ThailandUltras wrote:
waverider101 wrote:
they put on great events down sri chinmoy. when did they stop doing that one? Now they do something called the triple tri, which is 3 x 3 using the different lakes as the swims. thanks for sharing that story
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I think the last one was around 2006'ish. I started one other year down there and won the swim (I think) but got sick and didn't do the rest of the weekend. The problem was that they just couldn't get enough people interested in doing it so it got canned.
That 100k run was funny as satanellus is literally an Ironman legend having done over 30 Ironman Australia races so he was very well known down there the weekend of the festival. The Aussie Long Course Champ's were on the day we ran and we got right of way on our multi loop run as we ran through transition for the long course race. As people started arriving before sunrise to set up for the Long Course they found out what we were up to and satanellus a.k.a Paul Every was the local Rock Star with all kinds of people cheering him on. I was a nobody from Cairns so was ignored. When the pro's came out of the water they were held up as they tried to cross the road to T1 with satanellus and I running shoulder to shoulder after 9.5 hrs. They got right into it and cheered us on while they waited to continue with their race.It was pretty was cool and I remember the first thing satanellus said to me when I cross the finish 30 seconds behind him,he said "Don't spend the rest of the year trying to figure out how you could have made up that 19 seconds". It was a fun weekend and I was just lamenting to someone today about those old days when racing Ultra-Tri's was super cheap and simple,unlike now.
It's good to see the Sri Chinmoy Triple Tri is still going in Canberra, with its 26th edition this year. It's been going since 1996.
I haven't raced the Triple Tri, but it's a quirky concept with a totally point-to-point course, which provides plenty of challenges for both competitors and support crews. Three swims in different lakes, three mountain bike rides, three predominantly trail runs. The race start, the 8 transitions and the finish line all in separate locations, spead over a course totaling about 120km. Everyone I know who's done it, raves about it.
The Three Day Ultra Triathlon started in 1997. It was part of the Sri Chinmoy Triathlon Festival, with sprint and ODT races on the Saturday, and the Long Course Champs on the Sunday. It was one the biggest triathlon weekends in Australia in its early incarnations.
Not sure when it was last held but Nick's guess of 2006 sounds about right, but by that time the SC Tri Festival's glory days had sadly past. I raced it the first four years, finishing second, second, first and fourth.
The Friday morning 15km swim and the 400km cycle starting late afternoon/early evening and going into Saturday morning were very low key, with just the Sri Chinmoy team and the athletes' support crews at the event.
The run started at midnight on Saturday, on a 1.4km loop that went right through the middle of the transition area for Sunday morning's long course tri. Set parallel to the lake, the elongated narrow transition accommodated about 1000 bikes, so it was close to 100 metres for us to run through. Around 5am, the LC competitors would start to arrive and rack their bikes. For me that was the magical period of the race, with only about a marathon still to run and the chorus of birdsong just prior to dawn, the race venue would seemingly come alive as you'd welcome the encouragement from friends and other athletes as they prepped for the LC. The dynamic shifted with the daylight and the atmosphere would metamorphosise from covert to carnival.
Then there was a lull on the run loop, as the LC athletes and supporters disappeared to the lake's shore behind the trees and the starting gun would periodically sound, sending off the waves of triathletes. Soon enough, the pros would appear, racing in and out of transition, to be followed by the manic chaos of age groupers as the crowds also migrated to watch T1. As the transition emptied with the BOP departing, that's when the crowd unified attention and support would shift to the ultra tri, to the handful of us racing or simply endeavouring to grind out a finish.
By the time Nick and I were racing the 3 Day in '99, I'd raced close to 200 triathlons and was well enough recognised in the sport with a reputation as the hippy dude who did crazy shit. I'd been racing tris, marathons and ultras in Canberra for about 15 years and was well connected in the local endurance sport community. Most of the Tri Festival crowd were from Sydney like me. There was a palpable, visceral home-crowd feel for me, hours before the race came down to the final lap.
Nick deserved that win as much as I did. 19 seconds. I still wonder how many seconds the crowd was worth that day.