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You seriously have to enter this race, its huge! I advise making sure you enter early and not pay the late fee! Also borrow the fastest bike you can...

Noosa Triathlon November 2nd 2008

A logistical nightmare trying to get to the event site, register and rack your bike the day before the race. Lots of great bargains in the trade tent made it worthwhile! Plenty of cheap lycra for every occasion.

Race day saw a little bit of cloud cover for a change, with a light North Easterly wind to help blow cyclists up the climb. Dmitri started in one of the earlier heats, at 7.10am while Simon had to wait two hours until 8.10am after preparing kit in the transition area.

This allowed for some great spectating of the elite athletes like Emma Snowsill, who made short work of the 1500m swim, even against the incoming tide! The great part about being at the front of the swim, is being able to see where you are going, and some clear water to swim in. The rest of us have to play rough and tumble to find water in amongst all the bodies.

The swim was lovely and warm with a slight hint of mullet which went well with my chocolate powerbar breakfast. We could definitely feel the tide coming in over the sand banks which sapped a lot of early energy. This time I remembered where the swim exit was, instead of swimming past it in training. Everything was OK getting onto the bike, a fair amount of cycle traffic in front, lots of girls blouses hauling on the brakes for the roundabouts, a great place to pick up a few places. Much easier cycling than mountain biking! The main hill climb was not a real problem, with many people pushing tiny gears which meant they weren't going anywhere.

The back half of the bike ride was into a 20km headwind which wasn't much fun but there were a lot of bikes to weave in and out of to break it up. The downhill saw my bike have its usual speed wobbles at 60km/hr so I had to hold back while the crazy guys sped down at 90ks! I tried to pick up heaps of places before the run leg.

Nearly crashed into a heap of people in front of the grand stand but managed to move quickly through transition and onto the run leg. Really getting hot now, around 30 degrees C. Tipping most of the water over me rather than drinking it. There were heaps of drink stations which was great, manned by some of my students from school! Feeling slow on the first 5kms and then faster in the back half. Dmitri absolutely smashed the run to pick up a heap of places before finishing. I was ready to die on the line and appreciated the spray showers at the finish. Now training for the Mooloolaba Triathlon in March!