From a birds eye view you would't think you could go too far wrong with this swim leg. Just follow the canal. Houses on either side. But once in the water you may as well be the size of an ant. The canal is still fairly wide. As we arrange ourself on the start line I'm searching for a sighting buoy. I see ONE in the distance. I'm swimming along next to Belinda Granger. Belinda has been doing this for years so I'm confident she'll keep me on track. We reach the first buoy and turn right around it. From there I don't see any more buoys. I lose Belinda as another athlete crosses my path. I assume the person I'm following now is on Belinda's feet so I remain calm. But before too long, it seems like I'm zig zagging all over the place to try stay on the feet. How can I be going so far off track? Jared ran down to a bridge where he could see us pass under. When I was telling him after the race "I just couldn't swim straight today", he informed me "it wasn't you... there were four in your pack. The leader was zig zagging and each of you just kept looking up when you lost the feet in front and zig zagged to get back on". Lesson learnt - if you think your zig zagging more than normal get off the feet you're following! The swim was tough in that we all had no idea where we were going. There were three buoys in total as we wound around the canal.

As I ran out of the water Jared yelled out that I was 2min 40sec down on the front pack - three former ITU triathletes, in other words, amazing swimmers and then a small gap to Lisa Marangon. I had to ask Jared to repeat it as I was expecting it to be more like 3:40. This gave me a lot of confidence as I ran into T1.

The bike was flat. The one hill that we rode up twice was not steep enough to get out of the aero position and off your bars. The only time I did was around the round-abouts and towards the end which was a tight little square back into transition.  The wind was fairly kind the first lap but the second it had picked up. The way out was a head/cross wind and back a tail/cross. The road surface was nice and smooth for half the lap before you hit that dead bitumen that zapps your speed. I was getting blown around as I was searching for the smoothest line. Both laps had two turn arounds points plus the end of lap one so I could see my competitors up ahead. Radka was leading Liz in the front with Lisa chasing them down. The second lap saw Lisa had caught them and was on the front. I felt good on the bike but wasn't closing the gap as fast as I hoped.

Just before we hit T2 Liz must have put on a surge and dropped the three she was riding with or must've just had a lightening quick transition. I racked my bike and it wasn't long before I moved into second place with Liz a further 30sec ahead. At about 3km I came up on Liz. My initial plan was to 'catch and sit' but when I approached her I was running at a faster pace so didn't want to slow down in case I got comfortable and couldn't then build on it later. I went straight past and opened a gap. The course was two laps. Each lap had a long steady incline in the middle of the lap with the rest fairly flat. By 12km I was surprised to see Liz had caught back up and was on my heels again. Instead of trying to increase the pace I slowed for a bit, quickly recovered and then got ready to respond to Liz if she attacked.

The next 6km was something neither of us had ever experienced in a race this long. We ran side by side with both of us slightly testing the other putting on small surges then slowing it down. With 3km to go I made my move. I knew it had to be a clear decisive move so I put the accelerator down and didn't look back. After 1km we turned a sharp corner so I used this to quickly look over my shoulder. I could see I'd made a enough of a gap so I could relax a little but you never know what's coming and the race isn't won until you cross that line so I kept the pace on. With a couple of hundred meters to go we u-turn then head for the finish. Only then did I know I had it won. I could finally slow down, wave to the crowd, give some high fives before running through the Ironman arch
as Australian 70.3 Champion.

 It was great to be back home, well back in Australia. I've been in the US for 5 months so after all the travel to get to Perth and then out to Mandurah all I was thinking about was how close to home I was. When we arrived Friday afternoon it was hard to get motivated to race again. I just wanted to go home. But after I went for a spin on the Saturday and felt great I was confident I could put on one last show before heading home. Looking back now, Mandurah is a beautiful place and a great location for the Australian 70.3 Pro champs.  The swim was unique and the laps on both bike and run made it more spectator friendly which helps make the race more interesting for everone. USM & Ironman have teamed together now and they showed it is working really well.

