Mooloolaba World Cup

Mooloolaba World Cup officially kicked off the start of the triathlon season for me in 2009. I wanted to go down, mix it up with the best in the world, pick up a huge chunk of points that would help solidify a start position for the Des Moines World Cup and Washington DC - World Championship Series Triathlon.

It was my first trip to Australia. The flights were long and uneventful. On both flights crossing the Pacific my girlfriend Jillian Petersen and I had a whole row of 4 seats to ourselves. It's nice to travel with someone that's close and stretch the legs out when you'd like to lie down.

I stayed with Ben Collins and Kevin Collington at the Belardroo Holiday Apartments. This turned out to be a perfect location. The rates were cheap, we had a great view of the run and bike course, about a 4 minute walk to the grocery store, and the ocean was just across the street. Once we figured out how to work the AC after a few days, things couldn't have been better.

The swim was originally going to take place in the ocean but for some odd reason, they switched it to this river about 1Km away from the original start.
The waves weren't that big in the first place. They were big, just not out of control...head high and clean. Lot's of wind though.

The swim was around an island in the middle of the river. The island was lined with rocks and razor sharp barnacles. The race started during low tide and the barnacle covered rocks were deathly close to a small section of the swim course. The first half of the swims can be a bit violent at times so I got pushed up towards the rocks, slightly cut myself and almost missed going around a buoy.

Out on the bike, I latched onto the main field while 3 Aussies were off the front. I threw in a few attacks along with Ben Collins and Kris Gemmell, but it was no use. The Aussies out numbered the field and they weren't going to let their man off the front, Courtney Atkinson, get caught.

I led coming off the bike and in to T2. I felt awesome the first 2 miles. In fact, I led the run! I didn't think I could run with Brad Kahlefeldt and Gemmell, my goal was just to hang on as long as I could, not lead it.
Towards the 5Km mark, I began to crack and slowly slid back to 9th. The long flight and long base early season training finally caught up to me.

All in all, it was a respectable finish for my first experience racing DOWN UNDER!

Up next:
April 26 St. Anthony's Triathlon
May 3 Tongyeong WCS - South Korea

MC