English
Its been a good couple of years from my last World Cup podium and Mooloolaba was the last place I thought it would be. I have been coming to Mooloolaba for the last eight years and have never had a great race but my luck has finally changed with a second place finish to Brad Kardifielt.
I changed scenery this year and stayed in the Hyatt Coolumn which was the most relaxing place I have ever been too in my whole life. Patrick Hardy how is a friend and Manager of the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove invited myself, Michelle, Bex and Jodie to stay with him and his lovely girlfriend Dee in Coolum. We had such a great time that I almost forgot I was racing. This has taught me a lot about myself and being relaxed is the number one thing to a great performance.
On race day I got down to the start around 1hr 30 min before. It was a sea swim and there was little surf. The gun went at 3pm. I’m so bad at wading and dolphin diving and this really showed as I was one of the last to the first buoy. Once I was around the first buoy it was time to start swimming. I made my way through the field and caught up to the leaders. After 800m I was close to the front and new it was time to relax and wait for the start of the bike.
Coming into the swim exit I missed the first wave and found myself off the lead group. Once onto the beach I had to sprint on the sand and bike my way to the lead pack. There were a couple of guys off the front but we had caught them by the end of the first lap. As soon as we caught them there was an attack and two of guys went up the road one of them being James Sear.
Onto the run James Sear had a 1min 30 sec lead. I got into transition first and ran out close too the front. Brad Kardifielt and Courtney Atkinson took the lead chasing James. For the first two laps of the run I was struggling but I found my legs on the third lap and attacked up the hill. Brad K was the only one that stayed with me and on the forth lap when we caught James Brad attacked and left me so I had to settle for second and james Sears was third.
It was a great day for me and the curse of Mooloolaba is finally over. I would like to say thank-you to Patrick Hardy and his girlfriend Dee for such a great weekend at the Hyatt in Coolum. My next race is in Sydney in two weeks time and then looking forward to my trip to Florida before I head back home to the UK for the summers race season