A bit of history. Rottnest has a real history with long course triathlon in WA. The State Long Course champs spent a number years being raced here before moving a couple of times and ending up in its current iconic location of Busselton. That time it spent being the Long Course Champs site means that Rottnest has a place in the heart of many older triathletes in WA. So when race organiser XOSIZE announced they would be restarting the tradition of racing a long course tri on Rottnest, it got a lot of people excited.
So was that excitement justified, was it a good event? Hopefully this race report will give some idea of that, plus a bit about how my day went.
So firstly, what does the race look like:
The swim leg is fairly straight forward. A 1km loop done twice. Looks straight forward and on paper it is. On the day there were a few logistical issues, like there not being enough buoys and the buoys not being big enough which made sighting hard, but those issues will hopefully be over come next time. This year the beach had a rather rapid drop off which would have made running into the water both comical and dangerous so we had a standing start in chest deep water. One thing I will point out about this course is that the first turn is very close to the beach. This year this turn was carnage. I swam over at least one person and was swum over once myself. This may change for future versions of this race, but for now be warned.
This year I also thought the swim was a bit long. My Garmin measured it at nearly 3km. Now I have found my Garmin to be notoriously inaccurate when it comes to open water swimming, plus my sighting was terrible, but I struggle to believe those two things could add an extra 1km to the course. My time of 30 minutes is about 5 minutes slower than I would expect for a 2km swim like this. I don't know for sure that the swim was long, but I have my suspicions. Easy fix for next year though.
The swim is done in a really protected part of Thompson Bay (the main bay at Rottnest). Whilst it is protected, the wind can still get in there as we found, so the water can get choppy.
As you can see, not big waves, but not flat either. Enough to mean that we were moving around during the swim. Combined with the small buoys, the chop made sighting a real challenge. On a different day this area could well be flat, but don't assume it will be. One thing this area of Thompson Bay is unlikely to ever have though is swell, so you should never have to contend with big waves.
The entire swim is done over a sandy bottom with areas of sea grass. Really quite pretty. This year the swim was wetsuit optional and unless global warming gets really bad really quickly, it will probably always be wetsuit optional.
Out of the water and after a bit of a brutal run up a sand dune. You have a few hundred meter jog to Transition.
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| Me looking like I have just run up a sand dune |
Once through transition it is time for the riding bit. The bike course looks like this, basically a lap of Rottnest Island that you do four times.
Below is the elevation profile which looks really harmless. Be warned though that the elevation gain of 23m stated on the below profile is just the difference between the starting elevation and the max elevation. The elevation gain over the entire lap is more like 85m. The elevation gain for the entire bike course is around 350m.
Still,350m is fairly minor if I am honest. But the one thing you need to take away from the above elevation profile is the lack of flat spots. When you look closely you see that there are virtually none at all. This is certainly how the course feels when you ride it. True rolling hills. If you aren't going up you are going down. None of the hills are big. I only got out of the saddle once per lap and went up most of the hills on my aero bars. But the hills are relentless and they do make finding a rhythm really difficult. If you ride with a power meter the constant hills will play havoc with your average power output. You may have to rethink your plan or get used to using Normalised Power.
The other thing to be aware of for the ride course is the wind. Rottnest is windy, it always is. Some days there is more wind that others, but chances are there will always be a bit of a breeze. For us we had a fairly strong westerly wind blowing all day. This meant that half the course we were fighting a head wind and the other half we were flying along. Combined with the hills this makes pacing even more difficult. A good number of people certainly burnt too many matches on the bike course fighting the wind.
This is a course that doesn't look like much, but deserves some respect and a bit of conservatism.
The course also has some technical spots, a few winding bits and the odd sharp corner. Combined with the wind and the hills, it is not a quick course. Other things to look out for are the odd poisonous snake, tourist buses, wandering tourists on bikes, crumbling road edges, sand on the inside of corners and quokkas (small marsupials that are all over Rottnest).
