2015 70.3 Western Sydney

I have mixed feelings about the 70.3 Western Sydney.  Because of the injury I sustained immediately after the event my brain associates the race with failure. I actually have to keep reminding myself that I didn’t DNF. In fact, the race was quite the opposite, whilst the result may not have been that impressive, it was actually a great day out for me that held a lot of positives.

So on with the race report.

70.3 Western Sydney is a Half Ironman event held in Penrith which is about an hour or so west of central Sydney. As far as I am aware Penrith is actually a separate town, rather than part of Sydney, but I guess 70.3 Western Sydney has a better ring to it. Penrith is a town like any other, without selling it too short, there isn’t a lot to set it apart. It is located at the base of the Blue Mountains though, which means there is a lot of impressive scenery very close to hand. Penrith’s proximity to Sydney makes access really very easy, you can drive there, catch a train there etc, all quite straight forward. The one issue with Penrith that I heard from a few people is that the amount of accommodation is limited, with virtually everything with a bed in town selling out for this race. So if this is a race that you are planning on, booking early would be my recommendation, or be prepared to travel from a fair way out. The other thing to be aware of is that at this time of year Penrith can get hot. In 2014 race day was in the high 30s and this year the Thursday before the race reached 38. We were just lucky that a cool change came in for race day, but it is something that should be factored in.

 

For me, I associate Penrith with the Sydney Olympic rowing course which is a place where I spent a lot of time in my rowing days. In fact, this race was a bit of a blast from the past for me as the entire race was also based at the rowing course.

The race course is both a little unusual and also very straight forward. The unusual comes from the fact that you swim in the rowing lake and you run around it, making for a very compact, contained event. The simple is because competing at the lake makes the course so straight forward that I would challenge anyone to get lost or have trouble with the route.

So what does the course look like? A little like this: 

As I mentioned above, the swim is done in the rowing lake. You have a deep water start, swim down the lake for 900m or so, turn around and swim back. Exit is via ramp on the bank. Super simple. Being a rowing lake, it is designed to be sheltered from the wind, so it is usually dead flat. I know from my rowing days that this course can get a bit of a breeze, but for swimming purposes it is nothing much, a light ruffling of the water, nothing more. The other nice benefit of it being a rowing lake is that you effectively get lane ropes. For those unfamiliar with rowing, in rowing races the boats race in lanes (like swimming). Those lanes are marked with buoys. In Penrith those buoys are anchored to cables that run the entire length of the lake about 1.5m below the surface. The swim course in Penrith follows one of these lines of buoys before crossing over a couple of lanes and following another line of buoys back again. This means that even if the giant course marker buoys aren’t visible (which they should be) you always have the little buoys to follow. Even better than that, if you want you can simply follow the cable that the buoys are anchored to, it is like having a black line. This means that you could actually swim this course with virtually no sighting if you wanted to. Couldn’t be easier.

The swim isn’t all buttercups and puppies though. It is a safe bet that the swim will not be wetsuit legal. Part of lake being an international rowing course is that it must be a closed system (no current), which means the water simply sits there and heats up. On our race day the water temp was 25.5 degrees (not even close to wetsuit legal) and the year before was similar. I would expect that to be the norm. Combining this with the fresh water makes for a slow swim. Water quality wise though the water is fine, which is a concern that I know a lot of people have. There is a bit of weed in the lake, but other than that the water is clean and quite pleasant. When I was a rower I never really considered swimming in the lake, but now that I have I can honestly say that it was a lot nicer than I had expected. Slow swim leg, but an easy one.

The run from the swim exit to transition is not too long, just enough time to peel down a swim skin. Transition itself is also very orthodox, nothing to really mention here. You go in one end and come out the other.

Moving on to the ride leg, it looks a bit like this.

 

Once again, a mostly straight forward course with a slight garnish of complex. Two laps of 45km. All up I measured the course at being almost exactly 90km, which is a nice change from what you see sometimes. Most of the course is a simple out and back, however, at the far end of the ride course there is a technical section with a few corners and three 180 degree turn arounds. The road surface is okay for most of the course, certainly all of the bits on Castlereagh road are fine. A mixture of smooth road and normal blue chip. However, for the technical section at the end of the course the road surface deteriorates. It doesn’t go to dirt or anything crazy like that, but there is a fair few potholes and road patches. It isn’t great. The dodgy far turn around is partly offset by the turn around at the lake though which heads back past transition, through the crowds etc, giving you a nice little mid bike course buzz. There are four aid stations on the bike course, which on our race day was heaps.

Usually at this point I would talk about course elevation, but I suspect my Garmin barometer was thrown a little by the changeable weather we had during the race, so I am not convinced that my elevation measurement is correct. Based on gut feel though the course felt pretty flat. There is one hill about 6km out from the lake, but it really is a non-event. The hill is short and not that steep, the sort of thing you can almost get up on your aero bars if you want. There are a few other long, gradual hills, almost false flats, but they were minor enough that they didn’t seem to get in the way.

