Tim Guille

Race Report - Nowra

Hello All!

Well the first race has come around so quickly this year.. It only felt like yesterday that i was enjoying end of season Red Bull and Vodka's with Rhodesy, Kung Fu, Fettle, Mel Sexton and a disappearing Watson in Geelong, and now here i was on Friday night thinking.. Gee i better pack up my bike for my flight in the morning!

After 4 months of solid training post marathon, i must admit i was feeling great. A new bike in the garage and some great sessions under my belt, although freaking that it has come around so quickly, i did feel ready to race.

A quick swim in the bay on Saturday morning (ice cream headache only lasted 5 mins!!) and onto the airport for my journey up to Canberra and then onto Nowra. After reviewing last years results and looking at the course description, i was pretty keen to have a good race as im sure there were some points to earn for World Champs selection.

An uneventful yet boring trip up to Nowra (thanks Rhodesy for being my Cox Plate day race caller over the phone) and then a very eventful journey around Nowra looking for my hotel (thanks Keays for your wotif support!)

So unpacking my new weapon, the giant hot rod bike, and went to pump up my tyres.. Anyway Rear Wheel - Only probably 100psi in it - couldnt get it to go up anymore!! Then to my ultimate freakness... The Valve Extender broke! Sh*t. So what do i do? Hope there is a Bike Mechanic in the morning? Leave it up all night and just see what happens? Try the front wheel extender on the back wheel? This race wasnt going to plan at all!!! So my decision was.. I think im going to have to ride on 100psi and leave it up overnight. So off to eat pizza and hit the bed.. all while checking my tyre every 5 minutes!!

Sunday morning wake up - Straight to my Tyre of course.. All Good. Still pumped up.. enough. Packed my bike into the car and headed out in the perfect morning conditions to race. And i was stoked i remembered the whole daylight savings clock forward business!

Got the the race area and racked my bike.. Was amazed how many people i didnt know also! Maybe that was a good thing.. could just keep to myself and focus on my race for once instead of being a social butterfly!

So happy that my tyre was going to stay inflated (i hope!!) off for a quick warm up ride and run.. then listen to race briefing before a swim before the gun. All was set and to the start line i proceeded.

There was a slight downstream current in the river, so i made my way very close to the shore to try and get away from it.. Was pleasently suprised that there was no one over there so a good start i thought. 1 mintue to go and i bobbed there thinking.. All those 5 am cold rides with Brian up and down Two Bays, those tough swim sessions with Andy and those countless run session had come to this. My Pursuit of World Champs glory was about to begin.

BANG! I was off. Great start.. felt really strong and swum fast for about 4 minutes to try and get clear and found the whole time i scored clear water. So i backed off a tiny bit to catch my rythm and stroke and was feeling really strong. Around the turning Bouys i managed to sneak a look at my watch and was just over 10 mins for the first half so was rapt, especially knowing i had the current on the way back! I was in a pack of three guys and could see maybe 3 or 4 about 30 metres ahead so was well placed. As the swim went on i just felt better and better and really hit the swim exit hard.. Sneak a look at my watch and was standing up at 20.40, so great result and very pleased.

Made my way along the 300-400m run to Transition and wetsuit off, helmet on and i was off. And yes the tyre still had air in it!!

Onto the bike course.. My wave was all males under 40 so i thought i would get a good idea of where i was placed on the bike leg. Remembering that the first 20km was up hill on the course profile, i was careful not to flog myself early on.. But it was hot and dry, and a real crappy road surface, so it was going to be a hard ride. Got to 10km and was feeling quite good, and pushed on. From 12km mark to the turnaround.. it was a grind. A slight incline on a crappy raod surface, made things tough going. A guy passed me in this stage, so i had to keep pushing to keep my place. Then nearing the turn around i saw the leaders on the other side.. counting them off, i was in 9th place, so happy with that. I figured i must be around 3rd or 4th in my category. Finally getting to the turn around up the last hill, and it was smooth sailing all the way back to town.. hammering down on the hot rod hitting speeds of 50kmph life was good! And into transition i was feeling really happy and strong and new i could nail the run.

Off my bike and into the new racing flats and the commentator said 'there goes Tim Gooly from Seaford, looking very strong.. Give him a cheer guys!' and that was kinda cool.. even though he didnt know how to say my name!!

So first km down.. and i new the tough part of the course was to come. from km 1 to km 2 was uphill. And god it was uphill! The run turned into a jog and i figured to myself, im not going to push it up the hill i need to save myself. So i backed off and that moved paid off. Cos at the top of the hill i felt great. So i got my rythm and then hit my cruise control on and ran strong and well. All the while i was thinking of that morning at Traralgon and 10km was nothing compared to the 42km effort. As i went past the 5km mark, i figured i had run around 19 minutes which was great with that hill. I was starting to hurt in the heat though.. so i had to take my mind elsewhere. So i kept thinking of my reward at the end of the race... so in my mind i kept ticking it over.. "Derby Day.. Derby Day.. Derby Day.. Derby Day" and it helped! At this stage no one had past me but there was one guy that was bearing down on me and there was a guy like 50m in front which i couldnt seem to catch!! (annoying cos he finished just in front of me and was in my category!) Heading back to town and after suffering up that hill, i was excited that i got to run down it now!! I snuck a look at my watch and was wlel above my expectations and was going to run under 39 so life was great. I hit the one km to go sign and thought i might have a crack at the guy in front.. but i think he thought the same as me cos he hit the hammer too! Round the last bend and with the suprisingly large crowd around the finish area, across the line i went in a great time of 2.08.58.

Awesome. really happy with my race. I was 9th in that wave (turns out i was 11th overall) and came 5th in my age group. God it is a hard age group 30-34!! Funny cos i would have come 2nd in 25-29 or 35-39! Huge efforts by two guys in the 20-24 category to go under 2 hours on a tough tough course. But i was happy. 15 points into the account for world champs and a Great first race. And yes Derby Day is my prize!

So onto Mordialloc for the first tri series race and then to Newcastle for race two of the national series. Speak to you then!