It might be March, in Scotland …. but look at that sunshine! This is me finishing up the bike leg from Sunday’s Scottish Duathlong Champs held at the University Campus here in Stirling. It was a fun morning, and hey, it reached nearly 20C by the time we had finished!

I’ve said it before and I said it again at the weekend; Duathlon is HARD! Nonetheless, this is a great event to get your teeth into especially with the route being over 4 laps on the first run and multpile loops on the bike – you can really work into the race and hopefully pace yourself through it to good effect. I did my best and was happy to be able to win the title once again … I have the trophy here at home in front of me and I was quite surprised to realise I first won it way back in 2004!! I am starting to feel a bit elderly all of a sudden.

I ‘enjoyed‘ myself (mostly once it was over) though, and that was largely because the race is so well organised - Stirling Triathlon Club are so professional in what they do at their events that it makes it a pleasure to race at home, it really does. I really enjoy being able to do it – race at home – and hey, there isn’t much better a feeling that opening the garage door to ride your bike to tranistion of a race ‘morn is there?! I hope everyone managed a smile or thank you at some point for the many fab volunteers dotted around the course too since it is they who make these events possible.

It was great to have dad down to watch as well – he hadn’t seen me race since the end of 2008 at the Clearwater World 70.3 Champs… bit of a contrast in venues, but we didn’t mind

As always, thanks to IMAC photography for the cracking pictures  he takes whenver I am back in Scotland racing and also well done to Rory Downie for keeping me honest and having a top race! Congrats also to Kerry on her first duathlon title too.

‘Racing’ around Town Lake on the 3 lap course in downtown Tempe – I believe about 15ks into it here…

Arizona was on my horizon for a long time – most of the summer in fact. Once I had managed to start racing again, I beleived I would want to do an Ironman again this year, and so I kept the concept at the back of my mind for the first part of my stint in Boulder. – By September I was definately racing the Ironman – I had heard plenty of good stories about the race regarding its multi loop course and spectator friendly areas of the bike and run routes. Add in also the fact that it was a ‘fast’ Ironman … I was keen to get the thing over and done with as soon as possible! All joking asides, I felt it would be nice to break the Scottish record and see how close I could get to the British one … all things going to plan of course.

The race unfortunately didnt go to ‘plan’. And for plenty good reasons! I was simply, in a nutshell, without going down the ‘excuses road’ – under done and ill prepared. I had not done the training required to do justice to the Ironman distance, and I certainly had not completed a lot of consistent training in the crucial 3-6 weeks period out from the race. At this level of racing you cannot even hope to compete in that state of preparedness … I was fooling myself. In any Ironman this would be the case – the distances involved ensure that, however Aroizona had a really deep field ready to race; which was exciting to be a part of but not without the engine to tag along.

My problem was trying to ‘hang’  with the boys for too long. I swam ok but not as well as I would have hoped; I exited with a group of guys I would normally expect to swim with – at just under 49 minutes, but nearly 2 minutes down on a lead group of 5. Onto the ride and I simply didnt feel fantastic. During the first of the 60k loops I wasnt enjoying the pace of our group as we pursued the 5 further up the road. We caught them by the start of lap 2 and I started to feel a little more able to deal with the pace, but still not exactly in a ‘comfort zone’. The smart thing would have been to drop off and ride at a more managable speed, for me. However, the racer insides me never wants to be away from the front of a race, and so I clung on, hoping for a reduction in vitesse!! None was readily forthcoming   Just when I let my guard down, and figured it had finally calmed – as the group had dwindled to the 6 of us in total – with the next guys nearly 10 minutes behind us, I hit the wall so to speak and basically lost all ability to drive the pedals. I got dropped. The remaining 35ks into T2 were slow and I knew I was losing time like it was going out of fashion … but I didn’t expect to hear “6 minutes” shouted as I dropped off my bike – thats a LOT of time to give away in such a short period of racing. Things didnt bode well for the marathon, as I am not the type of athlete who ‘comes good’ on a run after a poor ride.

