Busso 100 Course Race Report

Busso 100 is part Festival of Triathlon where the town of Busselton hosts 2 days of racing. I signed up to do the Busso100 course a longer distance event.

Busselton Festival of Triathlon – Busselton Festival of Triathlon really was a festival of triathlon having all different race types. Saturday they had a a sprint distance (busso 25) and kids.

Sunday they had duathlon, aqua bike, busso 50 (olympic) and busso 100 (long distance). Busso 100 follows the 100km triathlon format which was my first time attempting.

This event felt very local vs the ironman busselton event in December. Far less international competitors and a lot more clubs and local support. Also, meant accommodation was a lot easier to find even few months out from race. We stayed on Duke street – walking distance from transition area.

Busso 100 Course Swim

Swim starts in waves (vs open water start at Ironman New Zealand) by age and gender with teams going last. The pros head off first.

I must say I prefer waves by self seeding which leads to far less madness in the water having fast swimmers booting up from the back sometimes even over you. Especially team swimmers who were basically sprinting.

A unique swim course. You don’t swim under the jetty and have an aussie exit thrown in for good measure.

I did give JP the wrong start time and he never checked the athlete guide himself. I got mixed up with the female wave time for 25-29 not the males so he started 10mins later with the women.

2026 had unbelievable conditions. Not a wave in sight. 2025 complete opposite.

This picture by Scenic Helicopter Flights in Margaret River, Albany and across Western Australia!

Busso 100 Course Bike

All course maps can be found here: Course Maps & Wave Starts – Busselton Festival of Triathlon

The bike was very similar to Ironman Western Australia course but just 3 fingers instead of 5. Still a fast course but funky wind patterns.

Aid stations had no gels or bananas though – that was annoying.

Busso 100 Course Run

Aid stations did have gels but on a table instead of handing them out. Lots of fluids you would expect. They had pure gels and they were very easy to ingest. Will consider buying those going forward.

An amazing blue carpet to finish off the course.

Training for busso 100

This event was a bit of last minute decision only signing up 3 weeks ago the day before transfers deadline. I’m very much not a person to lie when I say I wasn’t best prepared.

After Ironman New Zealand at start of March (the big peak in the volume charts) I needed a reset. I wanted switch it up so started upper body strength training in the gym for the first time in 4 or 5 years.

I also focused on trying to improve my FTP where I was doing 2 sessions a week on Rouvy. It works with my zwift click so was an easy switch over. They focus on real race routes which personally I find helps time fly by making the indoor sets a lot easier to do.

Besides that I did a few park runs (got a pb 21.59) but couldn’t face into any longer z2 stuff so the run I had some optimism but coupled with realism that I might hit a wall.

Race Plan for Busso 100

I set a few targets for Busso 100 and had a general race plan which was going to plan till the last lap on the run where I just ran out of energy – probably due to no long runs in over two months. On that last lap I just couldn’t seem to pull together the energy to go faster so I just plodded along.

Lessons Learned Busso 100

No matter how many events you do there is always learnings.

Didn’t Cramp

At New Zealand my legs cramped badly. I don’t buy into not enough training, need build strength as I have disproved those many times.

There has been a few vivid times my tights cramped and only once one on a training day. NZ was the latest event I did go hard on the bike so that didn’t help but it was very hot that day too and I didn’t really do as much stretching.

I have two running theories:

1. Heat – I sweat loads and heat obviously makes it a whole lot worst. I took cramp fix which is basically a sodium boost. One on the run and one of the bike. Tried to pre-empt the pain. Take salt tablets.
2. Stretching – Even though I was in the gym a lot on building up, that was for upper body so didn’t add strength to my legs and tbh my legs are pretty strong already. What I did do was lots of stretching.

Cramping thighs is one of the worst feelings and apparently 63% of triathletes experience it.

Forgot Suncream

A busso must is sun cream. For bike you have some cover in Tuart Forest but the run there is really no cover. Also, as you running on the coast you have wind burn on top of normal burn to worry about. This was a silly mistake to make.

Charging Garmin

Not sure how but I forgot to charge my garmin computer. Need double check if everything is charged from now on.

Morning at Transition

You would be suprised how often people with me forget something very important (Scott a wetsuit ironman western australia) or like Dexter who forgot all his bike nutrition.

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