Rainbow Beach Double Tri Race Report

Race - Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon
Date - Saturday 17th + Sunday 18th August 2019
Distance - 750/20/5 on both days
Result - 2nd Female Overall / 1st 17-19 Years Female
Saturday - 1st 17-19 Years / 2nd Female Overall
Sunday - 1st 17-19 Years / 2nd Female Overall

What a start to the tri season! Rainbow Beach is one of my favourites as it is a really good opportunity to dust off the cob webs and get back into the feel of racing. With plenty of training, it sure was a good feeling to have my toes out on the start line again.

It all starts with examining the water conditions (coach Toby’s expertise) and assessing how you are going to execute the race, especially being a wetsuit swim. I was really happy with my swim starts for both of the sprint distance triathlons over the weekend. I was able to get into a favourable position which gave me confidence over the 750m swim ahead of me. Unfortunately, I swallowed a heap of water in my first race as the water conditions were quite choppy, but that’s all a part of my ‘fight for survival’ swim mindset which gave me more adrenaline to get out of the water.

I got out of the water keen to run up to my bike, although the process of getting from the swim finish to transition was different to usual. It involved taking off a wetsuit while running through soft sand, then running up with my wetsuit over a steep hill into transition. The execution of taking the wetsuit off was tough and not as smooth as what I wished for it to be, although I kept this in mind to improve on in the race the following day.

I loooove racing on the bike, so as soon as I mounted I was ready to go. I popped a CLIF Blok (strawberry’s the best flavour) and took the opportunity of the flat course to focus and really work on my cadence as well as my leg turn over. These are practical skills I have been working on with the Toby and the SCTA team as we head into the 2019 triathlon season. After a bumpy 20km ride my legs were pretty buggered. It took very high leg cadence and lots of cheering from the supporting SCTA team to get my legs going, and after 1km of running I kicked into an unstoppable rhythm leaving me to feel on top of the world- even if that did mean I had to climb a hilly 5km run course

Overall, I took the experience from the first sprint distance tri into the second day of racing to work on the 1 percenters in order to develop myself as an athlete. After working closely with Toby on my swim technique in particular over winter, I was stoked to execute the weekend of racing placing 2nd overall to the incredible Lucy Bowden from SCTA.

Thank you to Unique Health foods for my addictive intake on Clifbars and Blocks, Vorgee for the swim cap and goggle that I can rely on, Cannibal Australia for my speedy tri suit and to the Mizuno Running Australia, Intune Sports Massage, Tara Leanne Nutrition, Rydges Hotels and Resorts, The Event Crew, , Ironman Oceania, Allez Sport Mooloolaba, Davey and Associates Optometrist, Queensland Triathlon Series, Felt Bicycles Australia, Kawana Aquatic Centre, Rackley Swimming, Titan Performance Group / Zone 3 Australia and of course Grant Symes from protector Aluminium for all your support.

Thank you also to the amazing SCTA team for making Rainbow Beach tri weekend yet another wonderful experience. What a weekend!