70.3 Asian pacific championships

It’s been a full 365 days since my last 70.3 race, and when I woke up on Sunday morning I honestly had butterflies as of it was my first all over again!

In the lead up to this race my training had be really good and I knew I was ready to race.

It was so good having a championship race a few hours up the road from home and after looking at the start list it definitely was a championship field in both professional and age group athletes.

On the morning of the race after getting my gear set up I had a quick jog and made sure to get a good swim warm up in and a bit of band work to get the body ready to go. I was pretty calm by the time I entered the water and was ready to race!

I had a good start when the gun went off and found some feet straight away with a couple of really strong bike riders. After about 1000m the pace was a bit slow so I tried to make a small gap on these guys before the bike, I was out of the water in 5th place around 2mins down on the front guys. (Swim time 28.40)

Onto the bike it took me a few kilometers to find my legs and get into a decent rhythm. By 11km a really strong French athlete Nathan Dortmann caught me and I knew this was my ticket to get to the front of the race! The next 45km were crazy fast, at about 60km Nathan started to pull away from me and I started to really suffer riding into a strong head wind. I was starting to think I burnt to many matches and my chance of a podium was quickly fading. After about 10km of suffering I got a second wind and finished the bike off in a strong position pulling back some time on the front guys. (Bike time 2.14.10)

Out onto the run just the bike I suffered for the first 10km, I’m not sure if it’s because I haven’t raced this distance for a while but maaaannn 21.1km seemed like a really long way to run in 30+ degree heat after already racing for 2.5hrs. Once I finally came to terms with what I was doing I found a really good rhythm and although it wasn’t as fast as I know I can run off the bike it was solid enough for these conditions and the “ring rust” I was having. At around 18km I was still in 4th place and had become content with this placing knowing I was having a really good race against such good competition, but I slowly started seeing Nick Norths head band coming into view just up ahead so I quickly took a time split and figured he was only 15s ahead with 2km of running to go. I prayed to my legs to give me 2 more good kilometers then I promised it would be over! Thankfully they cooperated and I managed to catch Nick with around 1500m to go and put myself onto the last step of the podium and finish in a time of 4.07.58. (run time of 1.22)

I am really happy to finish 3rd at Asian pacific championship in my first 25-29 race and also be 5th age grouper overall. My body is smashed at the moment but I can’t wait to get back to training and start building for 2018!

As always I just want to give a massive thanks to my coach Nathan Miller and my sponsors Raine and Horne Huskisson, Absolutely Huskisson, Peak Fitness, Just Go driving school, Innovate air & electrical, Wildginger, Elite energy and fusion multi sport.

And to my Mum and Dad for all their support on and off the course.

Thanks for reading!

Matt.