Savannah Wayner - 6 month Report - July to December 2015

These past 6 months have gone pretty fast and the experiences I have had with not only racing but also at training has been amazing and a massive learning experience. The support I have received from friends, family, sponsors and Toby has been incredible. Without this support it would have been difficult to be reach my current level of achievement. Twenty fifteen really pushed me to show off my full potential.
 
June and July was a quiet time in training, winter is not the finest time to train for triathlon, the cold dark mornings were the worst to get up and motivated. However I had the right mind set for Duathlon worlds in Adelaide and the people I was surrounded by at training made it a lot easier to enjoy.

The beginning of August was where most of the racing began. The first race back was Moreton Bay Grand Prix Duathlon. This was a hot day and left me with 3rd overall. I saw it as a great training race for Worlds. At this point everything I had done was all towards that performance. The next race was at Springfield, The Queensland Duathlon Championship and that day began with a 3am leave on a freezing morning, but it was all worth it as I came home with the win. This boosted my confidence substantially and made me mentally prepared for worlds. It now really just came down to the training. And there was so much training.
 
At the end of August it was the Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon. I had good luck that morning as the first day ended up being a Duathlon, which was 2.5km run 20km bike and 2.5km run. I finished that day at 2nd overall and had a great pub feed to celebrate. The next day the ocean was fine enough to swim in so it was back to swimming; I ended up doing pretty well and placed 1st overall female for the weekend.
 
The racing had slowed down for a bit until the end of September; this was the first race for the Queensland Triathlon series, which was held at Robina.  This was a longer race than usual - a 800m-swim 32km bike and 6km run. It was a perfect day for racing and it was a good learning experience of a race. This was my last race before worlds.

About two weeks before Adelaide was when I was really started to get nerves. Everyone at training was so great to me over the weeks, pushing me though every session, especially the boys at riding on a Tuesday and Thursday morning, their encouragement really kept me going.

It was October and off I went to Adelaide, and it was HOT! The atmosphere was great and it got me in a competitive mood pretty quickly. Toby came down the night before my race and he saw the nerves kick in pretty bad as we went around Adelaide searching for food- I insisted on chicken and rice.

Race day was here and I was pumped feeling great and ready to race. I was so thankful for all the support I received from messages and the people that were there to support me on the day; it was a great race and I put all my skills to the test - unfortunately somethings in racing can’t be taught at training and you just learn from racing. After being in the lead for most of the race I finished in 4th.

Adelaide was over and so it was back to normal training. I got back and it was my last few weeks of university for the year so I was a bit overwhelmed with training, work and school; however I went all right.
 
Towards the end of November it was the Queensland Aquathlon championship in Kawana; it was a good race and I finished with 2nd overall and 1st in my age group. The next day I backed it up and raced round 2 of the Queensland triathlon series finishingnin 3rd place.

Most of the racing was finished for the year and December came around pretty fast. It was great fun with our Christmas ride and Christmas party. That following week was the start of the Christmas block (long hard training). Over the 4 days we completed over 300km riding and over 20km of running. It was fun in the end.

The first race of the year was Australian Youth Championships that was held at Robina this year on Saturday it was a late race starting at 4:30 in the afternoon. The Sunday was the Australian Sprint Championships. Both races were an experience and I pushed though to finish both.  

As you have read the last 6 months have been great for me and I really appreciate the support I received to make this all possible and enjoyable. I’m excited to see what this year brings for me.

A massive thanks to all the sponsors associated with the SCTA / HCAUS Junior scholarship.

Here is a snapshot the results for the past 6 months

Caloundra Foreshore 10km Run - 3rd Overall
Moreton Bay Duathlon - 3rd Overall
Qld Duathlon Champs - Race Winner and State Champ 18-19 Years
Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon (2 sprint distances races over 2 days) - Race Winner
Qld Aquathlon Champs - 18-19 Years State Champ and 3rd Overall
Qld Tri Series Race # 1 - 5th Opens
Qld Tri series Race # 3 - 3rd Opens
World Duathlon champs- 4th ITU Junior Female – 1st Aussie 
Sunshine Coast Sports Federation Junior Sportstar of the Year Nomination - Month of November
Australian Junior Series Race # 2 - 31st ITU Junior Female
Qld Tri Series Race # 5 + Australian Sprint Champs - 5th 16-19 Years Female