The Moreton Bay Olympic Distance race was being held as the Qld State OD championsips held at Clontarf on th 29th of September 2013. This was only 8 weeks after my collar bone surgery and at the time of my crash I instantly ruled out competing in it. After seeing my doc, he also said it would be a stretch for me to make it there. I had three weeks of swimming under my belt which I knew I was going to be comfortable making it through the race with my shoulder but was unsure on how fast or strong I would be. With it being a local race and the chance to once again race across the Ted Smout Bridge, I jumped at the chance to race as soon as I was comfortable to make it through the race.
We were met with perfect conditions which can be very hit and miss at Redcliffe as the bay face to the South East and four out of five days will see a solid south easterly wind blowing. The sun was out and there was barely a breath of wind or a ripple on the ocean for the race.
There was only about 40 people lined up for my race in the 30-34 age group so we had plenty of room on the start line. With a 200m swim to the first left hand turning buoy and a slight left to right current, I was surprised as I was the only one lined up on the far left side of the start line. As the hooter went off, I smashed out the usual first 100m hard and waited for the fish to swamp me and try to hold on. Looking to my right, I could see I was leading however was still waiting to be swamped. To my surprise, I held the lead to the first can and looked over my shoulder to see I had a 15m gap on second place. Being in unfamiliar territory in the lead of the swim leg, I set about maintaining a solid rythym whilst being concience of my direction.
As I exited the water, I was well clear and set out on the bike once again in unfamiliar territory. The bike for me which is my strength is usually flat out and hurts alot as I am always trying to make up lost time from the swim. This time, I just set out riding strong but very controlled as I was trying to set my race up for a strong run. With 4 x 10km loops, I could spot second place at each turn around and could see that I had turned a 1 minute lead into about two minutes by the end of the bike. I got off again in the lead and set out as hard as I could.
The run was a 2 x 5km course and I could see that second place was gaining slowly on my after the first lap. Turning for the last time with 2.5km to go, he was only about 40 seconds down on me and was chasing me down quickly. With about 150m to go he pulled up beside me very quickly and I was devistated that I had been leading the whole day to be overtaken with only 150m to go. I was not going to cop this and gave absolutely everything I had for the last 20 seconds a reclaimed the lead to take out the win by 3 seconds.
I was stoked with my first race of the season, one that I had only done as a spur of the moment but felt quite solid with.
My overall time was 2hr 3mins.
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