Racing the Reef: A Cross Triathlon Adventure in Townsville

View from the MTB course

The World Triathlon Multisport Championships was a 12-day festival of endurance sports, or sufferfest, featuring 19 world championship races across age groupers, para triathletes, juniors, under 23s and elites.   Over 4,500 competitors from more than 50 countries are competing this year in Townsville, Queensland, and it’s largest sporting ever in the town. 

I represented New Zealand in W45-9 after qualifying using results from local events over the summer in Perth. 

The Xterra race in Dunsborough in April was a great test event for me, and I had an awesome race there coming 2nd in AG (read more in previous post here).  This gave me plenty of confidence I had set good foundations over the summer season to build on over winter.  

The course

The Cross Triathlon event was a 1km ocean swim followed by a 20km undulating mountain bike with a plenty of pinch climbs and rock gardens and a 6km hilly trail run. It was set in the Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park a nice 6km spin up the coast from Townsville. 

Prep

Over winter, I focused on building strength and endurance by training at the Kalamunda mountain bike park in Perth and racing at the Western Australia cyclocross series, along with local trail running events and Parkruns.  The cyclocross races have been awesome for tuning up biking handling skills while riding at full gas, as well as great fun – the final event was in swamp-like conditions.

I also got a specific strength and conditioning program which really helped activate my glutes and improve my single leg stability on uneven surfaces. The hopping exercises I had also helped resolve an ankle tendon niggle I’d had for a while.

On my bike a terminal tyre tear a few weeks out on the rocks in Kalamunda meant I got new tyres optimised for the kind of riding in the race - Specialized ground control on the front and ground track on the back.  I treated myself to a new longer dropper post which helped me descend faster as I could get lower.  I also got a thorough service including the bearings and got a shorter saddle.  That was an expensive trip to the bike shop!! But well worth it, it was like riding a much better bike afterwards.  

On the running front there were plenty of short sharp hill reps on my program as we got closer to the event and this was great prep for the steep rocky sections on the day.

Nutrition wise I reduced my fibre a couple days out and had plenty of simple carbs the day before, toast and jam and white rice type food.  Breakfast of champions on the day was 4 x white toast with jam, a banana and a coffee about 3 hours out from race start.  I had a pure gel 15 mins before the swim, 2 on the bike plus electrolytes in the bottle and a half camelbak of water.  One more gel before the run.  That was perfect.  The bike and run took a lot out of you so really wanted to be well fuelled.

Execution

All the training and prep paid off, the swim was non wetsuit and super choppy on the day.  This suited me perfectly after years of swimming in Wellington and doing splash and dash races there in almost gale force conditions sometimes. I didn’t bat an eyelid.  I was 6th out of the water in AG, the bike is my weakest link and I was 11th in AG after the bike but made up a few places on the run to finish 8th.  This is one placing better than the 2016 world champs in the Snowy Mountains a few years ago when I was at the bottom of my age group and now I’m near the top, so super happy with that. 

I was also proud of my mountain bike ride, I’d done a lot of practice riding rocky sections over winter and it really paid off as there were many rocky pinch climbs and rocks gardens on the course, it was definitely an honest MTB course. The reccie ride practice paid off too and sections that had seemed a bit trickier during the reccie rides just flowed on the day with the extra speed and motivation of having an Aussie in my age group breathing down my neck during the 2nd half. I race at my best with someone right on my tail! She said I rode really well afterwards.

triathlon.org/athletes/results/64763/rebecca_speirs

Team hangouts

One of the things I enjoyed the most about the experience was hanging out with the NZ team and in particular the cross tri gang.  Mel the NZ team manager setup a WhatsApp group for the team which made it super easy for us to arrange reccie rides and runs and join in with the local open water swim group sessions.  

In the days leading up to the race we had a nice morning routine going of spinning up the coast to the race venue, riding or running a loop, and going for coffee.  Mel also organised some mid morning coffees too for the team and we had a team dinner night.  I made a great bunch of new friends and NZ being the size it is we inevitably know people in common which is pretty cool too! 

Team NZ at the parade of nations

Another great thing about a bunch of international athletes taking over a town is you end up talking to lots of people all week. People in the supermarket who like your kit or are interested in what races you’ve doing. I had some fun chats with quite a few Team USA athletes that way.

It was also nice to reconnect with some of the technical officials I know from NZ who were at the event too - Cathi Davey and Ross Caphill who I know from my time in Wellington.

If you get the chance to do one of these events, I urge to do it, they are really cool experiences and it’s awesome fun being in a team athlete bubble for a week or so! 

I made a mini movie with highlights from the overall experience summed up in 50 seconds!

Liam, Mel and Gaye

Mel, Gaye and Liam from Triathlon NZ for superb team management and bike mechanics during the event.

Mel was basically like a camp mum and she really brought us together as team NZ. There was a lot going on during the 12 days and Mel made sure we had all the right info from the briefing at the right time, key points and Gaye on standby for technical official type questions. We had WhatsApp and FB groups for the team which made it easy to find people to get together with for reccie rides, swims, social events etc.  It was great having Liam there for bike checks etc. If they hadn't been there and done what they did we wouldn't have had such a good experience.

My tri coach John Hallis for great programming and ongoing support

Caillin Gibson from Physio West, Perth for an awesome strength & conditioning programme

Lifewellness Massage in Perth for keeping everything moving

Peoplebank in Perth for featuring me in a post!

Mountain biking buddies Kinga from Fremantle Tri Club and Jo from Swim in Common for training rides over winter and extra moral support!

Rebecca Speirs