The cannon booms across the bay and it’s on for young and old, no rules, no witnesses, no holds barred! To describe the swim leg in one sentence… It was an hour-long, hypoxic breathing drill (just enough oxygen consumption to stay alive), using no more than half a stroke-length, laced with a surprisingly abundant quantity of blindside punching, kicking, elbowing, dunking, grabbing, pulling, and what would best be described as crowd surfing in water. Suffice to say the swim was nothing but chaos buried away somewhere in the middle of the man-made white-water rapids ride.

Out of the water, up the stairs and dumped into the circus tent that is transition. Akin to passing directly through the heart of an emergency room…with the power out. Stress levels and decibel levels seemed to be off the charts. Countless volunteers darting back and forth, doing seemingly anything for the athletes. The procedure seems pretty simple in here: peel off speed suit, cap, goggles, put on socks and bike shoes, throw swim gear in bag, go! But in that tent it would appear that many athletes are not their usual cognitive and coordinated selves immediately following the thorough open-water beating. Understandable.

Onto the bike and into natures own wily wind tunnel. The Queen K and its brutal hurricane-grade winds showed me who’s boss from the get-go. Up down up down, riding the relentless waves of evil black tarmac paved in one lonely never ending strip across Earths dried up lava fields. Soul-crushing all the way. The 8mile climb up to the turn-around point in the remote town of Hawi was one of the slowest and toughest piece of riding I’ve ever done. Not that I have much cycling experience for comparison. The brutal winds relentlessly attacked like a burley prizefighter bullying his unworthy opponent. They bashed from left, from right, an uppercut from the front, straight down from above somehow. The mood on the course changed dramatically from this point as athletes shifted their focus from racing each other to giving each other ample room for maximum safety. Making a pass from this point was a risk most weren’t willing to take. For a good hour plus we were all in this together…this part was survival only, and everyone knew it.

I’d convinced myself that making the turn at Hawi would be the relief I needed to regroup. After the turn, it became apparent that this misguided, simple logic does not apply out at Hawi. The demoralizing wind patterns never seemed to get any better on the way back. At times I was honestly concerned that I might not make it back to Kona…not on my own 2 wheels at least. Midday came and past, hallucinations of big thick burgers and greasy pizzas came and went in the distance through the heat haze. By early afternoon I was thoroughly cooked, both figuratively and literally. Hot, burnt, hungry, tired and aching I rolled back into Kona, unraveled my body from the ridiculous time-trial position and wobbled back through the transition circus.

Shoes and helmet off, run shoes and hat on. Simultaneously an overly helpful volunteer smothered sunscreen on every patch of bare skin I had. He was obviously well practiced in the art. Like a one-man pit crew changing wheels he was in and out, signifying the all clear with hands up in the air before I even wanted to get back up. The volunteers never failed to impress during the entire Kona experience. I don’t know where they find them all, but they were incredible. Out of the tent and back onto the melting tarmac…it was go time again.

As a whole, the run leg was relatively uneventful. By this point it was difficult to entice the body or mind to do anything more than ‘just get through’. The first 10mile was a reasonably pleasant, gently undulating trip out and back along the coast. Filled with a hype of spectator activity I can see how a lot of athletes would get carried away with the enthusiasm oozing through the streets and forget about the rest of the marathon ahead. After the first 10mile ‘warm-up’, the course turned up the infamous Palani climb. If you weren’t looking up paying attention at this point, Palani would whack you square in the nose. From here the course rolled onto the Queen K where things started to get a lot more interesting.

For years watching the Hawaiian Ironman on TV, the lasting images were always the agony of runners suffering along the never ending stretches of the Queen K. Black lava left and right, long gradual hills of pain in front and behind, and the intense Kona sun beating down from above. This was the part I was looking forward to the most. In reality it was a fair bit milder than the mythical creations on TV and in my mind. The hills made the course tough, but the heat didn’t seem to be a concern. The lonely lava fields turned out to be more a novelty than a grueling struggle. Out through the Energy Lab and back home into Kona for the last time, down the steep quad-shattering Palani, and fed through the final finish chute.

The finish chute was an effervescent cocktail of loud, colorful, uncontained excitement that was quite difficult to take in at the time. It was sensory overload after spending most of the day mentally locked away in the sensory-deadening confines of the mind's self-induced mental asylum. To be honest I was more looking forward to bypassing the ecstasy gauntlet and going straight out the back to a nice quiet patch of grass where I could peacefully lay down to die. 

