The Roma crew consisted Mick Gray, Bruce Duck and Tahnee Duff. We made our ways to Toowoomba on Saturday and enjoyed an overnighter to get that extra bit of pre race sleep. The event was held at the Highfields Aquatic Centre and hosted by the Toowoomba Tri Club.
A strong field of 54 contested the Sprint event necessitating 4 swim waves with 2 competitors per lane. Tahnee and Mick snuck into the 1st wave and Bruce the 2nd. The swim was in a 25m pool which I was initially a bit apprehensive about but all went well and I was 7th heading into the bike and Tahnee 4th female.
The ride was undulating and consisted of 5 x 4km loops of a rectangular shape course so plenty of left hand turns. Owing to the nearby church and Sunday trading at the shops you were constantly on the look out for, and giving way, to vehicles which broke your rhythm but kept you alert. Mick rode reasonably well but dropped back to 9th by the run. The bike is Bruce’s strong suit moving up a whopping 31 places from the swim with a great ride!
The run was an out and back course, slightly downhill out and uphill back. Mick was running injured and it showed, fading back to 20th by the end. We all managed a podium finish in our respective age groups and it was a good hit out to start the series. Unfortunately we had no support crew with us so photographic evidence of our exploits are lacking.
Many thanks to Aaron Crawford and his crew at the Toowoomba Tri club for not only this event but the hard work that has gone into getting this series off the ground.
Looking forward to seeing as many Roma members as possible attending Race 3 on Jan 21st – it’s again being hosted by the Toowoomba Tri Club but this time staged and at the 50m pool at Oakey.
