Melissa Rollison: Port Macquarie 70.3
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- Charlotte McShane: Donostia Sprint Triathlon
- Mitchell Robins: Weihai ITU Premium Asian Cup
- Charlotte McShane - Lekeitio Triathlon, Spain
- Melissa Rollison - Muncie 70.3
- Mitch Robins - Holten ITU Premium European Cup
- Melissa Rollison - Vineman 70.3
- Josh Maeder: Luke Harrop Memorial
- Melissa Rollison: Port Macquarie 70.3
- Matty White: Busselton 70.3
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Coming out of the water 3-4minutes behind still doesn't quite look the part though so this year I sought out a swim coach. After a week swimming under Brendan Capell and Zane King I could already see improvement in the pool.
9:30am, I'm waiting for the starters’ gun. Bang! We take off... I'm on their feet. I'm following their bubbles, I see the splashes. Then... nothing! I look up... The pack is too my left... Waaaay left. I'm heading off course. Noooo... It's only a couple of hundred metres into the race and already I'm off track. I've lost them. I panic and take a sharp left and get back onto the back of the pack. Ok, your fine, your back on, I tell myself. But it's not long before I'm veering way off course again. I finally find the finish ramp. I'm just less than 2min behind the lead girl but only about 1min 10sec behind the rest.
My favourite leg, the bike! I know... I'm a runner or 'was' but I love the bike. I'm a little way up the road and I hear Jared, my partner yell that I'm in 6th place. I start picking them off. I pass one girl and tell myself 5th! Then the next, 4th, 3rd, is that Belinda Granger??? Wow! 2nd, 1st... 8km completed and I'm in the lead. I work hard putting my Avanti Chrono TT to the test. The bike course was good. 10km of hills then
long flat rough roads. It's a head wind on the way out; I get low and grind it out making sure I'm staying above 30km/hr. We turn around and again long flat rough roads. But this time we have a nice tail wind. 48km/hr... Whoa! Maybe I should back it off? Nah... This is cool. I stick between 46-48km/hr. At one stage I hit 50 just to see if I can ?
I come into transition, rack my bike, put my runners on and bolt out... I get only about 1km down the run course before I jump off. That's it. Unfortunately I rolled my ankle the night before and couldn't complete the race. I was hoping for the best, that it'd hold up but I couldn't risk it. It was sore and 21km on a sprained ankle could put me out for a lot longer than one race.
It was disappointing not being able to finish but I can take some positives from it. I still got to practice my weaker two legs. I had the fastest bike time by 8min 20sec. And although I swam anyway but straight I still had my best ever swim result. Overall I loved the ironman experience. The volunteers and supporters were amazing. I'm really enjoying my new sport and there's plenty more races to come.
