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Sharky's Triple-Tri Report '03
Mark "Sharky" Smoothy participated in the Triple-Tri in 2003 for the first time as a member of a team. His report first appeared in "The Ultimate Challenge," the magazine of Triathlon Queensland.
I competed in the Self-Transcendence Triple-Triathlon in 2003 as a team
member, and am very keen this year to step up and do it as an
individual. Of course I hate suffering through these things all by
myself, so I am hoping to generate enough interest through these pages
for any like-minded, silly people to accompany me!
Self-Transcendence – this word sums up the qualities needed to complete a challenging event. For, as sure as the sun comes up every day, each and every competitor in this grueling event can expect, at some time, to transcend themselves, in a most painful sense, at many points throughout their very long day. Ironman competitors, who have completed this triple triathlon, say that, in comparison, an ironman is easier. While no ironman is easy, let me explain what the triple tri is comprised of, and then you can make up your own mind.
A triple triathlon is fairly self-explanatory, three triathlons back to back. Distances are as follows; the first triathlon consists of a 1.5km swim-35km bike-20km run; this is immediately followed by the next triathlon of 3.5km swim-40km bike-12km run; and just in case you’re not yet warmed up, the final triathlon of 1.2km swim-24km bike-13km run should do the job. Now, if we do the sums we come up with 6.2kms of swimming, 99kms of biking and 45kms of running. I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah sure the swim and run are longer than ironman distance, but the bike isn’t even in the same ballpark.” Oh, did I forget to mention that this entire race is off-road? I also neglected to tell you that the bike and run courses take you to the top of all 9 peaks surrounding Canberra. Also, for two days leading up to the event it rained cats and dogs, toads and lizards. You name it and it came down, resulting in some very messy rivers of mud that were supposed to be trails – are you getting the idea?
Mark Davis, who won this year’s event, had a combined bike time for the 99kms of 5:53:08. Now let me explain before you go thinking, “What the bloody hell was Mark doing out there? Most ironman athletes would cover 180kms in that time.” Mountain biking is incredibly slow and tough going. Most of the climbs in Canberra are so steep, and so strewn with rocks and other obstacles, that a good mountain biker might be sitting at between three and five km/h uphill. But surely you can make up time on the descents? Except for a select few, who have the expertise and skill to descend mountains fast off-road, the majority of competitors aren’t going a whole lot faster down than up – myself included. Especially so on the last bike leg, when the heavens opened up and turned the descents into flowing rivers of slippery, muddy water. A lot of the descents were quite technical, and so rough in places that I can only liken it to riding a giant jackhammer – brain jarring stuff!
The swim legs were held in three different lakes; Ginninderra, Burley Griffin and lake Tuggeranong. In fact, by the end of the day, there are few parts of Canberra left unseen. When you take into account the fee of $145 to enter as an individual, surely it is not only the cheapest, but also the most awesome way – just ignore that stuff called fatigue and pain – of seeing Canberra in a day? This year just 17 individual competitors signed on for the, under-my-own-steam-self-tour-of-Canberra-in-one-day-category. Of the 16 men and solo, most inspirational, woman (Alina McMaster) that started, 12 of these very special athletes battled the course, and at times themselves, to cross the finish line some 12 to 17 hours later. Alina McMaster not only finished in 13 hours and ten minutes, but also managed to finish in sixth place outright.
The morning of the race saw weather conditions much the same as the two days leading up to the event. Dark, ominous clouds above presented competitors with the prospect of not only a long day, but also a wet, windy, cold and muddy day ahead. The weather forecast was for a top of 13 degrees, and when the individuals set off at 5:30a.m a slow, cold, drizzly rain had set in and the air temperature was no warmer than eight degrees! With the water temperature at 18 degrees it was the warmest place to be, all snug inside your wetsuit. This is spring we’re talking about here, and just eight days away from summer – unbelievable!
First to exit the clear but weedy waters of Lake Ginninderra was Wayne Ellis in 22:38, who later called it a day after the second bike leg. Mark Davis, this year’s triple tri winner, who finished with an overall time of 12:03:04, showed the tortoise versus the hare strategy is the best option for a race of this magnitude. This race is all about pacing oneself and Davis did this with the patience of a brain surgeon. In the first triathlon Davis didn’t get caught up in the excitement of the day. He exited the water in third place, had the fourth fastest bike, and after recording the fourth fastest run was actually 20 minutes behind the leader, Tom Landon-Smith, by the end of the first triathlon. Landon-Smith, while slow in the swim, absolutely tore through the field to record the fastest bike and run splits for the first triathlon. Davis on the other hand showed the virtue of patience by recording the fastest legs in all three disciplines in the second triathlon. This saw Davis take over as race leader during the second bike leg, and from that point on he never looked like surrendering the lead.
