Australia was a long way to go for a triathlon, but really worth it.
I created an album with a bunch of pictures and movies from the trip. Below are some of them with some quick descriptions.
In 2023 I qualified for the 2024 USA triathlon (USAT) nationals when I came in 1st in my age group at Mighty Man Montauk Olympic triathlon. There’s a quick recap of that season here. I was still coming off an injury so pretty happy to qualify for nationals. In 2024 at nationals in Atlantic City (quick recap in my NYC marathon race report) I qualified for the world age group championships, again coming off an injury that summer. 2025 Worlds was to be held in Australia, which I wanted to make into a vacation destination race trip.
The race was in Wollongong, about 90 mins south of Sydney.
This picture is in Wollongong, the harbor is where the swim starts, we swam out of the harbor then did a quick loop outside of the wall and back in. The pools in the foreground are just ocean water pools, so cool. We ran around the lighthouse in the background during the 3 laps of the run.
That’s me running up the hill around the lighthouse. It got real old by the third time.
Overall the race went well, I finished a few minutes behind my tune up race time a month before. Considering the jet lag, rented bike, and heat I’m happy with the result.
This might have been my favorite swim, and it was crowded. Usually during age group swim starts I settle in alone between the front pack and main group, this time I wasn’t alone, these are all also faster swimmers so the main group included me. We were side by side all the way out of the harbor and halfway around the loop. When we got close to leaving the harbor we could really feel the swells, up and down. The water was crystal clear, and maybe a little cold for beach going, but perfect temperature for a race.
The bike course was also crowded, my wave was second to last to go, and the bike and run course were 3 laps, so all the people before us were still on the course. I had a rented road bike that was a size too small (because I didn’t want to lug my bike around Australia). I still managed a decent time, matching what I did on a hilly course in the rain a month before in NY.
The run is where the wheels came off, after the first lap I could tell the heat and/or jet lag was getting to me. My legs didn’t want to go anymore. Still finished a decent time, but a few minutes slower than my tune up race.
After the race the real vacation started, we went to Sydney first. Above is Bondi Beach from a trail along the coast.
Along that trail was another ocean water pool, great to just swim in and cool off while walking the path.
We also got to a wildlife sanctuary and saw all kinds of animals up close. We could pet and feed the kangaroos. After Sydney we headed to Uluru where it rained on us, which was good and bad, good because it wasn’t 100F anymore but bad because a bunch of our tours were cancelled because wind and rain.
Next we flew up to Cairns where we stayed on a boat for 3 days to snorkel and scuba on the great barrier reef. This was my favorite part of the trip.
We had a pretty nice cabin and the water was so blue and clear.
While snorkeling we saw so many different kinds of fish. And even a couple sharks and turtles. Also all the coral. The days were packed with 3 dives and they took the boat to different reefs at different points. There were close to 40 of us (the max capacity) on the boat. We got there by taking a different boat and meeting the one that stayed out on the reef.
This turtle was one of the first things we saw after renting a camera the second day of the boat trip.
This is when we saw two sharks swimming casually around the reef.
Overall an amazing trip, and I did a race too. The flight was pretty long (21 hours in the air and a layover) so I only wish I got to spend more time over there.