I have been racing triathlon now for almost 15years and up until this last Sunday (16th August) at the Yeppoon Half Ironman in Queensland, I had never punctured during any competition. I was feeling ok, not brilliant but ok after taking a few weeks off following my efforts at Roth and a week or so of training before heading up to Yeppoon. I felt like was going backwards in the swim, but I exited the sea only about a minute 15seconds behind the main contenders in 29min30sec (including a long run up to transition from the beach) which was of great surprise to me.

On to the bike and I was making up a bit of time on the main pack before the pop and fizz of AUD$150 going down the drain at around 15km. Damn!

Having never punctured I flapped around a bit in a panic trying to repair it as quicly as possible but the spare Topeak valve extender was just a few atoms too wide for it to fit into my Zipp 808 wheel so I had to retrieve the old valve extender off the old tube (Bontrager model) and cross it over to the new tube just costing me more time and effort. I have no idea how much time I lost but it seemed like everything was happening in slow motion, that is, everything besides the guys coming past me! I saw people come past heading to the turn point some 500m up the road or so, and saw them again coming back the other way.

Another athlete punctured 5m up the road from me and just walked back to the hotel and to be honest I was considering doing the same but I was here to do a race and I was going to finish it. Eventually got the wheel back on and I was on my way but a little way up the road I realised my gel bottle (the only nutrition I had for the entire ride) had gone; it must have fallen out during the flapping and panicking stages. Oh well, I still had my Speedfill bottle full of Powerbar hydration mix, so I would have to make do with that.

The bike ride consisted of 5laps with two dead turn-arounds at either end of a flat but very bumpy road and now on my second lap, I could see the cost of the puncture; I crossed the lead bunch miles ahead of the turn-point. Oh well, today was going to be more of a training day than a race and that is how I approached the rest of the event.

I eventually got off the bike after 2hrs34min05secs but I was feeling quite hungry having lost my gels. Fortunately, I had left 2 spare Powerbar gels in transition just in case and this was a case! The gel took the edge off the hunger feeling but I had to wait a few kilometres before starting to feel a bit more energetic. I walked every single aid station today, taking the time to douse myself with water as the temperature was hitting the high twenties which is something I am not used to.

The gel and cokes at the aid stations finally started kicking in on the second lap and I started to hit 3m45/km according to my Garmin 305. I finished well and in the end posted 4hrs29min35secs after a 1hr25min58sec half marathon.

In the end I was happy to have done the race although it was a bit of a frustrating one.

Laters,

Simon