Race Report Gatorade Active Feet Race 5 Portarlington 17 March 2013

Portarlington is host to one of the most scenic triathlon’s in Victoria. Laid back seas side town, beautiful coastal views, friendly locals. You couldn’t pick a better location for Race 5 of the Gatorade Active Feet Series in Melbourne.

Team Tri Alliance loves having this race on the calendar – we’re sure more for the weekend away than anything! 😉 But regardless of the motivations, our athletes always turn up in force and put on a good show for the spectators.

59 Tri Alliance athletes raced in total, including 33 in Gatorade Sprint, 14 Active Feet and 12 Long Course. We finished with 10 podiums over the three distances, with a further 13 more athletes in top 10 places and loads of first timers!

Well done to everyone who raced and a big thanks to those who came down and cheered.

ACTIVE FEET MINI TRI: 250m/8km/2.5km
Our newest athletes in the Active Feet probably had the best conditions of the day. It was early enough that the wind hadn’t picked up, and the rain stayed away. We had 11 compete in this distance including some of our newest TRY-the-TRI group thanks to coach Bdette getting them super prepared for the race.
And it was great to watch our athletes come out of the water – with the super shallow swim exit, the preparation with purposing came in very handy and they made up plenty of places! Well done everyone!

• Glen Smith – 3rd in his category, sneaking under the radar with a super slick run
• Ryan Byrnes – narrowly behind in 4th place with a very consistant race.
• Jessie Waugh – 1st out of the water, and finishing off strong with a 2nd place.
• Ross Higgins – placing himself well in the swim to exit in 3rd and held his position for the race.
• Colleen Smith – another having a great swim coming out fourth and looked to enjoy herself. 🙂
• Annette Gaber – part of our Try-the-Tri group and we’ll secretly be thinking she will be stepping up to Gatorade in no time! 😉
• Issy Biddle – our youngest out on course, had a strong swim and with her family as cheer squad put on a good display all race. Top work Issy.
• Caitlin Syrett – looked calm and collected all morning, and was great to cheer her on from the sidelines!
• Sharon Campbell – nothing to worry about pre race as she blitz the course
• Loretta Houlahan – another one part of our Try-the-Tri Beginner group who did super well.
• Lynn Fountain – always awesome to have the Fountains at a race and was great to see Lynne in her second race post baby Carys and looks amazing. Hats off to you Lynny!
• Julia Hebb – conquered her fears to complete her first full triathlon and did super well. YAY!!!
• Lisa Harrison – had an awesome first triathlon landing herself in 3rd place!
• Victoria Braithwaite – part of our Try-the-Tri group also taking on her first tri and nailed it!

GATORADE SPRINT DISTANCE: 800m/26km/8km
Some impressive results coming out of the  Sprint distance this weekend, with the longer distance playing to some athletes favour, while others had more work to do out of the water to chase down their competitors.  33 Athletes raced with 5 podium finishers and numerous first timers.

Podiums included:

• Geoff Taylor – 1st M55-59, and who would of thought he raced with a cracked rib?!
• Natalie Methven – 3rd F25-29, Nat’s first podium this year. The hard work over the past couple of months has been worth it!
• Belinda Griffiths – 3rd F35-39, another one who has worked extrenely hard all season and is now reaping the rewards.
• Caroline Houston – 3rd F55-59, racks up another podium to continue gathering her series points and had a great sprint finish alongside hubby Geoff. (well done for beating him over the line!) 😉
• Brianna Laugher – 3rd Athenas, sees herself on the podium again and is becoming a crowd favourite!

Noteable Mentions:

• Mark Skilton – had a cracking race, with his best result to date. Not far off podium contention and our fastest athlete overall.
• Mick Ryan – great to see Coach Mick back out on the track. Put in a solid swim/bike, but suffered with the lack of running. One to watch next season!
• Gordon Hassett, James McNab, John Giordano, Stephen Drake, Janelle Cook, Michelle Bond, John Watts, Sinead Collins – all completed their longest triathlons to date and LOVED IT!
• Sonia Gregoul – on the sheer determination. Had a goal for the race and stuck to the race plan and had an inspiring race and a great confidence booster, well done!
• Sharon Smith – on jumping straight into the deep end with her first triathlon after ‘winning’ a race entry. Well done Sharon! 🙂
• Sheridan Brown – getting back out there after crashing in her big race at Geelong. Top work Sher.
• Dean Hawkins and Andy Wood-rich – enjoying a training run before this weekends Ironman Melbourne.

LONG COURSE: 2km/80km/20km
Less than ideal conditions on the bike course for our Long Course athletes made for a tough day out. The wind picked up each lap and it seemed 20 of the 26km of the 3 lap loop was into a head wind. Top work to everyone for keeping their head down on the bike and getting the job down.

• Team KBS, Rob Scapin and Emma-Lise Donati were first across the line in 4:29:03, KBS setting up a good start in 7th place, Rob reeling them in on the bike to come off in 2nd place and Emma running super strong to hold on for 5th place aganist some top guy runners. Well done!
• Marina Jurjevic 4:34:12 – in her come back race leading into Ironman Cairns and proved again she is a very consistant athlete finishing 1st 30-34F and 2nd female overall. 
• Charlie Nathan 4:37:06 – had a great start to his race, 4th out of the water, 3rd off the bike, but the lack of run conditioning caught up with him on the run. A good training run leading into Port Mac though.
• Jeff Souter 4:39:18 – simply go better as the race went on to finish strong on the run and 10th place.
• Tim Grant 4:48:35 – great result from Tim, solid in all three disciplines. Time for some beers now!
• Brandon Krapf 5:05:07 – slipped under the radar in his first Long Course event and had a great all round race.
• Chris Mutimer 5:19:11 – has been on the injury list for some time, this being his come back race and completed in fine form.
• Juliet Vermeulen 5:24:21 – first long course event and had a great race including a great bike (considering the pain she had on the bike), and holding 4th fastest run in her age group to finish 7th.
• Dominic Keating 5:35:26 – another one to fly under the radar, and did super well and enjoyed every minute!
• Kerri Whitney 5:39:17 – after a long season rounded out with her last long course. The wind on the bike made it tough for Kerri but she stuck it out and puts another long course event in her belt.
• Dale Robinson 6:10:26 – first time long course and couldn’t have been happier with her race, the emotion after the race was awesome and to finish 1st Athena (no one needs to know there were’t any others) what a great way to finish her season!
• Peet Vermeulen – had an injury cloud leading into the event and hoping that his calf tear had healed enough to get him through but unfortunately half way through the run he had to pull up. Wishing you a speedy recovery Peet!

Well done also to those athletes who completed the ‘Gatorade Triple Crown‘  by completing the Sprint / Olympic / Long Course events this season.
Chris Mutimer, Dale Robinson, Juliet Vermeulen, Jeff Souter, Dominic Keating, Peet Vermeulen.

CLICK HERE to view full results from the Mini, Sprint and Long Course events.

CLICK HERE to view our facebook photo album from the race.

Next Race: Last race of the season, Race 6 Sunday 7 March, StKilda (including our post season celebrations – stay tuned!)