Early in 2011 my boyfriend Davey and I decided to try and qualify for the sprint team for the 2012 World Championships which will be held in Auckland. Once Triathlon Australia released the race schedule we decided to go on a holiday to Tasmania and do their sprint champs race while we were down there, as a smaller race we would be more likely to pick up some qualifier points.

We flew down a few days before the race as we were having a week long holiday. I used a hard case bike box, and although the excess baggage fee with Virgin stung a bit, I was confident that the bike would get there in one piece, which, thankfully, it did J 

After a few fun days in Hobart sampling local produce and seeing the sights, we headed off on Saturday afternoon to the race venue,  Seven Mile Beach. To our surprise this only took about 20 minutes from Hobart, but felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. It is a residential area with a stunning beach behind the Hobart Airport. As we drove up we saw blue skies, crystal water and a golden beach. What a nice place for a race!

Saturday afternoon we (well mostly Davey) put the bikes back together and went for a bit of a spin on the course, and also checked out transition where the bike racks had already been set up. The road wasn’t bad, with the only traffic being some road side chickens, and a pack of about 15 ducks crossing the road (they took up the whole road it was a very weird site!).

The race was on Sunday, and it was a late start so we were allowed a nice sleep in before walking our bikes down to transition, only around the corner from our cabin. We registered without any issues, racked out bikes and headed back to the cabin to get ready. We returned to the race site for the 9.30am briefing only to find that they were running late, and it was delayed. This was partly due to the kids, and shorter distance tri being held. It actually started to warm up a fair bit particularly in the sun which was a bit unexpected and it turned out to be a hot day, reaching 28 degrees.

Finally we had a race briefing on the beach at 9.50am. There were about 70 people in the race, and probably only about 30 females so they just had two waves. The beach looked beautiful and the water was calm. I was chatting to a lady at the start who was one of the race organisers and she told me the water was usually quite choppy so it was a nice change.

The first wave went off, and when the last male was around the first buoy the starter sent my wave off. I jogged into the water and then settled into a good rhythm. Once we got out to the first buoy, it was a straight line swim down the beach then back into shore. The water temperature was great (though might have been chilly sans wetsuit), and I relaxed into the swim overtaking a few people along the way. To get back to transition we had to run up the beach and along a trail, all up about 70m, but nicely carpeted. There weren’t too many bikes left in transition, but then I reminded myself that most of the field were male and in the wave ahead of me.

My transition went reasonably well, and the grassy area where it was located was so soft underfoot! The mount line was up the gravel on the road and the bike course was two out and back laps of an ‘L’ shape going along the back of the airport then a left turn along the side of it. It was a pretty fast flat course, and quite pleasant as it was lined with pine trees. Some of the marshals were from the rural fire brigade and the bike turn around at the far end of the course was in front of a fire engine so it was nice an easy to spot! I was pleased to overtake a few people on the bike, though my U-turns left a little to be desired!

I dismounted the bike ok, and ran back down into transition. I had a bit of trouble getting into my shoes as I now have orthotics so something to practise a bit more! The run was another ‘L’ shape course, this time two laps down and along the residential streets. It was reasonably flat, but we had to stay on the right side of the road, which meant running partly running in the gutter which was a bit uncomfortable. By this stage it was around 11am and pretty warm, and by the end of my first lap I was very happy to see the drink station where some young volunteers were very encouraging. It was a bit strange for me doing a race where I only knew one other person, but everyone was really friendly, and my second lap was over pretty quickly and before I knew it I was running to the finish which was just the timing mats next to transition.

After the race I tucked into the water melon before sitting through the presentations. It was pretty impressive that they offered cash prizes to the top three in both the sprint and shorter race distances. I was even more impressed with the times the winner finished in – the top four finished in under 60mins. There was also a stack of barrel prizes, but unfortunately we didn’t win anything, not that we had much luggage space!

I was really impressed with this event – it was put on by Tri South Triathlon Club, who are a bit smaller than Bilbys and it was really well organised. It is a great experience racing somewhere new, and in our case, visiting somewhere where we wouldn’t have otherwise thought to stay. Not only was it an enjoyable experience, but our aim of getting some qualifier points was also achieved J