I began writing this on the side of the road about 10km out of some backwards western Queensland town called Homested about 250km from Townsville. I arrived there at about 10:30am on the Sunday morning where I was greeted by a floodway with 80cm of water over it, traffic was at standstill on both sides of the river!
I flew to Townsville 2 days before, borrowed my brother’s care and drove 650km west to Julia Creek. I was lucky enough to have accommodation with a lovely girl, Sally Eales, who works in the information centre there. I crashed hard Friday night, putting away almost 10hours of sleep. The next morning was the triathlon which I had travelled out for. I went out last year, and finished a disappointing 4th as it was a surprisingly stacked field. This year my competition would be the young Maddison Allen from the QAS squad. Now focusing on long course, I’d have my work cut out for me racing a sprint tri against a specialist. T2 was located in town and T1 25km west of Julia creek at a dirty waterhole. The bikes are transported out to T1 on a cattle truck whilst we were briefed at the rodeo grounds and then moved onto buses out to the swim start.
The swim is 800m in a freshwater creek, T1 in a dusty creek bed where the gruelling 25km bike leg starts. 25km east into a strong headwind on a slight incline and then a very rough road over the final kms, I think it’s the hardest sprint race in Australia. I exited the water about 1.5mins down from Maddy and knew that the bike leg would make or break my race. I caught her with about 3km to spare and put about 20seconds into her….was it enough? I struggled with my right shoe in transition and she was hot on my heels, catching me about 1km into the 5km run (however I think it’s about 5.5km!). I thought it was over however watching her take the lead, her legs appeared to be struggling already. Sticking together for about another 2km I knew I had to make a break cause if it came down to a sprint I feel young legs would win. On the 3rd and final loop I’d broken away by about 7m and began to put the hammer down. At the final turn all I could think about was Katie. Rachael it’s 4mins of your life, not much of a fight compared to her 6months- run for her. With about 100m to go I knew I had it, increasing the gap to about 50m/ 16 seconds. 1st place and a lovely $2500 which will make the next 2months a lot easier…… needless to say I now need it to pay for another plane ticket home tomorrow.
I haven’t raced that hard in ages, my calves are the sorest they’ve been in years post-race. Big, big shock to the remaining fast twitch fibres I have left in this ageing body! However, the added bonus of a chopper flight over Julia Creek, landing at the races in style, free red-claw luncheon at the races and VIP entry at the rodeo that night are all nice perks of the Julia Creek win. How can a little outback race have an incredible prize purse and so many added perks whilst only having about 300 entrants??? I think a lot of other triathlons around Australia have a lot to answer for in comparison to the Dirt'n'Dust Triathlon!!!!
So left JC at 5:15am Sunday to get back to Townsville before lunch to speed some time with my brother before heading home at 5pm….. However at 3:10pm I was still hours away from Townsville, in a 3km line of parked cars, waiting for the water to subside & writing this blog…
The best thing of the week though- we are now at $2380 for the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation, having raised over $2000 in 4 days. I now think that aiming to double the original target is not unrealistic. I will be in contact with the foundation over the coming week to learn more about their current research and just how close they are from trialling a vaccine against the disease. Thank you to all who have donated. I intended to thank you all personally by with such an overwhelming response to the call of support I am afraid I won’t be able to do this. Katie was laid to rest on the 15th at 2:15 in Newcastle, at which time I was on the road in western QLD, crying for the loss of my friend.
Finally got home last night around 7pm to pretty miserable weather, but it's so nice to be home. What an adventure: 1300km driving, a nice country cop just giving me a warning for speeding, country triathlon, chopper ride, horse races, rodeo, hitting a fox in my bro's ute, 10hours on the side of the road, missing a flight, riding to top of Castle hill with my bro, someone screeming repeatedly on the plane in turbulance and finally getting home 24hours after i was supposed to....will i go back next year???? Definately :-)
Rachie xo
Middle of nowhere grinding away!
5km of hurt to go!
