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'98 Triple-Triathlon Report
by Paul Smith
By way of warning to anyone contemplating
racing solo - I will let you all know how I felt after the Triple this
year. I actually took it very easy in the last run in the vain hope
that I wouldn’t feel like cactus again for the following week. Last
year I ended up laying at home sore and sorry – physically sick on the
stomach from my aching legs (from all the steep downhill running), unable
to eat or sleep – having to get up at 3.00am to have soothing baths.
This year I felt much better for a few days but then I got a severe
case of conjunctivitis (pink-eye as I was reminded by numerous South
Park fans!), and ended up going to emergency in agony at 2.00am on the
following Saturday, after not sleeping for 48 hours. I got knowing nods
from the staff at the hospital – a skinny, sickly, looking guy with
very red eyes turning up in the middle of the night! I also caught a
couple of flus which developed in to chest infections needing antibiotics.
My immune system was well and truly cooked! It would be a much more
enjoyable race if you could simply skip the week following it!
Be fore-warned by the dire warnings which appeared on the entry form for the inaugural Triple Tri:
Not for wimps! Be warned, this event
is purposely designed to be very demanding! It is only for the foolish
and the brave, intended to extend physical and mental skills and stamina.
Rugged bush trails and striking vistas present a unique experience of
Canberra - an extreme endurance adventure in the heart of our nation's
capital!
Canberra’s Triple Triathlon must surely rank as one of the toughest
one day endurance events in the country (if not the world). It is one
of the new breed of extreme events designed to appeal to the growing
number of triathletes looking for something new to push them. Ironman
races no longer pose the challenges they did in the past - fields are
huge and many are now racing rather than simply surviving them. The
Triple is quickly emerging as a unique, punishing and hype-free alternate.
Ben Bright, a former World Junior Triathlon
Champion, blitzed the inaugural race in 1996 in 10 hours and 43 minutes,
with little prior knowledge of what it would entail, then declared in
no uncertain terms that he would not be back to defend his crown! The
race totals 6km of swimming, 100km of mountain biking and 44km of mountain
running. The runs and rides which are 90% on the dirt, traverse the
countryside between each of the scenic lake swims, and include 10 major
peaks and close to 40 fence crossings. Several of the ascents and descents
are too steep to ride or run – including the infamous 800m long ‘Push
Bike Hill’ up Black Mountain! The middle swim is 3.5km in length in
the unprotected and choppy waters of Lake Burley Griffin, with even
World Champion Daniel Kowalski (a team entrant) working hard for more
than 40 minutes!
A strong field was in attendance this
year with 1997 winner and 10th place getter at the 1998 Australian
Ironman, Paul Smith, once again the race favourite. Strong challenges
would come from James Nicholson of Adelaide, who has an 8:40 Ironman
under his belt, and Martin Boyd who was aiming to better his two previous
second place finishes. Dark horses included John Fleming who has been
a consistent top 10 finisher in the national Elite Olympic distance
ranks for the last few years and Stu Adams, a one time Uncle Toby’s
Surf Ironman competitor. Former 7th place finisher at Forster
and Elite World Championships representative mountain biker, Jody Purcell,
was the only woman to take up the challenge this year. She was in with
a great chance of breaking the women’s race record and smashing a few
of the male egos. The women’s fields have always been small but with
high quality competitors, including Deidre Grace in 1996.
The race started at 5:30am in Lake Ginninderra
for a 1.6km swim, with a huge field of 115 teams eager to close down
the 30 minute lead the individuals enjoyed. In reality, the 30 minute
head start would not even cover the time used by individuals in the
8 transitions alone, let alone factoring in the fatigue of completing
all legs! Canberra’s position as Australia’s political and sporting
capital ensured that these teams were composed of an impressive array
of national and international class swimmers, mountain bikers, runners,
orienteerers and rowers!
