Mooloolaba race report 25th March 2007
Well its with great pleasure I write to tell you that my season has started off with a bang. A 3rd place podium finish in the first round of the 2007 World Cup Series. The race was on the Beautiful sunshine coast and took place in Mooloolaba. It's one of the hardest races on the circut.
Each lap of the course there is a demanding hill on both the bike and run which we had to negotiate 24 times!!. Throw into that a surf swim, strong sea breeze and no too mention temperatures touching 33 on the run and you have a real test for mind and body and soul. I approached this race with a relaxed attitude. I was just looking to get my first race under my belt for the year ( olympic distance that is ) and learn from my training so far.
Myself and my two Coaches had decided that I would mainly train through this race as to concentrate more on getting a good training block in before the Nationals Championships this saturday in Wellington. Also it would leave me in better form for the second round of the world cup circut in Japan in three weeks time. Which is more like the conditions i will have to deal with later in the year in Beijing. As far as the raced went everything went like i had hoped. I had a great start and found myself second at the first swim buoy. I held my position in the first group all the way back to the beach.
Exiting the first transition we managed to get a group of 12 away which was great. Although all the big hitters had made this group apart from one (Brad Kahlafeldt from Australia). This is normally a problem as most of the higher classed guys tend to look at each other a bit during the bike. By that i mean they don't want to help each other out. And so don't want to do more work on the bike than the next guy. To my surprise we built a really good lead of 1 minute to the big second pack of maybe 35 athletes. But on the last lap the brakes went on and everybody started to sit up as the anticipation of the run neared.
We really did mess it up here, and as we rode into transition the second bunch caught us!! 1 minute gone in 5k that hurts. And then to make it worst the runners that had been sitting in the big group rolled to the front and it was all on. I usually go with the pace at the front but I had decided that with the heat and hard course i would try to run a negative split. And then make my move in the last 3k when the other boys started to fade. I was Joined by my mate Bevan Docherty from the start and we set a really good pace for the first 5k. We were lying about 5th,6th,7th for most of the run but still in contact with the leaders. On the last lap heading up the hill I could see the two leaders just 50 meters up the road. They were World Number one Javier Gomez and Commonwealth games champ Brad Kahlafeldt.
I pushed as hard as I could and started to pull away from the others. With the Real estate running out on me I gave it my all to catch them. I got as close as 5 meters with 300 meters to go. Unfortunately I had spent everything i had in the tank getting there. And when they hit the turbo button for the sprint to the line mine was empty... Not to worry a 3rd place finish, off no real taper and with no real intentions of any performance apart from sticking to the plan and doing my best on the day.
This morning the body feels like I've been hit by a bus! The legs are a bit sore and this is what I mean about getting a few races under the belt so you can prepare the body for the punishment. As I mentioned before I have the national championships this Saturday in Wellington which also doubles as an ITU international event with world rankings points. I'll be looking after myself as much as I can in the next few days so I can be on the start line in Wellington looking for my second National title.
Cheers, Kris