Bala Falls Race Report from Scott Knowles

By Scott Knowles, Member of the Recharge With Milk Ambassador Team

Bala Falls triathlon… This is where my family became triathlon addicts. Our cottage being just on the other side of the 400, Bala was close and convenient to get to. Mom, my uncle, and aunt had competed in the relay for a few years when my eldest brother Tim decided to do it by himself in 2006.

After that we began going crazy. Going to every Give it a Try we could fit in our schedule, looking at road bikes, finding wet suits and training for this new sport. Luckily for us Bala had a Give it a Try for a few years so we could compete while we were just starting up. It then became the first race longer than a Give it a Try that I had ever done. One benefit was that with our cottage being so close, this was the road on which we trained on a regular basis. This was extremely helpful for such a challenging and technical course when you knew every hill and corner. Bala was also the last race my mom beat me at back in 2010.

It’s safe to say there is a lot of history for my family behind this race and I was very excited to be competing here again and trying to set a personal best for the distance.

Swim:

With no swim coach, (or any coach for that matter) it’s not always easy to know what you’re doing wrong other than not training enough. Recently however, I’ve been trying to make improvements to my swim form, which luckily have been having an effect on my swim times, which I can only conclude means I’m doing something better. I came out strong in the swim and tried to hold my ground. There was some rough patches with a fair amount of swimmers around me, but in the end it turned out alright. Checking the clock as I headed out on the bike confirmed that my swim was faster than usual and I was feeling good getting on my bike.

Bike:

The bike got a little bit wet for portions, but as I had mentioned earlier, I know this course like the back of my hand and with the freshly paved road it would be no problem. I pushed to keep a strong pace without killing my legs for the run. In the end everything went great and I felt great coming off my bike.

Run:

Coming out of transition I was feeling very little fatigue and could see myself having a strong run. I have been trying to focus on improving my run times and it was finally feeling like it was paying off. I made sure I didn’t blow all my energy in the first 4 kilometers, then started to pick up the pace. I kept speeding up for my last 3.5km and managed to set a new personal best by a minute.
Overall I was extremely happy with the race. I think I could have run faster to break 1:40 but at least there’s lots of room to keep setting new bests in the future. It was also nice being able to cheer on the rest of my family as they came in afterwards.

Follow Scott’s exploits at his blog.