Indeed, ‘come good’ I certainly didn’t, although I tried for the first of the 3 lap run – approximately 8 miles of it. I managed that in just on the hour, prompting me to think I could possibly salvage a repsectable run split from the race. Despite the very well stocked aid stations at each mile, I had reached the bottom of my barrel nutrition wise, which is not a pleasant realisation with 16 miles left to run!! From there on in my ‘race’ stategy was simply to complete, and to do so I walked though each of the reamining aid stations and tried to make the most of the large crowd support.

However, I would have absolutely struggled to finish had it not been for Gavin riding alongside me for much of the remainging race. – Not strictly within the rules, but given I was having more of a race in the girls race by this stage, I don’t think anyone was going to bother! Indeed, Leanda Cave did pass me by during the final 2 miles. I had been ‘chicked’! Gav and I both agreed that she was running really well even at that late stage! Big thanks to Gav for the friendly banter from atop his borrowed mtb

Nonetheless, I had a great few days in Arizona; it was a place I had never visited before, and a fantastic event to take part in – as I find all North American Ironman events tend to be.  A huge thanks to the Foster family for their lovely homestay as well. I hope to be back!

Mr. Cartmell placed at Ironman Arizona 2011 in 26th overall and as 25th PRO.

Swim: 48:44

Total: 8:50:14

Bravo!

Long season…

This was me race morning in Kona last month… watching an Ironman, but also getting fired up to race one again. – It’s kind of a big deal doing one of these things!

I had a good month in Austin training for this event. My race at the Austin 70.3 last month didnt exactly light things up, but I had some great training partners to pick me up afterwards and help me look forward to being here in Tempe – Richie Cunningham (who i was staying with) and my Trek/K-Swiss team mate Paul ‘Barny’ Matthews were training for the Asian Pacific 70.3 Championship in Phuket, Thailand in 2 weeks time, plus Pat Evoe was prepping for Ironman Cozumel in Mexico. The end of the year it may well be, but we were all training hard and it was good to feed off each other. I enjoyed it and got a good block of training done. It always helps to have motivation provided by some buddies, no matter how slight it may be!!

My last week of easing off and ‘tapering’ was a fair old mix of some final hard sessions plus some ‘other’ stuff … namely trying to help Richie and Melissa move house. But he wouldnt let me!! Something about getting ready for an Ironman and not ‘tiring’ myself out! They are moving to Boulder this very weekend, and I will in fact see them there next week for a few days before I fly home from Denver, which will be fun.

All in it’s been some time in coming but Ironman Arizona has finally arrived … and i’m looking forward to it.  And I have my bike geared up and ready to go too – Huge thanks as always to Bontrager and Trek.

I will be wearing a GPS tracking device on my race belt so that you will be able to follow me all day long in the form of a little dot on a screen! – It’s a pilot scheme which will hopefully over time become standard in our races, providing constant info as to how we are doing, rather than having to rely (or not) on somewhat patchy race coverage.

Follow this link to see…. www.myathletelive.com/storage/races/IMAZ/MyAthleteEventIMAZ.html

And of course the usual coverage on www.ironman.com will be available from 1.30pm UK time. Race start is at 1.50pm at home. I’ll try finish as quick as i can

Racing along the Pacific Coast Highway during the Malibu Triathlon on Sept 18th – for the relatively ‘boring’ concept of an out and back - its one of the nicest I’ve raced; the waves crashing and the surfers running to catch them is kinda cool I think.

The ‘Big Thompson’ ride in Boulder is quite the famous ride. I actually only did it the once during my 2 month stay up in the mountains, but it sure was a stunning route to ride and probably one of my all time favourites.

Race briefing the day before, at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, Sept 10th. This was the first and who knows, maybe the only time that our entire team were or will be racing at the same event.

Running down (the steep!) hill during the LA Tri on Sept 25th – bang smack in the middle of downtown LA, which I thought was really pretty cool – not even just the race course was closed off, but all the cross streets also. It was also the first time in a very long time that I felt I actually ran the entire run leg of a triathlon and was pleased with how I went – a 33.30 10k for me is getting close to as good as I can go, and I was pleased with my 5th place that day.

