Well I didn’t do as I said I would - and get a post up on Sunday about the week that was … and here we are on Wednesday already. Time seems to fly by, but that is no excuse. Here are some of the things I have been up to;

A run with the boys [...]

I am I think. I’m back at the ‘grindstone’ (it’s a hard life in the Southern Hemisphere sun!) and it’s going fine. 4 days of the week gone, 500ks to the good with a smattering of solid swim and run work thrown in. A couple of massages for good measure and the odd cafe stop [...]

Woohoo! I won! It was 2 years and 3 attempts coming, but I secured a victory in East London on Sunday finally - and it felt good for sure. It’s not easy to win a race these days, so I am more than happy with how I coped on race day to do just that.

Breaking [...]

Tonight was spent getting ready for the red eye to East London from Cape Town in the morning. It’s nearly race time already … the last 3 weeks for me here in Stellenbosch have flown by that’s for sure. Last night I had my last hard run since the daytime temp peaked at 44C. Trust [...]

….. you might aswell, because who else will?
on this Tuesday morning in Stellenbosch I got up, ran 10 cracking Ks along the trails behind the University and town, came home, ate a breaky that was far too colourful for my own good before wandering down to the pool for a leisurely 3ks in the wet stuff.

Gottalovetaperweek

Having taken inspiration from our very own Lesley I thought i could do a similar blog post (but with less crammed into the day/morning!) charting my morning ride with Toby Jameson, who is my new ‘roomy’ out here in Stellenbosch whilst we get ready for racing in East London at the Ironman 70.3 South Africa next w/e.

07.30: [...]

Last night I had a very African experience - both culinary and cultural - whilst taking in the New Year. We had a large group meal at Moya, organised by Tim as an extension of their wedding celebrations. It was a lot of fun, and a very memorable and relaxed way to wind up 2009. [...]

Yesterday Tim and Kelly were married at a beautiful wine estate called the Grande Provence just outside of Franschoek, which is a stones throw from Stellenbosch here in South Africa. It was a fantastic day, set in a stunning venue and thankfully the weather was just ‘one of those days’ you couldn’t wish to change. [...]

Gavin just got back from the shops at home in Stirling …..
and he emailed me this picture!
Very cool - my second magazine front cover, after a mountain biking shot taken at Xterra UK (which became a duathlon!) back in September 2006. This shot was taken in South Africa whilst I was training in Stellenbosch.

I rode along this [...]

The South African experience is drawing to a close. This time next week it will be ‘this way to depatures’.

I’ve not really got too much to report I am afraid this week, so I thought I would simply add some pictures (click on the pictures and the little ‘i’ to get my informed captions) of the last few weeks whilst Blair was here - mostly pictures from his camera. I did do a running race during the [...]

I dropped Blair off at the airport early this morning for his flight home. He had 3 weeks here, got a load of riding in, mostly on his mtb (but he did join us for the 4 Passes last Friday) and most importantly of course - he got a tan; effectively his freckle all joined up. [...]

There is a Q and A type interview online at tri247.com talking about my race last w/e and a few other bits and pieces.
Have a read if you want at tri247.com.

So the racing has begun - 2009 is well under way and I’m delighted to have kicked it off with a 2nd place on Sunday in Buffalo City, East London. I started to get a little ahead of myself around 30k on the bike - got a tad excited shall I say, as I reckoned [...]

Fraser Cartmell just finished Ironman 70.3 South Africa in second position, only 2 minutes 3 seconds behind last year’s winner Raynard Tissink (raynardtissink.com).
Fraser’s splits:
SWIM: 22:36
BIKE: 2:21:48
RUN: 1:16:28
TOTAL: 4:04:07
Results are available at ironman.com.
PS This is Nikola, Frasers web support

I’m in East London now after flying up the coast from Cape Town yesterday morning. I travelled up with Blair, who as I said has been out here with me for a couple weeks plus my training buddy in Stellenbosch, Tim Don. Our bikes and gear all rolled off the bagage belt in one piece and [...]

Saturday morning was spent watching, cheering and ’seconding’ at this local, but extremely unique multisport event a bit further down the coast. The Totalsports Challenge (totalsports.co.za) comprises of 7 seperate disciplines, and equates to what must feel like an ironman - taking the winner, my good friend Dan Hugo (dghugo.com), well over 6 hours to [...]

The last week, which spanned last year and this new one, has been solid. It had to be, given the week off I had whilst spending Christmas away plus the extra enforced lay off due to mangled big toes…..

Caught in the act ….. that there on my lap is a pie. A chicken pie. I think if nothing else, South Africa has an affinity with Scotland in its love for the Pie. The things is I would never usually eat a pie at home.  Funny really that when I ride the 4 Passes route - all 128 [...]

I apologise for the tardiness of my blog post. I left Stellenbosch a week and two days ago, and have only just found some time to try and catch up since returning late Monday.  As the title suggests, there has been a lot happening in my world over the past 10 days; some lovely highs [...]