Mooloolaba Triathlon

Despite the big surf caused by Cyclone Larry, the Mooloolaba triathlon was held on Sunday, although the 1500 m swim was moved from the ocean to the river (thank God!). An open water swim was held the day before, but after the first few groups of swimmers were trashed by the big waves (picture!), the event was stopped. I certainly wasn't looking forward to an ocean swim so the change of venue was welcome news and I has happy with my 32 min swim time (it would have been MUCH longer in pounding surf!).
The swim was followed by a 40 km cycle and again I was happy with my 1hr 13min time on a mostly flat, fast course and I caught up a few of the better swimmers in my 45 - 49 age group. I caught a few more on the undulating 10 km run, although my 49 min time was a bit slow for me which I'm attributing to post-marathon tiredness. My overall time was 2:43 placing me 46 out of the 76 old buggers in my age-group and 32 min behind the fastest of the old buggers. This is a somewhat mediocre time and placing for me, but I was happy with a solid effort and I have a few more Olympic Distance races coming up (Byron and Bintan) in which to go faster.

Ego and super-ego

This COULD be me if I had hair (and why are his eyes 10 times larger than his mouth?). I've been delaying this post waiting on pictures from the Griffith University Aquathon held last Friday, but they haven't arrived so this unidentified anamie character will have to do in place of another picture of me in lycra.

The aquathon started at our Mt Gravatt Campus and involved running for about 3 km through Toohey Forest, swimming 13 lengths of a 25 m swimming pool and then sprinting 800 to the finish. I was the first (and only) over 40 male to finish for which I won a sports store voucher and other goodies. I was not, however, the first over 40 athlete to finish, being comprehensively flogged by the first 'masters' woman (salutary for my ego).

My athletic career was nearly interrupted by a spill from my bike on Saturday. I did my first group ride for awhile with 'Spike'' and was at the front of the 'peleton' heading down a hill when I hit some debris on the road and started to wobble. The instinct to stay upright is strong, however, and I managed to stay in control, although not before the group scattered fearing I would bring other riders down. Overall, I was pleased with my fitness on this ride despite a lack of cycling lately. We rode 95 km to Redcliffe and back and I managed to keep up. I'm doing the Mooloolaba Triathlon on Sunday (cyclones permitting) and it will be interesting to see if I've fully recovered from the marathon.

A balanced trioddity

My legs are still trashed after the 6ft track marathon and so I'm more open to spending my evenings in ways not involving compulsive exercise. I went to an excellent science lecture at the 'Judith Wright Centre' on Monday night entitled 'Our History is in our Genes' by Prof John Mattick (http://jsm-research.imb.uq.edu.au/jsmgroup/). He is a knowledgable, fluent and entertaining speaker and I learnt the interesting fact that, conservatively, '1 in 20 Australians don't have the father they think they do'! While enjoying a beer after this lecture, I noticed an advertisement for a classical Indian music performance the following night. I am a bit of a fan of classical Indian music (and bollywood, for that matter), although I have never been to a live performance. The recital was given by Ustad Amajad Ali Khan playing the sarod accompanied by Rashid Mustafa (tabla) and Ashit Ghatak (sarod). It was incredible! The highlight of the show was a 'duel' between sarod and tabla in which the tabla player would watch the fingers of the sarod player and play the same tune - not as an echo, but simultaneously, no matter how complex the combination of notes. His fingers moved in a blur like the wings of a dragon-fly!

A good (tiring!) weekend

This is the finish of the '6 foot track marahon' with 400 m to go! The 6ft track marathon is a beautiful 45 km run from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves along fire-trails with at least three long, steep climbs. The official cut-off is 7 hrs and I finished in 7:00:29! This is my second attempt at this race and I still have the challenge of getting under this time - maybe next year! In fact, my 'nett time' (measured with a timing chip) was 6:59:39 but it is the 'gun' time that counts. Below is a picture of the '7 hr sweeper'. He ran past me with 10 km to go, but then slowed down and I went past him with about 6.5 km to go. At that point I felt I was easily going to finish within the 7 hr, but I hadn't counted on a very steep descent to the finish line on tired legs and the sweeper went past me again with about 400 m to go! Nevertheless, a good run followed by an enjoyable dinner of pizza and good beer, a very sound sleep and a lazy breakfast on Norton Street the following morning. Many thanks to Jez for his good company and a lift to the start and to Jez and B for their hospitality over a beautiful Sydney weekend.

Gumdale Classic

In a departure from my run training for the '6ft Track Marathon' next weekend, I participated in the third 'Gumdale Classic' duathalon. This is a VERY informal event organised by Troy Fidler, mainly for those athletes participating in Ironman Australia in 4 weeks time. Gumdale is a suburb south-east of Brisbane and the 'Gumdale Classic' is 6 loops of a 15 km bike course followed by a 17.5 ish km run on the same hilly route. Eighteen of us cycled one (supposedly) slow loop of the bike course before a rolling start and it was on! There was one nasty, short hill and a few rolling hills so that by the end of 6 loops up and down these hills, my legs were properly trashed and I was the 4th last rider. Nevermind, I thought, I've been doing a lot of running lately, I'll catch a few people on the run. One athlete passed me in the bike to run transition and the remaining two behind me (picture) went storming past by the half-way point in the run. So I finished stone-motherless last of those that finished (a few didn't do the run) in a time of 5 hr 10 min. The first male set a new course record of 3:56 and the first female a new course record of 4:19.