Busselton Half Ionman 2008

After quite an exhausting 10 hour trip I finally arrived in magnificent Busselton.

It had a good feel this sleepy little town and it definitely conjures up positive feelings from my past experiences being the scene of my first ever Ironman win and my half Ironman win in 2004.  

The next day Busselton seemed to have a buzz about it as all the athletes arrived, this race is growing in numbers every year and so it should because it simply rocks!

It really puts Busselton on the map, the locals are warm and friendly, and the course - well it's fast and furious! Even though it's flat and the roads are magical, don't be deceived, it's not as easy as it sounds. But one this is for certain, it's definitely a race to pull out a personal best time!!

Race morning I noticed it has been raining however it was not at all cold, there was hardly any wind, the rain held off and the sun looked here to stay. And here to stay it was, Busso churned out a blinder of a day with the warming sun and all blue skies, what more could we want!

After a false start (probably caused by Shorto or Mitch who seemed to be too busy laughing at Jason testing out the rescue board - quite ironic as he was going to need it not long after when the poor fella suffered an asthma attack) .... we were off!

Pro men and women started together and there is nothing better than beating men out of the water even if it was only two of them! 

I positioned myself well in the swim and came out of the water in the lead with Belinda Brooks. We had about a 30 sec lead over Lisa Marangon with Charlotte Paul another 2min 30 or so down.

On to my new fast PlanetX bike and I didn't look back, the bike was 3x30km laps. The first lap I felt a little chilly but by the second lap I began to warm up. By the last lap on the bike I felt good and pushed to the turn around, then backed off a little to try to salvage my legs a bit before the gruelling 21km run.

I learnt I had about 3 minutes over the next  female Lisa Marangon, with the others quite a way back. With only 2 weeks of running under my belt after an 8 week lay off, I knew this was going to be painfull!

The run was also 3 laps and you could basically see the 3.5 km turnaround tent from the Busso Jetty where we start the run lap. It seemed like an eternity to reach the turn on my first lap and my legs just didn't want to go! With the picturesque ocean on my left and some crazy spectators on my right, it kept my mind off the pain, every few hundred metres I got cheers from the friendly Busselton crowd!

I noticed on the second lap all the other girls were running well and Charlotte Paul was about 1.5km down so I thought I basically had it in the bag! Little did I know though that local girl Clare Goldsmith was absolutely flying and had almost gone under the radar as she began to close in on me!

I got to the end of the 2nd lap after 14km with 7km to go and only had 1min 30 sec lead over 2nd place.

I knew it was time to focus and really start to put the hammer down, so that's what I did!

I ran my last 7km as hard as I could and it was my quickest split - despite the lack of run training my legs actually felt ok. My breathing sounded like a steam train due to lack of fitness, but I still managed a 1hr 22min run which is only 2 min off my best. I finished 2min30 ahead of the next pro female and 9th overall in the Male pro's. I got the course record and was only 2 minutes off my personal best time!

Overall I was happy to get my first win of the year, after a flat tyre, a torn calf, and a second place to the current world 70.3 champ it was certainly nice to have a good hit out!

I am on track for Roth Ironman on July13th, and will be more than ready to have a good crack at sub 9 hours, which is definitely do-able!

Thanks to all my amazing sponsors, and the WA Tri Association and Phil Gregson for making my experience so memorable

Bek Keat