Cool temps, sunshine and Byron Bay, Wow, what a day this turned out to be! About 4 weeks ago, I was talking to a mate of mine when the subject of this run came up. Mike is a martial artist who also occasionally will do the odd run. We decided to enter the run as the course looked not only beautiful, but challenging (and challenging it was). At the last minute, the race organizer had to do a small course change which gave new meaning to “sand running”. To summarise: we had to run about 1k before going down to the beach. We went through a tough stretch of loose sand then along the beach to bypass the road that was undergoing construction. (the road we to originally to run on), then up a small climb, (again hitting the sand) out to the tarmac and started the climb to the lighthouse. Between breaths as my heart was bursting, I glanced over to the side and saw the wonderful South Pacific and said to myself: “It does not get any better than this” Once there, we circled the lighthouse and started a very hard decent. Back again on the same stretch of beach we were just on, then across the street to another beach (Tallows) and guess what? More soft sand (again!) down to the shore, along for 1k to a turnaround back through and going up a small grade till the home stretch. I came in top 25 or so, got a small drink and went back to run Mike in. It did not take long for me to see him and was very happy to see him finish his first 10Krun. Not the best course for a first time run, but now when he gets smooth flat courses, it will seem like a cakewalk. As for me, I just finished 14 seconds off podium, but I used it as a training day to warm up for a hard bike ride after the run. What a great, glorious day!!!

Clint “the cannibal” Arizmendi came out firing on 7 of 8 cylinders to start the Aussie tri season for System Jake. An overcast, hilly and very windy day greeted triathletes to shake off the cobwebs for the Maitland tri (2k Swim 60k Bike and 15K run) as well as a 5 and 10k run and smaller tri. As Clint is in the middle of training for long course worlds, this would be a good gauge to see where he was at and a good chance to flex it for the Women. It was also a good chance to swim on the treadmill as the start was going into a tough river current. Despite just coming off a tough training cycle, he was able to snag a 6^th place age group in the largest AG for the day. Vegas is next for Cliff and he is set to have a great day there.

Incidentally, local Pro Tim Reed is back from his U.S. season and along w/ local Pro (Lennox Head) Joe Lampe, went 1-2 in the open division and was two of only three people to break 3 hrs. for the day.

http://www.maitlandtriathlon.net/