Double the fun at Rainbow Beach Triathlon

One week out from Sunshine Coast Ironman 70.3 seemed like as good a time as any to throw myself into a race to make sure I could remember how to do all of those little things to get myself to the finish line in one piece. I've raced the Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon a few times now and have found it to be a really good hit out leading up to some big races. The format of one sprint distance race on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning gives you a unique opportunity to iron out any mistakes that may occur in race one. And it isn't a bad place for a weekend getaway as well!

With race one being late Saturday afternoon, there was plenty of time to kill on Saturday morning and what better way to fill that time than with a 100km ride. This is certainly not a pre-race session I'd recommend but one week out from Sunshine Coast, the work had to be done. On the plus side I did get to examine every single part of the course we would race over and was confident I could put together a good race even if it would hurt more than usual.

With that Sunshine Coast focus, I found I was really relaxed going in to this race and the 3:00pm start time added to that relaxation. I felt more like I was about to go through a fun training run with some friends rather than a serious race and this was the mindset I had right through setting up transition and warming up and even down to standing on the start line.

At almost the same instant that the starting siren went off for race 1, I felt the full effect of a big weekly training load - my body just didn't want to respond. I found it really hard to get a rhythm throughout the 750m swim and knew I had let a couple of guys get away and would be attempting to chase them down on the bike. Together with Simon Hearn we worked to close the gap to the lead guys and came into transition together. Unfortunately my transition skills were extremely rusty and I was chasing again. The run course at Rainbow Beach isn't for the faint hearted and there is never a moment when you aren't suffering up a steep hill or trying to recover for the next one! I spent the whole run suffering but did manage to claw my way back to second place behind race one winner, Simon Hearn.

Funnily enough, waking up for race two on Sunday morning my body felt more refreshed than it did on Saturday afternoon. Maybe a few beers with Toby Coote and a few of the Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy guys and girls is the answer! I found a much better rhythm in the water once the gun went off and even though I wasn't with the leaders, I was out of the water with Simon again after swimming stroke for stroke in our Zone 3 Vanquish wetsuits. After chasing hard for about 10 minutes, Simon came blasting past me and I just had to watch him ride off into the distance. I could see I was closing the gap to the leaders but nowhere near as quickly and seemingly effortlessly as what he was! I entered transition, which thankfully went a lot smoother this time around with a pretty solid gap to attempt to close down. Again I had to settle for second place behind Simon who put on an impressive performance in both races. This time around however I was a lot more satisfied with my performance and how the body reacted to the intensity of a race.

Even though the result was the same, race two felt a lot smoother. I'm definitely a little bit disappointed not to take the overall win but did win the age group and got out of this race exactly what I wanted - and finishing second will only fuel the fire more for the next race. I haven't raced since May and wanted to flush out any potential mistakes before I got to Sunshine Coast Ironman 70.3. Plenty of mistakes were made and I'd like to think learnt from so the next race can be more smooth sailing.

A big thanks to Phil and his team for putting on a great weekend of racing up at Rainbow Beach. And another big thank you to Toby Coote and the entire Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy family for making it such a fun weekend of racing. And finally, one last thank you to all the sponsors and supporters out there helping me get the job done at each and every race and training session.

Time to move on to Sunshine Coast Ironman 70.3!