Embracing Resilience - Takeaways From Xterra Dunsborough, Western Australia

Resilience Is The Strength To Cope With Adversity And Change. What Better Way To Test Your Resilience Than Participating In An Off-Road Triathlon?

There can’t be many, if any, other places in Australia where you get the combo of a stunning coastline with turquoise, crystal-clear water right next to fabulous, flowing singletrack and running trails.   

As a Kiwi who loves beautiful landscapes and a relatively recent migrant to Western Australia, I’m impressed.   The Xterra Dunsborough course is right up there for awesomeness with the NZ course at Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) in Rotorua.  And that’s not a compliment I make lightly. 

The race was one of the highlights of my first triathlon season in Perth, the landscape was stunning, I put down a performance I was proud of and I had a great time hanging out with tri buddies I’d made over the season, both on the day and on training and reccie weekends leading up to it. Plus we got to see the sun rising over the ocean at the start and it was hot and sunny all day, with no wind, who could ask for more!

Preparing For Battle: Practice Weekend And Gear Choices

We came down for a long weekend before the race, caught up with a buddy from Bunbury, Lana, who I’d met during the season, and did a double course reconnaissance of Xterra and Bussleton 100 over the weekend. Super convenient that my last two races of the season are about 30mins drive apart! 

Lana and I rode the Xterra course on the Friday and practiced some of the technical bits until we were ‘happy’ with them.  I came back the Saturday for a run course reccie and a mini loop to re-ride a few sections for good measure.  While it was super tricky to navigate the exact course from the gps file as the trails in the park interweave, it was good enough to get the gist of the terrain and feel confident about the MTB section. 

I also bumped into the Xterra crew on the course and had a great chat - they were having possibly the best work trip ever, as they’d just come across from Xterra Rotorua in NZ, to stay in Dunsborough for the week as apparently it wasn’t economic to return to Korea in between events!

The course was a 1500m swim, 30km bike and 11km run.  In terms of gear, the race was wetsuit optional with the water around 22-3 degrees C, so of course most people wore wetsuits for the speed factor.  I would have also been happy with a compulsory non wetsuit swim, which happens if the water is 24 or above. 

On the bike I was riding a dual suspension cross country bike (a Liv), and took a Camelbak with water and a bottle of electrolyte (Pure Nutrition).  I taped a couple of gels (also Pure, with caffeine) to the top tube and left another gel in transition 2 with my trail shoes, and cap. 

It was a no cup event so you could either carry a foldable cup with you on the run or leave a bottle on the aid station at the end of lap 1. You definitely needed to be well hydrated that day as the trails were pretty dusty with the lack of rain for months.  

Unusually, the transition from swim-bike and bike-run were in separate places - so on race morning you needed to drop your run gear off first at the race hub, then bike gear at the water’s edge.  I don’t normally bother wearing socks for an standard or sprint distance triathlon, but did for this race as figure a couple extra seconds putting them on would be worth it for the trail run where there was a sandy section along the beach.  

Tackling The Beast: Race Day Insights

For away races I always like to head down to the venue at least a two nights before so you get a full day to a do bit of light training, chill, and soak up the atmosphere for race day.  The Xterra team put on some inspiring adventure and running short films for us the evening before, and that helped add to motivation levels on the day.  

The swim was awesome with calm conditions and clear water. We got to see the sun rise over Geographe Bay too, this feels super strange when you’re on the West Coast of Australia, but Dunsborough actually faces north so it gets sunrises and sunsets - how cool is that!  The atmosphere was pumping and on the swim I felt like I was flying and shot out of T1 with a lightning transition (I’m pretty fast as those) onto the ride.  Looking at the results later on I realised I was actually leading my age group for a few brief glorious moments on the bike, until the person that subsequently won shot past, but I’ll take it.

All the bike practice paid off and I had a great ride. I was confident and my secret weapon of loving hill climbing came into play with some comedy cat-and-mouse continually overtaking the same guy up some climbs and him overtaking me on the next downhills - I eventually dropped him on the first lap of the run. 

While Xterra races are typically a mass start with men and women together - which is fun if slightly chaotic for the first 100m or so - what can happen is the faster female swimmers end up with impatient faster male rides stupidly close up behind them during the first singletrack sections of the MTB course, which can feel a bit intimidating.  The trick is to just hold your line when it’s too narrow to pass safely and the course design means there’s always a place people can pass before too long.  

Everything spreads out just fine during the first lap and it’s a two-to three-hour event in any case, so it’s insignificant in the scheme of things to leave enough space behind someone so you’re not right up their backside - just saying ;). 

Anyway, another fast transition in T2, and, as I ran past the aid station to grab some water, who do I see running up behind me but my friendly rival from Freo Tri Club, Kinga! We’ve been battling it out all season in close competition - usually together on the swim and I’m faster out of T1 onto the bike, as but I don’t have a TT bike and Kinga’s a good road rider, I normally get trashed at that point. We typically place next to each other in the same age group though.

Kinga’s also usually slightly quicker than me on the run, but, having made it to the end of the bike before she caught me (a repeat of the previous cross tri we both did near the start of the season where we battled it out on the run and I only just pipped her), I figured I was in with a chance.

So I put the hammer down. 

I threw some water in my mouth and over my head, got going, and didn’t look back.  I ran and I ran and I dug deep. The trick for me is to stay positive by having a few key words you can say to yourself about how you want to feel to keep up the cadence. Another good one is to say to yourself, “if not now, when?” to keep the effort on.  Each time we went along the rock hopping section on the beach Kinga says I gained a bit plus I didn’t let up on the hill section straight after. 

Near the end of the second lap, a few 100m from the finish, I tripped on a root and went sprawling, cut my knee, but there was no way I was going to lose at this point and I just got up and kept going, again didn’t look back.  In the end I think I crossed the line a couple mins ahead, taking 2nd in my age group. 

The race also doubled up as state champs and Kinga and I both made it to the podium with smiles.  

Learnings And Takeaways:

The only real race mishap was one of my gels fell off somewhere on the first lap of the bike, so I went into the run a bit less fuelled up that I wanted to be.  Which kind of added to the mental challenge too.  My top tip for the next race is to leave an extra gel at the run transition, just in case.  Next time I would also leave a water bottle in T2 to have a quick swig and be able to bypass the aid station at the start of the run and save a few seconds that way too..  

Reflecting back I think the strength training I’ve been doing recently has made a difference in terms of helping me stay strong in the back end of the race - in particular I’ve been doing some glute activation type exercises and they’ve really worked to help me engage better and keep the power on under fatigue. 

To round off, Xterra Dunsborough was a great experience, has reinforced the value of the training and prep that went into it, and given me a few learnings to take into the next race. Plus, it’s boosted my motivation and confidence for the upcoming Cross Triathlon Age Group World Champs, which is in Townsville in August, where I’m representing NZ.  

Thanks to everyone who was involved in some shape or form from coaching, to reccie weekends and driving back afterwards - the journey was fun!

If you’re thinking of venturing off road to something new in triathlon or feel inspired to take on some kind of swim, bike or run adventure offroad, I encourage you to go for it and find something that excites you!  Here’s video of the event to start getting inspired: