered a red bottle, which I took and it was indeed electrolyte. It worked fine, but did annoy me, surely it would make sense to stay consistent. Oh well, the volunteers do such a great job that it seems silly to get caught up on a minor point like that. But it is also worth making Cairns recommendation 6 trust what the volunteers tell you, rather than coming up with your own rules concerning the colour of the bottles.   

 

Once we hit Rex’s lookout I was still feeling okay, but I was very thankful I had seen the hill previously, since hitting it out of the blue would have been an unpleasant surprise. As it was I knew the hill wasn’t that long and so just spun up, passing a bunch of folk on the way. Unfortunately as I went to change back to the big chainring after the summit, my chain instead skipped and dropped in between my cranks and the frame, becoming fairly firmly wedged. Once I realised what had happened I was off the bike, made sure I wasn’t in the way of people beginning their decent and tried to get the chain free. After much yanking, a lot of grease and some cuts to my fingers the chain was still firmly wedged. I was pretty close to figuring I couldn’t get it out without assistance, when I realised that if I turned my crank a bit it would probably free it up, which it did. By the time I was back underway I had been passed back by a bunch of people and I had lost between 90 seconds and two minutes. Plus I had lost my rhythm. From Rex’s lookout I was into the undulating hills, it look me a little while to get my groove back in those conditions. But after a bit I was steadily passing folk again.

After 5kms or so of rolling hills we finally hit the turn and then it was the moment of truth, back into the wind. Once we were going though I was pleasantly surprised. I never felt the wind was that big a factor. For the first 5kms after the turn the bigger concern was the rolling hills, we were either going up or down, so the wind was played less of a part in those conditions. As we hit Rex’s lookout from the other direction I considered staying in my big chainring instead of risking another chain drop, but as I started climbing I realised that wasn’t really an option. Once I hit the top of the hill, I crossed my fingers and changed up. This time the change went smoothly and I was into the decent. The last of the rolling hills where behind me and I was still feeling okay.

 

Once we were onto the flat the wind became more of a factor, with some more exposed sections becoming a bit of a slog. But they were nicely broken up by areas sheltered from the wind, so it didn’t feel like you were simply fighting your way back into the wind for 35kms. Having said that the trip back was certainly slower than the trip out.

Once we hit T2, it was time to rack the bike, get into the gear tent, grab the bag, wack on the shoes and get out of there.

I entered T2 worried that I had perhaps left to much energy on the bike course. But as I started the run, and my legs shifted into running mode, I found I was feeling alright. The run started in pretty normal fashion, feeling tough before you realise that you are running way too fast. After the first quick km I started trying to slow down, but wasn’t trying hard enough. By this time I had been surprised at how well my body had held up and so thought I would push for a result. I had also been running well in training, and so while I knew I was running quicker than what I had planned, a little voice in the back of my head was saying, ‘maybe you can pull this pace off’. It was wrong.

All the same the first 6kms or so felt great. The only hiccup being that when I reached the first aid station I was told that there was no cola. One of the things I had decided to try for this event was drinking cola rather than taking gels. In my last two events I have needed toilet stops on the run and so I wanted to try and avoid that. Taking cola rather than gels was an attempt at doing so. All the competitor info had said there was going to be cola, and as such it was a fairly integral part of my race plan. When I found out there wasn’t any at the first aid station, I instantly starting wondering if there was going to be any at the other aid stations and what that going to mean to my race plan. I decided to not panic right away, but rather see what was at the 2nd aid station. They had cola and so did all the others, so it wasn’t a problem, but it was a nervous couple of kms.

After the first 5 or 6kms my body finally gave up on my brain doing the right thing and so took matters into its own hands, slowing the pace. I noticed the pace had dropped without a perceived drop in effort, but I was now moving at my planned pace, rather than quicker, so wasn’t too concerned. I kept repeating my mantra ‘run comfy’ to keep myself relaxed and to stop myself from trying to push the pace quicker again. By that stage I was realising that if I tried to push quicker again, there was no way I was going to hold the pace to the line.

Around 10kms or so through the run, my body starting saying ‘you know I could really do with a break’. We had a bit of a discussion about it and come to a compromise. Get through the half way mark and we can have a think about walking through the next aid station was the decision. We made it out to the highway and to about 13kms and the pace had dropped further. I reset my goal pace to finishing the race holding 4 minute 30 pace, which was seeming realistic. I also put the goal of going under 4 and a half hours out of my head, since that was seeming pretty much impossible. At around the 13km mark I walked through the aid station, feeling pretty okay afterwards. I was aware from a bad training experience that a run/walk approach when feeling bad can be quicker than a shuffling run approach, so I decided to go with something like that. I noticed that by doing that, the sections that I was running, I was running pretty well, rather than my technique falling apart. I also noticed that I wasn’t losing ground on the guys I could see in front, so kept it up for the 5 or 6kms along the Captain Cook Highway.

It is worth noting that of the entire run course, the section along the Captain Cook Highway is the most uninspiring. You really are running along one lane of a highway through, first rural areas,then light industrial and commercial buildings, and then past the airport. Into a headwind in our case. It isn’t a great section of the race and is one where keeping your focus is important. At the time it seems like it will go forever, but it doesn’t.

After the stretch along Captain Cook Highway, I was onto a bit of cycleway that I had run on the Friday before, so I was on familiar territory and knew I was on the home stretch.

Even though I knew I had less than 5kms to go, I gave myself one more section of walking in which two things happened. It happened to be the area that Daryl was spectating and he told me to try and push for the line. I also got passed by a couple of people, including, unbeknown to me at the time, the person who would come 4th in my age group. Using Daryl’s words and the people now in front of me as motivation I pushed the last few kms to the line, even managing to find a bit of acceleration for the last km or so.

 

Heading into the last km along the Cairns esplanade was great, with big crowds and a real ‘big event’ feel. It felt pretty cool. Heading down the chute had never felt so great and crossing the line they announced that I was 5th in the age group. Hmmm better than I expected was my first reaction. A glance at my watch also showed that I was under 4 hours 30, which both surprised and pleased me. But my dominant feeling was that I was very happy to be across the finish line.

So what can I take away from this race? Several things. It showed me that a not perfect race doesn’t always mean a bad result, if you manage the imperfections properly. It showed me that moving to and training in Perth seemed to be working okay. It showed me that I had recovered my fitness after a break at the beginning of the year due to my son being born. It also reminded me of the importance of execution and planning in putting together a good race. A good race doesn’t just happen, focusing on the process of the race and making sure you are doing each thing properly is what results in a good race. Not doing those things is what results in a bad race experience, even if the result is okay.

As with all my races a big thanks to Daryl Stanley for all his coaching and advice, without which the result would no doubt have been very different.