"Las Triple Triathlon"

So our brave and gallant team of three boys had a cracking day of racing at the Sri Chinmoy Triple Tri in Canberra.

What the hell is the Triple Tri? It is a 9-leg beast of a race that demands the utmost respect!

It is three off-road triathlons back to back, in various distance (think about it as a big relay). It makes a loop around Canberra, hitting every lake, every mountain and nearly every bike path. We start in the pond-like Lake Ginnindera and end up at Yarrumlumla at the Sailing Club. It adds up to around 6km of swimming, 100km of mountain bike riding and 45km of running.

It is a beautiful, brutal race.

You can have 9 people doing it, with one taking each leg, or you can do it solo or anywhere in between. We decided to do it as a team of three. A triathlon relay. Team HMAS Friendship.

The line-up was as follows:

Tommy Brazier: The gun runner, Tom has honed his skills doing 100km races and was worried that this one would be too short. We gave him the first two runs to destroy himself, so he could relax and let poor old Murray do the last one.

Ed Hall: Big E was an unknown quantity because he had made the smart decision to ditch mountain biking for the world of road cycling, but we had faith that he would get the job done. He would do all the bike legs, a very solid day out.

And of course, there was me. I had hesitantly volunteered to do all of the swimming legs, as well as the last run! My cycling crash three weeks before had left me with a less then ideal preparation but I thought I could gut through the swims without letting anyone down.

We spent the night before the race gorging on pesto pasta and sweet potato, talking smack and working out logistics for the big day on Sunday.

We knew that there was another team of 3 who would give us some serious competition throughout the day. They were seasoned veterans of the race and were very strong athletes. I was more worried about them then Tom and Ed, because I knew their swimmer was better then me. We would soon see by how much.

I was staying away from the boys in the house of Tom's mum, who had kindly given me a bed. The day began at 5am, as I prepared for the first 1.5km swim that would start us off.

So it was that I found myself in the scummy Lake Ginnindera at 6am, watching duck poo drifting past me and trying not to think ahead to the 3.5km swim that awaited me later in the day.

I did my usual, excitable sprint at the start and found myself leading the field, not the smartest beginning to a 9hour plus day of racing.

I dropped into a pack of 4 swimmers and while I slowly slid off the back of them, I was within 40 seconds of the leader, giving Ed a good crack at our rivals.

When not competing or eating, the day is taken up by driving to the next checkpoint to hand over for the next leg. So Tom and I made our way up to Antill St, below Mt Majura, where Tom would begin his first and longest run at just under 20km.

Ed came screaming into the transition, just behind our rivals, having taken a wrong turn on the course (it happens).

Tom then proceeded to annihilate the entire field on the Ainslie/Majura run and posted the fastest split of the day (a hugely impressive effort considering that the majority of racers were only doing one leg, or one run).

This gave me a couple of minutes lead over our competition for the start of the 3.5km monster swim in Lake Burley G.

We started behind King's Bridge and swam down the middle of the lake, under Comm Bridge and into Acton Ferry Terminal.

It is a long, hard slog of a swim. As soon as your arm enters the water you lose sight of it in the murky, dirty depths. Visibility was at a range of about 5 to 10cm.

Luckily we had a little bit of a tailwind, so I cruised down the lake. When I occasionally flipped over to do some backstroke I could see the orange cap of our competition, slowly but surely gaining on me (he would take 2 and a half minutes off me in this swim). I could also see my kayaking escort, who I would say hello to every time I did backstroke. He said nothing back. It was a long swim.

With about 400m to go I was over-run by my rival but, tactical genius that I am, I cut across and sat on his feet for as long as I could.

So halfway through the race we were neck and neck and we knew it would be very tight. (there were two teams of 9 in front of us, with some pro-triathletes and Martin Dent, enough said).

Big E gave us a little lead for his second ride and then Tom, being the backbone of the team, proceeded to put another 3 minutes into them, running up and over Mt Taylor into Tuggeranong.

I was looking forward to finishing my swimming with the last leg looming but that was short lived because it was now in a 25m pool (due to the water quality of Lake Tuggers). It would be a lot of tumble turns with a run in the middle as you had to get out and run to the end of the pool to start again (3 x 400m loops of the pool, ducking in and out of each lane).

Luckily, I am nearly 2m tall, so because I could push off the wall each time so I only swam about 15m a lap. Perfect.

The pool temp was about 30degrees, so I was feeling pretty drained at the end, but we had our 2 and a half minute lead still intact and only 2 legs to go.

