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70.3 World Championships Race Report
https://lukejonestri.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_7742.mov Morning started mega early, well before dawn. Thankfully, my wife dropped me into town so I could get the shuttle to the swim start. I arrived shortly after 6am at Sand Hollow, plenty of time to check tires and get encased in neoprene, ready for the swim. https://lukejonestri.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_7745.mov It was freezing, but thanks to a tip from Ben (also racing Kiama tri club!) I had some bed socks to discard just before the start along with a reflective heat sheet wrapped around my head/neck. I spent most of my time in the start queue looking for some other Aussies I thought who were racing in my AG (without luck).…
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Canberra Duathlon Race Report
Canberra in winter would never be a hot race. I wore base layer, arm warmers and gloves to hopefully keep me warm enough during the Australian duathlon championships. The morning of the race it was cold, and the race organises delayed the start time to allow things to warm up a little, unfortunately this had the added effect of allowing the wind to become quite gusty. However, everyone would be in the same boat, and the paces just wouldn’t be as fast as I was hoping for. I did a good warm up before the start, running a few kilometers in my tracksuit to try to get some heat into…
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Wollongong Triathlon Race Report
Living quite near to the start line of the Wollongong triathlon, I signed up for the standard distance event. I had mixed emotions leading up to the start, some excitement as I put together some showing of great form, but also indifference due to work stress and travel. With mixed weather predictions I awoke to see an amazing lineup of planets in the dawn sky (drop me a message if you’re interested in the photo I took!), it looked like it was going to be a good day! At the event location, things were calm and ready for racing. I had plenty of time, so went down to the water…
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Husky Ultimate Race Report
I’ve raced husky for the last few years but unfortunately, I’ve always been recovering from some sort of injury (i.e. last year I sprained my ankle 4 weeks prior). So I was excited to be at the start line with no major issues. Being designated as the Australian long course championships I knew the competition would be fierce and I was interested to see how I compared. I made the choice to not stay at Huskisson, instead driving the 1hr from home on race morning. The AG waves delayed allowing the pro field to finish the swim, I’d plenty of time to set up in transition, go for a short…
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Batemans Bay Triathlon Race Report
Having only raced two weeks earlier it excited me to apply some lessons learnt at the Batemans Bay standard distance (1500m swim/40km bike/10km run) triathlon. With a late morning start, I opted to just drive the 2.5hr from home to race rather than stay overnight. The weather had been quite windy and lots of rain. They actually changed the planned swim to become only a river swim, as the swell in the ocean was deemed unsafe. Being a point-to-point river swim, we had to walk quite a way from the transition to the start area. It was quite the challenge to get the start, walking through the water along the…
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Canberra Triathlon Race Report
Ever since I started triathlon, I’ve had a goal of going under 2 hours for a standard/Olympic distance triathlon. In case you’re not aware this is a 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run. The distance is brutal, because it is short enough to go really hard, yet long enough that some fueling is needed and it’s mentally quite draining. After doing a 2:03 in 2019, I’d struggled to actually find a race that wasn’t cancelled to have another crack at achieving my goal until Canberra in 2022. Unfortunately, a few days before Canberra I woke up with a crookneck, and its effects were still lingering on race day (it was…
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Callala Triathlon Race Report
With the Callala triathlon starting mid-morning there was no need to get up super early. It was looking like it was going to be a hot one, even more so with the late start. I had plenty of time to get organised and set up transition. As the water temp was only 20C I got my wetsuit on and hoped to get a warm-up swim in. Unfortunately, beach access wasn’t great, and with the standard distance triathlon race underway there was no warm-up swimming allowed. So I baked and sweated it out before the race started. It was a sweet relief to jump into the cool waters as soon as…
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Maitland Triathlon Race Report
With flash flooding turning the triathlon into a duathlon my mentality shifted from just trying to get through the race as fast as I can, to actually making a tactical race of it. I lack pace in the swim, so I chase all the way to the finish, but with a run start I’m able to mix it upfront and become a little more strategic with my energy expenditure. I got a 10min run in before the race, but couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I could have done with double the time to get the heart and lungs going. However, there I was standing on the start line bracing…
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Run Shellharbour Half Marathon Race Report
I’m fortunate enough to live only a couple kilometres from the beautiful Shellharbour, which hosts an annual half marathon event. The half marathon is my favourite running distance, as its more a threshold effort rather than the intensity of a 5 or 10km distance. I realised with a minor disappointment that in the lead up to the half marathon that I would be really hard-pressed to run a personal best because of my training lead in. But, I would not let that stop me from giving it a good crack and enjoying the attempt as well. I did a video log of my UTA100 race, and found it provided a…
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Little Husky Sprint Race Report
Being sick is never fun, but when its just before the first race you’ve done in a long time (they kept getting cancelled because of C), it’s quite stressful. Thankfully, I recovered a day before I was meant to race, but the effects seemed to linger somewhat. The ‘Little Husky Festival’ is a weekend of racing at Huskisson, with some multiple ocean swims and runs on Saturday, plus various distance triathlons on both Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday, my daughter did her first ever triathlon, and was amazing over coming a tough swim to finish with a big grin on her face. It was the highlight of my weekend.…
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