Riding during the LA Tri … I – ironicaly for me – ended up ‘out of the race’ early door due to an uncharacteristically por swim. I had to chase quite hard during the early miles of the point to point bike. – Sounds easy, but these are often the hardest as you simply have to sit in the TT position and get no break for corners, slight hills etc. I caught Stuart Hayes (GBR) and Filip Ospaly (CZE) around half way on route to a 57min 40k bike.

I had just finished the Mauna Lani 10K fun run on the grounds of the resort, sponsored by K Swiss…. I’m here with fellow team mate Matt Lieto and our K Swiss Marketing contact, Ben Harper. It was a fun and relaxed evening run, but quite hard given Joe Gambles and I had not long finihsed a tough 5hr ride along the Queen K.

The sunsets are pretty special on Kona. – This was one Joe and I watched in the company of a couple beers about 5 days out from his race just off of the famed Ali’i Drive, at mile 5 on the run course. - He moved out of the Mauna Lani the week prior to be closer to race site, just to make things easier logistically, and I stayed there a few nights too.

Joe and I at the Vegas 70.3 race briefing on Sept 10th. I was pleased to be there … in June there was no chance I thought I could qualify for the World Championships.

Finally …. me out on the Queen K Highway watching the World Ironman Championships with our Trek mechanic Mark Andrews (centre) and a fellow athlete Jesse Thomas. It was great fun to get out onto the course and see the race unfold.

Thanks to Rich Cruse, Ramon Serrano and Kevin Koresky for their various images in this post.

Post race last Sunday here in Austin; with old Trek/K-Swiss team mate and race day winner ‘by a country mile’ Michi Raelert and good friend Richie Cunningham. I’m staying with Richie for the next month whilst getting ready for my Ironman.

I wouldn’t exactly recommend my preceeding 12 days before racing to anybody else as an ‘ideal’ race preparation period. In fact I would strongly suggest that they re think their schedule altogether! I probably should have, but hindsight is a wonderful tool and the past is done; it is what it is. I’ll do my best to move on and learn from the last month or so to ensure I hopefully don’t fall into a similar scenario again.

I don’t much like racing for the sake of ‘getting to the finish’ and I’m certainly not a fan of mediocrity with my racing. Unfortunately my 2011 season seems to have been all too familiar with that phrase and Austin was no exception to that rule.

A quick re-cap; I will blog a little more (tracking backwards obviously) about all that happened since Vegas World 70.3s through to Austin, but for now … I spent the two weeks after Vegas with Blair (for a few more days) and then Ali when she came out so we could have a wee holiday together. We were in California for 2 weeks which absolutely flew by - doing the Malibu and LA Triathlons along the way …which were both great fun events, before I then headed onwards to Kona (and Ali homewards) for a further two weeks up to the Ironman World Championships on Oct 8th. I helped out my buddy Joe Gambles with his last hard training block whilst also spending some time with my sponsors at the race expo during race week. It was a fantastic experience being able to watch the race, it really was, but it as also a tiring one!

I finally headed home to Stirling on the Monday night after watching the Ironman … but only for a short week. – I was going to train with Richie in Austin (where he lives) up until the Arizona Ironman, and so it made sense (so i thought back in early September) to get back to the US (and Austin) in time for the Austin 70.3 last weekend.

For those of you reading between the lines here … YES, I’m exhausted by the time I get to Austin on the Friday evening before the race, and the prospect of racing 70.3 miles as hard as I could seemed a rather horrible one.

But I do love to race, and it was shaping up to be a great race with Michael Raelert making his debut start since winning Clearwater in Nov 2010, as well as a host of other great athletes. – Indeed midway thro the run I realised that all but one of the 5 atheltes in front of me had been a World (or multiple world) Champion, and the other one had been a domestique for Marco Pantani in his prime. Just another regular 70.3 event I suppose….

Things went well untill about 50 miles of the ride, and I suppose at that point I learnt my lesson; don’t bite of more than you can chew. But racing in the US is always good fun; the events are so well organised, the crowds are incredibly enthusuastic – never short of a “gooood job” or to – and with over 2700 competitors, there was a real buzz about the event. And hey, it’s not every day you get to finish a race in a Rodeo Stadium is it?!

First up is a look back at some of the training I have been doing out here during the past week. – I arrived here to train with and support my with my team mate Joe Gambles as he prepares for his Kona debut. It is a kind of role reversal; last year he was on Kona supporting my first race on the Big Island, so I am really enjoying being able to return the favour.

Myself tracking my Trek/K-Swiss team mates Joe Gambles (right) and Matt Lieto down from the infamous Hawi turnaround point on the bike course. – A photo doesn’t do it justice, but it is always windy up there, believe me!

Training out here in Hawaii is certainly something to experience, and I am really enjoying my time out here. It seems a world away from last year when I was here ‘preparing’ to race myself. I was out of shape, unmotivated and on the brink of a rather serious bout of depression. The last thing I wanted to do was train and yet I knew I ‘had to’ … for getting around any Ironman is no mean feat, let along this particular beast. It isn’t the World Championships (and most famour triathlon on the planet) for no reason, that is for sure.

So I am endeaverouring to make the most of my time on the Big Island. It is a two fold visit; firstly to support Joe – but this in itself is mutually beneficial; a) he needed a training partner for the last block of work to lead into the race and b) I am also preparing for an Ironman later in the year (Arizona on Novemeber 20th) but secondly I am also here to work and hang out with my sponsors Trek and K-Swiss, who have a large presence during race week at the race expo village.

It hasn’t all been swim, bike and run training though! – As part of the Trek / K-Swiss team, we are incredibly lucky to be able to stay at the most mazing hotel resort – The Mauna Lani Bay which is about 45k out of town along the Queen K Highway (the bike course) and into the Lava fields. It is amazing!

The hotel beach! – There isn’t that much white sand on Kona, and I am told that 90% of what there is, has been imported from Australia … which seems a bit crazy, but hey, it looks good here! I was also lucky enough to get to try Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Boarding during my stay. The hotel has a resident ‘pro’ and she took a group of us (non racing athletes i may add – its gets you when you wake up the next morning … ouch) out for an hour or so, and it was such good fun. But hard work … although not quite as hard as I was invisiging. I fell in only the once which was a ‘high five’ moment that I had with myself once back on dry land

Myself with (left to right): Lucy Bell (Lukes’ wife) , Matt Lieto, Tim DeBoom (2 time Kona Champion and last US winner), Hilary Biscay and our instructor for the morning. I had a lot of fun and more importantly…. justified the hotel buffet breakfast at least the once during this stay!!

Arriving at T2 in Henderson, Las Vegas…. feeling pretty tired!!

The new venue in Vegas was I thought pretty stunning – set on the edge of the desert with rolling hills as far as the eye could see. Like I mentioned in my previous blog post about our recce of the course  it appeared as if you were riding out onto a lunar surface. With a non wetty swim, a bike course profile giving people the shivers and a potentially cauldron-esque heat come midday it was shaping up to be a course fit for a seriously well prepared athlete. Just like it shoul be at World Champs.

Transition area, with the swim entry point in the background under the Lowe’s hotel – bridges and all to swim under

My swim was so so. I was (and am) in what i think is really solid swim shape, and I was keen to see whether I could hitch a lift on Andy Potts’ feet for the first time. I took team mate Paul ‘Barny’ Matthews advice and started way left (when my instinct was to go more right than left) and since the rest of the field followed us, we got boxed and long story short, didnt get anywhere near Andy’s six beat kick in the first couple hundred meters. Game (catching his feet) over. I had an ongoing boxing match (albiet a tame one) with Filip Ospaly throughout the reamining 1600m or so – if i veered right, so did he, if i surged, he kicked hard too. This is a pet hate of mine and frustrates me no end whilst racing, but it is exactly that – racing – and I tried me best to suck it up. I exited the water in 6th place and started riding the bike in 9th after an uncharacteristically poor tranistion. – Still in touch and ready to catch ‘buddy Paul’ who was by now riding Potts down lightening quick.

I drew a lot of confidence from a) having ridden the course extensively during our recce trip a few weeks previously and b) how strong i was riding in Des Moines the week before. I felt great on the bike the couple days before the race and was excited to see how I could race my Speed Concept around the 90ks.  – I picked off rider by rider and within 8miles was happily 4th place and Andy had been caught … now it was a case of biding my time till at least the turnaround before seeing what was left in the tank. – The remaining 3 guys from our team – Chris and Matt Lieto plus my good friend and training partner up in Boulder, Joe Gambles joined the front of the race by 30ks and the 5 of us represented nearly 50% of the leading group. Trek had flown in their camera crew to get race footage to make a film at a later date, and so it will hopefully look pretty cool to see 5 white, blue and grey bikes lined out along the tarmac!

I held my own and rode strong till around 40miles – indeed there was apparently some confusion on the Ironmanlive.com website as to whether or not I had reached the Timex Prime Line first or not … sadly that was Chirs Lieto, who had by that point steadily turned the throttle and ridden away from us – as hard as we were riding! He is a supremely gifted bike rider and it is quite something to see him do his thing. And when he is on, boy does he do it well.

13 miles of rather slow ‘running’ oblique walking. Not fun.

However the wheels kind of wobbled with around 15miles remaining and it was all I could do to stay in touch with the lea group of 7 … I was slightly detached as we hit T2 … and that is when I knew the day would be a long one, as my stomach started to ache. Whether or not a hangover from my sickness issues in Des Moines the week previous, I don’t yet know, but either way I hit the run with nothing in the tank and an inability to push past a jog. It was emabarrasing to say the least.

Blair did his best to encourage me and I in turn endeavoured to be positive. 3 months ago I wasn’t even racing this distance and the thought of making the World Championships seemed absurd. So I really tried hard to enjoy being on the course – and when I walked through one of the aid stations and a volunteer told me to “keep on running for those who can’t” … I assumed that she meant the victims of the September the 11th – which Sunday was the 10th anniversary of. It hit a cord with me nonetheless and I ploughed on as best I could, making good what I could from the situation.

I hit the finish in 4 hours and 21 minutes – a good 25+ minutes in arrears of race winner Craig Alexander. It’s by far my worst finishing deficit, but at least it was a finish – as at times I didn’t really see that happening.

With Blair and team mate Joe Gambles at the bike check in on the Saturday evening

Once finished I was I thought ok, and chatted to Blair for a good 10minutes before I started to quickly realise all was not well so in the world, and before I knew it I was being wheelchair’d backwards (I didn’t have the energy to pick my own feet up and roll forwards!!) into the medical tent where I was told my temperature was 99.6C and an IV was eventually administered (my first experience of such a bag of fluid). – It did the trick and within half an hour I was ‘a different person’ according to those who saw me before and after.

Lessons have been learned and I think some tests need to go away and be done to see if there is something to be ‘got to the bottom of’ in terms of these recent stomach issues. – This sport is not a swim/bike race and so as much as I am happy to be doing those two disciplines at a world class level, it is utterly useless in the sport of Triathlon if I cannot run hard off a hard bike.

But onwards and upwards with Ironman Arizona firmly on the radar from now on in to November 20th.

Many thanks to Richard Melik and Ramon Serrano for the great photo’s!

The swim was without doubt one of the hardest/scariest/strangest I have ever been a part of. And I’ve swum a few!

The 5150 Series has been a new addition to the triathlon circuit this year, with this being the culmination of that series - not called a World Championship, but feeling every bit a World Championship in terms of how the event unfolded, and boy did the people of Des Moines get behind the racing aswell … to say we were treated like Rock Stars would be an understatement; amazing!

