I just got back from a great w/e riding the mountain bike in the Lake District with all the guys from my team T.R.I. I got back to Stirling on Friday morning after the long travel back from Florida, but within a few hours (and a quick nap) I was in the car and heading south to the Lakes. I was jet lagged and feeling the starting effects of a cold, but nonetheless it seemed like the perfect thing to go and do during my time off. - I wasn’t wrong or disappointed!

The weather was really kind to us on both days, but particularly today, on Sunday. There was no wind, no rain and it was relatively warm for the time of year - I mean I even had shorts on! Below are a few shots from during the ride.

Apparently the most photographed bridge in the Lakes. - A helluva a climb up to it too!

Obligatory group mug shot…..

Me with Phil, the brains behind T.R.I, without who’s fantastic help this past year I would have struggled to race. It is great to see the concept growing so well, and now moving from strength to strength with the planned up coming training camps - please see the website; TotalRacingInc.com for more details.

Murphy, who out ran us all on Saturday morning! - Having a well earned rest at this point mind you.

I may have been here in Clearwater to race, but before I fly home tomorrow I have managed to keep myself busy doing the odd few things. And I guarantee the only strenuous activity was packing up my bike box this evening!

I hung out on the beach for a fair bit……

….. and spotted Pirate Gaelons sailing by, whilst having a chuckle at the goggles/deep-sea diving mask dad had brought with him:

and of course had a sizeable wedge of chocolate cake. - 3 visits to Clearwater, and 3 times I have sampled said cake. Did I ever mention I have a sweet tooth?

I have to say a big thankyou to Carolyn and Tim, for they couldn’t possibly make us feel any more welcome when we stay in St Pete and Clearwater. Myself, Julie, Toby, Joel, Karen and Tom all got fed, watered and looked after during the past ten days.

A big congrats to Julie Dibens, yet again, so soon after her dominating win in Maui at the Xterra, she once again laid it all on the line here in her quest for the win, by leading from the front for so long. She is a real inspiriation and great person to train with. I hope to be able take up her and Mikes’ offer of a stay in the new house in Boulder, Colorado at some point next year!

To Toby and Joel for being such ‘awesome’ fun in the appartment the couple days leading into the race - the banter was wearing thin come Saturday morning, but we coped. Well done also to Igor Nastic, from my online web tri team, nekada.com who I bumped into the day before, and by random chance, walking to the beach whilst wetsuiting up on race morn. His 29th overall is pretty damn impressive given his training volume!

So that’s it for me and Clearwater this year, and indeed the 2008 racing season. Time to head home. As Igor would say, Ciao.

Glat to get to the finish inside the top 10.

Riding into T2 at the back of the group.

Hustling Andy Potts out of transition… for all of a mile.

Feeling it during the 7th mile heading back out for lap 2.

Catching up with Jules afterwards.

 A year really does fly by, and just like that, I have completed my second race at Clearwater. Once again I am pleased to be able to say I have a top ten finish for my efforts - crossing the line in 10th place on Saturday morning.

Given the improvement I have managed this year in terms of consistently solid results, I had every reason to believe I could build on the 7th place I achieved last year, however I knew only too well that there was strength and depth in the field assembled and I would have to up my game in order to be around the front with the boys come business time.

My final lead up to the race was great. I arrived in St Pete the week before and had a fun week hanging out with Julie, Toby and Joel and of couse our wonderful homestay Carolyn and Tim. I did some light training, tried to rest and relax, but still, come Thursday evening I was ready to just get on with the damn thing.

Clearwater is a strange race, unlike other 70.3s throughout the season due to not only the nature (extrememly flat) of the course, but also the athletes that race. - So many guys just don’t race that many 70.3s during the season. I mean I am by no means a 70.3 veteran, but I have raced a few now, and have competed against a fair few lads. However, whereas 25-30 would typically represent a large startline, there were over 60 registered pros this time - and rightly so as well, it being a World Championship and all. But it adds a different dynamic to the race, and makes for a tough time in thinking about possible finish positions.

