mar.26.2006
It was with a great deal of pride and emotion that I walked out on to the MCG on Wednesday 15th March 2006 with my T&T team mates, in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. I had only arrived in the village that morning but had already been made to feel part of a team that had already been there together for a couple of days. It was great to see some of the “familiar” faces from Manchester as well as making some new friends.
The triathlon race day was simply amazing. When doing the course familiarisation it was apparent to me that this course was purpose built for spectators and boy was I right!
It was awesome, many of my friends and family were able to make the trip over from Perth to watch and support me and I was able to see and hear them four times on every run and bike lap. Plus Jason Gooding from T&T Triathlon and a couple other friends from Perth were there in an official capacity and I heard my name so many times from so many people that I felt like I was racing at home in Perth!! The size of the crowd was huge - no part of the course was unpopulated, but around the transition area and Luna Park it was 5-6 people deep and they didn't care where you were in the field, they clapped and cheered long and hard anyway.
The pace in the swim was incredible, I could not believe how fast they all swam. In Manchester, the lead girls swam fast, but with the rest strung out behind them I was able to pick up a few girls along the way in the ride to form a reasonable pack. I guess this race was a reflection of how the swim in triathlon has advanced in 4 years.
I was lucky enough to get out of the water with a girl called Karen from Bermuda, but I am not sure what she did in transition as I was out of there before she even had her wetsuit off and thus I resigned myself to a solo 40km bike effort. Which was fine. I felt great, if a little cold and went as hard as I could maintaining good rhythm and cadence and just enjoying the support of the crowd. I set myself a little goal while out there of not getting lapped and was happy to achieve that.
Once on to the run and again I was just happy to be feeling good after riding 40km solo and concentrated on holding my form and running as hard as I could. Again, I was trying not to get lapped but in the end couldn’t hold off Emma Snowsill who got me about 300m before the finish. Happy to hold the rest off though J
At the end of the day it is hard to measure improvement in triathlon as the times are sometimes meaningless due to inaccurate measurements and differing courses and conditions. However, this course was definitely tougher than Manchester but I was 4 minutes faster and I know I am a better athlete today than I was 4 years ago. At the end of the day, if you have an uninterrupted preparation and on the day of the race you feel great (both of which I achieved) then you know you will have raced to the best of your ability and I believe I did the best I could for my country and myself J
It was with great pride that I was able to represent Trinidad and Tobago and I hope my family over there is proud of me!!
I would like to thank the Ian and Jason at the T&T Triathlon Association; Mushtaque, Annette and all the team support staff for their words of encouragement and also Tanya Western for her words of support from afar!! The Games was a fantastic experience and now that I am back in Perth I am enjoying seeing my team mates on TV and cheering them on! I hope I can represent T&T with distinction again in the future and maybe I will be able to pay Trinidad a visit sometime soon as well!!