A special place, a special race

There can be no beating around the bush here: Noosa is awesome.

We've been at this Aussie tri mecca for about 24 hours now after the comedy journey up here from Brizzy which Ozzer has already touched upon. I guess it was meeting the likes of Olympic marathoner Lee Troop on the bus journey which made me realise we were travelling to something special.

The Noosa Tri is no ordinary tri and something tells me this race experience will be no ordinary race experience. It's Australia's biggest race, which is one thing, but its appeal seems to stretch way beyond the tri world. Superstars and legends from all sports are being shipped into Noosa by the bus load ready to either race, spectate, commentate or just 'be seen' at the Noosa Tri Festival.

Although the triathlon isn't until Sunday morning, before then there's a whole host of events and races. For those in it for fun there's the breakfast fun run, the waiters' race - which sees waiters from Noosa's restaurants and bars go head to head carrying trays full of drinks along the main street, or the search for the Noosa Tri model. For the more competitive, there's the Noosa 5k Bolt, the 1km Ocean Swim and the bike crit, all of which attract athletes from these respective sports who are legends in their own right. I'm going to sign up for the swim tomorrow and apparently Kieran Pierkins (the David Beckham of Aussie swimming), Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe are regulars in the race. That'll be me as the shark bait then ;-)

I guess the most amazing thing about the race is that this year is its 25th anniversary which, for a triathlon, is a pretty huge deal. Considering the legendary Hawaii Ironman was only started in the mid to late 80s, the fact this race was started in 1982 when tri was barely known says a lot. Back then volunteers recorded the race results with paper and pencils as triathletes crossed the line and the two founders camped in transition overnight to look after the bikes. Twenty five years later there are thousands of competitors coming into Noosa from all over the world and there are TV crews, media managers and a limited edition Asics trainers dedicated solely to the race. One thing's for sure, although I'm far from being in peak condition for this race, it's certainly going to be one to remember for more than just swim-bike-run.