Getting over heat Down Under

Triathlete Murray addresses dehydration puzzle in Australia

JOHN KOROBANIK
EDMONTON
jkorobanik@thejournal.canwest.com

Carolyn Murray didn’t go to Australia to escape Edmonton’s winter, but she certainly was smiling a little Sunday evening when she pointed out the temperature in Gold Coast City was 29 degrees Celsius.

That’s plus-29, a sharp contrast to the minus-29 it was in Edmonton earlier in the day.

The 31-year-old Murray — you don’t have to print that, she says — went to Australia in mid-October to train with her coach, Darren Smith, who works out of the Queensland Academy of Sport, and to find a solution to her dehydration problems.

“I’ve had trouble with heat in the past, so it’s really important for me to make sure I’m acclimatized,” the St. Albert native says over the phone. “Last weekend, in 38 degrees, was really positive for me. I was really excited to be able to do that.”

What she did that weekend was win the Australian national triathlon championship and, even though it was a small field lacking the talent of a World Cup event, it was important for her to compete well in the heat.

In trying to figure out why she had more problems in the heat than other triathletes, her team found her core body temperature goes higher than the average person and she then sweats a lot — meaning she had to replace a lot more fluids.

“Trying to put together a formula that works for me has been a challenge, but I think we’ve figured it out now,” she says, confident after the Australian race.

Murray will remain on the Gold Coast in the southeast corner of Australia — renowned for its sunny, subtropical climate and popular surfing beaches — until after the Mooloolaba triathlon on March 30.

That’s where she begins her quest for a spot on the Canadian team to the Beijing Olympics this summer. Lauren Groves from Vancouver is the only Canadian woman to have secured a position on the team based on her 2007 results, leaving Murray and others to fight it out for the other two berths. Any of them could automatically secure a spot by finishing in the top eight at one of the six World Cup events before the world championships in Vancouver June 5-8, and then earning a top-eight result in Vancouver.

Murray, who didn’t get into triathlon until 2001 after graduating from Simon Fraser University with her B.Sc. in Kinesiology, finished ninth at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in 2007. She faces tough competition from Kirsten Sweetland (the youngest Canadian ever to win a World Cup race when she did so in Richard’s Bay, South Africa last spring), Kathy Tremblay (2007 National Champion and fourth at the 2007 Pan American Games), and Jill Savege, who is looking to regain her form that achieved a podium performance at the Mazatlan World Cup in 2005.

Murray will try for the qualifying result in Mooloolaba but says her best chance may be the next race, in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on April 6.

“I think it’s a good course for me, similar to Vancouver, and I have raced well there before, so that’s where my mind’s at, looking at that for my qualifying (result).”

Murray missed a few qualifying opportunities when a foot injury kept her out of competition in May and June of 2007, but she’s now in the best shape of her life and coming off a positive result she hopes will be a precursor to a successful 2008.

“We’re on track for where we want to be,” she says. “I haven’t done a lot of speed work in the pool so we’ll be working on that.

“My running is really going well, the same thing with the bike, so it’s really positive that things are going in the right direction.

“I haven’t raced the best yet, so that will be the test when I get to Mooloolaba for the first (World Cup) race. But I’ve definitely been training harder than I ever have and I’m feeling pretty strong.”

“We’re on track for where we want to be,” she says. “I haven’t done a lot of speed work in the pool so we’ll be working on that.

“My running is really going well, the same thing with the bike, so it’s really positive that things are going in the right direction.