Kona

Kona, allot of peoples dream race and buckets list items to do, but for allot of us, it's either a hit or miss. 

Being in the sport of triathlon now for 15yrs starting at the age of 16, i've definitely gone through the roller coaster of "ups and downs" with the sport of triathlon and not trying to speak for everyone but it usually consists of a lot more 'downs' than 'ups'. 

With age and experience you try and learn from your mistakes and try and counter for the things you can control, i call them the "controllables", everything else it's out of your hands so i try not to think about the "what if's". 

For me my kona experience i did everything right on the "controllables" side of things, it's still and hard one to swallow but what happened for me race day was out of my hands.

A recap of what my race went like... 

The race started, and kona is a little more aggressive than your typical ironman event, everyone's fighting in the swim for that extra inch and no one's taking any prisoners, it's a tough swim as everyone there is quite good, so you're either fighting to stay in the group or your out the back, which no one wants especially me. 

My race was going to plan, got out with the front main group in the swim, as i collected my bike i notice my glasses was knocked off my bike in the mad scramble, was nothing i could do as i had to go with the race, no time to "look in lost out found".

Bike was hot to begin with, (as expected) i positioned myself nicely in the middle of the group making sure i'm not losing contact of the race. 

We (the main group) i  had just got onto Ka'ahumanu highway part of the bike course and the pace seem to have now settled, with the combination of my pre-race sunscreen and the sweat/humidity my arms were very slippery, i hit a bump in the road and went flying over the handlebars.    

I got up as quickly as i could (post 1st crash) and my bike chain was jammed up, so i lost nearly a minute getting back onto the bike, i was really sore riding now when i returned to the race, my entire left side was aching, but i tried to stay positive and hoped that i could possibly get a second wind that might bring me back into the race. 

I was losing time,  i lost any sort of momentum i had from that first crash, i still was trying to think of the positives and maybe just maybe i might have a great marathon as a saving grace. 

Approaching around 150km mark on the bike, for a split second i lost concentration on the bike and accidently road straight into the lava fields.

This was the nail in my coffin, that crash in the lava fields with the sharp hot rock, i just swelled up and to boot got severely burnt too, i couldn't move, my day was now over. 

Again the was a tough day to swallow, but having now some time to look back at it, it's "just life" as they say, and i got to ride a few more downs till hopefully i get back to some of those ever satisfying 'ups" 

Onwards and Upwards

Paul    

      

Ironman Australia 30th Anniversary

As befits the 30th anniversary celebrations, the honours were hard and bravely fought at the Toyota IRONMAN Australia.

by Daniel Hoy 

The men’s race came down to the wire at Port Macquarie, Australia today as two former winners battled for bragging rights at the 30^th anniversary of the world’s fourth oldest IRONMAN race.

The 2013 champion Luke Bell ran himself within grasp of leader, 2012 IRONMAN Australia winner Paul Ambrose, who managed to dig deep over the final 4kms to hold off Bell’s charge and claim the title for the second time.

Meantime Australian-based New Zealander Michelle Bremer, who has battled with prolonged injuries that many would have given in to, ran down her rivals to win her second IRONMAN crown.

Men’s race                                                                                                                                                          

Kiwi Graham O’Grady edged Bell and 2012 world champion Pete Jacobs out of the water with the latter pair stretching out on the bike.

Ambrose, who was runner-up last year and third at IRONMAN Canada, worked hard to bridge the gap out of the water and claimed the lead late in the bike leg.

Bell and Ambrose gaped Jacobs who started to fall behind on the bike. Ambrose decided it was time to turn on the jets, and built a seven-minute gap on Bell as he entered transition.

"I was isolated at the start on my own, and in that first 40km Luke and PJ put some time into me. But I just stuck to my plan and tried to stay strong," says Ambrose. "I gradually picked them up and then ended up with a margin on the bike."

Bell said he had decided to ease back over the final 45km on the bike.

"I didn’t want a death march on that run," Bell says.

Bell had the word patient written on the top tube of his bike, and that was his mantra for the day.

Sticking to his plan, Bell gradually ate into the leader’s advantage. He was five minutes down at the halfway point of the 42.2km marathon run, and just over a minute with 10kms to go. But as the catch seemed imminent, Ambrose dug deep and found some energy to hold off the change, going on to win in 8:35:52.

