National Triathlon Champs - March 10

RACE DAY - Olympic Distance (1500m Swim/40km Bike/10km Run)

With all 3 of us competing today, getting the house up and going was not too bad. Alex isn't at 100% but still wants to race hard. The course should suit her cycling as she is quite a strong power cyclist, just like me. Hills are only friendly on the downhills. She is doing the 3:9:3 with her team mates and they should go really well.

Jane, doing the swim and bike, and has Laney Brent running for her. I better run hard so they don't catch me!

PERFECT CONDITIONS - Typical Wellington!!!!!! Dead flat water, virtually no wind to mention, clear sky. Magic day!

After gear set up, briefing etc, I tried finding the girls to wish them luck before I set off for race start. Too busy and I had to head to the water. Watched the first wave go, then into the water. Nothing is ever as cold as Vancouver 2008, so 14° water temp here not too bad!

• Swim - got away and got a few water polo tricks in to make some space! I had a good pace going, some decent drafting, not too much argy bargy and out of the water in and too the bike in about 23 minutes. On Pace
• T1 - not as slick as I would have liked but no disasters, but did struggle to get my feet on top of my shoes. Felt so unco as they kept lodging onto the ground, thank god they didn't come off.
• Bike - (hoping like hell it goes smoother than last week) instead of taking a couple of minutes to catch my breath as I have done in the past, I gunned it ASAP. Instead of aiming for 40km/h I tried to keep my speed at 42km/h +. I was cycling in a small group with some really good athletes, Kevin Nicholson, Rob Delimore and a few others. Tried to break up the group and tried oh so hard to not draft as I was feeling really good on the bike. Home in 62 min (41.6km) so where I hoped to be into T2. (8th fastest cycle of the day!!!)
• T2 - Fairly good, knew exactly where my bike needed to go, hardly any in transition. Shoes and hat, race belt and off.
• Run - Hit the timing mat ahead of much better runners than me so in a really good head space. Hopefully taking it easy last week works, plus a long run 6 days before today helps the body out. Keeping an eye on my pace with my watch, trying like anything to keep around 4 minute km's, watching all the legs of anyone coming past, dreading the M35's and not counting, no point. Heaps of cheering my the youth squad kids and parents which was great to have. Busting myself to keep ahead of good mate and rival Matty Berg and with about 400m to go, he creeps past me. Bugger, but good for him as he's going really well too. Home with a sub 43 minute run which is great for me off the bike. Fastest 10km for me with a finishing time of 2:09:27 PB and 2 minutes faster than last year, with a slightly longer bike so feeling great. Now wait and see what the results show, Fingers crossed.

Congratulated Matt on his race, 6 minutes faster than last year. Great effort by Matt.

Went and watched the 3:9:3 and support others still racing. Our girls racing all did great. We had a 2nd in 3:9:3, 2nd in Future TriStars, 1st in Teams (Alex's team) and everyone else finished in the top 10 overall out of some 80 competitors. So we had a great day. Jane's team got 2nd in the Standard Distance race so very good result too!

Went to watch the Teams challenge which was great action and fun. We had to shoot our bikes and gear home so we could dismantle the racks and get them to the Tri Club Rooms, and off to Roll down/prize giving. Matt and myself waited for any kind of sniff at qualifying, but alas no go. 15th and 16th doesn't cut the mustard to qualify. Just too many non qualifiers raced today that went faster. What a bummer! Oh well still proud of my race, less than 10 minutes behind the winner of our AG and 2 minutes faster than last year, which got me a bronze.

So left a little deflated, but still feeling pretty good. All I can do now is wait for a discretionary spot.

Had pizza for dinner with my girls and will have to gauge my moods to keep an eye on my depression over the next little bit too. Still had a great day racing.