FAREWELL SEASON 2013/14 By Club Coach Andrew Rowlings As another season of club racing draw to a close, it is an opportune time to look back at the local season that was, but also begin to set some off-season goals to ensure that 2014-2015 can be a rewarding one. With our last club race conducted on Sunday many competitors elect to switch things off and regenerate over the cooler months, while others take the opportunity to work on the technical aspects of their weakest discipline. Take the time to browse through the race results for the season on the club website, and determine whether there has been gradual improvement in each individual aspect of your racing.
Has your run got faster? Is your bike split quicker than six months ago? Have you placed higher in the swim rankings as the season progressed? These observations will give you an idea where you should spend your winter training focus... working on that area that has shown little or no advancement as the season progressed. Although last Sunday’s race was a final hitout for many, those names at the front of the pack still have events on their racing calendar. Leighton Rogan led the pack home, and looks in good shape for Honu 70.3 in just over a month. Hot on his heels was Joel Harrigan, who will head to Port Ironman this Sunday to make his debut over this distance. Eddie Harrod showed good late-season speed to take third position on the podium. With Cairns Ironman only six weeks away, Lyndal Green’s distance schedule has not impaired her short course speed, heading the ladies home from Michelle Randall and a constantly improving Emily Malouf. Jake Golding, Ed Brazier, Paul Herring, Judy Chesney and Craig Allen all looked comfortable and finished their season on a high note. In the short course, Sam Burke headed Matthew Marsden in the battle for line honours. Although the racing may have concluded locally, don’t draw the curtain on the season just yet: it’s only a couple of weeks until the annual presentation night with special guest, multiple world champion Craig Alexander. SATURDAY SOCIAL RUN It's that time of year again where a lot of us hang up the bike for a few months and start using the running shoes more frequently. There are a lot of running races around the area in the next few months including away races like Gold Coast and Macleay valley runs, as well as the local cross country series. Lots of local athletes will make the trip south and north to compete in 10km, 21km and 42km races. One of the most important sessions in your weekly running program is a long aerobic run. Every Saturday morning at 8am from the car park adjacent to Coffs Harbour Olympic pool you have the opportunity to join a group of runners of all different standards and paces. The training session will be 90 minute run all done easy. It will be 45mins in one direction turning around and running back to the starting point picking up runners on the way back so everyone should finish together. This is not a running race, it's a training session for anyone who wants to start their Saturday morning off with a run. Hoping to have a lot of small groups of runners so you can chat and run to make it a social outing as well, so if you have a running partner bring them along. If 90mins is too far then there is nothing wrong with turning around earlier and making it shorter. The course will be around the creek walk which everyone is familiar with, with the option in the future of perhaps moving around to a few different locations. Remember this is a training session and not a race, hoping to be very social as well, so let all your running buddies know about the run. This is a free group outing, not a supervised training session, which will hopefully attract a varied range of abilities who all enjoy kicking off their weekend with some exercise. If interested, be there at 8am from next Saturday. CHTC AGM The Coffs Harbour Triathlon Club Inc. will hold the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 4th June at 700pm. The venue will be downstairs at the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club. All positions are vacant. Any expressions of interest for positions or nominations can be forwarded to Margaret Gill (Secretary) prior to that date. Send them to [email protected]. WOOPI TRI Expressions of interest for the organising and running of the Woopi Tri Festival are sought. After 10 years, Leeann Lloyd is stepping away from the running of the Woopi Tri Festival. The date has been set for this year’s race, so it is imperative to get the ball rolling ASAP. The framework is in place, but don't be fooled as Woopi Tri may not be the biggest event in the area, but the same amount of work goes into it. The Woopi Tri committee would be very available to assist with future