Goondiwindi - Hell of the West Triathlon - Race Report by Patrick Tait

17/02/2010 6:47:09 AM

Arriving in Goondiwindi (“Gundy” to us locals) at 2:00pm on the Saturday afternoon, I hopped out of the cool comfort of my car’s air conditioning and was immediately hit with the intense heat of the place. The atmosphere at the registration area was electric as people queued up to get their race numbers and tickets to the carbo load dinner in the park that night.

I’ll start this piece with a small apology for my poor attendance to all things BTC this season – however I feel I have a valid excuse, I have been posted to a small country town 90km west of Brisbane for work for the past 4 months and as a result have had no opportunity to make it to any training or racing days! It’s not all bad news however, as my isolated position has allowed me plenty of time to get in some serious training.

This season has seen me take the step from short course and sprint triathlons to the longer course events. The end of last year saw me finish my first Half Ironman in Port Macquarie and back that finish up with a five minute time improvement down at the Canberra Half a few weeks later (narrowly losing out to a good mate by only two minutes).

It was in the euphoria of finishing Canberra that we (a couple of mates and I) decided that we would tackle the full ironman at Port this year. With this goal in mind, I began searching for races that I could do in preparation and I stumbled across a race out at Goondiwindi appropriately named the Hell of the West – considered the toughest triathlon in Queensland due to the intense heat. After a quick google search of where Goondiwindi was, I decided immediately that this was something I had to do - I’d finally found a race that didn’t require me to fly my bike anywhere, just a breezy three hour drive!

Anyway, now that you’re acquainted with the background to how I came about entering this race, I’ll get on with the race report…

Arriving in Goondiwindi (“Gundy” to us locals) at 2:00pm on the Saturday afternoon, I hopped out of the cool comfort of my car’s air conditioning and was immediately hit with the intense heat of the place. The atmosphere at the registration area was electric as people queued up to get their race numbers and tickets to the carbo load dinner in the park that night – I thought this was a fantastic idea and saved me having to cook! The heat however remained an ever-present reminder of the torture we were all to endure the following day.

The race started at 5:00am in order to escape the worst of the heat. So the racking of the bikes started at about 3:45am, fumbling around in the dark with my brand new bike I managed to find some room and set up my gear – hoping that I’d set everything up correctly, given the poor light! After numbering and sucking down a gu, I made my way down to the swim start, a 2km swim in the muddy Macintyre River, water temperature taken earlier in the week registered 30 degrees, so needless to say wetsuits weren’t permitted.  Canoes carrying lights indicated the start line as we entered the water (slightly cooler than I’d anticipated). As the sun just began to rise, the race began.  The swim wasn’t too eventful, we were warned that there were a few snags along the way and they had been marked out with lights – canoes sat besides the bigger ones – I nearly managed to swim straight into a wharf that was jutting out from the bank, but managed to hear the calls of some spectators and changed my course. Hopping out of the water and making my way up the boat ramp to transition, I was pumped to give my new bike a good hit out on the dead flat 40km out and back (80km) cycle course.

Heading out of town I felt great, a nice tailwind giving some good assistance and I maintained a steady pace. About 20km into the ride the road quality dropped a bit and I was reminded of a comment made by the organisers at the brief:
“We know the road’s not the best quality out on the bike course, but if you complain all we’ll give you is a spoonful of concrete so you can harden up!”

At the turn around I was still feeling great, I was absolutely stoked with my split, thinking to myself “wow how quick is this bike”, then the headwind hit me, which actually came as a surprise – I think part of me was thinking I was just holding great form on the way out and was by no means being helped by a tailwind.

The second 40km hurt a lot more than the first but I had set the bike leg as something to work on in this race and pushed hard, by the end I was pumped with my time however somewhere along the way I must’ve forgotten that there was a 20km run to go!

Needless to say the run was difficult!
The sun was really turning up the heat and it was only 8:00am, getting out of that heat was my main motivation to push harder on the run. The spectators had begun to gather and the atmosphere was building. Aid stations were spaced out every 1km, this proved to be a great motivator – “Just push it to the next aid station and you can get a big cup of ice and some water” I kept telling myself.
A few houses had put their sprinklers on in their front yards which was an absolute god-send. A band was playing at one of the aid stations, the crowds were cheering, and all the while it was getting hotter and hotter.

My run was really hurt by me pushing too hard on the bike – schoolboy error I know – but my run time was not too shabby all the same. I finished in 4:47:15 and was greeted at the finish line by a big splash of water and an icy cold coke! A great feeling, I’d come 6th in my age group and was one step closer to Port Macquarie.

To anyone who is still reading this and gets the chance to do this race, I’d strongly recommend it, a great challenge, fantastic atmosphere and a great experience!

I look forward to catching up with a lot of you down at Husky this weekend – please excuse the tri-suit I’ll be wearing, it’s a mate’s design and is a fundraising thing!

Race results

Paddy Tait

By By Patrick (Paddy) Tait

Source:

Race Report Goondiwindi Patrick Tait Hell of the West