I was disappointed that the swim was cancelled as I have been making some great improvement in the pool in recent times. I had my best ever swim six weeks earlier in Port Macquarie, followed by a shocker in Shepparton and was hoping to re-deem myself after a good four weeks in the pool in Canberra. This wasn’t to be and I now had to use the opportunity of having a run in place of the swim to capitalise on my strengths and get myself in a good position coming out of T1. I was first out on the bike course and had a 10 sec gap enough to ensure a smooth transition get my shoes on and some nutrition in before Ollie Whistler come thundering past. I tried to stay in touch early but he was laying down the gauntlet and my power was well above what I knew I could hold.

Ollie quickly powered up the road and out of sight. Paul Attard and I then set about trying to minimise the gap. After two laps we realised we had company and the chase group consisted of myself, Paul, Richard Munro and Johan Borg. Paul was driving hard keeping the pace high and I was working just to keep him in sight. After four laps Richard Munro increased the pace and rode a minute into Johan, Paul and myself. I was really happy to stay in touch with these boys on the bike, despite perhaps over cooking myself a little. I had spent the previous four weeks working on my bike speed to lots of hard interval work and this payed off on Sunday.

Out onto the run I felt shocking and had already been cramping on the bike. I knew my normal run speed wasn’t there and set about trying to find a rhythm. Ollie was five minutes up the road, Richard about a minute ahead and Paul 30 seconds. I quickly bridged the gap to Paul, who also wasn’t running his usual pace. We then ran together until the 12km mark passing Richard at about 6km. I managed to get a small gap on Paul and then set about trying to maintain it until the finish. I knew catching Ollie was out of the question and it was a matter of survival. In the end I just managed to hold off Richard Munro to come across the line in second.

A result I was ecstatic with. This race highlighted a few things for me, which will form the focus of my training in the New Year. The importance of putting yourself in a good position after the swim cannot be understated and I know my bike is a rapidly improving component of my race. I will enjoy a two week break from training after 4 half ironman races in 10 weeks. Content that I have achieved my goal of improving as a racer. In the process I have come away with Australian Half Ironman Series win.

Luke