Andrew Tong | Triathlon coaching

In October together with a large contingent from the NSTC tri club we made the journey north of Sydney to Forster to compete in the Ultimate Tri. This is a new distance introduced by Elite Energy this season with a 2k swim, 120k bike and 20k run.

From a personal point of view it was great to be back at Forster racing long distance tris again.

Forster never disappoints both as a venue and the volunteers who are always friendly and helpful, they will go out of their way to help you.

I was not expecting a great race as my training had been severley hampered over the last 4 months, but didn’t want to miss out on the chance to race. The swim was a nice one lap in Forster keys, the bike ride was a 2 lap heading south of Forster, the first lap felt nice and easy and trying to stick to my predetermined effort. By the second lap of the bike a strong southerly had blown up, making it a rather hard effort, for those who have raced previously at Forster this was little out of characteristic as we usually had a strong westerly to content with heading back into town. By about 90k my  lack of training started to show and even with my efforts to stay hydrated and keep the energy high, I had hit a wall.

Getting off the bike things did not improve, taking all my effort to keep the legs moving forward. Glad to say I finished but was considerably slower than what I would like. Everyone from the club had a great race, capped off by a nice evening meal together and a lovely breakfast by the river before heading back to reality and Sydney.

I will definitely think about returning next year to do this race.