The bike course was one of those unusual ones that looks really quick on paper and even felt really fast on the bike, but was actually slower than it seemed. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a slow course, but the technical section at the end costs you time. All round a good course though with some nice views of the blue mountains to break it up.

On to the run. The run course at this race is probably the leg that gets the most comments. It looks like this: 

The course runs almost completely around the lake, then you turn around and run back. You do this lap two and a half times. Wait a second I hear you say, you just run around the lake? Isn’t that a little dull? You and everybody else asked this question. The answer is, yes sort of, but perhaps not as dull as you think, well I didn’t think it was anyway. The nice/terrible thing running around a rowing course is that the distances are very clearly marked, every 250m in fact. This means you know exactly how far you have run and how far you have to go. It also means that if your mind starts to wander you can break your run up into 250m chunks. Run to the next distance marker, run to the next one etc… This is why I didn’t find it that dull, there was always a goal just ahead.

The run itself is all on good paths. Good surface, no tricky bits. The course is almost entirely flat. You have to go up and over a bridge twice per lap, but that is about the biggest incline. Not all unicorns and honeycakes though, this run course is open, there is almost no shade.
As I mentioned before, in 2014 the temperature for this race was in the high 30s. This would be a brutal run course in those conditions as there is nowhere to hide. However, if the conditions are on your side it is a fast run.

For our year there were 10 aid stations on the run (four per lap), which was fine. Due to the extreme conditions from the 2014 edition of the race, this year there were also a number of shower stations. They ended up not really being necessary, but good to see them there. Run seemed to be fairly close to the prescribed 21.1km.

Besides the actual course, the venue itself is worth a mention. The Regatta Centre works really well as a race venue. There are permanent facilities like toilets, kiosks, grandstands, picnic areas, car parks etc already there for the event to use. Plenty of open lawn areas for transition and the expo. Racing around the lake means you spend a lot of the time away from public roads, road closures etc which is nice. Being such a compact event also makes spectating a breeze. At the end of each run leg you head past all the local club tents. That area had a great buzz to it, the closest I have seen to what you get at Busselton 70.3. I was just really impressed with how well the venue worked. Whilst holding an event in Penrith may have some logistical issues, I for one feel that the Regatta Centre will provide a great location for the 2017 Asia Pacific Championships. I can see why they chose it.

So that is what the race course looks like. How did my particular day go?

My day didn’t start off that great, with one of the worst pre-race nights sleeps I have ever had. I am not sure exactly how much sleep I managed in the end, but it was somewhere down in the realm of two or three hours. I still don’t really know what caused it, whether it was nerves or something else. In the end I think the time difference between Sydney and Perth may have been a big factor. I effectively went to bed at 5:00pm Perth time and I think my body just refused to shut down that early. Whatever the cause though, at 3:15am I was up, slammed down a bunch of caffeine, jumped in the car and got on with it.

Once in the car I saw that the forecast for some rain was indeed true, with a light rain falling on already wet roads. Not a lot of falling water, but enough to make bike handling a concern.

Race prep in the rain went fine. I got to the venue with plenty of time, got transition set up okay. We only really had 30 minutes, between transition opening and when we were allowed to warm up, which is a bit more rushed that I usually like. However, it is enough time to do everything that needs doing, so I got through fine. Although in the rush I did lose my new jacket which is quite annoying (although it is on its way back from the organisers now, so I can move on with life).

Once transition was set up I was in the lake for a good solid warm up. For this race I was really keen for a good swim so I was being careful to do everything right. Unfortunately, they called us out of the lake 15 minutes before the start which was just enough time to get really cold again. By the time we were allowed back in the lake I was seriously regretting not bringing a towel or something with me to huddle under.

Once back in the water we all congregated on the start line. There was the usual start line creep and then with a bang it was time to go.

I have had a series of poor non-wetsuit swims and as I said above I was keen to avoid that this time around. I had a couple of goals in mind for this swim, not go out too hard, find some good toes, get a good swim time. One out of three ain’t bad. I deliberately let the lead group go, not wanting to bury myself trying to hold an unsustainable pace and instead I jumped on some toes that seemed a better match for my pace. However, those toes soon slowed down and I went around them to find myself on the front of the group. Oh well I thought, I have been here before no choice but to swim my own swim, so I settled into finding a good solid rhythm, focused on my breathing timing and worked on getting around the course. In this way I worked my way around most of the course. In the last few hundred metres I got caught by the lead women, which was my first indication that the swim time was perhaps not as quick as I was wanting. The lead women did give me some good toes to use though, which is exactly what I did, providing a nice little push into the end of the swim. Swim time 29:58, which is the slowest swim I have done for quite some time. Frustratingly the swim actually felt pretty good, it just wasn’t that fast. One consolation is that everybody swam slow, the quickest time being Nic Kastelein and Jake Montgomery who got around in low 25 mins. A quick swim this is not.