All in all, it was a very long day out there. It was one hell of an experience that had been fading away on my bucket list since the early 90’s. It was a drawn-out battle between mind, body and the Kona gods. Like lambs to the slaughter indeed, it baffles me how anyone could possibly be willing to offer up their soul as mincemeat to the Kona gods more than once! Memories fade I guess…

As Jared and I stepped off the plane in Kona we immediately felt the warm humid air. What a difference it was to what we had just experienced in Boulder a few days earlier - zero degrees and snow. The airport was all outdoors and all the air crew were in bright colourful shirts. Rudi, one of my sponsors from Compressport rocks up in a white jeep with the top down. Somehow we managed to fit two bikes, two luggage bags, a spare set of wheels and two backpacks as well as the three of us in there. First stop was Target where Rudi pulled up, chucked it into park and jumped out yelling back "grab the wheel, gotta get some ice". Jared climbed over before finding a park. This must be how it's done is Kona!

We head down Queen K. It's busy. Thousands of athletes are arriving. We get close to where the expo is, where Rudi is setting up stall. He asks Jared to turn into a servo and before we know it he's outa the car again... This time with a bag of ice in each hand, "take the car, I'll call you later" he says as he runs down Palani Drive.

Wednesday morning Jaz and I head out for a run. We jog 20min before Jaz leaves me at the base of a nice long hill. He heads home. I've got a hill session to complete. I stretch a little before I decide there is no point stretching anymore, I'm dripping with sweat. Let's get this done! Up and down the hill I go... First rep is a 3minute hill, followed by a 1minute hill. I repeat this 6 times. I then jog home. I scull a whole 26oz bottle of water as soon as I get in the door. Quickly shower. Have two pieces of toast with peanut butter and banana. Then we're on our bikes spinning down the road to the Specialized house (only a few km away). I was excited to have brunch with the Specialized crew. The majority of them I'd never met in person. We'd sent several emails back and forth, skyped and talked on phone but most I didn't have a face to put to the name. It started off well... First I got round to quickly meet them all before Jared and I digged into the french toast with macadamia nuts while we pulled up a piece of wall and chatted with Bobby and David. As Jared was talking I started seeing black dots. Oh no... Don't do this now Mel. I quickly put down my plate and tried to focus... Next thing I'm sliding down the wall. Luckily David saw me go and they managed to grab me before I hit the gorund. What a first impression! Obviously a little dehydrated after my run session.

Thursday morning started off with a nice ride out along Queen K through the lava fields. It was amazing. A long straight hyway with nothing but lava on either side. I was flying along the silky smooth rolling hills. It should have triggered I was riding with a tail wind but no, I just thought I was feeling fantastic. I turned around after about 50km and let's just say... I was no longer flying! Did I tell Jared what he was in for when I got back? I couldn't but I did change the advice I first gave him of "give it all on the bike, your running legs will be there". "Save a bit in the first half Jaz, it could be tough coming back", I said to him. Jared is a runner. He's done one IM/one triathlon. IM Cairns in June. He came 4th which secured him a spot for Kona. The bike is his weakest leg. He's a thin lanky runner with amazing endurance but he's still developing the strength needed for the bike. I knew it was gonna be a tough day for him if the wind picked up.

Friday was a busy day, making sure Jared's Specilaized Shiv was in tip top shape and getting it racked and all ready for the big day. I was getting excited. 

Saturday 13th October 2012. It's 5:30am. Justin (Jared's best mate) and I ride our bikes down to the start in the dark while he gets a lift down. He gets everything sorted in transition, I kiss him good luck then we let him go. Justin and I run to the pier where we watch the swim start. I won't go into detail about our exciting day of chasing Jared around and watching him from wherever we could. He is going to post his own race report about his Kona experience. 

