Goondiwindi Hell of the West Triathlon

Nicholas Hull
Feb 2, 2016
4 min read

This year is the third year in a row that I've made the 380km drive out to Goondiwindi to compete in the Hell of the West Triathlon held over the 2km/80km/20km distance. In previous years I've traveled out on Saturday to race on the Sunday but this year I drove out on Friday afternoon so I could attend the 25th anniversary dinner. Not only was it a really enjoyable night but I happened to win the lucky door prize of a holiday to Kona in October this year to watch the Ironman World Championships! A big thank you to Tri Travel for this trip and also to Goondiwindi Triathlon Club for a great evening.

With a little bit more time in Goondiwindi than previous years I made the most of the opportunity and held a pre-race training session on the Saturday morning. Thank you to everyone who turned up for a ride and to show me some of Goondiwindi's regular riding routes. It was also great to be able to get down to the expo early in the day and chat with Colin at TLR Race Wheels and also have my bike on display for the day there and also get along to the kids triathlon in the afternoon and support future talent. All in all a pretty busy day before the race but still plenty of time to relax and prepare for the task at hand.

Last year I went in to this race very under prepared and very complacent and I paid heavily for it and left Goondiwindi with my tail between my legs. This wasn't going to be the case this year and even though I'd only been back in training for just over four weeks I was confident in my ability to perform. The first race of the year is always a little of an unknown but the only way to improve is to get out there and have a crack and make adjustments to the training once there is a solid performance indicator on the board. This year had the added incentive of a lot bigger prize pool on offer and that attracted some quality athletes as competition.

The swim was held in the MacIntyre River and no matter how many times you do this race it is always a little bit sureal starting in darkness and trusting the flashing light on the kayak out front. With the water temperature being up at 28deg there was definitely no need for a wetsuit but it did give me the opportunity to suit up in the Xterra Velocity Speedsuit and any opportunity to do that is a good one! I got off to a good start but could feel and see a small group of athletes starting to establish a gap as the swim continued. This gap ended up being a bit bigger than what I would've wanted and as we ran up the boat ramp we were facing a 90sec deficit.

We'd been given the tip that we would be facing a headwind for the first 40km before making the turn around into a slight tailwind for the return trip. I think this was perfect for fast bike times and looking at the timing splits after the race this was definitely the case. I'd tried to hazard a guess at who was in the lead group going by what bikes were already missing from transition and set about seeing if we could make any impact on the gap we'd let go in the swim. Myself and Sam Douglas rode together without seeing another athlete until 35km where we caught sight of Lindsay Wall which really gave me a big kick of confidence to continue chasing. Shortly after catching him we got our first glimpse of the lead group of three that contained Sam Betten, Michael Fox and Giles Clayton. Once we had the wind behind us and were making the return trip we really tried to lift the pace but I hit a real tough patch between 50-70km and had to watch Lindsay Wall ride a couple of hundred metres up the road and focus on getting in more Hammer Nutrition than what I normally would and try as hard as I could to not let the negative thoughts take over. Once that energy kicked in and I hit the last portion of the bike I started to feel a lot better and started to think about what time I could make up on the run.

I quickly settled into a good pace on the run and closed the gap to Lindsay mid-way through the first lap. Both Sam Betten and Michael Fox looked to be running strong and in these early stages the thought of a podium finish was there. Unfortunately when Kieran Storch came running past me I knew I had no answer to the pace he was running and had to concentrate on running my own race and holding a consistent pace. After a very hot 20km I crossed the line in 4th place behind Sam Betten, Michael Fox and Kieran Storch.

It's difficult for any triathlete to be 100% happy with their race and I'll admit I'm a little bit disappointed to finish in 4th and just off the podium but all things considered it is a good start to my year. Off only four weeks of training I couldn't expect miracles and Sam looked to be in incredible form and was basically untouchable on the race course. I had an absolutely fantastic weekend in Goondiwindi and there are so many people to thank, firstly to Paul Amos for imviting me back to the event, the McColl family for being such fantastic hosts and putting up with me all weekend and the entire Goondiwindi Triathlon Club and community for all of the hard work that goes in to organizing one of the best triathlons you could wish to compete in. And also to my sponsors and supporters, Titan Performance Group (I can't wait to get my new race suit in the coming weeks, it looks unreal!), Xterra Wetsuits, Hammer Nutrition, Kaizen Apparel, Back 2 Balance Physiotherapy, Shoes Feet Gear and TLR Race Wheels (I've been borrowing some of the Elite Series Wheels for my past few races and can highly recommend them!).