The Noumea International Triathlon is one of my favourite races world wide- up there with Phuket Tri/ 70.3 and my home race Mooloolaba. I raced it for the first time in 2010, where I placed 3rd behind Jo Lawn and Caroline Steffen. I was supposed to return last year; however 6 days out from the race was when my pelvic stress fracture showed up. I scheduled this race into my calendar as soon as I was racing again. Noumea is a relaxed race with a great atmosphere, amazing local support by the noumean people which always hosts a great international field with outstanding hospitality shown to the pro athletes. Sometimes it’s hard to remember you have to race during your south pacific get away.
The race is set on the water front of Noumea. We caught a Thursday night flight over where my good mate Johnny Polson, Taylor Cecil and myself were greeted at the airport by ‘Richard’, who loaded us into a van to take us to the hotel. Previously this was a big bus which took the best part of an hour and a half to get to Le Surf hotel. This year it took us 20minutes….. I was happy to survive the 140km/hr trip to the hotel! Straight to bed and up the next morning for a nice roll around the race course, followed by a swim at the pool. After 9 weeks of 40hours of work/ week on top of all the training I was just happy to spend most of my time in bed. I have also been struggling with my dodgy knee over the past week. A long history of meniscal injuries and a ruptured ACL at the age of 9- followed by two surgeries and 2 patella subluxations, I know it’s likely that I will be visiting my orthopaedic surgeon again sometime down the road. With training and then standing on it all day it thankfully settled pretty quickly with me being able to finally rest it between trainings.
Very quickly race morning rolled around. The conditions couldn’t have been more ideal for race day. The ocean was glassy, clear and the perfect temperature- the swim however was carnage! From the beach start to the first buoy I found myself amongst arms, legs, being pushed under, swimming over the top of others and mouthfuls of salt water. I moved far right and found clear water- once around the first buoy I was swimming alongside Matilda Raynolds- who I anticipated would be my main competition for the day. I pushed pretty hard coming in on the first lap to break away from Matilda and try to close the gap to the two girls just ahead of me. Surprisingly I actually managed to do just that!!!!!! I wasn’t too far behind them as I made the lengthy run into T1. Onto the bike and into the lead within a km or so- I was feeling pretty good but knew I had to really try to get a good lead to try to hold on for the win. With some recent adjustments to my bike position I was feeling the best I have in a long time on my Cannondale Slice. There wasn’t a breath of wind on the three lap course which made for a very fast 40km. I could however see that Matilda was eating into my lead slightly each lap. I came into T2 with maybe 20seconds to spare; I didn’t know where my 10km run legs were at or what Matilda’s run form was like. ‘Just focus on your own race Rach- just go!’ Straight out of transition I dropped my gel- dam! On the 4 lap run, I could see my lead dwindle and at around the 4km mark I was passed for the lead. Still it’s not over til the finish line is crossed! So I did my best to hold my pace, stay focused, try to extend my lead from 3rd place and keep the distance to 1st at a minimum. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful- aside from seeing my good mate Johnny power out in front to take the win in the men’s race.
I crossed the line in 2nd. Pretty happy with my effort as it’s all improvement. So now with a 3rd and a 2nd here- only one more spot to move to in 2013! It’s my 2nd Olympic distance tri in the past 18months- they hurt a lot and you don’t get much opportunity to enjoy the day or the course! Doing these ‘short’ races, no doubtedly, help me in the 70.3s in the coming months.
A big thanks to my awesome sponsors; Mizuno, Enervit, Orca, Ryderseyewear, Allez sport & Oshe who were all printed up on my spunky new suit! Also a special thankyou to Sandra who does a wonderful job looking after us here in Noumea. Off to pressos tonight and an early trip home tomorrow. I have 3 days of work left before I head off to the USA for the next 6weeks. My first race stateside will be Kansas 70.3 on the 10th of June. Can’t wait!!!
Rachie xo
Katie Menzies (NZL), Matilda Raynolds (AUS), Rachael Paxton (AUS)
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