events, however, not in an official capacity. There is need for a race director, sanctioning officer, volunteer coordinator, sponsor liaison officer and others. Please contact Leeann Lloyd on 0416336524for a chat if you are interested. And on behalf of CHTC I would like to extend our thanks and appreciation for all the hard work Leeann has put into the Woopi Tri over the years. Leeann has worked tirelessly to organise this staple on our race calendar and no doubt she will be missed. Thanks Leeann from all of us at CHTC. Not just for Woopi Tri but also all the other voluntary work you do in our community. RULE OF THE WEEK Continuing on the penalties rules, this week’s rule covers the two different types of penalties. NB: the “Appendix B” mentioned below will be featured in a future newsletter. But you can always read the rules at http://www.triathlon.org.au/Technical/Race_Competition_Rules.htm. Rule 6 - PENALTIES 6.4 Stop–Start Penalty This is a penalty for an infringement, which is served with a Technical Official either near where the infringement occurred, in a safe location on the course or in the first available Penalty Box. This penalty requires the display of a Yellow Card by a Technical Official. Appendix B lists examples of stop-start penalty infringements. 6.5 Time Penalty This is a time penalty for an infringement, served with a Technical Official in a Penalty Box. This penalty requires the Technical Official and the competitor to follow the instructions detailed in point 6.2. Appendix B lists examples of time penalty infringements. Paratriathlon type events: For infringements incurred on the run a 15 second penalty is applied and is served in the penalty box. THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL MARATHON By Andrew Pitzen & Joe Kane Months and months ago when we decided on our holiday to compete in Ironman South Africa we thought it would be a great idea to back it up with an Ultra Marathon two weeks later. Whilst Joey had completed 1 Ultra before and Pito never longer than 42km, we thought our combined fitness and determination would get us through. After two awesome weeks travelling along the Garden Route of South Africa sampling just about every beverage we could get our hands on, we thought why not give it a go. The Two Oceans Marathon is held in Cape Town and claims to be the most beautiful course in the world. The event is probably the biggest running festival in Africa with close to 28,000 people registered in numerous distances. On Good Friday morning our travelling party had all registered for the International Friendship Run. This involved 5km running around the V & A Waterfront and stadium. Participants were encouraged to dress up in their country colours and make friends along the way. Joey flew the flag for the British Virgin Islands and Chris flew the flag for Ecuador. Chris and Bernie (Joey’s parents) had the flashiest shoes out there, sporting top of the line Nike Air Knits! The run was fun and a great little event. In the afternoon we all headed out to Robben Island to check out the political prison that has had some famous inmates over the last 300 years, including the former South African leader Nelson Mandela for 18 years. We awoke to strong winds on Easter Saturday for the Ultra. An early start saw us up having breakfast at 4:30am - a rude awakening after two weeks of late night drinks and long sleep-ins. The Kane family eagerly drove us to the start next to the famous Newlands Stadium. What greeted us soon gave us goosebumps and shook out any slumber, as close to 30 000 people all from different backgrounds were busting at the bit to hit the start line. The SA anthem preceded the start and was sung loud and proud by the majority of the runners, followed by the traditional cannon blast to get the heart racing. The Half started 30 minutes earlier but due to the numbers of people they were still crossing the start line when we took off at 6 30 am. After a brief stop at the 0.5km mark at a local KFC to get rid of some excessive baggage, we were off. Treating this race as just for fun was something we both haven't done over the last couple of seasons as all races have had a purpose leading to something bigger. It is great to just turn up and run at any pace that suits how you are feeling and make friends along the way. The scenery in the first 15km were nothing to report, but the atmosphere of the participants was amazing with such a variety of cultures and running costumes. The overpowering silhouette of Table Mountain greeted us on every turn. We soon left the city and headed towards the coastal towns of Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek located on the Indian Ocean. People had warned us that the first 28km are flat and the real race