Dodging crocodiles and killer jellyfish, climbing hills on the big ring and smashing a half marathon in tropical North Queensland sunshine - all in a morning's work for #TeamTCUK athlete Sarah Hutchinson as she tackled IM70.3 Cairns!

Moving to Melbourne with work in August of last year meant I had the opportunity to compete in a race in the Southern Hemisphere. Searching for events I looked up Busselton initially but after the swim had been cancelled a few times recently due to the sharks I decided to enter Cairns instead as I’d heard great things about this race in north Queensland.

Training for this event went well making the most of the summer and autumn months for cycling and sea swimming with the taper just creeping into winter. I made the most of the start of the Aussie cross country season to get some run races under my belt leading up to race day. Training was fairly consistent even with a few long days working away from home, on call duties and some exams thrown in I managed to get done what was needed and luckily for me this year, no injuries.

Tony and I travelled to Cairns on the Thursday before the race it was only a 3 hour flight so nothing too tiring. We stayed in Palm Cove which is where the race started. After finding our bearings we found out the race was a spilt transition (Sarah hadn’t done her pre-race research!) with the bike leg ending up in Cairns which was about 30K from our hotel.

On the Thursday evening we took a walk along the beach to check out the swim course and noticed signs along the seafront warning of crocodiles and stingers (jelly fish) lethal ones which could potentially cause death! I knew about crocs in Queensland but I really didn’t expect there to be a risk where the Ironman event took place!

Anyway, on Friday morning I decided to bite the bullet and do a practise swim in there. There were a few other competitors swimming which put my mind at rest. The water was nice and warm (24 degrees) like a mill pond but as brown as the river Thames (so no chance of seeing any crocs about even if they were any in there!) I registered on Friday afternoon in Cairns and checked out the bike to run transition there were different transition areas for the full and half distance races. I took my bike out Friday afternoon on part of the course just to check the bike over which left Saturday fairly free to take my bike to run transition bag to Cairns & rack the bike & drop my swim to bike bag in Palm Cove.

Most of the people staying nearby were there to race so the resort had a real buzz about it. We even spotted a few of the pros at the expo who were there to do the full distance race.

Race morning arrived and the event started at 6:30am which meant an early start. Being so close to the swim start I decided to put my wetsuit on halfway at the hotel and walk down to T1 to put nutrition & drinks on the bike and pump up the tyres. It was so dark and there were no lights in T1 it was only 20 minutes before the start of the race and I was thinking I hope it gets light soon or I’ll be swimming in the dark with the crocs! The air temperature was nice and warm it was 21 degrees already.

I could hear the waves crashing onto the beach but I thought nothing of it at the time. A few people got in the water, it was nice and warm the day before so I just did a land warm up as no need to acclimatise to a water temperature of 24 degrees.

Swim: 34:24

The swim was a rolling start and I decided to place myself in the first wave. I could hear Tony in my ear saying get in that front group and go out hard to get some space, so here I was amongst the madness! The swim was a one lap anticlockwise loop so no Aussie exit to faff about with (bonus). The iron distance swim followed the same course as the half only we turned off their course to head back, which was marked by yellow turn buoys.

Off went the claxon and into the sea we went. The start wasn’t too congested and I quickly got my own space the water was choppy much choppier than yesterday (yep that’s why I could hear the waves crashing earlier) so sighting and getting to the first buoy was hard work. I was thinking it’s got to get easier when we turn at the first buoy and swim horizontally following the beach line but no it was still hard going. There were swimmers all over the place with the current and the buoys were difficult to spot even with my swim style (anyone who has seen me swim will understand what I’m on about). Luckily I can bilateral breath which helped enormously. I just kept going and tried to think strong pull through, just keep going, ignore everyone else! Whoop I made it to the yellow buoys a bit of congestion as I navigated around these two buoys and I thought to myself let’s get turned round and the current has to be pushing me home.

Once I’d turned around the second yellow buoy it was easier to see the marker buoys and I managed to catch a group of swimmers that were ahead and I stayed with them. We hit the final turn buoy back to shore but I couldn’t see a finish gantry (there wasn’t one!) Apparently they decided not to put it up because of the wind! Following faster swimmers I headed towards the beach and out the water, it seemed like I’d been in there for ages but on the plus side no crocs or jelly fish en-route. I looked down at my watch it had switched itself off, ahhh technology you’ve got to love it! Anyway not to worry about swim time start to get out of the swimming attire Sazzle & find the bike! It was a long transition we had to run all the way around the transition area to the racked bikes. There was still plenty of bikes racked near mine (my age group) including an identical bike which the day before Tony and I had joked about what would you do if someone accidentally took your bike out on the course to which Tony responded only an idiot would take someone else’s bike out Sarah! T1 was uneventful. I had to pack my wetsuit, goggles and swim hat into my swim to bike bag after putting on my bike gear and then off I went.

