JUstDreamInparadise: Coral Coast Triaththlon Port Douglas

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Coral Coast Triaththlon Port Douglas

Philip has been triathlon training for many months. Firstly for the Julia Creek Dirt and Dust as an individual competitor and secondly as a team cycle member for two triathlons forming part of the Cairns Adventure Festival. The first of these triathlons is called the Coral Coast and was held in Port Douglas today.
It is a trying time leading up to a triathlon. Nervous excitement, nervous tension, and the inevitable questioning "am I ready for this?" and then the nervous thoughts "I'm part of a team and I don't want to let them down". I ought to know. I have been a "triathlon wife" for more than twenty years! It is never any different in the lead up to race day.
Race day....today. All the team members were up bright and early to meet for registration and numbering in the designated area. The nerves are still there but once them team starts talking amongst themselves it is somewhat alleviated.
It seemed like hours but finally the start was called. Tracey made her way down Four Mile Beach for the 1.5km swim adjacent to the beach. She did the race in an outstanding time of 36.35mins. She said the race was difficult. The sea was rough and she swallowed a lot of seawater. But she pressed on. From the ocean it was a 300m run to the bike transition area where Philip was waiting. By the time she arrived there she was completely exhausted but they quickly changed the timing band from Tracey to Philip. Then it was Philip's turn.
He said that he had a head wind heading out of Port Douglas for the 40km ride but of course a tail wind on the return. The cyclists had two laps to complete that saw them ride to Mowbray Valley. Philip did his ride leg in a time of 1:07:21. He thought he would do the ride in about 1hr 10min so he was happy. Once again a quick transition from bike to run and a swap of the timer band to the runner and Jodie was off to Four Mile Beach.
The run leg on Four Mile Beach was a distance of 10km and Jodie did this in the amazing time of just 49:21mins. All the runners complained of how difficult the run was with a big head wind but the hard sand made for easy running.
Overall team "Tri-Umphants" came in at 20th place out of 56 teams and for their category (mixed team) they came 11th from 31teams. A fantastic result and they now head to Cairns next weekend for the Ironman 70.3 triathlon. This is a much longer course but after todays results I'm sure they will once again be "Tri-Umphant"!