On Sunday 19th August we headed up to Lake Tinaroo for the first race of my season. The Cairns Crocs Triathlon Club Sprint Distance consisted of a 750m swim, 20km cycle, and 5km run.

The air temperature was a chilly 17c and water temperature 21c, and a chesty cough which I’d had for over a week leading into the race made it very hard to breathe in the swim leg which put me 2m:40s behind the leaders out onto the bike course.

The bike course was a two laps of 10km out and back with nothing but hills. After 10 kilometres I had cut back 30 seconds from the leaders and had made up several positions.

After the 15km turnaround mark I attacked and made up three positions within 500 metres on a downhill before my chain derailed and I lost all momentum and rolled to a halt and the bottom of the biggest hill climb on the circuit, dropping back to 11th position.

From there I knew the race was lost but was determined to fight back for third place.

A quick transition from bike to run made up a couple of places, then I managed to hold a 3m:30s/km pace for the first two kilometres of the run before I eased off and comfortably moved up into third place by the three kilometre mark.

The last two kilometres weren’t going to be enough distance to catch the leaders so I cruised through for third place finishing three minutes behind the winner.

Next up is Tri-Port Half Iron Distance on 1 September in Port Douglas. The longer distance will suit me better and will be a good chance to see how far off the professional triathletes I am.