2023 Trial Bay Triathlon - South West Rocks (gaol)
The Breakers took a team of 13 to South West Rocks, which was a lot smaller than usual due to holiday commitments (yes we know your priorities now!) and late withdrawals from some key members. Paivi (who would have been defending her fastest female title) and Joni (defending his vintage tri suit title) tootled off to Margaret River in search of fine wine and a proper sunset. We miss them and Luna already. Claire pulled out on doctor’s orders and was told to binge Friends and Game of Thrones, until her strength returned. Christie, the new kid on the block who over did it at the Yamba triathlon was out due to too much excitement. Robyn returned from 5 weeks in the snow fields of Japan with a special Japanese cold virus and having done bugger all training. Sandra (and John, Co-President of the Byron Breakers Supporters Club aka “The Special People”) were travelling the east coast of Australia. Nerida and Pete travelled everywhere in the world apart from the east coast of Australia, including Patagonia and Argentina. We also had an injured athlete competing with one hand on his stomach throughout to stop his insides coming out (apparently that is what a hernia is). Well done, Charlie!
A few of us arrived late afternoon Friday and were “invited” (well, . we invited ourselves) to a very pleasant pizza and drinks evening, with the NX Sports team. This also gave us an opportunity to get the intel on the course, and most importantly confirm there was no carpet mile this year, yay!
We woke on Saturday to glorious weather – hopefully a sign of things to come – and despite a forecast for a large swell on race day, we were optimistic the bay would shelter us from the worst. Those staying in the houses were also greeted by King Kanga, a large (over 6 feet tall standing) male kangaroo, relaxing in our garden. It soon became apparent this was his lair and nobody was going to argue with him. The traditional morning ride of the cycle course was followed by the equally traditional leisurely coffee and breakfast – this year at the Back Creek next to the beautiful South West Rocks Creek. The rest of the morning was spent putting up the club marquee in prime position, supporting Wyatt as he completed his first mini triathlon (which ended with a very tired Wyatt and a very proud Dad), and relaxing and mentally preparing for the big event the next day, Game 2 in the Breaker Bowling Series 2022-2023…..oh, and a triathlon.
The highlight of the afternoon was a visit by the lovely Guilia (Byron Breaker who moved to Port Macquarie with soon-to-be-hubbie, Tom) and the ever-smiling toddler Luca, who kept everyone busy, stopping him eating his favourite food, King Kanga’s poo. After registration it was time to load those carbs, followed by a romantic team stroll down to the beach for sunset.
Race day bought us perfect weather. Clear skies, not too warm and no wind. As we gathered at the start it was obvious the swim was going to be “interesting”. Apparently, 2 months prior, the beach was lovely and flat. Then a storm came through and the sea decided to dump a whole load of sand, which meant the 750m swim leg was now only 400m (max) and was more of a wade/swim/wade. With a 300m soft sand run to transition. As usual, the organisers sensibly used the first timers (“enticers”) as guinea pigs and sent them off first, so that the seasoned athletes behind could watch what not to do. The bike course at Trial Bay is challenging but fun. About ¾ of it is relatively flat into and around the town area, with a few hillocks. There is then a short steep hill (about 200m long) and then a lovely downhill section a long a country road. It was a 2-lap race. If anybody was on the course (as Huw was) when Reedy (aka Tim Reed) was cycling, you probably would not have seen him as he was going so f***** fast he was a blur..
On top of this, Huw became very concerned he was going prematurely senile when a very muscley guy in his 30s, wearing bright budgie smugglers, rode past him at speed. He was wondering if the guy would get chaffing from the budgies when he passed Huw again….whoa! Had he somehow invented time travel for the purpose of going back in time to specifically ask this budgie-guy the question about chaffing? This massive question was still on his mind when he crossed the finish line and saw the identical twins, in identical gear standing there. And apparently, they are identical triplets but budgie-guy #3 wasn’t racing. The run course had been changed this year for sensible reasons, but unfortunately meant we were no longer running the beautiful trail through the national park. Instead, it was a return run along a concrete path. Easier but not nearly as interesting. There were a number of Breakers very close together in time and it was going to be interesting to see who was going to prevail in the intraclub challenges.
Triathlon Results
Jaime was treating the race as a training session and was the first Breaker across the line and 16th overall in an excellent time of 1:17:35. Gracie’s training with the Lennox Lads is certainly paying off, as she was the first female Breaker across the line in 1:29:30. In the “Official” Intraclub Challenges, the results were:
David vs Jaime. Jaime won this leg but David is within striking distance.
