So, Hell of the West 2012 has come and gone once again. Our Trigon team put immense effort into the event and were rewarded with 6th place in the Open Division. A huge well done to our swimmer - Jacob Wise, our rider - Michael Wise, and our runner - Karl Tomkins for their great efforts.
Thank you to Michael Wise for allowing us to use his following recount of the event. We think it captures the intensity of the Hell of the West perfectly!
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Two weeks of clouded skies and rainy weather, how was this race going to live up to its name HELL OF THE WEST? Just as we were all thinking the race may not go ahead with continual rain and towns slowly being inundated with flood water the clouds cleared, the sun came out and gave us the best race conditions in several years. Welcome to the 2012 HELL OF THE WEST TRIATHLON.
As dawn broke on the quiet town of Goondiwindi in south west Qld some 500 plus athletes graced the start line of the 2012 HOTW in what would become very mild conditions for a race that is renowned for high winds and high temps. As the first wave took to the water at 5 am (still in darkness) it wasn’t long before an early lead was being setup by Luke Harrison with a group of about 6 on his heels. The second wave of athletes (all women) was sent on their way 5 mins behind them. Just like in the first wave it was soon clear that a couple of the women didn’t want to swim with the other girls making a bee line for the men’s wave in front of them hoping to gain an advantage by drafting off the men’s group. As the third wave of competitor hit the water the lead group of men had completed their first lap and were heading back around the lagoon for their second of three laps. Then the final wave of competitors (the teams) hit the water. With a lot of locals competing in this section of the race bragging rights were on the line for who would be the fastest local team. Some had snared some of the local swim squad swimmers to give them the added advantage and they didn’t disappoint with both the youngsters being out of the water in the top 5.
As the leaders exited the water Luke had set up a minutes lead on the chase group of Ollie, Tim, Richard, Jack, Daniel and John all just over 20sec separating them. On the run back to the park a couple of the boys pushed hard to gain some slight advantage out onto the bike leg, but had only cut into Ollie’s lead by a few seconds. Then it was the women’s turn to exit the water and start heading for the park with Kym Jaenke (30-34) leading them out followed by Rachael and Sarah two mins back and then Tracey and Leanne another 30sec further back. As these girls ran to the park Sarah had passed Rachael and was on a charge to catch Kym. As the boys were making their way out of transition Richard had lost his helmet clip and was stopped by the officials and not allowed to continue. The rest of the group all made it out safely and were soon pushing very hard on the bikes in perfect conditions. The rest of the age group competitors were now all flowing through the park and heading out on the bike course. The lead women were in amongst some of the lead age group men and were being watched by the officials.
Back to the front of the field and Ollie was starting to set up a large lead on the bike. By the time they had hit the turnaround at 40km he had a 1.30min lead over Tim and the rest of the group were another 30sec back. Ollie stretched his lead over the final 40km to enter the transition with an impressive 2.08min lead over Tim and a further 6mins to the chase pack. In the women’s race Kym was making the Open girls work hard for their money as she was still holding them a bay by the 40km turn around. It wasn’t until about the 70km mark on the bike that Sarah had finally caught Kym, at this point it seemed that Sarah was content to sit off the back of Kym and save her legs for the run. As the two entered transition they had about a two-minute lead on Rachael.
As the girls headed out on the first of the three run laps the boys were charging back towards the park for the first lap of their run leg. Ollie was still in front but his lead was slowly being eaten away by Tim. As the boys came back to the park after their second lap the gap had narrowed even further and the question was being asked, could Tim catch Ollie and when? Over the last 5.5km Tim pushed real hard but Ollie was watching and responded to the charge, as the boys came off the levy bank there was nothing in it. As he crossed the line Ollie had hung on to the closest of finishes in the race by a mere 17secs in a time of 3hr 40min 51sec. It would be another 7 mins before the next competitor crossed the line but to his credit Luke Harrison would be the first of the age group competitor (30-34) to cross the line another 4 mins back was another age grouper in Daniel Macpherson (20-24). As the boys were cooling off things were heating up out on the run for the rest of the competitors and as the women headed out for their last lap Sarah was starting to show a clean pair of heels and had opened up a lead of 1min 30sec over Kym and another 4mins back was Rachael still running strong but not making any ground on the front two girls. As they cross the line it would be Sarah Crowley extending her lead to take line honours by 1min 54secs in a time of 4hr 1min 16secs, second to cross the line would be the first of the age group ladies Kym Jaenke (30-34) who had put in a very strong performance to hold the professional ladies at bay for so long. Third place went to Rachael Paxton a further 5min 10sec behind.
Back in the teams race the local teams were doing very well with the best of them being Busted Old Breakaways who placed 4th in the mixed teams in a time of 4:18:15, followed by The Goodies who were also 4th but this time in the male teams division in 4:34:28. The best of the female teams were Hells Bells in 5th position in 5:08:20 and the best in the masters section was the Brigalow Livewires who finished 9th in a time of 5:12:55.
As the race came to an end all that was left to do was to pack HELL OF THE WEST away for another year and celebrate a fantastic 21st birthday of this amazing race. In closing I would like to thank the committee and all the volunteers which make this race such an amazingly friendly race to compete at.
Tight chains