I wanted to beat the heat Sunday morning so I headed out early'ish for my ride. As I'm heading down Queen K I hit a rock on the road. I immediately hear my front tyre go down. Damn! As I'm changing it, I think to myself - I better head back, pick up another tube then head out again. I only had one tube with me. As I chuck my gas canister on, it goes straight up then to my disappointment straight down. What! I rip the tube out. It was faulty. Before I can even think what to do a bike stops and offers me his only tube. I couldn't leave him stranded with no spare so I refuse to take it. The next bike stops and offers me a puncture repair kit. That'll do I think. It's brand new. I puncture the lid on the glue and squeeze it... And squeeze it... There is nothing in it but air. I look at the patches. Maybe one will stick without the glue, just to get me home. But they are no longer sticky. I guess the kit was too old. I remember Rudi saying he was setting up stall at Lava Java this morning. I must be less than 10km from there so I call him to see if he's close. He is. He's on his way so he offers to swing by and pick me up. I start walking back. It's the day after the World IM champs. I didn't think there would be many bikes out, especially not early. If I knew more than a dozen bikes were gonna ride past me I would have just waited for the next kind cyclist to stop. As I'd already rung Rudi and by now he must be almost here I turn down every other offer including a lady who stopped in her truck on the other side of the road willing to give me a lift. This really made me aware of how friendly and helpful our fellow cyclists are. Anyways... I'm still walking. And walking. I walk right back into town. Long story short - Rudi got lost. I walked over an hour in my cleats and Jared, the day after his second IM rode into town and brought me another tube. By now it's hot and I'm tired from walking so we grab a coffee then head to the pier for a swim. The water was beautiful. I think if I lived in Kona I could almost get to like this swimming thing. As I swam parallel to Ali'i drive I could see the massive volcano mountain one side, the never ending ocean to the other and down below the beautiful coral, fish and even turtles. Yes, I swam with a turtle. Amazing!

Monday was the day we tried our hand at Stand up paddle surfing. So much fun! And such a nice place to do it. We didn't mind falling off into the crystal clear blue water. We rode our boards like paddle boards, surfboards, kayaks, you name it. We tried to jump on each others board when they weren't looking. See who could stand the closest to the end of the board before it flipped us off. We rode waves. We raced. We had a ball.

Our last full day in Kona was Tuesday and we definitely made the most of it. At 7:15am I was out the door on my bike headed for Volcano National Park. It was about 160km away. I had a brick session to do this morning - 100km ride followed by a 30min run. As I was out cycling the boys took off to get a hire car. At 98km they pull up beside me as Jared yells out "how much more you got?". 2km I reply so they pull up a couple of km's up the road. I trade my bike shoes for my runners, my nicks for running shorts. Take a quick pit stop in the bush then head off for my run. Our transition couldn't have been in a better spot. Just down the road was 'black sand beach'. The boys drove down there to take a quick look while I opt to keep heading in the direction of the volcano. I run up and over the hills for 30min before jumping in the car for the last 50 or so km.

When we arrive in the national park the first thing we stop to see is the steam vents. Massive holes in the ground with really hot steam blowing up. Pretty cool. Next stop is a ginormous crater with steam pouring out. We couldn't get too close to this one - I'm guessing the surrounding areas could be dangerous and mighty hot. But we still got close enough to get some great photos. We then stopped at another massive crater where we had our packed lunch of, you guessed it - peanut butter and banana sandwiches. The bottom of this crater is hard smooth cracked lava. It looks just like the earth has dropped down leaving a huge hole in the middle of the forest. There are people walking over it way down below. They look like little ants. We then drove on to see more craters where we got out and walked over them. I even brought back some lava. There's two different types of lava. Smooth lava that looks like a wet wrinkled towel that's set then there is the honeycomb type that glitters in the sun to show rainbow colours through it. Oh, then there is the chunked up lava that looks like poo! Our last stop was pretty amazing - the lava tube. A long tunnel of lava that we were able to walk through.

On our return we headed straight for the snorkel beach where I got in a good swim while the boys watched the turtles nibbling on the rocks and getting washed up and flipped over constantly as the waves rushed in. What an awesome week! One I'll definitely remember.