"I started getting splits that he was coming back," says Bell. "So I had a dip, started to dig deeper, kept going and then at 35km boom, big mushroom cloud and I ended up just battling to the finish line."

Bell finished runner-up 2:40 back with Australian Brian Fuller third in 8:49:38.

Ambrose was delighted to claim his second IRONMAN title after a couple of years without a win.

"I’m happy to win the 30^th, being 30 it’s awesome. I was losing time to Luke, but I was hoping to get a second wind, which I didn't, I just had to shuffled quicker.

"As soon as I realized this was the 30^th  I had to do this race, I didn't make any plans before this, no other races was that important as I wanted to give this race the respect it deserved."

Women’s race

Last year’s runner-up Lisa Marangon enjoyed a one minute advantage out of the swim from a bunch of chasers.

While Bremer forced her way to within a minute of the lead after the first lap of the challenging 180km bike, Marangon stretched the advantage ultimately to 2:36 from former winner and fellow Australian Jessica Fleming on to the run.

Bremer had faded back to 5:30 behind in fourth place.

Fleming, with a strong running pedigree, pushed to the lead by the 10km mark as Marangon withdrew, but gradually Bremer found her running legs. The 2011 IRONMAN Western Australia champion hit the lead at the 25km mark and from that point pulled away to win in 9:38:23. Fleming mighty impressively finished as runner-up 3:54 back and Australian compatriot Michelle Gailey third, more than 12 minutes behind the winner.

"That was awesome to win. I won my first at IRONMAN Western Australia and it was so surreal, I didn’t know what I was doing that day and didn’t take in the finish line," says Bremer. "But I made sure this time I enjoyed every minute of it, I high-fived as many people as I can, found my husband as well. It was awesome."

More than 1800 athletes were out on course chasing their own IRONMAN dreams.

Top 5 Men

1          Paul Ambrose               Australia           8:35:52

2          Luke Bell                       Australia           8:38:33

3          Brian Fuller                    Australia           8:49:38

4          Luke Martin                   Australia           8:56:18

5          Nick Baldwin                 Seychelles        8:59:43

Originally from: http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2015/05/im-australia-recap.aspx#ixzz3abvZwhDX

Mooloolaba Triathlon

Since January this year (2015) i have decided for a bit of a change of scenery/venue from my typical Sydney summers.
I decided to move up to Mooloolaba Queensland on the sunshine coast of Queensland.
There were a few decisions which i made the move for,
Firstly as a ever growing population and infrastructure, the roads around Sydney/ Cronulla are starting to get abit crowded for my liking.
Secondly Mooloolaba sprang to mind, as back in my earlier days of my short course racing, i always loved my weekend away up in Mooloolaba for the triathlon weekend, which back then was the last race on the Australian calendar for major events before the winter began and it also doubled as the Australian Olympic distance championships, so everyone was here to "go out with a bang."
For the past 5yrs or so my focus has been on longer distance racing, and this hasn't changed much with my first major goal of the season is Ironman Australia on May 3rd. But now having this iconic race (literally just outside my door) i couldn't pass up the opportunity to race one of my favourite events growing up.
As i am now in a Ironman block, i didn't leave any room for a taper, and choose to compete in the non-drafting event as this would be more suited for my racing. Like they say, "great minds think alike' as to my surprise a few other seasoned Ironman athletes were probably thinking the same, with Tim O'donald and Tim Berkel to name a few also through their hat in the ring for a solid hit out.
I really enjoyed it, from the exit of the swim, the top 6th basically stayed together, it was very hard to get away on this bike course as it was quite a flat course with relatively no wind and a mere 7m draft rule means that it was unlikely anyone would break away.
So i turned it into a 40km TT basically, trying to remain on the front of the group as much as possible as a hard 40km effort wasn't going to take to much out of me.
The run began, we all took off fairly quickly as expected for short course racing, Young ITU athlete Somi and Odonald took off and were fighting it off for 1st and 2nd, i was in 4th till about 5km into the run where i managed to run myself into the final podium spot.
Couldn't of got a better day of racing, enjoyed it and looking forward to Port Mac which is a bit over 6 weeks away.

See you next time
Paul