Good, bad and ugly – Bunbury Olympic Distance 2021 – Hamish Delo

Good, bad and ugly – Bunbury Olympic Distance 2021 – Hamish Delorenzo

One year, two sprints and two 70.3s since I fell in love with my first triathlon event at Busselton 2020. Back at it again with the first race of the 2021/22 season being the standard distance triathlon in Bunbury. This would be my first race in this distance and I was looking forward to getting back into the multisport events (although I wish it hadn’t been scheduled for the same day as the Perth marathon!). On paper, a great race and one to be extremely proud of. In reality, a result derived from the technicality of another’s disqualification never feels great.

Initially I wasn’t too keen on writing up a report for this race, the performance factor didn’t feel like it was there for me. However, Kate mentioned to me that race reports are not all about what went well, the bad and the ugly are just as important to reflect upon.

The race: Conditions looked to make for a fast day, low winds, smooth in the bay with only a small chance of drizzle, no post-race excuses could be made here. Swim course was a simple layout and compared to 1 year ago I was much more confident in the open water, straight lines and it was over in no time.

With 20-34 year olds all having the same start time I had no idea where I was relative to my age group heading into the bike leg. The bike course is beautiful and fast despite the undulating hills. I’ve come to realise although you may start the bike flying past other competitors, there will come a point where you catch the riders of similar ability and from there it’s very difficult to break away from one another, especially as the legs become more fatigued. A small crash at the distant turn around point, where a competitor ran into the back of me resulted in a brief stop to help her back onto the bike. Eventually she told me to keep going with my race. Heading back to transition I took note of the ambulance heading out onto course…

The run off the bike was quite troublesome, potentially too much fluid in the stomach. Pace was quite a bit slower than what I had predicted, definitely room for improvement in one way or another.

Over the past year I have learnt the easiest part of any race training is race day. All the hard work is completed in the early starts, long days and months of training prior. Race day is simply there to demonstrate the fruits of your labour, you’ve done the hard work so just get out there, race within yourself and enjoy it.

Overall great to be back racing and a shout to Jonney taking the overall male win again, all the other UWA athletes, Oggi, Alberto, Adrian, Nick (damned glass) and of course Min on his first ever triathlon event. Oh, and thanks Phil for officiating the event and disqualifying the competition, we would be lost without you.

Best wishes for the 2021/22 season to all the UWA athletes,

Hamish