The format was a non drafting olympic distance event with a large first place offer of $151,500 for the winners. However, a novel and exciting ‘little’ add on to the event was the ‘5150 Line’ which was a Prime of $5150 offered to the leader of the race at the end of each swim (3), bike (4) and run (4) laps. So there was as much incentive for hard and fast racing as you would ever get from gun to tape in a race. Game on!

Due to some serious rainfall on the Saturday afternoon, the river became a fast flowing murky brown cauldron by Sunday afternoon. There really isn’t anything that can do justice to the swim in that race other than actually having been a part of it yourself. As the ‘King of the Swim’ Andy Potts himself commented afterwards; “if it had been a minute longer it would have bee a minute too long”. It wasnt any fun in there I can safely report, but after a serious boxing match around the first bouy (not my strong point i’m afraid) I managed to stay in contact with the lead group over the course of the 3 laps due to some crafty negotiation of the currents and bouys (in other words I fluked it and somehow held the feet in front!!)

I had a decent T1 but no sooner had I jumped on my bike that I had the horrible realisation that my helmet buckle had unfastened (first time for everything!) – which is of course a penalty offence of the highest order. Panic stations. Thankfully I wasnt spotted by a race referee aboard the bike sans a secured lid and I ground to a halt relatively quickly to sort the problem. I am pleased with myself that I didn’t flap too much and did my best to get back up to speed as quickly as I could whilst watching the boys accelerate away in front.

I knew that I had been riding well in my previous two races at Boulder and Steelhead, and so I was interested to see how I fared against such a stellar field of athletes. You can often tell right away if its going to be a good day or not, and I could sense it would be the former quickly – I was pedalling strong, felt comfy and relaxed on the bike and crucially was catching up nice and fast. I spent half a lap recovering from the effort but by the end of lap 2 I had moved into 4th position on the road and was enjoying myself a whole bunch. – Riding with Matty Reed in the US is good fun as he gets a whole lotta cheers from the crowds!! 

The course was technical – with over 15 corners per lap – and also hilly enough to make the legs hurt! The combination seemed to have its effect on the field, and we hit T2 a fair chunk of time in front of the chasers, although 90sec adrift of the impressive Ben Collins, who had hoovered up all 4 of the aforementioned 5150 Primes … you can do the math, but I’ll say it was a successful 55mins of riding for the lad!! To add to the equation there was a grandstand with nearly 10,000 cheerig spectators which created a superb atmosphere on each pass through the transition area. I really enjoyed it and I am pleased with how I rode – it gives me good confidence going into this weeks World 70.3 Champs in Las Vegas.

I got excited leaving T2 in 3rd place … unfortunately it lasted all of about 200m, and I ended up suffering quite badly on the run at times from a really painful stomach. I actually walked twice (having had to time the cramps with the only spot on the course with no spectators!) – I barely walked in Kona last year during my death march of a marathon, so it was highly emabarrasing to be doing so here over a measly 10 clicks, but I had to, I really did.

All became a little less murky as the evening wore on however -I returned to my hotel room after crossing the line in 22nd position and felt decidedly under the weather. – Then the sickness began! Pretty much right through the night, and so at least I felt a little more happy that there was a reason for my 10k shuffle at the end of a solid swim/bike combo. There was a reason at least.

All in all I had a fantastic weekend in Des Moines. I got to catch up with good buddies that I hadn’t seen in some time – huge pat on the back to Trek/K-Swiss teammate Paul ‘Barny’ Matthews on his 4th place, and also to Liz Blatchford for 8th in the girls race. The event staff looked after us so so well an truly lifted the bar in terms of how non drafting events can be run in the future (when a million dollars are thrown into the hat!).

Here’s hoping next year is even bigger and better - I’d love to come back (I just won’t drink the river water!).

The race is going to be live on the web at www.hy-veetriathlon.com so hopefully you can watch us and me online – the girls start at 7.30pm and we hit the water at 10pm UK time.

Wish me luck – there is a record prize purse on offer of over $1million for us to race for, so it’s exciting times for the sport of triathlon.