My First Race Win!!

It seems like so long since my last blog entry. A lot of things have happened since then.

I had my first race back since Kona at Shepparton 70.3 in a Team with Fossil (aka Dad) and Justin. The swim was my duty for the day and without really having any swimming since Kona (3 times in the week leading in) it was going to hurt. I managed a 28min 33sec swim for the 1.9k which I was happy with although after running into Transition, I don't think Fos was happy with me vomiting on his feet before he headed out on the bike!!

Dad rode a very strong 2hr 24min which improved our position by 6-7 spots heading into the run.

Justin headed out onto the run after backing up from a fine 2hr 57min Melbourne Marathon a few weeks back and ran our team into 4th for the day. A great first race back for us!

So, after this race I headed across the South Australia to race the Murray Man race over a long course distance 2/80/20. Without and real expectations for this race I just wanted a solid race before my next hit out.

The swim was very similar to Shepparton as it was in a lake with minimal visibility. I got out of the water with the lead pack in around 30min 30sec (splits to be confirmed) and headed out onto the bike course. Little did I know that I had a good T1 and was 3rd onto the bike course. Following strict instructions from Andy (super coach), I rode within myself and after 50k's decided that I was not going to destroy myself in this race as I have bigger fish to fry soon.

Getting off the bike in around 2hrs 4min (tbc) I knew that I was about 4min down on the leader heading onto the run. My plan for the run was to go out hard for the first 5k's and then switch off and save the legs. If I could hang onto 2nd for the day I would be happy. After the first lap, I really settled back and started to plod along.

Getting time splits from my support crew, I was informed that I was only 2min down with 10k's to go. This really surprised me as I never thought that I could run time into him. So, I picked up the pace a little and thought that I might as well have a bit of a crack. With 5k to go, I was only 1min 15sec down as per the Commentator and with Paul & co giving me massive encouragement I thought that I might as well try to win this race.

I managed to hit the lead with 2k to go and then hit the wall. Had a little walk and got going again. With about 1k to go I knew that I was no longer the hunter and was getting hunted at a rapid rate. I kept turning around to see my gap and had to give it one last crack to stay in front.

I managed to hold on and take my first ever overall race win. I was so elated and over the moon considering that I was using this as a race to sharpen myself up for my next adventure.

It was a fantastic weekend and with Tom Rodgers taking out the 1/2 Murray Man, it was a great day all round.

Male - Murray Man - Berri- Barmera Council

Place Race No Name Division DivP Time

1 89 Xavier Coppock M30-34 1 4:08:20
2 3 Kevin Fergusson EliteMen 1 4:08:49
3 78 James Duffy M25-29 1 4:09:45
4 73 Toby Richardson M25-29 2 4:17:39
5 75 Adriano Pavia M25-29 3 4:19:41
6 4 Nick Muxlow EliteMen 2 4:21:11
7 113 Michael Hogben M45-49 1 4:23:24
8 108 Shaun Richards M40-44 1 4:24:21
9 138 Nathan Mercurio M25-29 4 4:27:36
10 76 Sean Kinchington M25-29 5 4:28:05
11 5 Philip Lean EliteMen 3 4:30:39
12 90 Rhys Davie M30-34 2 4:32:05

For now it is back to training and preparing myself to try and get back to the Big Island.

X-Man

PS... A HUGE congrates to fellow training partner Greg Farrell who tore apart IMAZ on the weekend in 9hr 12min to Qualify for his first Hawaiian Ironman. Fingers crossed I can join him agian!