We had the long and the short of it last week in racing from a 5 day race to the sprint distance duathlon.
Al Thompson kicked off Tuesday of last week in the Tour De Timor. A 5 days mountain bike event across Timor Leste. Al held together well and showed the strength work done in training has paid off. A multi day event is always a challenge and by the looks of it Al enjoyed himself along the way.
We had a Ironman debut from Peter Jurek over in Italy on Saturday. Not coming from a triathlon background Peter simply wanted to finish the event for the challenge that Ironman offers. Only really learning to swim at the beginning of this year Pete got through the swim well and strongly on the bike. He managed to bring it home and in a very respectable 14hr 43min for a first time outing and so new to endurance sports. Well done Pete.
Over to Australia and to the Western Suburbs of Melbourne where we had 4 athletes racing the 3rd and final duathlon of the series. Simon Miller put together his best race of the series with 2 strong runs and a bike leg that is getting stronger. Things are heading in the right direction for him as we get towards his goal race later in the year.
Shri Vasudeva is still very green to the sport and has learnt a lot over the past 12months. Off less than ideal circumstances pre race she showed her grit and running class by racing her way to 2nd place in her category. Still plenty more to learn for Shri and she is growing into a strong all round triathlete.
Naomi Wood had a strong outing in her first short course race in a while. After building her run and swim over the winter she started out with a 5km run pb and followed that up with the second fastest female bike ride of the day. The ironmum is a tough cookie and leads by example when it comes to going after her own goals while working and looking after a family. With good mechanical luck another season of improvements are on the way.
Kathy Delos Santos raced on of the Western Suburbs triathlons last year in June. In the time between then and now she has been so consistent with her training as well as working and being a mum with a family to look after. Kathy started with MEC as a total newbie to triathlon having just completed the Triathlon Pink event. She took a huge 4.5mins off her bike time that she did last year on the same course with conditions being far more challenging on Sundays race. We look forward to seeing you do well in your next goal race in November Kathy.