The run up to transition went smoothly. Helmet on and off I go, or so I thought. I was about to jump on the bike when I realised that I still had my swim skin on my bottom half. I stopped quickly and whipped it off before getting on my way. This is the second time I have done this (I did it in Putrajaya too) which makes me think I should put a sticky note on my bike or something. Perhaps I am not alone though because I did notice that Ryan Waddington wore his swim skin for the entire ride too.

I got out on the bike with three or four other guys and soon picked up one more. Once we settled we quickly settled into a good rhythm. How well that group worked is one of the highlights of the race for me. I often get questions about how groups like this work in Triathlon. Isn’t it drafting? Why do you guys cheat so much? The answer is that no, we aren’t cheating. Whilst we ride together we are all maintaining the required 12m. When we take turns out the front the passes are all done in the required 25 seconds. You may ask that if we aren’t drafting then what is the point of being in the group? What can I say, it just helps. Pushing to stick with a guy and then pushing to do your turn on the front keeps the overall pace up. By riding together, we all end up quicker.

The group that rode together in Penrith worked really well with everybody spending time on the front and doing their bit. It was a lot of fun. At the start the group was hammering and I was working a lot harder than my race plan called for. In fact, I was really starting to worry that I was racing somebody else’s race and that I was going cook myself for the second half of the race. I have made this mistake before and avoiding it was another focus for this race. With this in mind I was considering dropping off the group and racing my own race, however, three quarters of the way through the first lap the pace settled down and I was able to bring my pacing under control. From there it was a case of following the plan, staying with the numbers, getting down the nutrition and the hydration, staying at 12m when necessary and not crashing.

Coming back into transition I was very pleased to see that my power level was exactly where it was supposed to be and my average heart rate was also bang on target. Everything was feeling good. Bike time was 2:14:39. It was nice to come off the bike with a sub 2:15 ride which felt fairly comfortable to achieve. One of the big ticks from this race for me.

Heading into this race my run leg had been improving a lot. Still slow by pro standards, but taking steps in the right direction. Given that, the real test of success in this race for me was going to be whether I could replicate those improvements in the run leg. Doing so would require correct pacing on the bike, good pacing in the first half the run and holding the technique improvements that I have been working on.

As usual the first couple of kilometres off the bike felt a little awkward but I was happy to see that they were quicker than my planned race pace. At least I wouldn’t have to push the pace up, instead I was able to work on slowing down, which is always a nice problem to have in a race. My plan for the race was to do the first 10km very conservatively and then push from there if I was feeling good. However, after the first few kilometres I was struggling to slow my pace down to my planned conservative pace. I was feeling good so I decided to simply continue working at the pace I was at. By 10km my pace hadn’t really dropped and I was still feeling good, the heart rate was where it was supposed to be etc, so I decided to push on. Running in this fashion the run course went by reasonably quickly, one 250m chunk at a time. By the time I got into the last kilometre my pace still hadn’t really dropped and so I picked it up, hit the red carpet and finally crossed the line. 1:25:48 for the run, which is a PB for me. For me though the highlight of the run was the pacing, which was solid throughout the entire leg. Total time of 4:12:40, 15^th in the MPRO, 20^th overall.

So all up the race had a bit of good and bad, but more good. My day certainly went better than a time of 4:12 and 15^th place would indicate. I say that because really the race went to plan. Western Sydney was always about building for me. Work on a few things, check that a few other things are working. Improve my pacing. It was never about setting the world on fire, more about checking progress and that is exactly what it achieved for me and I was very happy with what the check showed me. 

So that was my day in the rain. A day that goes down as a success in my book and definitely a race I would consider again.

As usual I have a bunch of thank yous I need to give before finishing. Firstly, to coach Daryl Stanley for quietly persisting in getting me ready, even when I insist on changing events at the last minute. Thanks to the club Break Your Limits for all the support and get well messages. To Panther Cycles for some last minute repairs carried out in style. Thanks to the sponsors, Falco Bikes, Mizuno Australia, Caden Wheels, Mako Wetsuits, Hammer Nutrition, Compressport Australia and Swim Smooth for providing me with the gear and skills necessary to compete in races like this. And of course a massive thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with all the racing and the training.

And that is normally where I would leave it. However, for this race I really need to thank a couple more people. Firstly, a huge thanks to the staff at the medic tent at Western Sydney 70.3 for patching my wounds and getting me sorted enough to get back home to Perth. To the two guys who stopped to help me after I crashed, who sacrificed their hanky so I could bleed all over it, who stayed with me until the medics had me, who even contacted me days later to make sure I was okay. And finally the biggest thanks to John ‘Super Squizz’ Taylor, for giving me a roof for a few days and then for doing all the running around (including driving me from Penrith to Sydney Airport) once I had incapacitated myself. There isn’t a lot you can say in the face of that sort of generosity of spirit, other than saying thanks once again.