I managed to catch a glimpse of Tony whilst on my way out which lifted my spirits ready for the bike leg.

Bike: 2:52:09

The sun was out and it was lovely to get out on the bike and not be shivering after the swim. The first 30km of the bike course takes you out along the Captain Cook highway along the coast towards Port Douglas (the half course turnaround was before Port Douglas the iron distance course turn around was at Port Douglas) this part of the course was stunning! The road was winding next to the sea with some undulations to keep things interesting. The highest point was Rex’s lookout which was a short climb but nothing too difficult (I got up it in the big ring).

There was a tail wind on the way out which meant it was going to be a bit harder for the 60km ride going back to Cairns (T2). It got really hot and sunny out on the bike and I thought I’m going to be burnt to a crisp by the end the race as I doubt the factor 50 survived the swim! Anyway nothing I could do about that so I just kept hydrated and ate every 30mins on the bike. Luckily my bike computer was working and I managed to stick to the numbers I’d trained with.

I managed to catch a few people up in the later stages of the bike leg but also got overtaken by quite a lot of people on the way out. I had no idea how I was doing not everyone had placed there category tattoos on their leg so I just stuck to my own pace and enjoyed the bike leg.

It was nice to hit Cairns and see some support as there wasn’t much in the way of spectators out on the bike course and it was good to hear Tony cheer me on as I got to T2 (he’d managed to get there by car with some closed roads phew I didn’t fancy the 30km bike ride back to the hotel after the race!) I looked down at my bike computer a sub 3hr bike leg (happy with that as biking is my weakest link). Bike racked, bike gear off, running bag out and on went the trainers. I packed my bike gear in my bike to run bag and left it with my bike.

Run: 1:44

Out on the run it had clouded over now so not as sunny but it still felt really hot & I was praying the clouds would bring some rainfall to cool things down a bit but no such luck. Great we were running at the hottest part of the day but there were feed stations every 2km with nutrition, water and ice. The run was x2 10km laps which was flat but had some dead turns and I couldn’t really remember it exactly but there was plenty of support and I was passing people. I’d got the Garmin back on for the run leg and kept an eye on my heart rate. Although my pace was slower than I wanted to run my heart rate was high enough (possibly due to the heat) so I kept to that pace. On the second lap I walked through a few aid stations to grab ice and get plenty of fluid down. Tony gave me a tip for running in the heat which was to hold ice in my both hands, it helped! Walking through some aid stations affected my total run time however I was overtaking people who hadn’t stopped to take on plenty of water etc.

I saw Tony a few times out on the course and he shouted out a few comical statements to keep me going. I still had no idea where I was in my age group. I just tried to focus on the runners ahead and tried to make up some ground on them, reaching other groups of runners kept me entertained on the run leg even if they were a lap behind. During the final few miles my feet were really sore and I could feel my left quad cramping (maybe climbing on the bike in big ring wasn’t such a good idea) never mind I was nearly there now. I just wanted to finish and take my trainers off, my feet we’re on fire!

Finish time: 5:17:21

Over the line I was greeted by the Ironman team who threw a finisher’s medal around my neck and a towel of all things (I was roasting and having a towel wrapped around me was the last thing I wanted , however it came in handy to mop the brow).

I wandered into the athletes tent for some water and went to find Tony where he had the athlete tracker handy and told me I’d come 4th in my AG out of 53. I was 3rd out the swim. I was disappointed with my swim time initially but once I reviewed everyone else’s times it made me feel better. 9th place off the bike (I usually go backwards after the swim) I ran myself back up to 4th place in a slower than I wanted half marathon time but again after reviewing competitors times I realised it wasn’t too shabby really. I was really surprised with my overall place and pleased with my result.

I quickly got changed and we hung around to watch the pros on the full distance course before collecting my bike and gear then headed back to Palm Cove. There were x2 slots up for grabs in my AG for the world champs in South Africa. If I’d hung around for roll down I would’ve got a slot (it rolled down to 17th) the winner of my AG won the ladies race out right and her AG at Kona in 2016 she didn’t take her slot either! South Africa is so far from Australia I’ll save that qualifying spot for another race nearer to Oz or the UK.

Overall this race was organised very well in a beautiful part of Queensland. I’m even tempted to give it another go next year. It’s humid, it can be windy but the scenery on the bike course is spectacular. We had a few days after the event to recover and experience the rain forest, see some crocs in the wild and snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef where we saw a reef shark and a turtle! I would highly recommend this event (or the full distance) if anyone would like to do a race and have a holiday this side of the world!