Good luck!
Didn’t realise aquathlon was still going. Balmoral Tri Club in Sydney used to do a Friday night series, it was great fun, open water in Balmoral Bay, so transitions were very sandy!
Thanks. And tbh @FatPom it’s the only aquathlon in SA I think, but is part of the 7 race triathlon championship too. Likewise transition is on grass with a long beach run in/out including steps down to the beach.
Any pacing advice? Not done a duathlon/aquathlon. Seems fairly intuitive, run the first split as close to 5k pace as you dare, nail the transition, try not to panic the first 100m swim and hope you can calm your breathing/HR down, then try hang on for second 2.5k as close to 5k pace as you can?
But I won’t want to let many/any get down the road on the run if I can help it. The 3 triathletes in SA who would beat me aren’t entered, so depends if anyone has travelled, or if any local swimmers fancy giving it a crack knowing they could easily take huge time on the swim, probably a minute on me.
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Unlikely a swimmer will be anywhere near a minute of your 5km time though, so i think you should be ok there if nothing goes wrong.
Don’t know, I ran a 2:40-2:45ish 1km and a 10:00 3k age 16 with zero run training, just swimming 16hrs a week. I’m sure there will be some who can come close if they wanted!
*on track with spikes
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I never ran to a pace, as I didn’t have a decent watch back then. I just tried to run the 2nd 2.5 faster than the first. I am particularly prone to getting out of breath in the swim following the run, so keeping that breathing controlled was key for me.
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Do we have a state champion in our midst 
🏃🏽♂ 
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A title to over-inflate the ego thats all! But yes had a nice solid race and a fun blast out.
Bit of a backstory first.
The race was done in conjunction with On, who also put on a 4x5k relay last night. Coach says has an old friend who’ll be coming across from Melbourne as he works for On and joins us for a few sessions the days before. Friday night at a group dinner I find out the guy who managed to hang on my feet for 12x200 threshold having not swam for “quite a while” is a bit of a big fish - Luke Bell; came 5th at Kona in his prime. Turns out while he’s running the On event, he’s getting cajoled into entering the swimrun, and comes up to me on the start line saying he’s sticking to my feet again. Least I was right to be aware there might be an unknown person in the event!
First run, settles down after 200m start and I’m settled with 6-10th, including Luke who briefly overtakes me. Fairly nice position but looks like the leaders are going to run away. Trust my pace and slowly work my way up, catch a team mate and ask him if he knows anyone in front, and he gives me the heads up the leader is a weak swimmer. Enter T1 in about 5th, and only 8s down on the leader. 3:22 pace for the first run, feeling comfortable.
Goggles and hat on whilst running, race belt off long before I hit my towel, shoes off in couple of seconds, navigate onto the soft sand and keeping it controlled. Into the water joint second alongside 2 others, few dolphin dives and I’m pretty much level with the leader and flying past him once swimming. Swimming nice and relaxed keeping breathing controlled.
2 lap swim with an Aussie exit on the beach, look back at end of first lap and it’s time to relax. No one anywhere near my feet and I know I’m not going to drop pace.
Nice smooth T2, second 2.5km run at 3:36 pace which is pleasant surprise given I was just controlling. Makes me wonder if I could have gone around 3:22 pace again if I’d truly maxed out. HR peaked 12 below max on the second run.
All in all feels more like a good training session, but nice to claim a scalp, even if he hasn’t raced pro/trained for the last 4 years! Lovely bloke too. Starting to experience what others have said, about how nice tri can be when age groupers race alongside pros, and the pros are all real humans.
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Outstanding mate 
Luke Bell was Australia’s ‘nearly man’ for a few years and then went through a horrible phase of DNFs through injury or sickness. Sponsored by Giant IIRC. It got to the stage where we were betting if he’d finish any race he entered again.
I think he was featured in the ‘What it Takes’ film as well. I’m pretty sure his wife was a handy pro as well but may be making that bit up!
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Well raced @Chriswim 
.
Obvs your swimming & running was as fast as we expected from you, but you nailed that unfamiliar T1 as well. I’m guessing you carry goggles & cap on the run?
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Most importantly how much free stash from On did you come away with?!
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Yeah that’s the bit I’m happiest with, everything I’d practice yesterday and warm up went well. Very few seemed to get in the water before the race today which was odd, given I spent 10-15 minutes working out how the depth of the sea, and catching the tide back in. When I looked back during the Aussie exit people were trying to walk in through water deeper than knees having misjudged the shallow-deep-shallow bit.
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You beat Luke Bell 
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None 
Aquathlon wasn’t sponsored by On as it was a Tri SA, but there was a handy bit of prize money so I sharnt complain. Think it’ll give me a 1 point lead after 3 of the 7 race series.
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I beat someone 10 years older than me who probably hasn’t ‘trained’ at all for 4 years beyond some basic health I’m assuming. I wouldn’t read too much into that, he didn’t come second either!
Had no idea what to expect from him on the start line though! 
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Wow, excellent! Luke Bell is quite a trophy to have hunted too.
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Just looked up the palmares for one guy who would have probably have won a tight race if everyone was there.
Age 21, swam national 10k championships finishing top 10 each year up until 2018, and did a 32km swim race in 2018 
great runner, only just learning to ride a bike but still a long way from ITU standard until he can improve his bike and transitions. He had a minute on me in 800m swim recently, and I caught him within 1.5km of bike.
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Great result and love the write up
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Top bombing @Chriswim.
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What on earth is this lunacy you speak of?
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I’ve sort of got a race tomorrow. It’s my mate’s event on a half mara course, mixed terrain but mostly trail. Pretty lumpy, about 450m elevation, and it’s pretty sloppy out there at the mo.
I said I wasn’t doing it, but he keeps hounding me. I’ve relented and it’ll be nice to run in the daylight. Starts 1km from my house and then proceeds to run right past my road, so it’s rude not to.
Going to run with a mate who’s normally very quick, but has been out of action for a while. Not sure if I’ll give it a bit of a dig or just cruise. He said ‘hard cruise 
’. So I think we’ll end up getting carried away and pushing it.
I’m in crap shape and tired after the last ten days of activity. So no pressure but will be a laugh I hope! 
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