Lindsey Wall - Lindsey Wall

After mostly racing in long course triathlons this season, it was nice to do a race that wouldn’t leave me smashed for the following week. After a disappointing race at huski long course (8th pro), I was determined to prove to myself that I am in good form and capable of mixing it up with the other professional athletes in triathlon.
It was cool to be racing in the coffs harbour tri festival. It brought me back to the early days of the event when I was about 7yrs old racing in the little aquathon.
A strong field assembled for the race including 2x Olympian and commonwealth gold medallist Brad Kahlefeldt. My regular Sunday handicap surf racing came in handy for this race with a beach start and little shore dump. I got off to a good start and managed to get around the first turning buoy in first. That’s when Kahlefeldt and Pearson came gliding past. I got on the feet of Pearson and was feeling comfortable. Unfortunately there was some confusion at the next turning buoy which left us all fighting to get back on track, and left us all swimming solo. From then I settled into a
good tempo and minimising any time loss.

After a quick T1 I had mowed down Pearson, and Kahlefeldt was in sight. We set a strong pace all the way out to the 10km turn and we were closing in on the lead. Brad could see we were catching so he put the hammer down. After lap 1 (20km) the lead was still in sight and I was feeling good on the bike. I really pushed hard on the 2nd lap, was closing in on 1st and putting time into Pearson.


I got to T2 within about 20seconds to Kahlefeldt, although with his running ability, it was going to be a fast run. I was feeling a fair bit of fatigue in the run, and I was losing time on the lead, but still increasing my lead on 3rd. II just tried to maintain a good tempo and keep my position for the run. I finished 2nd, less than 2 minutes down on 1st.

I am really happy with the result, it’s always nice to be on the podium, it really helps to justify all the hard work, time and money I put into the sport to make sure I’m able to reach my potential.

Huge thanks to all the organisers and volunteers who made the weekend so successful and enjoyable. Had a great weekend and will surely be back next year to go one better!

I also got my first bit of air time on the local NBN news. Check it out http://www.nbnnews.com.au/index.php/2014/03/02/win-for-lennox-head-athlete-in-coffs-triathlon/