LUKE WHITMORE "Professional Triathlete"
2009, Geelong 70.3 - 1st (25 - 29)
Well I had a much better day at the office than I was anticipating. In the last month I have had a my bucks party, wedding and honeymoon. I got in as much training as possible around each of these fantastic events but was uncertain of my fitness leading into yesterdays 70.3 race at Geelong. The day was a ripper from start to finish. For a start I got to rack my bike next to my beautiful wife for the first time (now sharing the same surname). The weather was perfect on race morning apart from a stiff breeze. It was relatively cool compared to the carnage that was the day before. I had a good clean start latching on to the lead swim pack however got dropped at around the 600m mark and was left to swim on my own for the remainder of the swim. I left the water with a swim time of 25:01 a p.b for me. The bike course was quite challenging, with a good tail-wind for the first 15km, the pace was red hot from the start. Hanging on by the skin of my teeth I managed to stick with the second group of age groupers. I finished with a 2:22 bike time another pb. Getting off the bike I thought I was going to be in trouble from a tough bike and I was very tight in my quads. After 2km's I found my legs and felt better and better as the run went on. I finished with a total time of 4:07 and a 1:16:40 run time. PB's in all three legs and obviously total time. First in my age group, 4th age grouper overall, and 15th place overall.
A result I was more than pleased with after being unsure of my race fitness. The speed work from November, December has payed off and I look forward to tough Ironman specific block in the next six weeks in my build up for Port Mac. All the signs are positive at the moment but I am definitely not at peak fitness yet. A big thankyou to all my sponsors, without your help I wouldn't have the first class products I do to ensure I get the most out of my training and racing.
