Capricorn Resort Half Ironman, done and dusted!

Combining a Half Ironman with a resort is just pure genius, stick that resort in northern Queensland and you have the making of a truly awesome event. The weather was beautiful, highs of 24 - 26, cool evenings and not a cloud in sight all weekend! We had an awesome time!
This is the second 1/2 Ironman I've completed and was a key race to determine the rest of my training for the full Ironman in December. I finished in a time of 5 hours 38 minutes, I felt much stronger during this race, especially the swim compared to the last half I did.

Swim - 1.9km - 43min 22 seconds,
Bike - 90km - 2hrs 49min 16 sec,
Run - 21.1km - 2hrs 5min 34sec.

We dropped Jesse off at the Kennel Friday morning, these guys where across the street from the kennel.

Chilling at the airport, the flight was delayed 1.5 hours.

Lots of fellow triathletes on the flight, I'm sure the ground crew loved hauling all the bikes on and off the plane...

My bike making its way onto the plane. I got the hard case from my neighbor Dale, he's done several full and half Ironman races so he has all the gear.

I was late booking a room at the resort so I ended up having to get a 2 bedroom ocean view room. It cost me more then i wanted but the view was really awesome and my bike. plus gear, had it's own room.

Did I mention that the race was held at a resort! How awesome is this....

Chill'in on Sat by the pool.

Saturday afternoon everyone collected there race kits, which includes bike/helmet numbers, a race jumper and some other odds and ends...

Lots of vendors where there to sell anything and everything related to triathlon...

The transition area sitting empty, weren't able to set up our gear until Sunday morning.

The finish line.

Morning of the race. I woke up at 4:30, ate, drank and got the last few things on my bike ready. The tranisition area opened at 5:30am. I showed up at 5;20 and was the first one there. Had a great chat with the officials and volunteers while I waited.

At 7am there was a brief race meeting in the transition area then we all headed down to the beach for the swim start. Just before the meeting I got into my wetsuit. I've lost weight since my last half so it fits me really good now.

The morning was a little cool (only 12 degrees) so the wetsuit was great for keeping me warm. You can see the tide was way out so we ended up having a long run from the swim finish back to the transition area.

The ocean was nice and calm, perfect for a 1.9km swim.

So we had to all walk 1.7km down the beach to the swim start. The sand was nice and hard so it was easy going, there was well over 800 people.

Cari was one of them.

Swim start area....

The guy I'm talking to here finished the race in 4hrs 47 or so minutes, a truly awesome time!

The race starts in waves, pro male and female go first then all the age gropies. the first wave started at 8am, my wave didn't start until 8:32am. Each wave is identified by swim caps. Below is the 30 -34 age group sporting our sexy blue swim caps.

And we're off! Only 113km to the finish line

Emerging from the ocean like an ugly mermaid on crack. We were told the day before that the current would be behind us, turns out on the morning of the race it changed and we were actually swimming against it. I felt really strong on the swim, lots of hours in the pool have paid off.

Nice long run from the swim finish to the transition.

Cari was only able to snap one pick of my bike leg. I've decided to let her go as my official photographer. In the below pic I've just completed the bike leg and I'm headed back into transition to start the run.
The bike course would have been really good if it wasn't for the fact that over 50% of the road was the roughest asphalt in the world. We had to do 5 laps and about 10km of each lap was rough. A lot of people had flats, my water bottle cage mounted on my frame vibrated lose so I had to jettison my water bottle on the second lap, and I think one of my kidneys disconnected from whatever the hell they're connected to. If it had been smooth asphalt the bike times would have been much faster.

Part of the run took us over the pool. The temperature at this point was around 26 degrees, I thought about taking a quick dip to cool off but was afraid I wouldn't be able to get out and finish the run. Kids lined the pool along the course and all wanted high fives. It took all my will power not to push a little screechy girl into the water, I saw her on all 3 laps and each time she was screaming at someone. Should have done it...its my only regret of the weekend.

The finish line was right beside the pool, so when I crossed it I jumped stright into the pool. Pure awesome.

After the race were the awards and prizes. As usual they have a bunch of random draw prizes and as usual I didn't win anything....

The male and female winners. The male winner crossed the line in 4hours and 4 minutes... .its just amazing how fit these guys and gals are.

That night we ate at a japanese restaurant that was on the resort....mmmmm tempura!

I'm taking a week off training then I'm back at it, less then 4 months until the full Ironman in Busselton.

Steve (2 half Ironman must make me a whole man?) Dickinson