Matty White

Yeppoon Race report

Somedays in this sport you just don’t have it, and Yeppoon was one of those days where I had to force the issue all day and just not give up until I crossed the line.
I have not raced Yeppoon since 2009 where I won in a close battle with my good mate Tim Berkel so I was eager to escape the Adelaide winter and try to defend this title, plus with this year being a 70.3 event with increased prize money and KPR points on offer it was not a hard decision to make the trip up here.
With the late withdrawl of Kieren Doe and Jame Bowstead the field was trimmed down but still retained some quality athletes such as Ollie Whistler, Richard Thomson, Leon Griffen, Mark Bowstead, Nathan Stewart, Ric Munro, Luke Whitmore and Matt Bailey. My fitness leading into the race was good so I was confident of a good result but with not having raced for about 8 weeks I was a little aprehensive of where my conditioning and top end speed would be, I also had a brand spanking new machine courtesy of Shimano and Merida which I had ridden once before the race so it was just a matter of jumping on and winding it up hoping for the best.

The race started at 8am which was great as I was staying at the Capricorn resort and with a short walk to transition I could sleep in a little bit, after a light breakfast I made my way down to transition and the long walk to the swim start. I was surprised to see a few waves in the ocean on the point to point 2km swim which would make things interesting. The race was a beach start which I usually like but this time as the gun sounded I tripped over and fell on my belly as soon as I hit the ocean which set me back a bit. I managed to turn the first can and swim my way up to equal 2nd with Whistler, Stewart and Griffen with Bailey just ahead.

I came out the water in about 4th with Griffo and Stewart with Whistler just ahead, and I was really suffering when I hit dry land and as I mounted the bike things just were not happening for me with Griffo, Ollie and Stewart riding away from me with ease. I really was pedalling squares and I was contemplating pulling over and calling it a day as I was feeeling that bad, but I decided to slow things down and keep it steady until Rick Thomson caught me and rode straight through catching up to the lead 3 of Whistler, Bailey and Griffo.

At about the 45km mark I noticed Griff on the side of the road with a puncture and I was about 2 minutes back on the lead group at this stage and was starting to warm up the engine, knowing that my running had been going well I was still confident of a podium finish if I could put my head down and not give up. I got off the bike with Stewart and Bowstead about 3 minutes down on the lead 3 with some work to do on the run. I set about working on a solid pace knowing that the run course here is not a fast one at all with a lot of winding paths and bush trails, and that is the hard thing about this course especially when you are running from behind as you cannot see the athletes up front until you are just about to pass them, and with no turn point you really are running blind.

I managed to reel in Bailey at the7km mark and then Thomson at the 15km with Whistler about 1.30min up the road, I was starting to feel really good as the run went on and was turning the screws yet without time splits and no indication of where Ollie was I was running blindfolded.

With about 1 km to go I ran past Lisa Marangon who said that Ollie was just up the road but I was not sure how far until I ran out of the bush trail and I noticed ollie just up the path about 50m, I put the afterburners on but with the resort path winding into the finish line it was hard to pick up speed and I ran out of road finishing about 5 seconds behind Ollie in a thrilling finish.

I was happy to finish on a good note and this race flet like it blew a few cobwebs out and to get the fastest run by over 3 minutes was really encouraging. For me now it is time to get down to some serious full time training in Boulder in preperation for World 70.3 Championships and Hawaii Ironman World Championships so the signs are good and can’t wait to get back to the US.

Matty