The race for the minor placings was a hard fought battle between two competitors, Brett Currie and Carl Fellows, who see-sawed backwards and forwards, swapping the lead on numerous occasions. Currie was the stronger swimmer of the two, while Fellows was a powerhouse on the bike and could make up any deficit from the swim. And so it went on all day, with this pair constantly overtaking one another. Up until the final run, both were very even in their run times. Fellows started the last run with a three-minute lead, but alas it was not enough. Currie saved his best run for last and ran a full six minutes faster than Fellows to cross the line a happy man in 12:17:19. Fellows finished just two minutes later, clearly spent, but with the satisfaction of knowing that he gave it his all. Rounding out the top five were Mark Hutchings in 12:27:44 and Matt Acheson in 12:48:17.
Some words of advice to those of you interested in taking on the individual category. First, you must convince the organisers that you are capable of finishing such an event; a resume of any past endurance events is requested with your entry. Second, even if you have finished one, two, three, even 20 ironman events, do not underestimate the severity of this course. I was meant to do the entire race myself, but thanks to a mountain bike crash a week prior to race day, I entered in a team and completed the first swim and the last bike leg. For the rest I was a spectator, and from what I experienced, plus what I witnessed as a spectator, I realised just how demanding this race is. Team competitors would come in from the mountain bike and run legs looking completely shagged after doing just one leg. The final bike section, in which I competed, was only 24kms, but it took me one and a half hours to complete and I pulled up an exhausted mess! All of a sudden I was not so sad at having to be a spectator!
The triple tri is not just for individual competitors; as a matter of fact it is the teams that allow this race to continue year after year. The number of competitors swelled to hundreds thanks to a total of 133 teams entered in this year’s event. Teams are allowed anything from three to nine competitors. A team of three might do one triathlon each, while a team of nine will do just one leg each, but any combination of numbers are allowed. The most popular team category, with 66 entries, was definitely the mixed teams, where at least three of the nine legs must be completed by a female competitor to be eligible for awards. This category was won by a most interestingly named team called ‘The Lactic Mayhem’ in 10:23:37, from ‘Team JZZ’. The team categories are endless with female and male only teams, over 50 and over 60 age group teams, to name just a few. Most are there just for the enjoyment of competing and finishing while a select few are there to get around the course as fast as is humanly possible. And this is where teams like the ‘Puffed Puffy Pancakes’ and ‘Dog’s Breakfast’ enter this story. The PPP’s and DB’s fought it out all day, and it was down to the wire racing with just two minutes separating the two teams in the end. The Puffed Puffy Pancakes puffed out their chests as they crossed the line in 8:46:11, very proud winners. While the Dog’s Breakfast was made to eat – well how can I say this? – their dog’s breakfast! The next closest team was ‘Where’s Roy’ (what happened to Wally?), somewhat off the pace, but they still finished in a most respectable time of 9:22:45.
In other team results ‘Shanky Ho’s’ took out the all female teams in 11:27:28, from Lisa’s Triple-Tri triplets in 11:32:15.
If not for any other reason, you should seriously think about putting a team together for the 2004 race, just so you can come up with a really weird name for your team. Just a few examples from this year’s race: ‘Team Filthy’, ‘The Men from the Ministry of Silly Walks’, ‘Where’s My Pancakes’, ‘The fedooberdaz’ (the skin that hangs underneath your triceps),‘Well Hung Spider’, ‘Tri Martinis’ (Shaken not Stirred), and ‘The Mooners of Jupiter’. But seriously, the triple tri has been going for seven years now, and with nine different transitions, spread out over Canberra it could have been a logistical nightmare. But I’m extremely pleased to report, that even under very trying and wet conditions the organisers pulled off an event to be proud of. The course markings were superb and as far as I know not one competitor lost their way. The hot food and drink at the finish was welcomed by all competitors, and is typical of what you can expect of any event that the Sri Chinmoy team put on.
The comments I heard throughout the day from other competitors will sum up what this event is all about; “Unbelievably hard”, “A bloody mudbath”, “What a beautiful course”, “Mate I didn’t know climbs like that existed in Canberra”, “The view from the top of Black Mountain was awesome”, “Man that was fun”, “Shite that was hard”, “Never again”, the same person one hour later – “I can’t wait until next year”, but mostly it was “I’ll be back next year for sure.” So, if you are looking for something a little – let’s be perfectly honest here a lot different – from the ordinary triathlon, get yourself a mountain bike, start training and look no further – I cannot recommend this event highly enough!