And so this is where things got tactical. I was feeling fresh (relatively fresh, after 6km of swimming) so I would do the final, 13km run over Red Hill. Tom had smashed himself knowing he only had to do 2 runs, so we put our plan into action.

So it would come down to the final leg. Did I feel better after 6km of swimming than their runner who had done nearly 30km of tough trails?

Ed came in with that crucial 2 and a half minute gap and I took off, up and over Red Hill!

I felt amazing, and my splits started at 5:00 per km as I climbed over Red Hill and got down to around 3:40 in the first couple of flat km's, but that's when the day caught up to me and I started to fall to pieces.

I began to cramp in both arms. Arms! WTF, who cramps in their arms when they are running. And my toes.

I had to rein it back a little, otherwise I would have been in real trouble. This wasn't helped when our rival teams swimmer and cyclist started waiting for both of us at certain points along the course and providing splits and updates.

Finally, after 9 hours and 8 minutes of racing (something like that), we finished.

The tactic had worked, as I put over 6 minutes into their poor, tired runner.

We won our division, and come third overall. Beating teams with up to 9 members in them.

It really is a fantastic race. It is lonely too, because we were out in front the whole day, we rarely saw any other teams because the field gets strung out by hours.

Race Report – 2015 Sri Chinmoy Triple Triathlon

The Sri Chinmoy triple triathlon first captivated my imagination in 2009 when my now wife Amy and I first entered it as a team with our friend Scott. It showed me trails and views I never knew existed in Canberra despite having lived here for 4 years at that point. The atmosphere, the people, the course, everything about this ultimate challenge was amazing and left me wanting to do it again.

Coming into 2015 I had now done the event 3 times as a team, and in 2011 had my first attempt at the race solo. I had the race I had dreamed of and with the support of Ian, Dave and Marty not only finished the race but was the first solo in a time of 11:56:23. Since that race I had been itching for the opportunity to do it again – in 2013 I was living in Darwin and could not make it down, and in 2014 the race was cancelled due to the risk of bushfires.

Life had also changed heaps since 2011, I was a dad now and my time to train was really limited. So coming into this years race I had a real mix of excitement at the opportunity to compete again, but lots of questions as to how the race would go. I really wanted to prove to myself that the result I had in 2011 wasn’t a one off and that I could maybe go quicker 4 years on despite my compressed training time.

Training wise I had really good consistency, just the volume was lower than what I would consider ideal. I focused on getting lots of hill work in as there aren’t too many flat sections. Due to time and having a good base already in swimming I didn’t get in the pool that much in the lead up (max twice a week), but aimed to do heaps of body weight upper body strength work. My longest run in the build up was 32 km. About 3 months before the race I did a fundraiser everesting Mt Ainslie on my bike, I think I tapered for the coming 3 months following 200 km and 8890 m climbing!

Coming to the week before the race I focused on being as prepared as possible – planning out with my support team my entire race. Every detail, how many calories when, from what source, different plans for hydration dependant on the weather, gear options and points to meet me and boost my morale. Nutrition is such a critical part of endurance sport, and my plan centred around using predominantly liquid nutrition – from Infinit Nutrition Australia which simplified things massively. Together with the team at Infinit I had come up with my electrolyte drink of choice which is high in carbs, and electrolytes, as I am a big guy and sweat heavily. In addition to this I made some vegan raw food bars which would allow me to chew something during the 12 hour race!

Race morning as always was super early, up at 4 to get a good breakfast of oats, soy milk, apple, banana and chia seeds and do a last minute check of everything. Driving out to the start with my support team of Amy my wife, Daina my sister in law and friend John I was the usual mix of nerves and excitement. I love that feeling – it means you really care about what you are about to do. It was meant to be- the perfect day weather wise – mid twenties and not much wind. I took plenty of care before the start to use sudocreme to prevent any chaffing making the day really uncomfortable, a bottle of infinit and a shot of beetroot to make sure I was as fuelled up as possible.

Then it was time to race! It was rather fresh in the water with the other solo competitors at the start, including friend and training buddy Wes Fraser who was doing it solo for his first time. Once we began, I got into a good rhythm in the first swim, and was ahead out of the water into the first transition. The first transition was a little chaotic! I sat in the deck chair whilst Amy and John ripped my wetsuit off and put my gloves, socks and shoes on.

I took off on the bike, just trying to keep things under wraps and not get excited too early. It was fresh on the first ride, but I wore a wind vest along with arm warmers, which was perfect. I really enjoy the first ride, the section around Aranda, Black Mountain and Bruce, still, peaceful and great views as the sun rises and the air is still crisp. I came into the next transition feeling good, and excited for the first run. This transition was super smooth, and in no time was off up Mount Majura. It was so cool the buzz in transition as all the teams were waiting for their riders to come in, the sun was warm and the encouragement was a massive boost.

