SunSmart Karri Valley Triathlon – Saturday 26th March
RESULTS
Karri Valley Triathlon 2011 Long Course
Karri Valley Triathlon 2011 Short Course
RACE REPORT – 2011 EVENT
The extra distance and hot conditions made for tough racing as the field completed a 1.5km swim leg in Lake Beedelup, followed by a 60km bike ride along Vasse Highway and finished with a 12km trail run among the towering Karri forests in around the resort.
Some of the more experienced athletes claimed it to be the toughest race in WA and one of the best events they have been involved with. These comments from some of the leading figures in triathlon in WA are hopefully reflected of the general attitude of the participants. Although some have vowed never to return!!!, hopefully the unique nature of this event will ensure it is a “must do” race on the WA triathlon calendar.
Congratulations to Sean O’Neil, who won the event for the seventh consecutive time in 2 hour 50min. The overall female winner was Nera Jareb in 3 hour 17 min. There is a rumour that the resort is going to change its name to the Sean O’Neil resort if he gets to 10 in a row. Outstanding result by the comeback king Mikey Gee for an amazing race to run into 2nd position in the Open Category. A couple of hard luck stories amongst the open field with pro athletes Scott Neyedli experiencing a flat tyre and Danielle Cousins succumbing to asthma. Both would have no doubt finished high up in the placings.
We (STC) were obviously wrapped with how the event was perceived by most of the athletes, and while we are always stating that this event could not run without the countless VOLUNTEER hours put in by so many, as few deserve special mention. So please take 2 min out of your day to read the information below. Without them, there would be no race.
Please remember that we are a Perth based club and we need transport just about everything we need to run a race (equipment / motor bikes / personal) to a venue that is over 300km away (or 400 if you used imaps….). This takes a huge amount of man hours.
Leon and the Crew at Karri Valley Resort. This event would not happen without the cooperation and support from the crew at the resort. Every year, they prepare the site (mow grass, lay carpet across the gravel, clear up, sweep up, tidy up) and provide a lot of the basic equipment we need to run the event. When our sound system died at registration, they even had a spare PA system which we were able to utilise. Also this year we had the extra involvement of the SES crew (organised through Leon) for communication to the far end of the course. This is vital for emergency situations (which a few of you required during the event and resulted in a faster response time to these situations). Leon and the crew – we cannot thank you enough
Sam Prince. This race also would not happen without him. Sam and Felicity live in Busselton and drive across every year on the Friday with most of the equipment we need to run this race (transition racks, cones, swim buoys etc….). They assemble and disenable the transition area and then act as TOs during the race. They do this because they love this sport and this race and are putting something back into the sport.
Michael Priest. He is the man who puts together our traffic management plan and ensures it runs smoothly on the day. This involves a huge amount of paperwork (road traffic plans, approvals etc…) Furthermore, all those signs you saw on the course have to be transported in and accredited personal have to be trained to be used on the road (the lollypop crew). These guys ensure that you are safe on the road as it is not (and could never be) a closed road. This year there was more traffic than a regular Saturday afternoon and a greater proportion were towing caravans, trailers and horse floats. This caused some disruption to the field and we appreciate that the majority of you obeyed the rules that are put in place for your safety. Even if this cost you some precious time..
Others including John Palmer (Run Course Director – I bet you all appreciated those cold drinks), Grant Lawson, Slimbo Wiles and Shaun Sleep. These guys all took time off from their regular jobs and came down on Friday and assisted for the whole weekend. Why…. simply because they wanted to assist our club run a great race.
In addition, a heap of others all gave up 4 to 6 hours or more of their Saturday (plus travelling time) to assist. Some may have been there because their partners were racing but many were there again just to help. eg Chris and Suz Turner were meant to be racing, but pulled out a few weeks ago due to injuries. They could have cancelled their accommodation and stayed in Perth, instead they still came down and volunteered for the whole day. Chris was on the top of the hill as you came out of transition and must have been there for 5 hours directing runners up and down the hill…thank you..
Others included Mel Wray, Gen Nevard, Jill Fraser, Justine Bolton, Karl Thorstensen, Shayne Jones, Cathy Garbin, Rose Richards, Brigit Hoffman, Catherine Deady, Sarah Black, David Laidlaw, Jo Haggerty, Nat Spriggs, Grant Hetherington, Karen Heagney, Annie Brinkworth, Mark and Gus Lawson. I know many of the other short course competitors helped out with the drink stations during the long course event. Some of these people aren’t even STC members and their help was greatly appreciated.
Others, including Mikey Gee, Stu Peterson, Frank Powell and Darrin Stobba, all raced the long course and then hung around to help pack up. Even one of the TOs, Warren Milward, was there helping. I am sure there were others who assisted on the day, and apologies if you weren’t mentioned, but you help was truly appreciated.
However, in spite of all the assistance from these people, we were still short with the number of volunteers we needed to ensure the race ran smoothly (hopefully, this was not obvious to the competitors). Obviously with the extra race distance and increased competitors comes increased man hour requirements and perhaps we didn’t quite account for this. We will put processors in place for next year to help alleviate this.
All we ask is that you take a moment to think about all of the above and, if for some reason you are not in a position to race next year, please think about contacting us and assisting on race day. You can still enjoy a fantastic weekend away. Furthermore, if you can find Paul or Rob during the evening, they will certainly buy you a drink or two…
See attached link for some photos off the event. Also a few people have posted some on Facebook…
See you all next year (Date TBC).
If you keep coming, we’ll keep running it.
Rob Suriano and Paul Zani
Stadium Triathlon Club
SPONSORS
STC acknowledges our relationships with the following organisations for this event.
Please help us by supporting our sponsors
Sunsmart www.healthway.wa.gov.au
Karri Valley Resort www.karrivalleyresort.com.au
Carbo Shotz www.shotz1.com
Rick and the crew from 2XU Subiaco
Tri Oz Connect www.triozconnect.com
Avanti Plus Cannigton www.avantiplus.com.au
Triathlon WA www.triwa.org.au
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Please be advised that the SunSmart Karri Valley Triathlon on March 26 has sold out.
The race organisers are not accepting any late entries or creating a wait list for the event.
In possibly a triathlon first for WA, the entire cycle course of the Sunsmart Karri Valley Triathlon is available to be previewed.
The OUTWARD video starts as you are leaving transition. It is approximately 800m to the hwy and the official start of the cycle leg.
CYCLE COURSE OUTWARD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-fVx502vI
CYCLE COURSE INWARD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYLiJIfnQOw
Please be advised that entries for the 2012 race will open in late 2011. If you would like to be kept informed of these entry details, please send an email to contact@stadiumtriclub.com