- Mark "Sharky" Smoothy
Self-Transcendence – this word sums up the qualities needed to complete a challenging event. For, as sure as the sun comes up every day, each and every competitor in this grueling event can expect, at some time, to transcend themselves, in a most painful sense, at many points throughout their very long day. Ironman competitors, who have completed this triple triathlon, say that, in comparison, an ironman is easier. While no ironman is easy, let me explain what the triple tri is comprised of, and then you can make up your own mind.
A triple triathlon is fairly self-explanatory, three triathlons back to back. Distances are as follows; the first triathlon consists of a 1.5km swim-35km bike-20km run; this is immediately followed by the next triathlon of 3.5km swim-40km bike-12km run; and just in case you’re not yet warmed up, the final triathlon of 1.2km swim-24km bike-13km run should do the job. Now, if we do the sums we come up with 6.2kms of swimming, 99kms of biking and 45kms of running. I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah sure the swim and run are longer than ironman distance, but the bike isn’t even in the same ballpark.” Oh, did I forget to mention that this entire race is off-road? I also neglected to tell you that the bike and run courses take you to the top of all 9 peaks surrounding Canberra. Also, for two days leading up to the event it rained cats and dogs, toads and lizards. You name it and it came down, resulting in some very messy rivers of mud that were supposed to be trails – are you getting the idea?
Mark Davis, who won this year’s event, had a combined bike time for the 99kms of 5:53:08. Now let me explain before you go thinking, “What the bloody hell was Mark doing out there? Most ironman athletes would cover 180kms in that time.” Mountain biking is incredibly slow and tough going. Most of the climbs in Canberra are so steep, and so strewn with rocks and other obstacles, that a good mountain biker might be sitting at between three and five km/h uphill. But surely you can make up time on the descents? Except for a select few, who have the expertise and skill to descend mountains fast off-road, the majority of competitors aren’t going a whole lot faster down than up – myself included. Especially so on the last bike leg, when the heavens opened up and turned the descents into flowing rivers of slippery, muddy water. A lot of the descents were quite technical, and so rough in places that I can only liken it to riding a giant jackhammer – brain jarring stuff!
The swim legs were held in three different lakes; Ginninderra, Burley Griffin and lake Tuggeranong. In fact, by the end of the day, there are few parts of Canberra left unseen. When you take into account the fee of $145 to enter as an individual, surely it is not only the cheapest, but also the most awesome way – just ignore that stuff called fatigue and pain – of seeing Canberra in a day? This year just 17 individual competitors signed on for the, under-my-own-steam-self-tour-of-Canberra-in-one-day-category. Of the 16 men and solo, most inspirational, woman (Alina McMaster) that started, 12 of these very special athletes battled the course, and at times themselves, to cross the finish line some 12 to 17 hours later. Alina McMaster not only finished in 13 hours and ten minutes, but also managed to finish in sixth place outright.
The morning of the race saw weather conditions much the same as the two days leading up to the event. Dark, ominous clouds above presented competitors with the prospect of not only a long day, but also a wet, windy, cold and muddy day ahead. The weather forecast was for a top of 13 degrees, and when the individuals set off at 5:30a.m a slow, cold, drizzly rain had set in and the air temperature was no warmer than eight degrees! With the water temperature at 18 degrees it was the warmest place to be, all snug inside your wetsuit. This is spring we’re talking about here, and just eight days away from summer – unbelievable!
First to exit the clear but weedy waters of Lake Ginninderra was Wayne Ellis in 22:38, who later called it a day after the second bike leg. Mark Davis, this year’s triple tri winner, who finished with an overall time of 12:03:04, showed the tortoise versus the hare strategy is the best option for a race of this magnitude. This race is all about pacing oneself and Davis did this with the patience of a brain surgeon. In the first triathlon Davis didn’t get caught up in the excitement of the day. He exited the water in third place, had the fourth fastest bike, and after recording the fourth fastest run was actually 20 minutes behind the leader, Tom Landon-Smith, by the end of the first triathlon. Landon-Smith, while slow in the swim, absolutely tore through the field to record the fastest bike and run splits for the first triathlon. Davis on the other hand showed the virtue of patience by recording the fastest legs in all three disciplines in the second triathlon. This saw Davis take over as race leader during the second bike leg, and from that point on he never looked like surrendering the lead.
