When I think back about the races I have highly enjoyed and the reasons why, it has often been a combination of great personal race results, a great course, great location and great atmosphere. I love events where the whole community gets behind the race, where athletes and supporters from all-over dribble into town the week leading up to race day, with cars filled with racing equipment. Local café’s and restaurants stock up for the volume of people traveling through, and the streets become filled with people sharing a common passion. Volunteers are generally as excited about the race as the athletes themselves are and as a competitor you almost become a local celebrity no matter what level you are racing at. Races that spring to mind which I remember fondly are the Laguna Phuket Triathlon in Thailand, The Highland Fling MTB race in Bundanoon NSW, Husky Long Course Triathlon in Huskisson and all of the XTERRA races I have raced so far, NZ, Maui, South Africa and Philippines.
Even when you are having a bad day racing, a great atmosphere can really uplift your spirit which results in having a great time on the day no matter what the outcome is.
When I heard XTERRA was coming to Australia I was very excited about it, due to the prospect of getting people as excited about off road triathlon here as they are in New Zealand. With the growth of XTERRA world wide, this was an awesome reason for Australia to get amongst it. The XTERRA festival in Rotorua in NZ attracts around 2000 athletes from all over which is awesome for local tourism.
They couldn’t have chosen a more beautiful spot on Great Ocean Road in the little coastal town Anglesea, this area is the home of many legendary multisporters like Jarad Kolhar, Peri Gray, Deanna Blegg, and also Renata Bucher had made it her home to train over the European winter period. I felt it was the perfect opportunity to promote off road racing to Australian athletes and decided to support the event instead of racing XTERRA New Zealand which is one of my favourite triathlons on the calendar.
We arrived late on Friday night and had organised a house with friends who were also racing, Xterra pro Carina Wassle who I met in Phillipines was staying with us as well and I was looking forward to catching up with other XTERRA athletes Renata Bucher , Peri Gray and Rory Downey and hear all about their adventures on the Asian tour. This was going to be a great weekend.
On Saturday morning we very quickly realised the XTERRA spirit wasn’t really happening. Even the local café’s didn’t know the event was on despite the transition area being based across the road from them. Whilst practicing the bike course on Saturday I felt we were more of a hassle than anything exciting to the locals who were sharing the paths with us. Riding the course I became aware that this was not a course that suited me. Being a slow swimmer I need a long technical climbing MTB course to make up for the time I lose in the water and this was basically a flat fire trail ride with a minimal amount of technical riding, well suited for a road triathlete. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed, although I knew that not every course suits every athlete, in my opinion this course lacked the XTERRA style of racing. The run was very similar as the ride, non-technical underfoot, with minimal climbing and not really challenging. I couldn’t get excited about this race and felt deflated. I have to admit though that the course was well suited for XTERRA rookies which hopefully gave them a great experience in order to come back next year and tell all their mates about XTERRA triathlon, and this was needed in order to make XTERRA grow in Australia.
Race day arrived and it was one of the most bizarre race morning experiences I have ever had racing triathlons, it seemed like no one really knew what was happening. A big highlight of race morning for me was Subaru-Marathon MTB team mate Roeland Suys and his 4 legged companion Pepper showing up to support me!!! Before I knew it (literally) the race had started and we were all running into the water. I won’t go into much detail about my own race because I get partially depressed thinking about it. In short I had a shocking swim and tried to ride as hard as could to get myself in the race but being on my own most of the bike course I really struggled to motivate myself to push the pedals hard. I started to have a discussion in my own head about what I could take away from this race, and repeated Alister Russel’s words in my head “if my legs aren’t burning I am not racing” to push myself. During this discussion I decided I was going to have a blistering run. Unfortunately, once mentally in a downward spiral it’s really hard to recover from that and 2km’s into what was supposed to be a blistering run I felt like giving up. Luckily for me there was an out and back section where I could see where I was in the field, and after a terrible swim I did manage to race myself back into the field and I wasn’t getting smashed as bad as I thought I was. I decided a DNF in my first race as a pro was really not acceptable. I was cheered on by fellow competitors in true XTERRA style and I regained a bit of rhythm.
The finish line couldn’t come soon enough though and I was more than happy to put this race behind me.
It was awesome to see good friend Renata Bucher smash the female field and take the win, she has been an absolute inspiration for me and it was very nice to see her so happy at the finish line. Jacqui Slack came 2nd and Carina Wassle finished in 3rd. I was also very excited for Peri Gray to see her finish in 4th place on home ground in her 2nd XTERRA race as a pro.
In the men’s race, the result proved the course was not suited to those with awesome technical skills, with Australia’s Olympic triathlete Courtney Atkinson, overtaking Aussie XTERRA pro Ben Allen on the run for the win with 3rd place going to South African Stuart Marais. Our Scottish friend Rory Downey came home in 4th place and as usual he had a story to tell after the race, in the swim he managed to lose his goggles and he somehow managed to ride a different MTB course than the rest of us. Listening to Rory put a smile back on my face, maybe there was a little bit of an XTERRA spirit present after all!
I will stay hopeful XTERRA will find’s its place in Australia and attract top quality athletes like they do everywhere else in the world. It is still all a big learning curve for me and any racing experience is a great experience! I took a cheque home for 6th Pro which I was quite happy with, thank you XTERRA!!!
As always my Bianchi Methanol FS got me through the bike course without any hiccups and a big thank you to Subaru-MarathonMTB.com and its sponsors for the support.
My next XTERRA race will be in Europe where I will be part of the European tour racing in Switzerland, France and Italy starting at the end of June.
Next step? Training for the Convict 100. Photo: Kath Bicknell