We woke on Sunday to a cracker day. Stuff all wind, mild temperature and clear skies. With the boys in the van along with Rach and my good mate Simon we headed to the start.
The Race....
The Le Mans start involved a brief 300m run to our boats and comprehensive feedback as to why I haven't pursued sprinting as a sport. Once at the boats though the combination of Simon holding my boat and having a surfski saw me 2nd off the beach. My start couldn't have gone any better. Soon into my rhythm and heading around the bays to the Hutt river mouth I had two kayaks on my wash, one of whom was Glen Muirhead. Slightly ahead was up & coming k1 racer Kurtis Imrie. After a couple of k's Kurtis seemed to be waiting for us so I took the opportunity to get onto his wash. By this time I was a little confused as to where Dan Busch was but chose not to dwell on it for too long. As it happened Dan had rudder trouble on the start and paddled out of his skin (just a normal day for Dan) to catch up about 5km into the paddle. From here the course did an out and back to the Petone wharf before heading up the Hutt river to Sladden park. Kurtis put a decent burst in close to the river mouth separating the group leaving me on my own in 3rd. Shortly after I entered TA 40 seconds back on Dan and a minute behind Kurtis.
I was quickly through TA and onto my bike.....or was I. I'd been having trouble with my gears for the last few days and thought I had them sorted but after 2-3 pedal strokes my chain snapped under not much load. Damn. Running back into TA Rich Ussher had seen my predicament and offered to help. Yes please. With me being too pumped on adrenaline Rich calmly threaded the chain through the rear derailer while I found my quick link. What I found wasn't pretty and a tad embarrassing. In all my multisport days I've never broken a chain and had never been diligent enough to replace the link. It was so rusted that I had to pry the 2 pieces apart. Anyway, we managed to rejoin the chain and carefully then hastily I set off only to arrive at obstacle number 2 for the day. Michael had just released onto the Hutt river trail 100+ duathlon entrants setting the scene for what was to be a 5km overtaking maneuver. I have never shouted "on your right" so many times ever.
By the time I reached the climb up Boulder Hill I was more tired than I wanted to be but with no sign of Busch there was plenty of work to do. The climb went well until shortly before the top when my rusty link gave way. Now I really was up against it. I started running uphill thinking I'd glide the downhills, run the uphills and all would be well. Fuzzy thinking. There was too much undulation and flat riding to get any speed without a chain so I began asking duathletes if they had a link I could have. No one did. After a few of these I stopped asking and settled into a run but was shortly caught bSy a friendly chap (who I've since forgotten his name) who offered me a link. What a legend. So with link in hand I slowly and carefully threaded the chain and connected it. A quick check of the gears without load and I shot off on my way. Luke Osbourne had passed me recently so my new objective was to catch him before the end of the race. The chance of catching Buschy I thought was long gone....until that is at the base of the last climb I looked up and could make out both Buschy and Luke close together. Game on.
With the last km of the mountain bike sharing the same track as the first of the run I got a decent idea of how far behind I was. Simon and Rach confirmed in TA that I was about a minute behind. Onto the run I controlled my pace so I didn't burn out too quickly coming off the bike. The first climb came up quick and looking up I could see the boys up ahead. I figured if I was to catch them at all it would be going up as they are both decent flat/ downhill runners. With a couple of hard bursts I caught them at the top and headed off in the lead. Immediately I felt better and got into a good rhythm for the remaining 45minutes to Petone Wharf for the finish. It had been an eventful day for all and a more than honest course. I was stoked to have turned my mechanical disadvantages around and finish in the right spot.
A big thanks to my mate Simon and wife Rach for awesome work as support crew. Thanks to Rich Ussher for his mechanical help in transition and my unnamed chainlink donor. Without them the day would have been much different.
Thanks also to my loyal sponsors: Thermatech, Torpedo7, Rasdex and Legend Paddles who make my racing possible.
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