Cameron Brown 6th @ Challenge Shepparton

G'day from Australia

With only three weeks until Ironman Western Australia, I was keen to have a test race to see how the form was. I chose Challenge Shepparton some 2hrs north of Melbourne in the farming district of Victoria. It was a fast, flat course, similar to Ironman WA and nice and warm. Pity I picked up a sinus infection two weeks ago that has not been easy to shake and I'm still suffering from it, but hopefully it will be gone this week! 

The swim was held in Lake Victoria right in the center of Shepparton. My race began in a bad way only 200m into the swim, when I was forced to stop and try to breath! With my sinuses blocked I was unable to fully take in enough oxygen and I still had a coughing fit on top of that. I continued to swim though slowing again, but I was now last and a long way behind. I tried to reduce my losses and swim at a steady pace until the swim-finish, thus I was able to catch a few guys by the end of the swim.

Onto the bike and already 5mins down, I now just wanted to have a solid training day after the swim setback. I went about getting into an Ironman mode and again picked up a few more places by the end of the fast flat 90km bike. I was off the bike way outside of the top-15 and thought I would try and see if I could have a good run. I was actually feeling a little better a few kilometers into the three-lap run. With the sun now at full strength, things were starting to heat up and luckily we had some much needed shade as the temps were now into the 30's °C. During each lap I was continuing to pick up athletes in front of me and by the second lap, I had made my way into the top-10 overall. During the final lap I was able to pick off a few more guys and clock the 6^th best time of the day. It wasn’t the result I was after, but I know the form is there and hopefully this week I will get rid of my sinus infection.