James Parker reports on his race at Ironman Western Australia in Busselton.

It seems common that when writing a race report it’s conclusive, much the same as a full stop. For me this race report is like the first word of a new sentence, or a new paragraph. The past two years have been tough with injuries and setbacks but they have now set me up for a fresh start, my new paragraph.

My run up to the race was actually a pretty nervous one. For the last couple of months running into the event I had a continually niggling running injury that reduced me to only two quality runs per week. Prior to these months I had been able to log some pretty solid weeks and my main hope was that I wouldn’t lose too much over these weeks of reduced workload. This was the first Ironman for a long while that I would actually say I was ready for aside from my running and that just added to the nerves. I knew though that I’d learnt a lot over my past few races making up the numbers.

I set myself up for the start close to the pier with the swim being a fairly simple out and back. I was a little concerned about being pushed into and under the pier but figured at least I only had to look to one side for people pushing me over. I was about level with the second row of pro’s to try and get straight on some feet. The start was pretty quick but I managed to settle quite comfortably. The start did come as a bit of a shock though as we were told at the race brief it would be a hooter start and yet, come race morning, they had a cannon set up – right over my head. I did the best I could to ignore the ringing in my ear and just hoped nothing was damaged, though I was half expecting some sort of problem. I was finding the swim quite easy though as we headed out to the turn and the water began to chop up, as it tends to 1.8k out, my stroke began to falter and as I headed round the turn I lost the feet of the main pack.

I tried not to panic though as I had a plan – the first two buoys on the way back were for sighting only and the pier had a big kink in the middle. I knew that if I swam away from the pier but headed toward the shore a bit more directly I’d still hit the last buoy and cut off the extra distance. I then started to slightly drift away and could see the main pack just off to my right. I then picked up my own guide canoe and continued to set my course. My single canoe then quickly became five or six. I became a bit puzzled by this but just kept plugging away focusing on my technique. One of the canoes came really close and I popped my head up and he said to head right - back to the pier to go round the first sighting buoy. I shouted as best I could they were for sighting only as they told us in the race brief but they seemed pretty insistent and this isn’t an argument I was going to be able to win so bit the bullet and headed back to the pier and round the turn buoy. I just had to move on from this so hunkered down and made my way to the beach. I stood and very quickly stripped my wetsuit off, I still can’t believe how quick my Helix is to get off, and hit the transition. I was as slick as I could be and grabbed my bike and it was then I noticed the abundance of bikes in the pro rack – quite unusual for me but pleasant for sure!

The bike course at Busselton is flat, so flat that a speed hump could be easily described as a hill!! I’d always considered myself good at this type of course as once I settle down I can sit all day on my USE TULA bars. With this type of course though comes a unique set of problems including rather obviously a lack of rest, no freewheeling here – you stop pedalling, you stop moving!! It took me a while to warm up and in this time Mitch Anderson had just blown by me. A little later Jason Shortis came by complete with a few leeches on his wheel. A slight acceleration and I was a safe 10m off the last wheel with a 7m draft zone. I sat on the back quite comfortably but was at the top end of my racing zone. I soon began to get frustrated though as the riders in front of me seemed to spend more time looking over their shoulders behind them for draftbusters than they did forward. As soon as a press bike came up they all split up and did their best to make legal distances. I decided I’d seen enough and returned back to the lower end of my race zone and let them drift off.

I was feeling pretty consistent the whole ride and it was as I came through to finish my second bike loop I caught Shortis who had been pinged for drafting. He was pretty dejected but kept rolling along. I had a job to do and tried hard not to let these other athlete’s actions affect my day. I settled down again and now tried to pick the pace up and ride at above my average but as soon as I did I had the onset of a flat spot. I tried to grab some coke from the aid-stations, which helped a little but not as much as I had hoped. I was still able to roll it home to finish the ride and swim in a total of 5hr36min. This was exactly where I wanted to be and entered T2 strong and relaxed. I had a laugh and joke with the “pit-crew” which is actually featured in the TV footage and headed out onto the run.

I knew from the outlet that I would break nine hours, a lot can happen on the run and in all my past races has but this time I just felt totally on top of myself. My nutrition was working exactly as it had in training and everything felt fine. At the start of the second of three laps I knew that my target time of 8:35 was slipping away though as my legs tightened up but kept plugging away. By the time the third lap had started I was in quite a lot of pain as my legs were now reacting to the lack of running coming into the race but I still managed to finish with a marathon PB! I was also within seconds of my finishing time at my debut at The Longest Day.

All in all I’m happy with my day but I’m happier with the prospect of what is to come. There’s a lot more in the tank and with some more run mileage I know that I can figure in the race a bit more and finally grab that so far elusive top ten slot.

I’d just like to thank my sponsors for all their help and support over the past months and years especially those that have taken so well to me moving to sunnier shores. I’m sure they will now understand why it was such a necessary move. Special thanks go to John Hill from fastgear.com.au who has provided me with all my high5 nutrition that I have now come to rely on in racing and training as well as a pair of compression socks that certainly helped during the race relief the stress in my calf’s!!!