     1st 4:06:56

     Swim 5th 22:02
     Bike 1st 2:20:45
     Run 1st 1:20:46



What a way to finish off my US season. I picked Augusta, Georgia because I wanted to meet my 'Dream Team' youth tri squad, whom I was appointed team Captain last year. Set up by Harvey and coach Kim a year ago, they have established triathlon squads in Atlanta, Athens and Augusta for kids under 18. I flew into Atlanta Friday afternoon and Harvey picked me up and drove me to Athens for a little training session and Q&A with the kids followed by photo's and autograph signing. We had a great time as I shared stories with the kids and met all the parents. The following morning Harvey and I went for a spin around beautiful Athens before Kelly and Marcus (parents of some Dream Team kids and also triathletes themselves) drove me to Augusta where the three of us checked in for the Augusta 70.3. They then dropped me off at Tony and Kristen's house who would be my Homestay hosts for the night. Tony would also compete and we enjoyed a little jog together Friday evening. Everything went so smoothly with Harvey's meticulous planning. 

Race morning, 3500 competitors, the largest IM 70.3. As we were treading water on the start line, instead of sculling on our stomachs we were constantly pushing ourselves back. We're swimming downstream, point to point. Not that I noticed the extra push as I was swimming but I did notice I exited the water quite a bit quicker. The time I saved in the water, I think was added to the extra long run to T1. I didn't mind this at all because I'd definitely got the blood back into my legs by the time I'd reached my bike. Harvey was at the mount line and informed me I was two minutes down on the leaders.

The bike course was nice - flat and fast at the start, rolling hills through the middle and then flat and fast to finish. I took one wrong turn as the official seemed to be pointing for a sharp left. I was on the wrong side of the road but managed to bush bash my way across the grassy ditch dividing the road. I'd taken the lead at 38km. With a few corners and switchbacks I could see Emma-Kate holding on. At 65km she went past and took a turn. But slowed up about 10km down the road for a hill and then aid station. I decided to take the lead back and remained in the lead right into T2 with Emma-Kate only a few seconds back. We had made a pretty large gap to the rest of the field so unless something seriously went wrong it looked like 1st and 2nd had been decided.

I racked my bike and not so quickly put my socks and shoes on, grabbed my gel and visor and made my way out of T2. Another super long run transition gave me some time to get my watch working to give me some mile splits along the way. Out on the run course Harvey popped up again and told me I had a 30second lead. Then again a couple of miles down the road he tells me I'm a couple of minutes up. By half way I had about a 5minute lead. The run course was pretty cool. Some might think boring but I liked it. It was two laps and each lap snaked up and down the local streets. There were specters everywhere including Harvey and the Dream Team crew. At one point on each lap Harvey had organized the whole street practically to sing and cheer for me all at the same time "Go House!". I couldn't resist waving as a huge smile covered my face.

At 5 1/2 mile however I was a little worried. I started to get the urge to use the bathroom. By 7 mile I was getting pretty desperate. My lead cyclist was just up ahead, occasionally looking around to make sure I was still there. Approaching 7 1/2 mile I spotted some porta loo's. I bolted off course and straight into one. Did my business and and jumped back into the race. My lead cyclist had stopped around the corner, obviously thinking "where'd she go?". I put on a little surge to catch her and apologized. We shared a little laugh before I got back to focussing on winning the race.

I felt pretty good on the run. I felt like I was totally in control for the first time this US season. That was exciting. I had enough time up my sleeve to back off the pace a little, have a pit stop and give Harvey and team a good wave and smile. Coming down the finish chute I tried to give every little kid (and adult) a high five before grabbing that winners banner and thrusting it up over my head. 

After my race I sat on the back of Harvey's truck watching the rest of the competitors run past on their way to completing their race. When Marcus and Kelly ran past we jumped up and gave them a good yell. Marcus was funny as he ran past. Harvey was running along next to him giving him his placing but all he kept yelling back was "how'd Mel go?, did she win?". Both Marcus and Kelly raced amazingly . Kelly secured her spot for Vegas and Marcus broke 5hrs setting a new personal best. Tony also set a record, knocking over half an hour off of his last years time.

It was an amazing day and weekend! And such an awesome way to wrap up my US season. Next stop - KONA! To watch Jared, my husband compete in his third ever triathlon and second full IM.

Thanks to race organizers, sponsors and volunteers for putting on yet again another supperb race. And a huge thank you to Harvey, Julie & family for sharing their home with me and organizing such a wonderful weekend. Tony, Kristen & family for welcoming me into their home and Kelly & Marcus for the fun road trip to Augusta. Also the entire Dream Team for their continual support.