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Wollongong Sprint Triathlon Race Report
Wollongong triathlon is a local race for me, only being 15-20mins away from where I live and on roads, I know quite well. My race was scheduled to start at 10:15 which meant quite a relaxed start to the day, with no alarm clocks to start race day! Swim Leg I dislike rolling swim starts. It wrecks race dynamics, but I knew this is what I’d signed up for. Being a more mature (aka older) athlete, I’d have to wait a little while for my wave to start. I got into the queue near the front, which meant when it was my time to start I got about 100-150m of…
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Australian Long Course Triathlon Championship Race Report
Race morning. I arrived at the start area a touch after 5:30 am, giving myself over an hour to get set up and ready before the race started. I felt surprisingly relaxed, probably because my fitness wasn’t as good as it’s been, and I knew I could only do my best on the day. Whether that was enough or not I’d no idea, but a top 5 finish was the goal and I looked forward to having some battles to get the best out of myself. Swim Leg I made sure to get near the front of the swim start, and saw a face I knew, James lining up. Wished…
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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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