begins in the mountains. We had increased the pace and were running along at about 5:45 pace when we came through a town and some lady on the side line yelled out “welcome to the mountains”. The race was about to begin for us. We were greeted with a sheer cliff dropping into the Atlantic Ocean on our left hand side and a sheer cliff on the right hand side of the Table Mountain National Park. It really is the world’s most beautiful marathon. We were flying up Champans Peak, which is 4km of climbing, and passing everyone in our stride. To look around the blind corners and see thousands of people in front and behind, as well as the most beautiful water we both had ever seen was inspiring. We hit the top to the sounds of African drums and a big band to start the long descent into Hout Bay. It was about this time that we realised we had overcooked ourselves with about 24 kms to go, it was going to be a day of survival with still the biggest climb of the day to come. A pleasant surprise of being greeted by our travelling party in Hout Bay really helped us along. A quick kiss and cuddle followed by some words of encouragement kept us plugging along for the next k or two. We were hurting like we had never before drawing off each to keep the legs ticking over. We knew it was going to be tough but probably a lot harder than we thought. The uphills were manageable, but the downhills put so much pressure on already inflamed knees and blackened toenails from the Ironman the previous fortnight. The locals helped us get over Constantia Neck, as by this stage we needed to do a fair bit of walking. We had both reached new territory in the terms of distance covered and were wondering how the hell so many people were training for the Comrades Marathon. This Comrades Marathon is 87km and the week before we had decided to put on our bucket list. At this stage it was off the list. The last 6km into the finish felt like hell but we met so many awe-inspiring people who were also hanging into the end. We were hurting in so many spots but we had such a great day. We had talked to people from all over Africa and the world and seen some of the most beautiful coastline cliffs in the world. We crossed the line together as we had started this journey over six months ago together and knocked another event of the ever increasing bucket list. The Two Oceans Marathon is definitely an event we would recommend to anyone. Not only do you see natural beauty, you run through the contrasts of the African continent with the rich and poor experienced over the journey. The culture of the people competing as well as the spectators is also too hard to explain without experiencing the event first hand. The travelling party all went their separate ways after Easter. Joey’s parents headed off into Botswana on Safari and then flew north to Europe then back to Coffs via the USA. Joey and Sian had another few days in Cape Town and have now headed off to Botswana for a quick little Safari into the Okavango Delta before heading back to Coffs at the end of the month. Pito, Jac and Katrina will continue their round the world adventure in Africa for the next 3 months, then into Europe returning home in March 2015. Cheers Pito and Joey. CLUB PRESENTATION & GALA EVENING And in case you’re not aware, the finale for the 2013/14 triathlon season was not on Sunday, but is yet to be held. Our Presentation & Gala Evening is looking to be a fantastic night, with an incredible guest speaker, great food, great company and loads of fun.
CHTC CLASSIFIEDS Sean Golding has an Infiniti MX850 commercial treadmill for sale. RRP $4500, selling for $2000. Contact Sean on 0418 666 196 if you are interested. ONES FOR THE CALENDAR
http://ap.ironman.com/triathlon/events/asiapac/ironman-70.3/busselton.aspx#axzz2wINkmBe4
http://ap.ironman.com/triathlon/events/asiapac/ironman/australia.aspx#axzz2wINkmBe4
http://www.byronbayoceanswimclassic.com.au/
http://www.byronbaytri.com.au/
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman-70.3/hawaii.aspx#axzz2zT1xZy6B
http://ap.ironman.com/triathlon/events/asiapac/5150/coral-coast.aspx#axzz2wrlL5hfy
http://trialbaytri.com.au/macleay-marathon/
http://ap.ironman.com/triathlon/events/asiapac/ironman/cairns.aspx#axzz2wrlL5hfy
http://www.townsvilletrifestival.org.au/
http://www.challenge-goldcoast.com.au/ WISE WORDS "1. Stress improvement, not perfection (or winning). 2. Don't take yourself too seriously; laugh at yourself and have fun. 3. Set attainable goals; reach them and then set higher ones. 4. Be positive, walk tall, smile often, don't complain or procrastinate. 5. Prepare purposely, but don't overtrain. 6. Remember- Sports is a game and meant to be enjoyable." - Dick Gould, Stanford Tennis
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