Just the usual rundown of the weekends race for you. the gold coast half ironman was looking like being an extremely tough race with the male elite field holding 26 starters!! it was the best half ironman field assembled in recent years in australia, mainly due to the start of the ironman world champs changing by 1 week, it gave the guys an extra week to 'recover' before heading over to kona.

The swim was wetsuit legal and my ironman stealth again was flawless in getting me to the front. i sat in 5th place the whole way, and had a moderate work out behind chris mcormack, and race leader clayton fetel (who ended up swimming over 90 seconds faster than 2nd place!).

After the swim mcormack was not seen again all day as he asserted his dominance on the bike by setting a new course record. my ride was solid as i held down my front position even after many riders came and went from the top 10. by the end of the cycle leg i had consumed plenty of powerbar gels (coffee flavour for that extra kick is great!!)) and was feeling tired after a hard bike session but was keen to see where all my ironman training could take me on the run.

I left t2 in 6th place with craig mckenzie just behind tim berkel (who is my new training partner after he moved to port macq!!) and set out to "see how i felt.." i was using the new nike pegusus tc which were like a dream come true over this distance (not to light, and enough structure to keep you supported for distances over 15km) i lost a bit of ground to mckenzie as he went on to post the fastest run time, however i kept berkel within 90 seconds, using the oakley m-frames with prescription inserts to keep an eye on him, as we roped in fetel and shockman. i was now in 4th place behind mcormack, mckenzie, and berkel at the 10km mark and it stayed that way till the end, i closed the gap on berkel to finish within 10 seconds of him in a sprint finish that lasted almost 3km!!!

So overall i was extremely happy with my race as there were no points where i was disapointed with my effort. i posted a 4.03 hours time, which is an 11 minute pb over this distance. and to be in the mix with such world class athletes as the ones that finished 1st and 2nd i cant be anything but happy.

Thanks again for all your help and support and now i look forward to ticking the days off to the ironman world championships in kona hawaii on the 21st of october.

Tim.