Geelong Multi-sports Festival Results and Race Report

The popular Geelong Multi-sports Festival was out to impress and so were our athletes out on course. With our new Tri Alliance race gear now in full circulation, it was a pleasure cheering from the sidelines and watching athletes in full TA Gear. Plus it makes it so much easier to spot out – nothing worse as a ‘cheerleader’ when the athlete themselves have to shout out to you as they ride/run past. Just ask Jussie! 🙂 

Saturday morning we had a great crew already in Geelong for a course familiarisation and pre race session. Was a little eye opener for some as they were surprised on how technical and even a little tough the course was going to be. But none the less everyone was feeling great and ready to race on Sunday.

Three athletes were preparing for the race in a different way on Saturday though as Nick Sissons, Lidia Ursini and Ellie Stubbs had the roles as Lead Cyclists for the races on Sunday. Some last minute changes were made though when they discovered their ‘lead bikes’ were to be the Melbourne Bike Share Bikes. They discovered it was going to be tough going hauling a 15-20kg bike up the hills of the run course – and ensuring the lead runners don’t pass you. So sticking with the theme ‘never try something new on race day’ they converted to an old trusty bike to see them through. Well done guys, from all reports you did an awesome job and enjoyed the chance to partake in the event in a different way.

Saturday night we had a large group dinner with 40odd athletes enjoying a feed with great company. Most interesting food of choice was a chicken curry – not what the Coach recommends before a race! 🙂

Sunday – early as usual to get up and prepare for the race ahead. Some athletes were caught out though as a last minute change to wave start times. But luckily we didn’t hear of any of our athletes miss their swim start – that or they wern’t game enough to tell us. So a good start to the day!

We had a number of athletes who made the trek down to Geelong specifically to cheer on their fellow athletes including Tri Alliance Ambassadors Lisa MacFarlane and Andy Wood-Rich, Cath Capan, Brett Archbold and Brianna Laugher to name a few. Thanks guys – your support on the sidelines is always welcomed!

LONG COURSE WRAP UP
First up on course were our Long Course athletes – in for a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and finishing with a 21.1km half marathon. Of our 33 athletes who raced the distance 23 of them used it for a prep for Melbourne, Port MacQuarie or Cairns Ironman. We had some fantastic results across the board from our Half Ironman Athletes and pleasing results for everyone who used the race as an Ironman lead in.

Well done to our first time Half Ironman athletes Pam ‘Tooper’ Tunas and Andrew Livingtone and Martin Sammut who are both also leading into their first Ironman in Melbourne. Well done guys – super efforts!

Shout out to our athletes in teams in the Long Course including Emma Donati, Rob Scapin, Tania Darvell and great to see Kristine Banks-Smith in the action too!

Key things learnt from the race:

• Preparation is key – be organised, check and recheck your gear
• Don’t rely on course nutrition, it may not work for you OR there may not be any!
• Hydration and nutrition is key – consuming enough of the right thing at the right time can greatly improve your race result. Too much, too soon or too late and it can be disastrous.
• If you need to go to the toilet. Just go. Nothing worse than ‘holding on’ and having to go later down the track anyway!
• Keep your eyes on the road Rhonda – unfortunately Sheridan and Jamie had unfortunate accidents during the early part of their races which finished with a DNF. Luckily for Sheridan only minor injuries. Jamie fared a lot worse though with a broken collar bone. Best wishes on their recovery.

Click here for Tri Alliance Athlete results from the Geelong Long Course Event

OLYMPIC DISTANCE WRAP UP
Next were our Olympic Distance athletes – with athletes racing at the top end and vying for podiums, first time Olympic Distance, those searching for PB’s and others simply out there to enjoy the course and what this sport has to offer. We had 23 athletes cover the distance, with 6 podiums and a further 6 top 10 place getters. Not a bad effort at all!

Podiums:

• Lisa Dominquez – 1st F30-34
• Geoff Taylor – 2nd M55-59
• Paul Rafferty – 3rd Mates category
• Gordon Spargo – 3rd M60-64
• Jill Sultan – 3rd F50-54
• Jo Stavrou – 3rd Athenas

Just missing out:

• Ryan Bourke – 4th Open male
• Nola MacGregor – 4th Athenas

Performances of the day:

• Ryan Bourke – fastest open male bike split
• Xavier Flynn – on cotinuing his great season and pulling out a 2:11
• Mark Skilton – not far behind in 2:13 for a PB
• Peter Tucker – very solid race literally only seconds behind Mark
• Shane Buntman – on the last minute decision to race and hitting a 2:21
• Natalie Methven – not the best pre race pre on the drink all night, but shows that sometimes it can work! 🙂
• Partners Kristine Hopkins and Greg Sullivan looking awesome in their new kit!
• Jo Stavrou – for her awesome enthusiasm, PB AND landing on the podium all on the same day.

Click here for Tri Alliance Athlete Results from the Geelong Olympic Distance Race

Read what our athletes had to say about their races:

• Nick Sissons PB for the run leg, but apparently it doesn’t count if you only do it on the bike! Well done everyone!
• Pam Tunas Finished my first 70.3! Bike time surprised me : was expecting 3.45 hrs and finished of with 3.23 hrs and was still able to run after that !
• Brianna Scarlett I was hoping the training and race / nutrition plan would come together and give me a sub 5:30 for the first time in a half Ironman, thinking a 5:20 would be awesome! I was stoked to look at the clock as I crossed that line and see I’d pulled out a 5:17. a PB by 23mins, there was even a little tear of joy i’ll admit! great work by all out there today.. now for bed!
• Tracey Elizabeth Linguey Second OD. PB by 13 mins. Very happy but that run hurt…

• Simon Gronow 2nd OD, new PB, took 10 mins off my Noosa time, can’t stop smiling about that.
• Peter Rainey Is a 25min for the 1.9km something to brag about?
• Natalie Methven Had the s@&*s with triathlon the last few weeks so wanted to race today to rekindle the tri-romance. Just cruised through and loved it – just checked my time and PB by 8 mins. Just what the doctor ordered – cant wait to smash the next couple of races out! Awesome day, some pretty special results and great team support. Good job TA!
• Evalin Ling 2nd Half Ironman. 6:01 – what was I doing for 1min? Prob slowed down for too long so that Lisa Mac could take a photo of me at the turn around point! 15min PB.
• John Watts Well done team TA – next year I will be there, next year!