Scott Pontague’s Port Mac Half Ironman Report

After training hard for 8 weeks following Capricorn Resort HIM i found myself back on a plane to Port Mac for the SIS Port Macquarie Half Ironman…. All i can say is what a great town filled with great locals that love the triathlon atmosphere!

Arriving into Sydney airport on thursday morning it was pretty wet which was abit of a downer leaving behind a sunny perth and to rub it in the air hostess gave us a warm welcome to a wet sydney. A short stop at sydney then back on the plane to port macquarie which the weather was abit nicer…. well for a few hours anyway.

Nigel Durbridge (a locol triathlete legend) had generously opend his doors for me to stay with him and family. Nigel picked me up from the airport and drove me around parts of the course with a stop to the peloton coffee/bike shop. Its the local triathlete/cyclist hang out that has an amazing crew running it, a defanite destination if visiting port mac!

After abit of lunch and putting the bike together it was time for a ride with nigel and a few other locals down to cat eye to view abit of the bike course. Nigel decided not to take me up mathew flinders (heart break hill) so i could savor the moment for race day…. thanks mate!

Friday was a great day after having a sleep in and a coffee at the peloton we had a mid day swim in the river (swim course) with Nigel, a few locals aswell as a few pro’s (Tim Van Berkel, Mitch Robins, Matty White and Tim Reed). Was a great experience sitting on their toes and having abit of a laugh when berkel made mitch shit himself on the house boat.

Saturday preperation day! After we checked the bikes in at 4:30pm i had the pleasure of watching the local eastern stateners execute their carbo loading plan… this consisted of downing 10 beers each haha what ever works i guess. Once the lads were carbed up we headed home for an early night I was pretty relaxed and feeling good.

RACE DAY

I arrived at transition feeling pretty good, did the last minute check overs and then the usual rush to put the wettie on.

6:30am Swim start: Getting to the water to activate the timing ship was abit of a hassle as squeezing 900+ athletes in a 2metre wide shoot walking as slow as my grandma in the wrong swim cap order= frustrating. Nether the less i was in the water on time and ready to go. As usual the pros broke the start early so it was on for all. The pros had a 15m head start on the mass start so trying to get onto their pack was abit unachievable so i placed myself in the chase pack. The water was not as clear as friday and had abit of a current flowing. By the time i got to the last 100m i think i had swallowed atleast 2 litres of water, a good lesson learnt not to swim behind big foot with a huge thumping kick on every breathing stroke. It was a slow swim however verry happy with a swim time of 29min.

Out of transition and onto the bike, the hills start about 2km in. I was feeling good until my stomach decided to tell me it wasnt happy with mixing oats, milk and sea water the athletes behind me were having a great time dodging all my spew for the entire bike course and im pretty sure i made a camera man verry happy just after mathew flinders drive when the spew of the day happend write in front of him… yumm. To top my day i recieved a 5min drafting panalty on my last lap just after the turn around near lake cat eye. It was a verry bad call which i quietly… let the TO know about. I had about 20km to the penalty box and about 1km after that was transition. The bad call by the TO pissed me off so i put my foot down to try and make up some time that would b lost. By doing so i passed 3 guys in my age group but to only have them smile and wave as they rode past the penalty box. 5min watching people ride past seems like all day but i was back on and into T2.

Running outa T2 and having no food all day after throwing up is not a good feeling. After smashing my legs on the bike to get to the penalty box it took its toll. The run is a nice course which includes a small short sharp hill with a big gradient continuing with a little up hill grass run just before the turn around. A fair few walked up, it made it hard to run around as it was very crowded. 2nd lap and i find myself throwing up again near the turn around. Adam Holborow (professional) was very supportive with abit of encouragement and got me back on track running shoulder to shoulder for about 2km until he dropped me… it was only a matter of time. Last lap i couldn’t express how happy i was to know it was almost over and when reaching the finish chute i was pretty well cooked. I had a run time of 1:47… this was abit disappointing as i know i am capable of a lot more.
I had a finish Time of 05:01, this placed me in 7th for age (18-24). I was approx 12mins of the winner time in our age group so after reviewing my day of bad nutrition and a time penalty i was pretty happy with my performace and getting to the line.

Would like to say a big Thanks to the Durbridge Family for sharing their house over the race weekend, Tim reed for all the great advice given, Adam Holborow for the encouragement, my training buddies that push me along (mark, sean, tom, johan, andy, helen), the lady’s at the Peloton Coffee/Bike shop and finally my coach Brian Kempson.

Next Race : Canberra Half Ironman Dec 12th

Scott Pontague

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