The race for the minor placings was a hard fought battle between two competitors, Brett Currie and Carl Fellows, who see-sawed backwards and forwards, swapping the lead on numerous occasions. Currie was the stronger swimmer of the two, while Fellows was a powerhouse on the bike and could make up any deficit from the swim. And so it went on all day, with this pair constantly overtaking one another. Up until the final run, both were very even in their run times. Fellows started the last run with a three-minute lead, but alas it was not enough. Currie saved his best run for last and ran a full six minutes faster than Fellows to cross the line a happy man in 12:17:19. Fellows finished just two minutes later, clearly spent, but with the satisfaction of knowing that he gave it his all. Rounding out the top five were Mark Hutchings in 12:27:44 and Matt Acheson in 12:48:17.
Some words of advice to those of you interested in taking on the individual category. First, you must convince the organisers that you are capable of finishing such an event; a resume of any past endurance events is requested with your entry. Second, even if you have finished one, two, three, even 20 ironman events, do not underestimate the severity of this course. I was meant to do the entire race myself, but thanks to a mountain bike crash a week prior to race day, I entered in a team and completed the first swim and the last bike leg. For the rest I was a spectator, and from what I experienced, plus what I witnessed as a spectator, I realised just how demanding this race is. Team competitors would come in from the mountain bike and run legs looking completely shagged after doing just one leg. The final bike section, in which I competed, was only 24kms, but it took me one and a half hours to complete and I pulled up an exhausted mess! All of a sudden I was not so sad at having to be a spectator!
The triple tri is not just for individual competitors; as a matter of fact it is the teams that allow this race to continue year after year. The number of competitors swelled to hundreds thanks to a total of 133 teams entered in this year’s event. Teams are allowed anything from three to nine competitors. A team of three might do one triathlon each, while a team of nine will do just one leg each, but any combination of numbers are allowed. The most popular team category, with 66 entries, was definitely the mixed teams, where at least three of the nine legs must be completed by a female competitor to be eligible for awards. This category was won by a most interestingly named team called ‘The Lactic Mayhem’ in 10:23:37, from ‘Team JZZ’. The team categories are endless with female and male only teams, over 50 and over 60 age group teams, to name just a few. Most are there just for the enjoyment of competing and finishing while a select few are there to get around the course as fast as is humanly possible. And this is where teams like the ‘Puffed Puffy Pancakes’ and ‘Dog’s Breakfast’ enter this story. The PPP’s and DB’s fought it out all day, and it was down to the wire racing with just two minutes separating the two teams in the end. The Puffed Puffy Pancakes puffed out their chests as they crossed the line in 8:46:11, very proud winners. While the Dog’s Breakfast was made to eat – well how can I say this? – their dog’s breakfast! The next closest team was ‘Where’s Roy’ (what happened to Wally?), somewhat off the pace, but they still finished in a most respectable time of 9:22:45.
In other team results ‘Shanky Ho’s’ took out the all female teams in 11:27:28, from Lisa’s Triple-Tri triplets in 11:32:15.
If not for any other reason, you should seriously think about putting a team together for the 2004 race, just so you can come up with a really weird name for your team. Just a few examples from this year’s race: ‘Team Filthy’, ‘The Men from the Ministry of Silly Walks’, ‘Where’s My Pancakes’, ‘The fedooberdaz’ (the skin that hangs underneath your triceps),‘Well Hung Spider’, ‘Tri Martinis’ (Shaken not Stirred), and ‘The Mooners of Jupiter’. But seriously, the triple tri has been going for seven years now, and with nine different transitions, spread out over Canberra it could have been a logistical nightmare. But I’m extremely pleased to report, that even under very trying and wet conditions the organisers pulled off an event to be proud of. The course markings were superb and as far as I know not one competitor lost their way. The hot food and drink at the finish was welcomed by all competitors, and is typical of what you can expect of any event that the Sri Chinmoy team put on.
The comments I heard throughout the day from other competitors will sum up what this event is all about; “Unbelievably hard”, “A bloody mudbath”, “What a beautiful course”, “Mate I didn’t know climbs like that existed in Canberra”, “The view from the top of Black Mountain was awesome”, “Man that was fun”, “Shite that was hard”, “Never again”, the same person one hour later – “I can’t wait until next year”, but mostly it was “I’ll be back next year for sure.” So, if you are looking for something a little – let’s be perfectly honest here a lot different – from the ordinary triathlon, get yourself a mountain bike, start training and look no further – I cannot recommend this event highly enough!
- Mark "Sharky" Smoothy
