With different agendas, five brave and slightly crazy Illawarra Tri club members headed to Yeppoon last weekend to embark on the Capricorn Half Ironman. Marijke Ralph, off to conquer her first triathlon at the half ironman distance, Cathy Tulloch and Hugh Gilberg using the event as a training run for the world championships in Budapest next month, Carolyn Dews putting her hard winter training to the test as a lead up to Busselton Ironman and myself using the race as the perfect justification for a winter getaway and some serious Queensland sunshine.
We flew into Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia. Marijke and I risked security breaches and potentially serious injuries as we hurtled towards the Big Bull ‘Droughtmaster’ monument with the photo opportunity too good to bypass. As true city girls, we then spent the hour long bus trip from Rockhampton to Yeppoon pondering the definition of ‘Droughtmaster’ as we stripped the Wollongong layers of clothing off embracing the Capricorn Coast heat.
Officially the first half ironman in the series, the Capricorn Coast Half Ironman is truly in a magical location. Yeppoon is the gateway to Great Keppel Island and the race is held at the Rydges Capricorn resort which is 10km from the ‘city’ of Yeppoon. This year it was a Queensland Long Course qualifier so the race reached capacity in record time with a total of 800 athletes, not including teams. Most athletes stay at the resort so it creates for such a special race atmosphere. We were definitely part of this cohort, with our unit literally 10m from the finish chute.
We arise on race day eve to a super special Saturday. A buffet breakfast at a five star resort where carbo loading takes on a whole new meaning. The bikes were sent up with the transport company Velotrans, so we wander up to assemble our bikes. With big smiles and friendly banter, the bikes were reconstructed in record time, thanks to Bruce and Anthony taking pity on the girls trying to put the thingamigiggy in the dubywacker. With Marijke missing the rim tape on her new wheels and the mechanics not able to fix it til the afternoon, we headed to the beach to distract her and keep her from having a stress induced nervous breakdown. So we donned wetsuits not worn for six months and braved the 21 degree water. A peruse of the expo, a quick cycle and most importantly some serious banana lounge training in the glorious winter sun. Lucky for me I had the pick of the beds as it appears to not be the most appropriate choice of pre race activity. A carbo loading pasta night and we head to bed with distended pasta bellies and a bladder ready to burst with all the hydration.
Race morning. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and it truly is the most spectacular day to have a bit of a swim, then ride and run. The race starts at the friendly time of 8am, so we head down to breakfast and leave feeling slightly ripped off with the full buffet breakfast and our meagre plates of vegemite toast. To transition we head, a whole 40m away where race gear is packed in a green shopping bag. I rack my bike up and realise I do not need to look for landmarks to find my bike upon exiting the water. It appears the under 35 women are mingling with the pros and sharing bike racks. There is nothing like standing next to someone half your body weight with a seat more expensive than your whole bike to get the race nerves firing. So we head back to the unit and have a lazy hour to watch Sunday TV, put our wetsuits on and banish the race nerves.
A quick race briefing and all the athletes start the pilgrimage down the beach. A 1.9km walk to the start line and what a spectacular site this is indeed. The start line is a series of beach flags, a couple of 4WD and some very helpful volunteers who tell you the closest bathroom is that big blue liquid thing called the ocean. I have never seen so many athletes warming up. The pros take off to the toot, toot of the car horn. The rest of us follow. As I approach the first turning can, I ponder actually heading straight and swimming to Great Keppel Island- this adventure is quickly quashed as suddenly a 90km cycle and 21km run seems more appealing than a 12km swim. So we head in a straight line back towards the resort, or zig zag in my case without the black line to follow. Too many minutes later, the last turning can and then the 500m run back to transition. King tides mean a very low tide and long beach. I never realised how hard it is to run in a wetsuit as I walked to transition.
The bike is a five loop course, heading into town and back to the resort. With the election looming, the local politicians had resurfaced the road and we were very excited to realise than there was 150m of hot mix to replace the gravel, I mean granular surface. So dodging the plethora of cane toad road kill, we knocked over the 90km, whilst lapping up the sunshine and enjoying the flat surface after a winter of Stanwell Park loops. I never knew what a dead road meant, until I disembarked off the bike and felt the dead legs.
The run is a three loop effort, traversing the road, the bush trail behind the resort and the resort grounds. The biggest hills are the two bridges over the pool, which are precariously close to the finish chute and our unit. Sadly my dead legs did not go away as I shuffled the course. What does one do in this situation? You make friends with the other shufflers. I met Dwayne from Cairns, Steve and Brian from Toowoomba, Mick from somewhere west of Mackay and some girl from Bendigo who kept trying to feed me salt tablets.
The finish chute finally arrives and Marijke, Carolyn and Cathy are eagerly awaiting my arrival. A personal worst at that distance for me and a personal best for finding the fun in triathlon.
Each triathlon is a learning process and indeed this proved very true for our happy crew. For Marijke, flawless commitment and dedication to training surpassed pre race nerves to see her finish fourth in her age group with one of the fastest female run splits. For our hardworking President Carolyn, making it to the race was an achievement in itself after being bed bound earlier in the week with a virus. Being violently ill during the race and still crossing that finish line in a very respectable time is testimony to her mental strength and ironman success. New to the distance, Cathy performed extremely well and should be very proud of her achievement. Used to a place on the podium, she finished fourth in her age group which was a major disappointment for her but illustrates the many uncontrollable variables in triathlon when you are competing against other people. For Hugh who only competed in his first triathlon in Italy last year, to cross the finish line and make it to the podium in third place was a tremendous result and will only encourage him further. For me, triathlon is about the personal goal setting, the fun weekends away, the incessant laughter at training sessions, the special friendships you form and the journey of these friendships through the challenges life throws at you. The Capricorn Half Ironman, indeed was one of these experiences.
