Bribie Island Tri Race 2 - 1/30/8, Sunday

8k's in 30:58 - 2nd fastest runner out of 18. Northies 3rd out of 18

After about five hours restless sleep, my mobile's vibrating alarm jolted me out of my slumber at 4:50am and then I proceeded to go through my normal pre race organised chaos of getting ready. Drove out to Bribie with MJ and after I watched her start her Just Tri It 300/13/3 event, I headed further down the passage to get ready for Northies' start. With RooBoy's back problems ruling him out of a Bribie race for the first time, we had recruited the Big Fella to fill in for him. Whilst Big Fella was a handy swimmer in his day, he only had two weeks to prepare for this event and 115kg to carry so the pressure was on!! As expected, the Big Fella acquitted himself admirably and came out of the water after his 1k swim, 12th out of 18 teams and a few minutes off the pace. In warming temperatures, Matt then put in another slick effort on the bike with the 4th fastest time and when he tagged me I thought we were in 2nd or 3rd and definitely around three minutes off the lead as the temperature headed into the thirties. I knew the lead runner was capable of a 30 min effort or thereabouts for the 8k, so it was going to take sub 28 run or so to get him which is clearly beyond me at the moment given my shin probs and low training mileage. Instead, I concentrated on running steadily and protecting our position. Going past the boys after completing the first four k lap, RooBoy confirmed that we were in third place and about three minutes behind second place. I continued to run in a steady fashion and with a controlled stride and was shocked when at the 4.5k mark, another team runner loomed up alongside me, venturing onto the grass to overtake me and looking fresh and strong. I instinctively matched his pace for fifty metres or so to make him work hard at running on the softer surface of the grass before he pulled ahead of me and opened up a two metre gap. This was the first time in five races at Bribie that I had been overtaken by another team runner. While all this sank in, the weak side of my brain quickly came to the fore saying "You're not going 100% today because of your shins and its not your fault that the team lost time on the swim leg, so nobody will blame you if we miss a placing, because even at this steady pace, you will still be a top three runner and will have done your job." These thoughts circulated through my mind for about thirty seconds as I continued to stay in touch with the bloke now in third place. Then the strong side of my brain came to the fore suggesting "Look - just draft this bloke for the rest of the race and then outkick him in the last 400m with a sprint finish. Only very good runners can outsprint you and this bloke is probably not one of them." I pondered the tactical implications of this option for a few moments before the sadistic side of my brain cut in, hissing "Put on a surge right now and BREAK this bastard!!! Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!"
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!

I promptly stepped up the pace from a little faster than 4:00's to around 3:40 min/km pace, quickly overtook the bloke to recapture third place and proceeded to put ten metres on him before resuming my steady speed, just under 4:00's. It was no contest and a knockout win to Matty as the challenger surrended and quickly continued to fall further and further off the pace to the extent that he dropped out of sight in the last two k's. I hit the line in third place for Northies with an 8k PB of 30:58. It shows how far I have come in the last 18 months when I look back to my comeback race in the Lest We Forget 8k in April of 2004 where I gutted myself in running 32:15 in perfect racing conditions. To do 30:58 today in fourth gear was immensely satisfying!

I finished off the morning with a 2.5k warm down run and felt strong throughout and could have done another 10k's easy. Importantly, there was no shin discomfort throughout the race and I pulled up well as the day and evening went by. When the results came out I didn't know whether to laugh or swear!! We officially came thiird beating the fourth place team by seven and a half minutes prompting the penny to drop. It meant that the bloke I had a dogfight for "third place" with at the 4.5k mark was actually a fresh runner in his first lap and just 500m into his run!!! What can you say - "that's racing!" MJ's results were also favourable in her debut tri with the second fastest run for her category so it was a great day all round!