Huski: The People's Triathlon

So as has become custom amongst our friends, a big group of us made the trip down to Berry to stay at our mate Alex Birch's parents place to do the Sprint tri on the Sunday.


This would be the third time we had done it, and it was quickly becoming a popular retreat with limited spots and friendship everywhere. With 7 of us doing the triathlon and 3 supporting, we had a nice little crew.


My housemates Sagar and Mick had jumped on the triathlon bandwagon and were rolling out to do their first triathlon, ever!


I actually made a video of all of us doing the triathlon, which turned out to be a bit of comic relief, and it can be watched below (coming soon):






On a personal note, I had a pretty easy week after the tough Triple Tri and felt relatively good. Yet in the back of my head I was worried about my lack of cycling in the lead up,  a result of my crash that had given me some physical and mental demons.


The race was at the terribly frustrating time of 12pm. So we spent the morning trying not to waste too much energy and trying not to wind each other up.


Finally we left and got to Huski, with the wind picking up and making things very interesting. The bay was very choppy and the ride course would be tricky too.


Watching the waves roll in made the majority of our party feel quite uncomfortable for the upcoming swim. Luckily, I love swimming in the chop because I am very tall so I charge through waves like a battleship....as it were.


I was late arriving to the start line for our wave, and as a result wasn't as aggressive when it came to choosing a start position. This meant that while I broke away from the main pack at the start, I still fell behind the leading 2 swimmers of our wave.


I charged out of the water and headed up the stairs, not feeling as fresh as I would have liked but reasonably pumped for the bike.


Unfortunately, the combination of the wind and the rolling hills on the course found out my lack of cycling legs (nowhere to hide in a triathlon). This forced me to work that much harder and meant that I was nearly shot when I got off the bike a tick under 33 minutes later.


What was exciting though was seeing all of our mates after the turn-around point trying to hustle up the hill on their bikes. I was specifically looking out for Sagar because I was worried about his swimming yet he had made it onto dry land and onto the bike course.


With our cheer squad on the side of the transition I got excited and rushed out onto the run course, forgetting that I was pretty wrecked. I had my age-group leader slightly in front of me but I never looked like bridging the gap and slowly faded throughout the run.


Yet I quickly forgot the slow time that I posted as our friends began to run up the finish chute in all their glory.


Shout outs go to Alex Birch, who put in the training and got the result, Michael Slaven, who nobody expected to do so well, Sagar Srithiran, who is the first Sri Lankan triathlete ever recorded, Matt Coulton, who fully understands the impact of a Friday night KFC/McDonalds feast, Simon Mount, whose pink get-up could be seen from Wollongong and Kath Weekes, who outran most of the boys!


It is such a great racing atmosphere and a lovely course. I am going to miss next years February jaunt because I'll be overseas, which is very sad face.