Australia, big country, great people and every tim ethey put on an event it is special, no surprises that Busselton in Western Australia delivered a fantastic day for the 2007 IM WA. This is advertised as a fast course, flat ride and run, good surfaces and the pros were being hyped up to beat the world record. Jason Shortis put in a sub 8 hour here in 2006.

You could not have asked for better conditions. Temp cool in the morning only a hint of breeze. One of the icons of this town is a 1.8 km jetty which shoots straight off the white sandy beach out through shallow water. A perfect setting to send 997 athletes off in the swim and a good guide for swimmers like me who struggle to keep a straight line. The water was millpond and as the gun launched at 6:15 this felt like a good day.

My swim was average, off my best. I tended to get a bit close to the wharf and battled the chop a little, especially out in the deeper water where the waves picked up. Feeling the heart rate going up I backed off and just tried to find cruise mode. Never really got comfortable. Got out 1 hr 2 min, my good mate has a great photo of me uttering words my grandmother would never use. Others however had a scorcher, the lead pro out in under 45 min 300 metres clear of anyone else. Another friend of mine out in a PB 55, so conditions excellent.

Great transitions here, straight out of the water, turn the brain toward the next task and thru the racks, I flew out as fast as possible and hit the road. Steadied the pace to get the heart rate back in zone, set the cadence at 90 and settled in. To say the road surface is good is a lie. It was fan-damn-tastic. The coarse is flat and follows an 'h' shape, 3 laps. The tar seal in most places was new and dead smooth. the wind was never really a problem. First 60 km lap, 1:46 split, passed by a lot of very excited riders, many whooping and high fiving as they got the tail wind on the way out. Second lap 1:45 and felt good, I always find hours 2-4 most comfortable and today was no exception. Last lap passed back a lot of very tired riders, not a lot of whooping apparent any more. In these events the scalps I like to collect are pros I pass and people with expensive disk wheels. In the second column I lost count. Split time 1:45, very happy. Some quick arithmetic and a 3:32 marathon required to break the 10 hour barrier.

Again a superb transition set up, which I blitzed thru thanks to some fast volunteers and onto the run. The nutrition plan had worked well and I felt pretty even starting the run. The temp was low twenties and a nice cross wind which meant you always had a cooling breeze and never a head, or worse, trailing wind. The run here is a flat 3 loop circuit along the waterfront on a sealed path. Plenty of locals along the way and aid stations every 2 km. First loop 1:06, shit hot, just needed to hold the form and hope my legs lasted. The pain started about 18 km's in but my head was OK. Second loop 1:11, holding to just over 5 min km's but could I keep it going. The hurt was really starting but I was holding onto 5 minutes just keeping it together. Coming down the last lap I was desperatley trying to lift but the heart rate wouldn't come out of zone II. Big muscle groups failing one after the other, left quads, right quads, left hamstring, left calf, right calf. I really don't know what I was using to run those last few km's. With about 4 km to go, legs fragged I gave it death, cliiped off two male pros to add to the scalp tally. My good mate who was watching has some good video, and it is obvious my form here was vanishing as I tried to recruit any muscle fibre left twitching. Only just keeping it together I lifted for the last km to get down the shoot looking less like a jellyfish and more like a decent runner, time on clock.....10 hours 3 minutes.

A huge thanks to all those volunteers, the day is impossible without them. I really have to recommend this course to anyone thinking of travelling to an overseas IM. Fly into Perth, travel south and spend some time in the sleepy beach town before your race. A huge number of vineyards to keep your support crew entertained The race is well organised and the circuit is fast. It is also the only IM, I believe to offer a teams entry, they start later but complete the same course

Oh for 3 minutes, but in the end I left nothing on the course and ran the race the entire day on the redline limit of my ability, that is all you can ask of yourself and all you can give.