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| Quokka - the furry one in front |
On the subject of buses and tourists on bikes. The roads on Rottnest are not closed for the event. There are no cars on Rottnest so closing the roads would be overkill. Rottnest is a tourist resort though and the two main ways to get around the Island are by bus or by bike. I never really had too many issues with buses but they will be there. However, on the ride you will overtake a lot of people riding around the Island (hopefully none will overtake you). These people may be riding all over the road, and a lot will have no idea there is a race running. It is really worth giving them a bit of room if you can. Once again I didn't have any problems, but something that you need to be aware of. Something else to be are of is that people ride around the Island in both directions. When you are flying down a hill at 50km/h hugging the inside of that blind corner, just remember there may well be a family of six riding in the opposite direction.
One last note. This year I found that the course wasn't all that well marked. There were signs at most of the points they were needed and marshals at a lot of them, but the signs were small and not all the marshals were particularly active. I overshot one corner on the first lap and I know a couple of other guys who took some wrong turns. A recce would be a good idea if you can manage it, otherwise just give yourself a moment on the first lap to have a proper look at all the signs to make sure you are on the right track.
One extra last note. Part of the bike course goes through the township on Rottnest. Have a care on this stretch. With the roads not being closed there can be a lot of foot traffic, bikes, segways etc on this bit. Just take it carefully.
Oh yeah I also measured the bike course as slightly short. I got it at 78.5km. Not much of a big deal but good to know. There is one aid station on the lap, which you pass four times which I found to be plenty.
Now for the running bit. Compared the bike, the run is simplicity itself. You run from transition, through town, up to a spot called Geordie Bay and then run back again. You do the lap about two and three quarter times. On the way back on the third lap you finish in town rather than running all the way back to transition.
The run is mostly flat, with a nasty hill just before Geordie Bay. You run up the hill and down the back of it and then turn around and run back over it again once per lap. Elevation gain over the run course is about 130m. Most of the run is on formed paths and roads, with two very short sections of sand per lap. When I say short I mean less than 50m sort of short. I measured the run as being slightly long, about 20.7km. However, I got the impression that the organsisers were aware that it was long, so it might be changed for next year.
The run leg has three aid stations, but you can access them in both
directions, so really it has five per lap (one aid station is at a turn
around). All up there are 14 over the run course, which worked out okay
on the day. On a hotter day the run between transition and the middle
aid station may feel a bit far. But I think in general they are about right.
Of the three legs I have to say that for me the run was the highlight. The ride leg was interesting and pretty in places, but the run was fun. You spend most of the run leg going through the town site, past accommodation etc, lots of people coming out to cheer. It had a great feel to it. For me it made the day.
Hmmm, what else. Well the race starts really late, or at least it did this year, starting at 9:30am. This is to make it easier for people coming across from Perth on race day. Whilst it is unusual, the late race start worked fine this year. Part of the reason it worked for us is because our day was on the cooler side. If we had a hotter day it could have been more of an issue. There was an Olympic Distance triathlon the day before our race and it was a lot warmer. That race had started late too and apparently the heat had been an issue for some people.
It would have made the weekend much easier, and a lot more fun, to be
staying on the Island for a few days. If you can't get accommodation
then it is possible to head over on race day (that is what I did after
all and so did many others), but it just makes it just that little bit
harder. That would be my one big tip for the weekend. Plus Rottnest is a fun place to spend a couple of days.
So that is what the race looks like. So how was my day.
In brief it was good. I managed to come away with the win which I am absolutely thrilled about. Everything after that seems like a minor point. My time was just over four hours, which before the event I would have been disappointed with, but now having done the course, I am not too upset about.
As I mentioned before, my race didn't get off to a great start, getting pummelled as I went around the first turn on the swim. From there though it improved. The first turn cost me a bit of time and position. But by the time we got up to the second turn on the swim I was near the front and from there I moved to the front.
The return leg of the first lap of the swim was my worst for sighting and I am sure that cost me some time, but I managed to hold my position. Moving into the second lap and I had somebody on my toes. I realised I had settled a bit too much and so made a push. Whilst my pace improved I couldn't shake my friend. Sighting on the second lap was easier because we were coming up on an surf lifesaver who was next to the last swimmer. That meant we could get an approximate idea of where the buoys were before we could see them. By the time I was half way around the second lap I knew I wouldn't shake my friend and was a bit annoyed about it. I had hoped for clear water. I got out of the water first (just) stumbled my way up the sand dune and into transition.
Once I got into transition I realised the person I had been swimming with was part of a team and I relaxed a fair bit.
