Two of our junior athletes had qualified for the School Sport WA Triathlon Team. Unfortunately due to injury one had to withdraw from the team.
However, 13 year old, Clancy Quick has been working really hard to be in the best shape she could be in to give her absolute best for the event in Hervey Bay, Queensland.
This would be Clancy’s first inter-state triathlon… this is her report:
On April 17th I packed all my bags (thanks Chris and Naomi for the bike bag) and went on a plane with my WA state team mates to Hervey Bay, Queensland for Nationals.
After a long and boring flight and bus journey we arrived in Hervey Bay at 1am! Then they made us get up at 6am! Urgh.
The hotel was pretty cool. I had to share a smaller (junior) room with one of my team mates.
The weather there was amazing but really hot and humid so I had to make sure I drank a lot to keep myself hydrated. I also had to make sure I wore a lot of sun cream so that I didn’t get burnt. I made sure I rolled my legs over the roller almost every day to make sure my muscles were all good for race day.
We got split up into our age group teams and went over the course, had a bit of a swim the day before the race.
We also had a trip out to Fraser Island – we went off road busing to a fresh water lake… where we set a world record for the most number of people running into the water… at least that’s what they said
Race day – I was really nervous before the start, but I racked my bike with the rest of the team and did a bit of a warm up and was then ready to go.
I was really happy with my race – I tried my best on the day and was happy with 16th/42 girls. The swim was slightly longer than normal, 400m compared to the normal 250m – my swim was definitely not the best it could be, but I tried to stay focused. My ride is one of my weaker legs, once again I did my best and over winter I am going to nail this! I did a great run, making up a number of places.
In addition to the individual event I had to race in the relays which were the very next day.
The relays were like super sprint triathlon – 200m swim / 6km bike and a 2km run
The relays were the next day. I did heaps better than my individual race the day before possibly because all the pressure was off – we came 6th out of 15 teams.
There are a few good things I have learnt from this race:
- You can’t stop bad things from happening, my roommate cried the night before the race till 11:00pm…so much for my early night
- Don’t get intimidated by all the people around you – they all talk the talk and walk the walk but I have to remember in future how hard I trained for this.
- Everyone said ‘its just another race’ and it is, but I think because I had no idea how big it was going to be and how strict they were with race rules and penalties it overawed me and, in hind-site I probably would prepare for this mentally differently in future.
