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Wollongong OTU Race

March 08, 2015 There is nothing more exciting than not having to pack up your bike up to go to a race. Wollongong has been my second home for the past four years and I couldn’t ask for a closer race to home with a 10 minute ride to race start. It didn’t even feel like I had to race. Being a local race, it was great to have so much local support from family and friends out on the course cheering us on. After Kinloch, I wasn’t happy at all with any part of the processes of that race so it was back to training and back to building up confidence in me, on what I knew I could do best.

I looked at Wollongong as a good training race leading into Mooloolaba and Auckland WTS, as I missed Devonport and a week or two of solid running with groin tightness. We have been training pretty hard over the past few weeks and the Saturday before the race was honestly a good physical and mental break to relax before the race. It felt like another training day being surrounded by the other girls I train with on a day to day basis. I knew the swim would be fast with such strong swimmers in the field so it would be as important to get on good feet from the start to make sure I didn’t miss the group in such a small field. I got to the first buoy without anyone touching me and the pace was hard but comfortable. Coming back into the shore, the pace slowed alittle and I decided I didn’t want that to happen so I put a surge in and came up beside the girls ahead of me. We exited the water with a group of 6 of us and one girl up the road. We ride over the course every day so I knew what to expect coming out of transition but I still had to be desperate. A small hill to sting the legs every lap coming out of transition, the pace was solid from the start. Within the first lap we caught Danielle and after that worked solidly as a group of 6, gaining time each lap. By the end of the bike, we had about 1 minute 20 over the chase group.  I was surprised how good I felt on the bike considering some hard sessions we had done during the week.

Coming into transition after the three laps, I knew I had to be near the front with the long run into transition. I mucked around alittle putting my shoes on and by the time we ran down to do a u turn before we ran out of transition, a gap had already formed. I have had some decent run sessions in the bank in my return to running and after a big week of training I didn’t know how I was going to feel. I found out pretty soon that I felt awful and just had no momentum especially on the grass sections of the run course. My run is still something I want to work on, stay injury free and get stronger throughout the year. I ended up crossing the line in 4th place behind my training partners and Australian Sprint Champ. It was nice to get back into the swing of racing and make the most of having a OTU race on home soul. A big thank you for all the support and well run event by Elite Energy. Looking forward to Mooloolaba World Cup next weekend!



WTS Abu Dhabi 2018 - my first WTS podium

March 05, 2018 

WTS Hamburg

July 17, 2018 

WTS Yokohama
 Natalie Van Coevorden

