Raby Bay tri – Beginners’ Graduation Race

And the winner is….Triathlon!

Our journey began eight weeks ago when 19 fresh faced potential new triathletes, and this old one, signed up for the SBTC Beginners Group for 2024.  Our focus for this course was the QTS Raby Bay Triathlon on 3rd March.  We were a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, fitness, and experience levels, just what this great inclusive sport is all about.  Our coaches Simon and Nic made us all feel welcome from the start, with a group catch up after a South Bank ParkRun before we began to lay out what was ahead of us.  Then it was time to set those alarms for 4:30am every day and get crackin’!

Our coaches had put a great deal of time an effort into making our training and information sessions as inclusive, informative and productive as possible, and it showed.  Early morning runs, bike skills and rides, open and pool swimming, as well as information sessions on nutrition, triathlon rules and injury prevention.  We could not have asked for a more comprehensive introduction into the sport – and we thank you!  Even this Noosa ‘Legend’ learnt some new tricks too.

On race day driving down to Raby Bay I was excited for the race ahead, but also to finally be able to share my love of the sport with my fellow Beginners.  The day was overcast, but not too hot, which was great.  The beautiful sunrise over the harbour greeted us while we set up our transitions and made our last-minute checks to make sure we hadn’t missed anything; as per our great training sessions.  There were Beginners competing in both the Sprint and Club Distance races, alongside regular members.

As we were lining up for the deep-water start, the SBTC Club Members were on hand to give us some awesome advice about the swim which our Beginners very much appreciated.  With nerves high we took the leap into the water and become triathletes.  The swim start came as a little surprise to a few of us, thinking we might have been treading water for a little longer than we were, but once the gun went, we were off!  

It was amazing to see the transformation of everyone in the water from the start of the course, to race day, their confidence had definitely grown in the last eight weeks, thanks to our Open Water and Pool Squad sessions.  The ramp took some extra navigation to due the low tide but once we were up and into transition we were well and truly in race mode.  The bike was a lap course which I personally liked as I got to see my fellow Beginners out there pushing hard and putting their new skills to use, and most importantly, cheering each other on.  And they all had smiles on their faces.

The run was also a lap course so there was some high fives while we were getting it done.  The water station was a great added bonus for us too, as it was manned by our lovely fellow Bankers cheering us on.  Thank you guys.  Best cheer squad went to Mateo and Caroline though, they bought a whole squad with this, straight from a night out, haha.  Everyone had a smiled on their dials as they came around the corner for the last time and cross the finish line and became a fully fledged triathlete.  To cap it all off we even had three podium finishes in the group, including me who was almost one of the last to finish.  Just shows that it’s about who turns up on the day and I still had to finish the same race as everyone else.

I’m sure all the Beginners would like me to thank our amazing coaches Nic and Simon who saw us at our very best early in the mornings, Anthony for his technique drills at the pool, Heather for her membership advice, and for all the other Club Members who had helped us on our journey along the way.  As I have already been a member of the club for many years, just not turned up for training, hopefully you will see me and some of my new fellow athletes at training again one day soon.  Well done to all our Beginners!