A pack of 3 lead the individuals out
of the water, with John Fleming, Paul Smith and Stu Adams entering the
first transition together. The importance of transitions was shown immediately
in T1 with Smith starting MTB 1 with a lead of 2 minutes! This lead
however was short lived when he snapped his chain after only 7km - losing
8 places and more than 7 minutes making hasty repairs. The tough terrain
had claimed its first victim of the day – with many more to follow!
Nicholson caught Adams and they worked
together until T2. Smith had clawed back through the field to trail
by only 3 minutes, with Boyd, Fleming and the massive frame of Mark
Davis (6 foot 6 and 95 kilos) all still in contention. Purcell, a strong
swimmer and rider, was only 15 minutes down on the leading men and well
inside record pace.
The tough long climbs at the start of each of the run legs are capable of really breaking the field up. The first 2km of Run 1, straight to the top of Mt. Majura, was no exception with Smith slashing his 3 minute deficit shortly after the summit. Smith was then able to power away on the downhill and stretch his lead out to 4 minutes by the end of the long and hilly 20km run leg, to complete the first triathlon in 3:33:56. He further extended his lead to 10 minutes by the end of the very choppy 3.5km swim in Lake Burley Griffin. Adams had come from 3 minutes behind Nicholson at the end of the run, to easily take second out of the water, with a 6 minute advantage. Davis and Boyd were dueling for 4th only 7 minutes further back, after strong swims.
Adams, an experienced surf swimmer, suffered
in the very cool water conditions, which claimed 2 of the individuals,
and was unable to protect his gap over third during the 39km second
ride - the longest leg of the day. Nicholson was able to close to within
5 minutes of Smith after a very strong record breaking ride. Run 2 began
with a 2km climb to the top of Mt. Taylor, and by the end of the 11km
run Smith had gained another 2 minutes for a 3:57:25 second triathlon.
Smith was then able to stretch his lead out to 26 minutes over the last 1.2km/25km/13km triathlon (3:01:56) to finish with a new course record of 10:33:17, with Nicholson second in 10:59:10. Boyd was finally able to shake off Davis in the last triathlon, and pass a fading Adams for third, only 4km from the finish. A feature of every Triple race so far have been Boyd’s storming finishes, to run down faltering opponents and snatch a podium position. Stu Adams finished 4th in 11:32:41, with Mark Davis holding off a very fast finishing Dave Baldwin for 5th.
Jody Purcell finished in 10th
place overall and over 40 minutes inside the previous female course
record in 12:46:43. She tripped and fell during a very rocky section
of the last run, and was very happy to reach the finish line almost
in one piece. The Emergency Services workers and Sri Chinmoy volunteers
manning the course were kept busy with numerous other falls during the
day, thankfully none of them too serious.
17 of the 22 individuals finished the tough course, with the final competitor, Ian Endicott, crossing the line after an epic 13km
cross country run in the pitch dark,
in a time of 17:39:50. Each competitor is required to provide a helper
for the day, and hopefully Iain chose his helper carefully, as his late
arrival at the last transition required his helper to run or ride with
him on the last tough run leg! It is also a long hard day for the helpers
whose main job is to lug gear between each of the transitions. They
may also be expected to dress, motivate, feed and massage their competitors
during the day as well organise hurried repairs to mountain bikes, and
even shoo away deadly brown snakes!
The race was featured in a 6 minute slot on SBS World Sports on Friday November 27. After lugging cameras around from 5.30am until 6.30pm for some spectacular action shots, the camera crew could be forgiven for feeling like they had done the race themselves. Organisers are currently negotiating for 30 minutes of national TV coverage next year.
The team competition was very intense this year, with all 3 person and 9 persons male/female/mixed teams breaking the existing race records. The outright team course record is now held by Off-Track triathletes in 8:54:06. Daniel Kowalski swam an awesome 40:35 for the long 3.5km swim with his team of nine finishing in 11:08:57 for 32nd place overall.
