Sam Betten - 2nd Hamilton Island Triathlon

Hamilton Island is a race that I have been meaning to do for a number of years now. The amazing location was something that really drew me to this event and this year I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to end my 2014 race season with this stunning race destination. Hamilton Island is a short flight from where I live in Brisbane and so I choose to fly in on Friday, the day before race day. First and foremost I must give a big thank you to Stephen Jackson and the entire race organisation as well as my amazing homestay family for hosting me over the race weekend.

Race Day: After a good nights sleep I woke up on race morning to an amazing view from my bedroom over the water where I would be swimming in a few hours time. Being that this would be my 3rd race in 3 weeks I was unsure on how my body would respond to the intensity of a hilly and hot sprint triathlon. I started towards the right side of the beach at the swim start and had a great run into the water. I even had the chance to spot a nice big stingray on the ocean floor less than a meter below me within the first 50 meters of the swim.

The first few hundred meters of the swim usually gives me a good indication of how I am feeling and I was somewhat surprised to be feeling as good as I did and leading 2 time Australian Olympic triathlete Courtney Atkinson. I continued to push the pace in the swim, feeling good and keen to capitalize on this. I emerged from the water with Courtney right on my heals and made a quick dash up the beach and into transition where I swapped goggles and my HUUB swim skin for my Specialized S-Works Shiv and Evade helmet. I hit the bike leg with Courtney and over the next 20kms, we extended our leg over the rest of the field. The Hamilton Island Triathlon is quite unique in the fact that the bike course in held over 3 laps along the airport runway. I must say that I did enjoy pushing the pace along this section of the course and rode extra hard to keep the speed high. The rest of the ride course is very hilly and technical which makes for a very interesting bike course. Coming into transition for the second time I made sure to push the pace and emerge onto the run course in first making Courtney chase. This was short lived and Courtney pushed the pace in the first kilometer over the hills out towards the flatter middle section of the course.

I pushed myself to keep up with his pace however just couldn’t keep up and dropped off after the first kilometer and a half. I continued to push to limit the gap, however, hit the wall on the final uphill section of the run course and lost some decent time. The final beach run to the finish was pretty special, as I don’t know many races which finish on the beach. I was pretty happy to finish second to Courtney as he really is a world class athlete and I was proud of myself of pushing hard and giving the race a real crack. Another bonus for my riding efforts was that I also picked up the prize for the fastest ride time for the airport runway section of the course.