Race Report Gatorade Active Feet Race 3 Elwood

You know it’s going to be a good day when you wake up before dawn and you can’t hear rain on the roof, or wind blowing at your window. So thanks to Melbourne for putting on a great day for Race 3 of the Gatorade Series at Elwood. Sunday saw us re-trace our steps at Elwood in an attempt to better ourselves and clock up a PB or work on weaknesses as we hit the half way point of the Gatorade/Active Feet Series. This race also doubled as the first race of the Gatorade Triathlon Triple Crown. We had our biggest showing of Short Course Athletes racing, and a few of our Geelong Long Course athletes having a hit out also to sharpen up before their race in a few weeks. Well done to everyone who raced, those who came along and supported and helped out marshaling – it is always very much appreciated!

Crunching the numbers

• 56 athletes raced the Gatorade race and 2 in Active Feet, with:
• 4 podium finishers
• 2 4th place getters to just miss podium honors
• 5 5th place getters to be so close to getting themselves on the podium,
• 7 more athletes to round out top 10 places

• Overall Times: Our fastest male X-Man (Xavier Flynn) continues to show what hard work and determination can get you, with another great showing clocking his fastest time for the season so far in 1:01:16. That elusive 1hour barrier is not far off. And Sarah continued to show her strengths clocking the fastest age group female overall.
• Swim: Charlie Nathan came out and smashed his first race post Canberra and came away with the fastest TA swim time in 8:41 with Peter Tucker close behind and Daniel Kelly, Xavier Flynn and Brad Campbell all having solid swim times.  And the girls put on a good showing with Kathryn Siddle getting off to a great start in the swim and Brittany Carver keeping her consistent swim times going.
• T1&T2: Chris Ormston takes out the mantel of fastest T1&T2 times combined in a very slick 2:03, only seconds behind was Sarah and Xavier.
  There were a number of athletes rolling out the blanket and having a little picnic in transition though, with precious seconds (and minutes!) lost. This proving that transition training pays big dividends. So if your combined time was more than around 2:30min – time to get to transition training STARTING THIS SATURDAY!
• Bike: The pointy end was pointy this week, with great conditions on the bike, Xavier, Carlie, Geoff Taylor, Jeff Souter, Bart and Nathan Fay all averaging 36km/hr or faster. Sarah had a blinder to set herself up for a win in her new GIANT Trinity Composite, and Nat Methven had a tidy ride if it wasn’t for getting penalised for passing on the left. (Rookie mistake!)
• Run: There was no stopping Xavier on the run clocking another sub 18min run, and Geoff Taylor, Peter Tucker and Sarah Grove all coming in under 20min. Some fast running in the top end.

The Place Getters

• Geoff Taylor – 1st  M55-59
• Sarah Grove – 1st F30-34
• Mary Leahy – 3rd F55-59
• Brianna Laugher – 3rd AthenaJust missing out in 4th were:
• Brad Campbell, Dale RobinsonNot far off the pace for top 10 finishes:
• Carly Marsh, Pru Joss, Emily Hosken, Caroline Houston, Tania Darvell, Belinda Griffiths, Charlie Nathan, Kathryn Siddle, Xavier Flynn, Michelle Grocock, Shane McCormack, Tracey Linguey, Brittnay Carver.

The movers and shakers!

With Race 3 the same course/venue as race 2 it allowed athletes to test themselves against their previous times and we had some massive improvements from athletes. Granted the weather was kinder this race, but no-less we had some big improvements. Big PB’s from last week include:

• Sonia Gregoul a slick 10min faster!
• Caroline Houston 8min PB
•  Stephen Drake taking 6.5min off
• Michelle Grocock, Tom Rushby, John Watts and Tania Darvell all coming in 5-6 minutes faster this race
• Anne-Marie Cooke having a great one and posting a 4min PB
• Emily Hosken and Dom Keating taking 3+min off their times also

Noteable mentions

• Meg on racing her last race with us before she packs up and moves across to the West to study dentistry – we’ll miss you Meg and know you will be back. 🙂
• Tim Grant for surviving a fall on the bike in fashionable style.
• Nath Methven having ‘words’ with a TO on the bike who penalised her for passing on the left – only to turn around and discover it was fellow athlete Sarah Lausberg with her TO hat on. (No favours if you do the wrong thing!)
• Another lesson learnt by Nat is that when penalised you have to stop in the penalty box and serve out your penalty. Failure to do so will land you with a DQ!
• An un-named athlete has been learning from Coach Greg when he proceeded out on the run with his helmet still on. Needless to say his T2 time was a little slow as he sheepishly ran back to his bike to toss his helmet back in.
• Our Long Course athletes can still mix it with the Short Course Sprinters, with Chris Ormston, Charlie Nathan and Sarah having great races after clocking up 130-150km in and around Kinglake the day before.
• Lidia and daughter Jas, Lisa Mac and Sheridan Brown for helping out marshaling and at the same time earned themselves a free spot in the last race of the series (apologies if I missed anyone…)
• Lisa Mac for again showing up trumps and putting the chefs hat on for the BBQ to feed our hungry athletes post race.
• Our fantastic partners Lakeside Sports Medicine Centre – particularly Tara, Kara and Kane this week for working their magic on our athletes with pre and post race massages.

CLICK HERE to check out our full team results. And remember – if you are not in our results then you do not have Tri Alliance as your squad name in your SuperSprint Profile – make sure you login and add this to your profile. Full results from the race can be found HERE.

CLICK HERE to view our facebook photo album from the race, our Post race drinks and farewell to Meg Takiguchi.

Next Race: Race 4 Sunday 3 February, Sandringham (including Olympic Distance)