I knew at some point on this run I would be overtaken by the first team runners, and was hoping this would be towards the top of Mt Majura, a bit later than last time I raced. But as I was about halfway up Craig Benson came screaming past. I tried to just focus on my race, and not get down because I thought I was going slower than last time (I wasn’t racing with a watch, just going off feel). The section through the single track in Majura Pines is always such a highlight. The soft light through the trees and smell of pine needles a really nice juxtaposition with the more rugged Australian bush which most the course highlights.

Heading into the main climb of Mt Ainslie I was feeling slightly more fatigued than I was hoping but this was nicely balanced by the boost I got from the team runners coming past at regular intervals. Up top my team were there cheering me on which was really cool, and I happily got into the descent knowing the hard work was over for a while. I was really happy with my shoe choice for this race – a set of Altra Instinct’s, super comfortable with heaps of cushioning for the descents and bike path sections of the course.

Coming into the next transition I was pretty warm and looking forward to getting into the lake for a cool off and change of pace. I decided against a wetsuit, as the hassle of getting into a wet one for this leg definitely outweighed the efficiency gains I would get from it. The first 1 km of the swim was pure bliss, really good rhythm, really nice cool down. But the cool down unfortunately continued and I got really cold by the end of it. This combined with having consumed 0 calories in the 55 minute swim meant I was stumbling out of the water and onto my bike. Will definitely eat something in the middle of this swim next time, and investigate maybe a speed suit or something to keep just a bit warmer.

The next ride I got back into a good groove after the first 5 km on bike path. It was really cool, going across the arboretum and out through Coppins crossing I was trying to stay with Cristy Henderson as she came past. I was a bit quicker on the flats (aero bars on a mountain bike work on this course!) but she put plenty into me on the climbs. The problem was, because I had been cold and hungry getting out from the swim I then didn’t stick to my plan on this leg, and consumed double the calories I had planned to.

Getting off the bike and starting to run up Taylor I was not in the happiest place, I felt like I was going to throw up, was heavy and tired in the heat. I took my only walk of the race up the super steep fire road, walking backwards for a bit, sideways for a bit, just trying to take the load off different muscles. It was feeling like a really long day when I reached the top of Mt Taylor. Fortunately I realised that I had overeaten so just had water on this leg, and by the time I got to Tuggeranong pool for the final swim my stomach had come good. I knew I would have lost a heap of time on that run and that second place was uncomfortably close.

It was a pool swim due to the closure of Lake Tuggeranong due to algae. Jumping in was such a relief to be off my feet, however the pool was boiling hot! It was good actually having the pool swim though because it allowed me to see Warren who was in second place, which was a good jolt.

This combined with my stomach being back to normal meant I hit the final bike leg with the most energy I had all day. The 2 no dose (first caffeine of the day) also helped that. I felt great, and stuck with a couple of team riders that came past me heading up to Wanniasa Trig and loved the flowing fire road of Isaac’s ridge in the mid afternoon heat. The tunnel to finish the ride is never fun when you are 6’5” and its really disorienting when you are fatigued from having raced for over 10 hours already.

I burst out of the tunnel and was ready to hit the last run hard(ish). Another smooth transition with not much time sitting down and then I was off up Red Hill, the last climbing of the day. Coming down and onto the bike path in Curtin I felt much better than 2011, I think because my stomach had forced me to hold back more than I otherwise would have on the second run. It really was a stunning spring afternoon, and coming past Lady Denman Dr my crew let me know for the first time that I was on track to do about 11:30:00. The final 5 km I pushed, going along my favourite section of the lake bike path and with massive relief and ecstasy arrived at the finish line in 11:26:02 a full 30 minutes quicker than my last attempt.

A huge thanks to my support team for their logistical juggling, to all the volunteers and the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team in organising such an amazing event, to Infinit nutrition for making an awesome custom product that takes the guess work out, and to Onyabike Canberra for Bike support.

To race this event surrounded by such wonderful friends and endurance athletes is such a privilege. While the race didn’t go perfectly, I couldn’t have been happier at the end of it. I learnt lots, I experienced lots, and just had great fun which lets be honest is the reason we do this stuff. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to race this, and I hope that I am able to learn, experience and enjoy just as much.

For other race reports or information on my training and racing please visit www.rowanbeggsfrench.com