Another funky little Abu Dhabi race video compilation from Wattie who was out there helping us Trek/K Swiss athletes out - many thanks buddy, especially for changing my flat in T1 40 minutes prior to the gun firing. I wasn’t flapping at all. Promise!?!

Crossing the line to congratulations from 2nd place finisher Dirk Bockel. He was 7th in Hawaii 6months ago…

I won’t lie, I was pretty nervous leading into this race. Our long term plan for the start of 2010 was quite simple; try to win South Africa 70.3 (box ticked), before focusing on a solid block of training leading into this race. I managed that well enough (bike crashes on my penultimate day aside) before jetting off to California for my new involvement in the Trek/K Swiss Trathlon team. - All superb fun and a great experience, but I was worried that the travel and loss of training time would have an impact on how I could execute a performance in Abu Dhabi. The fact that the distance was such a new venture for me also sat heavily on my mind. More than heavily to tell the truth!!

However a few last minute phonecalls home settled my mind and reminded me that I was in a great position; I had trained consistently and with some fantastic training partners, plus I wasn’t injured or sick, which was half my battle in 2009. All that was left was to get on with it, enjoy the whole experience and above all, learn from it for the furture Ironman racing later in the year.

I had se disrupted sleep in the race week - my body didnt really know where it was, but on Saturday morning i woke up fine. We were on the beach ready to go at 6.50am and once i hit the water I felt good and loose. I led the 3k swim out of the water and after a tardy T1 hit the 200k bike ride inside the top 10. There were up to another 15 guys not far behind me!! I wasn’t entirely impressed that after 80ks we were still a long long pace line of 20+ aero machines. I started to wonder if it was simply going to be a procession all the way back to T2. Not a chance!

We were lucky enough to get to race on the F1 circuit at the Yas Racing Circuit, which was finished last year. In a race where we essentially rode up and down a straight highway for 180ks, 5-6k circuit represented the sole technical aspect of the course, and provided the launchpad for a few boys at the front of the race to drop the hammer. The pace went supersonic for 10minutes and guys were shelled right left and centre. Luckily I was on the ball mentally; saw it unfolding and was also lucky enough to be strong enough to go with said supersonic-ness. Others were not so vigilant - essentially this created a front group of 10 of us, which eventually comprised the top 10 overall at the finish.

I am delighted to have gotten through this bike ride as well as I did. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to cope with the extremes of that disntance in my TT bars. I managed easily, and that is testament to the comfort of my new Trek TTX race bike. I also stuck to a simple nutrition plan - eat and drink regularly throughout the ride and have little but often.

I climbed off the bike feeling ready to tackle the run, and given the lenght of time on the saddle I am amazed I wasn’t sick to death of the bike, but I wasn’t, and i think I knew then that should I start off at a good but not suicidal run tempo, I was going to be able to compete for a good result. Sure I had some low and I shuffled a bit more than I ideally would have wished, but for the most part I was running out there, and particularly on the final 3-4k run in. - I caught and passed Fred V Lierde for 4th and oh so nearly caught the legendary Rasmus Henning on the line - I think he was even more surprised that I was?! Next time.

So there we have it. The most anticipated race of the season so far has been and gone and I came away from it having raced way past my expectations. Onwards and upwards. Have a look at the below footage for a sense of the race and course.

We visited one of the worlds largest Mosques this morning, as something a little different to do. They have waaay too much money to spend over here!! Opulance like i have never seen. And a lot of gold and cyrstal plated/coated architecture!

The prayer area i believe … apparently they get 40+ thousand every avo!!  ….

We had to wear them …. i promise!

It might be on Channel 4 at some point down the line too ….

A post race interview yesterday. Glad to be done and still in once piece. 6 and half long hours!

I’ll be home to Stirling tomo (Monday) lunchtime …. apparently Spring is well and truly on its way. Can’t wait, its too hot here anyway

Fraser Cartmell placed 4th at Abu Dhabi Triathlon 2010.

1 ) Eneko Llanos 6:34:37
2 ) Dirk Bockel 6:35:30 (+0:53)
3 ) Rasmus Henning 6:36:07 (+1:30)
4 ) Fraser Cartmell 6:36:12 (+1:36)
5 ) Frederik Van Lierde 6:36:31 (+1:55)
6 ) Faris Al-Sultan 6:37:53 (+3:16)
7 ) Jordan Rapp 6:38:02 (+3:25)

Check out the official race results.

GO FRASER! GO!

Bagpipes in the desert!

Myself and fellow team members Joe, Julie and Heather share some of our thoughts before race day ……

On Wednesday Blair and I headed into town to have a little look around … we didn’t see much to be honest, and here we are on our way inside a shopping centre, where we ended up killing time watching a movie. Hmm … couldnt have done that at home could we?!?

And finally … this morning we all had to climb onto buses with our bikes! to get down to the race start and rack our bikes before race day tomorrow morning. We figured a little ‘team shot’ could work out nice.

We race at 6.20am tomorrow (Saturday) morning, which is 2.20am at home. If all things go to plan, then have a think of me on the run course from around 8ish onwards …

I’m nervous, but excited too. It’s a unique distance, but ultimately I can learn a ton from it and take it forward for racing Ironman later in the year. That’s the plan. I’ll try stick to it

Well, it may not be the most appropriate of pictures to attach to this post, but I like what Nikola is doing here (my nutrition has never exactly been an ideal model to follow!) and you never know, if things go well after the race i may be allowed a mojito of two, who know’s?!

In all seriousness, working out a nutrtion plan for race day has been a bit of a headache for me,  I won’t lie, but I reckon I have my head wrapped around it now. I hope so anyway.

Blair is travelling out with me this time, which is great news.  He loves to come watch; being the ’stat man’ that he is and I’m chuffed to have some company on a trip for a change … travelling along isn’t much fun.

I’ll report from the desert when i have some news………

Some bits and pieces of what I have been doing for you below though - training, receiving goodies and testing them out.

Chasing Joe Gambles along the Pacific Coast Highway …. Abu Dhabi in mind.

I was also able to get a hold of my first box of K Swiss training gear to start getting used to. Apparently this is to simply tide me over till I get a ‘proper’ shipment…. they certainly look after their athletes impecably

And finally I was also given a superb new recovery tool that will become an integral part of my training from day to day I can safely say. - The Compex is great for loosening off muscles after any training session, and I am really finding it easy to use

Even managed to find some cycling on tv to watch whilst hooked up … who said I am a poor multi tasker?

Me and our gear after one our many ‘on the road’ sessions this past week. All good fun

We did stop to stay suitably re-fuled along the way aswell … gotta get the calories in - Abu Dhabi in 2 weeks time. Did i say eeeeek? Yeah …  sure did.

More to come later over the w/e …. i’ll get my camera out I promise.

Riding out along the Pacific Coast Highway with the guys yesterday. Today everything got wrapped up - quite literally, as my new Madonne road bike has been boxed up and will be winging its way to Stirling without me having ridden it yet. It has been a cracking few days; leaving me super amped and excited about the season ahead as part of this fantastic new team!

Team mug shots outside K Swiss headquarters where we have been hanging out for the past 5 days. I am very excited about getting aboard the new Speed Concept bike once they are ready for us later in the Spring. F.A.S.T!!

The press conference at the new K Swiss store in Santa Monica on Friday night.

Another pic from our ride along the coast on Sunday.