Gracie vs Deb. Deb beat Gracie in Yamba but Gracie blitzed this race and won this leg.
Elize vs Robyn. Elize beat Robyn by 3 seconds in Yamba and won this leg as Robyn missed this event.
Huw vs Nick. Irv also asked to join this group to make a threesome - photos provided on request. I think Will is also very keen to join but has not filled out his application form yet. Nick had a cracking race and won this leg, with Will coming second, Irv third and Huw strategically saving himself for the bowling, coming in fourth.
Jaime C 3rd in 35-39 - 1:17:35
David M 2nd in 45-49 - 1:20:10
Nick E 9th in 35-39 - 1:28:24
Will G 10th in 35-39 - 1:29:30
Gracie R 1st in 20-24 - 1:29:54
Irvin E 9th in 40-44 - 1:30:33
Huw J 3rd in 55-59 - 1:30:58
Mick D 6th in- 55-59 - 1:35:32
Deb F 1st in 60-64 - 1:36:07
Elize S 5th in 35-39 - 1:41:26
Charlie A 6th in 60-64 - 1:44:32
Margreet W 8th in 40-44 - 1:55:48
Joana S 6th in 30-35 - 1:59:48
Breaker Bowling Series 2022-2023 - Competion No. 2
There were 10 athletes who bravely put their name down for the 2nd competition in the Breaker Bowling Series 2022-2023. Just a reminder that the coveted Byron Breaker Bowler of the Year trophy (currently held by Huw) will be awarded to the bowler with the highest points at the end of the series. Points are awarded on the same basis as the NSW Interclub Triathlon series, i.e. 2 points for 1st place, 1.5 for 2nd and 3rd, 1 for 4th and 5th and 0.5 points for 6th to 10th. After Game 1 (in Yamba) the results were as follows with Nick leading and John and Huw in joint-second place:
In the first game at South West Rocks, the J&J wunder-couple scored the top scores, Jaime with 127 and Joana with 111. Irv was next with 109 (but was concerned that the speed of his chuck was just way too low) followed closely by Deb with 106 and Nick with 104. At this stage Nick seemed concerned he might be beaten by Wyatt who got 91 in the first game. Marg unfortunately seemed to be suffering from sticky-pin syndrome, so Irv offered to rub some special ointment on her which he claims would help (it was unclear at the time of writing who it would help most). Becky and Gracie held up the tail with 74 each.
The second game was a different matter with the true sprinters fading, allowing the stamina athletes to forge ahead. Jaime had obviously gone out too hard in the warm-up event (the triathlon) and crashed in the second game with 76. Joana showed more grit and got 98 and took out first place in the J&J Trophy. The Consistency Twins, Deb and Irv scored the same scores in both games, with Deb getting another 106 and Irv another 109. Becky came back strongly with 105 to easily avoid the wooden spoon. Nick improved his position with a strong 114 in the second game (and making sure he beat his son who seriously had better things to do than play bowling!), but it was not enough to fend off wise old-man Huw, who had sensibly paced himself in the warm-up event. Huw scored 137 in the second game and took out overall winner of Game 2 in the series. Joint second was Nick and Irv “speed is everything”. Gracie took out the wooden spoon (but still gets 0.5 points in the series) and the general consensus was that her triathlon training is obviously going swimmingly-well but she now needs to focus on the important stuff.
The table below shows the points awarded for Game 2 and the overall standing in the Series.
Nick and Huw are currently joint leaders, followed by Deb, John, Jaime and Irv all on 1.5 points.
| Comp 1 | Comp 2 | Total Points |
Nick | 2 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
John | 1.5 | 0 | 1.5 |
Huw | 1.5 | 2 | 3.5 |
Jaime | 1 | .5 | 1.5 |
Joana | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Peter | .5 | 0 | .5 |
Deb | .5 | 1 | 1.5 |
Nerida | .5 | 0 | .5 |
Sandra | .5 | 0 | ,5 |
Claudia | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Nys | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Beck | 0 | .5 | .5 |
Charlie | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gracie | 0 | .5 | .5 |
Margreet | 0 | .5 | .5 |
Irv | 0 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
Game 3 will be at the NSW Club Championships in Forster. In the likely event of joint winners there will be a playoff held in Ballina for the FINAL round of the Series.
