Winter Triathlon, Hazelwood Pondage

On Sunday, Elaine and I ventured out to the Latrobe Valley to compete in the Hazelwood Winter Triathlon. The Hazelwood Pondage is used as a cooling device for the Power Station, which keeps the water in the Pondage warm all year round. We had never done this race before, but had heard a lot about it over the years. It is very famous as a warmup race before heading off to do a triathlon overseas or interstate - which of course is perfect preparation for our London race in 4 weeks time. We figured the Pondage itself (other than being warmer) would be quite similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park and where else were we going to do an open water swim. Note that we do have several friends who swim in the bay all year round, but with current water temperatures of around 9 degrees Celsius, that just sounds silly.

There were 3 races on offer - Olympic Distance, Sprint Distance and a Fun Distance.  We chose the Sprint Distance (500m swim, 24km bike, 5.1km run), as that was closest to what we'll be racing in London. Our race didn't start til 10am, but with registration and transition only open between 7:30 and 8:40am, we still had to arrive early. So that meant a 6am departure, it was going to be a long day.

I would describe the race organisation as casual and minimalist but still effective. The relaxed atmosphere spread to the competitors and pre-race people were just aimlessly wandering around and casually chatting amongst themselves (not a race face in sight). There were no bag compounds, bike checking or transition security. In fact the transition area wasn't even really fenced off.  Everyone just casually wandered in and out.  And with the course being all left turns as it circumnavigated the pond, they didn't need any road closures either, just one marshall per corner.

The longer Olympic Distance race started at 9am, so this gave us a good chance to see where the swim went and how transition worked. Club members Matt, Ray and Peter were racing in the Olympic, so we watched them head off on the bike leg before starting to get ready for our race. As we entered the water for our warmup swim, the water was around the temperature of an indoor pool, but definitely a different colour. It was so brown, you couldn't see your own hand in front of you. Nonetheless, it seemed quite nice to swim in.

We gathered in the water around a small concrete jetty as the race organiser explained the course. He then instructed us to line up before he sounded the starting horn. Unfortunately some of us were stupid enough to actually line up, whilst others just remained treading water 10 metres or so in front, thereby getting a nice head start. Already 10 metres off the front, I then realised I'd positioned myself badly and was continually being pushed off direction by swimmers coming from my left. I only breathe to my right, so I couldn't see these swimmers coming until they were hitting me. I spent the first half of the swim trying to avoid other swimmers who had no sense of direction. It wasn't till the half way mark that I found a good set of toes to sit on and had a cruisey swim back into shore. Not one of my better swims, but I didn't waste much energy and it was good to make mistakes now rather than in London.

In transition the wetsuit came off easily and I was quickly onto my bike.

Did I mention it was windy. It was windy when we arrived and got windier as we waited for our race to start. Now as we were heading out on our bikes, the wind picked up yet another notch.  I was scared trying to get my feet into my bike shoes. And even once I'd successfully done this, I was pretty much terrified for the whole bike leg as most of my energy seemed to be directed at staying on the road. There was one corner where I leant the bike over to turn and the wind went under my bike and picked up the front wheel moving it 6 inches across the road. It felt like I was in the motions of crashing. How I stayed on the bike I'll never know. Needless to say I crawled through this corner on the second lap. Happily nobody passed my on the bike leg. I was keeping an eye out for both Martins, but it turns out I beat both of them on the swim, so I never saw them. In fact being a looped course means you don't see many people at all - I never saw Elaine or either Martin for the entire race.

If it wasn't for the continual strong wind gusts, I think I would have really liked this bike course. It was undulating with only one hill I needed to swap into the small chain ring for and the road surface was not as bad as I'd been led to believe (or maybe everything else seemed great compared to the horrible wind).

Coming into transition I could see that there were only 2 bikes in the Sprint transition, meaning I was probably in third place (with no security, it was possible some Sprint competitors put their bikes in the Olympic section). Keen to start the run I raced over, racked my bike and removed my helmet in fast time and then tried to slip on my runners. Usually my runners go on very easy, but today I simply couldn't get them on - it was as though they had shrunk. As I looked at them, they did seem very small and then I tried to remember when I changed to using green laces.  Suddenly I realised I was standing in Elaine's transition spot. She has the same runners as me, except smaller and with green laces (my laces are red) - my transition area was 2 spots over. So I grabbed my bike and ran over to my spot and strangely enough my runners slipped on effortlessly.

Heading out onto the run, I had another competitor on my heels thanks to all the time I wasted in transition. The track up to the road is a mild up hill. It wasn't particularly steep, but I didn't want to spike my heart rate too early so I held my efforts in check and the other competitor took this opportunity to pass me. Once on the road, the next 2 kilometres are reasonably flat as you run along the edge of the road to the turn-around point. I found the running pretty easy through this section. The other competitor was maintaining a 20 to 30 metre gap on me, but didn't push the pace as my Garmin showed my speed was pretty good and my heart rate was already up to where I expected.

At the halfway mark, the course turns onto a dirt road for the journey back. I had heard the dirt road contained the hill and quickly discovered that the hill started pretty much straight away. My pace slowed and the other competitor started to increase the gap. However I was now picking off other competitors. Unfortunately they were obviously Olympic Distance competitors, so passing them had no effect on the result of my race. This first hill was just a short and mild one. It was like the dirt road was just helping to prepare you for what lay ahead. In all there are actually 3 hills, each one longer and steeper than the one before and that final one is a bit of a killer. The good news is that once over the top it is all downhill to the finish line.

Overall I finished in 4th place and first in my age group. Both Martins scored 2nd places in their age groups and Elaine won hers. In the Olympic Distance, Ray came second in his age group.

Overall, a great hit out before London. It was a tough course in very tough conditions, but my speed was still reasonable, so obviously my training has been working well.