Heading out on to the bike and my first thoughts were all about the race plan. Going into this race one of the goals that Daryl and I had was to keep the bike conservative in the hope of having a decent run. With this in mind I wanted to settle quickly and not overcook the start of the bike. Despite having that plan I found that working into the wind I was still putting out too much power. My heart rate monitor wasn't picking up, but I suspected that I was working too hard and so focused on holding back a little.
The team I had finished the swim with had got on the bike before me, but after 7 or 8km I came past them and from there it was a solo kind of day. Other than a couple of slight navigation hiccoughs, the first lap went fairly smoothly. I got to the end of the lap still working too hard, but feeling like I was cruising well.
On the second lap my heart rate monitor came back to life and I got confirmation that was indeed pushing too hard. Around this time I also realised that with the hills and the wind, that my average power probably wasn't a fair reflection of how hard I was working. On that lap I decided to instead focus on bringing my heart rate down, rather than holding a specific power level. Despite having made that change I found that my splits for the four laps remained reasonably even.
By the time I finished the bike leg the average power was lower than I had been planning, but my average heart rate was about right. Looking at my normalised power after the race showed that in the end my power output was close to where it should have been, but it was certainly a lesson I will take into future versions of this race. An easy course to push too hard.
I headed into the run leg with no idea how big my lead was. I felt like my bike had gone well and so hoped the lead was decent, but really I didn't know.
Heading into this race the focus was mostly on trying to have a good run. This, combined with my lack of knowledge of my lead, meant that I hit the run fairly strong from the start.
Conscious of not going out too hard on the run as well as the bike I quickly settled and by the third kilometre felt like I had found a good rhythm. Ticking along this way I got through the first lap. At the end of the first lap I also got confirmation that my lead was around 6 minutes. That was good, but not enough to make me entirely comfortable given that I am not a super strong runner and I still had 13km left to run.
The run continued to tick along quite nicely until the far turn on the second lap. I was holding my target pace comfortablish, the new nutrition plan using Gels was going well and I had increased my lead slightly. From there though things got a bit tougher. After around 13km I was starting to feel less comfortable and was slowing down. I ran back to transition and the start of my last lap afraid that I would see my competitors suddenly much closer.
Once I started the last lap I saw that my lead up to around 10 minutes and I relaxed. My pace was still slower, but I had 5km to go and was pretty confident that I would be okay. With that knowledge the running started feeling good again as I let myself relax into a sustainable pace.
I moved through the last lap ticking off landmarks and the kilometres. Climbed that damn hill for the last time and ran the last couple of kilometres to the line.
Finally crossing in a time of 4:04 and a little bit.
Very happy to have finally secured the win.
So that was it. Good result and one that I am certainly happy with.
More than the result, all up it was a race I was happy with. The plan had been to put together a balanced race and on the whole I think I managed it. The run wasn't scorching but it was a big step in the right direction, and probably the best run leg I have had in about 6 months. Combined with the result, I call that a success.
What about the event? Well if you had asked me after the swim or the bike I would have been more uncertain, but after the run leg I will happily tell you that I think it is a great little event. The first two legs were okay, but the run really completes it. The event was a great combination of relaxed and intense, which is a lot like Rottnest itself. Sure it had some hiccoughs, but they were all minor and easily fixed. The guys at XOSIZE genuinely seemed keen to provide a great competitor experience. I can imagine that organising a race on Rottnest could be a logistical nightmare, but they did a great job of it and pulled off the event with style. I have to take my hat off to them. I would certainly come back if my schedule lines up next year.
So that is that race and my day at it. As always I can't finish a report like this without a lot of thank yous. Firstly a big thanks to Daryl for helping me rebuild after Bintan and getting me ready for this event. Slowly but consistently building. Thanks to the guys at Break Your Limits for the support and the cheering and looking after my bike on Saturday night. A big thanks to the sponsors Mizuno, Hammer Nutrition, Falco Bikes, Caden Wheels, Swim Smooth, Sportstreat and Compressport Australia. These guys help me out with the gear and prepratation necessary for a race like this. Their support makes it just that little bit easier.
As always the last and biggest thank you goes to my wonderful family for their unending support. The thank you for this race has to be particularly big for making the effort to get up early, come all the way to Rottnest and then spend the day sitting around and cheering. Without them none of this would be possible.
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