Clearwater Florida 70.3 World Championships 2010.

After training for the majority of winter months for this race, time finally arrived to make the trek up to the home of Dr Pepper, Pick up trucks, Two and a Half men, and Jerry Springer. All the normal anticipation, and excitement one usually experiences before most races began to surface in the lead up, the hype leading up to this event appeared a bit more potent... after all this was the World Championships and it was all going down in the big U S of A!

Getting a start in the World Champs is tricky enough with qualification fiercely battled for via the ultra competitive series of Ironman 70.3 events held around the globe, and the trip to the race venue would also prove to be somewhat of a challenge. It took a cool 21 travelling 'flight' hours to reach Clearwater with a couple nights lay over in the City of Angels (LA) followed by a pit stop in Charlotte (Texas), then onto Tampa and finally Clearwater. American airlines must heard we were coming and very graciously charged us $150 each for transporting our bikes on the domestic route which added some spice to this long haul excursion, as well as notions of boycotting these jokers for any future travels.

The extended travel time puts the body through some funny adjustability issues, and after such a long journey the travel recovery phase can be a little tricky to nail. So after finally making it to Clearwater, resetting the body clock, and assembling our bikes the Tribal crew made up of Jaquie, Karen, and myself got straight into training out the taper. We rode, swam, or ran each morning with little to no intensity in efforts and surprisingly all felt great which does the confidence wonders a few days out before a big show.

Each morning’s session consistently ended at the event expo where you could pretty much purchase anything and everything related to this awesome sport we’re so addicted to. Picking up excessive amounts of Tri bling at bargain prices is always fun. Just like most menu items at the local cafe, our luggage was also becoming supersized with new flashy gear, this poses a number of ‘other’ problems when one has to cart all these new goodies back to AU. I think it's safe to say Miss Watts will easily take out the best dressed triathlete in Melbourne award for this summer, the girl picked up some serious bling and will no doubt be the envy of many as she models her styles this coming season.

The first thing that strikes you about the Ironman organisation (WTC) is how well prepared and organised they appear to be, the race venue had pretty much everything one would expect from a championship event plus more. Volunteer event staff where at every check ‘in’ point and ridiculously ‘over the top’ help full to everyone. The transition check in process is a perfect example, each athlete was assigned with an event official who personally walked you thru to your assigned bike racking area and then proceeded with a detailed tour of T1 and T2 explaining exactly what would occur on race day, it was just like having your own private race briefing.

Interesting of note was the pre transition wetsuit stripping area where competitors would have their suits stripped off by race handlers after which they could run into T1 ready to roll... how good is that for service! Then there was the transition bag area, where all your race items other then your bike and helmet would be kept, and upon entry into T1 and T2 handlers would give you the transition bag relating to the particular part of the race you were at, upon which you would run into a massive change tent followed by the next stage in the race. It’s a really well thought out process and worked a treat on race day. With transition staff rushing to your every need and all focused on getting you out in record time, it was easy to feel like a superstar.

So race day was upon us and before I knew it we were all off and racing the World Champs. The swim appeared to be somewhat slow and generally speaking proved an uneventful start to proceedings. Once out of the water and stripped of Wetsuits in world record time it was onto the bike leg which was the ‘week long’ hot topic discussed by event commentators who promised a lightning race. This promise was on the money with the road surface being new, smooth, flat, and spectacularly fast for all 91km. It’s a little hard to describe how fast this circuit was, it’s like riding on the best concrete ever and then it gets better, smoother, and faster.

The Bike leg was over in record time and we all posted PB’s over the 91km which is even more pleasing if one can find the some time elusive running legs not long after exiting T2. So off the bike and onto the half marathon and legs were feeling fine up to the 5km mark where I experienced some slight cramping issues, which no doubt lost some overall time but after battling to get thru these for about 5km, it all came good and I was able to finish the race in full stride. The girls had a intriguing battle with Karen finishing off strong after trailing Jaquie for the majority of the race. Down by 8min off the bike Karen nearly pulled off the incredible and finished only 35 sec behind Jaquie. A great effort by Karen who was admitted to being terribly under done in the lead up.

And just like that the race was over! Post race celebrations were kept to a minimum with a 4am next morning pick up beginning our journey for home. Sleepless and resembling the walking dead whilst awaiting out flights in LAX I remember Jaqs and myself finding the most trivial things extremely amusing, we were very much supersized and heading home. A very satisfying adventure which will no doubt be repeated again next year, perhaps even in Vegas...

Jaquie Watts Swim 31:28:00 Bike 2:28:27 Run 1:44:31 T/Time 4:49:08 Place 27

Karen Hames Swim 32:44:00 Bike 2:34:11 Run 1:37:21 T/Time 4:49:43 Place 30

Albie Firley Swim 31:29:00 Bike 2:15:44 Run 1:28:47 T/Time 4:20:23 Place 33