My race plan was fairly straight forward. Try and stay towards the front. I reckoned I was swimming as well as I have all year, which seems to have stood me in good shape for the longer races I have entered. So although I had all the usual nerves before the start, I was confident I could get out of the water with whatever ‘front’ group materialised. I stood besides Luke McKenzie and Terenzo Bozzone on the far right, as I believe them to be amongst the best swimmers in the field. I had a clean start and before not very long found myself in clear water and then settled in 4th place all the way to the turn bouys. I knew Andy Potts was leading us, and I also knew I had gapped the rest of the field a little bit, but then I lost concentration and lost the feet. Rounding the 2nd turn bouy for the shore is very difficult in Clearwater since the sun is starting to rise and causes a terrible glare. In this instance, more than any other - feet are a good thing to have to follow! I passed one of the guys on the way back to shore and ran up the beach in 3rd place, making a bee-line for the change tent. So far so good.

I got out onto the bike, and much like last year, started to be passed by one after another after another guy around 3,4 and 5 miles….. which is a very nerve racking time, as you always fear the presence of the drafting officials. You see we are allowed 10m front wheel to front wheel as our legal non-draft zone, but out of common sense we are encouraged to leave say 12-13m. However this then means that an athlete from behind can rightly slot into your ‘gap’ therefore forcing you to have to back off - which means sitting up on the bars and free wheeling so as not to be in the draft zone. For the first 10-15 miles this process of jockeying for positions amongst the first 15 riders constantly happened and created what I referred to as the ’slinky effect’ where the group bunches and then stretches out every so often. However, once the speed of the race increased, nothing much changed thereafter, save for the odd pass, since the speed was simply too high for anybody to really be able to get by!

We had a dead turn at mile 20ish and our group was large - possibly 20 guys, and by 25 miles Oscar Galindez had ridden to the front and the pace gradually ramped up. To add to the pace, the Timex bike prime was rapidly approaching at mile 32. I would liked to have been able to contest the ’sprint’ for the $2500 bonus, but as I was languishing somewhere towards the back of the group, all I could do was concentrate on my race and stay focused. I was pleased to later find out my fellow Brit Joe Gambles had snaffled the bonus. Joe had ridden up to us very early in the race and put in a lot of effort at the front for most of those 32 miles, so well deserved his money.

From miles 32 to 45 I was seriously hurting, and had to make some long and painful efforts to stay in contact, but so were others, and our group reduced in size to 10 athletes, This group included 8 of the final top 10 positions, so I am pleased to have been able to dig deep during that section of the race, which I feel was crucuial. Interestingly enough, this was the first time in the race that I had even seen Terenzo, and so he was clearly starting to execute his race plan whilst moving towards the front of the group. The final 10 miles for me were all about getting some water at the final aid station, taking on a gel and beginning to think about T2 and the half marathon ahead.

We hit Clearwater beach as a group of 6, roughly 40 secs back on 4 that had snuck away in the closing miles. - It would appear this was a smart and useful move for Terenzo given the final winning margin of just 30 secs. I started the run with Andy Potts and Joe, but knew pretty much instantly I didnt have the zippyness I needed to run the sort of time I felt was needed to compete for a top 5. After a mile I found my own pace, watched the others slowly pull away, and grabbed every liquid I could at the aid stations.

For a while I was in 8th position, but then Andreas blew past me so fast he almost gave me a cold. 9th spot. At the first dead turn I saw I had a good gap on the others behind and thought only about getting to the half way point to have another peek at my gaps. All seemed good there, I mean I wasn’t doing my best Haille Gabreselasi impression, but I wasn’t too bad either.

However at mile 10 and the final dead turn I was starting to hobble and then I rounded the cone to see Brent McMahon right behind. At 11 miles it was 10th spot. The final mile was hard work, and despite being a long ways in front of the next couple competitors I was still nervously looking behind. I think because you are running so slowly by this stage you don’t believe you can be out running anybody, even though the truth is that most folk are running slowly by then. I closed dramatically on Joe but I was going to catch him. We’re 1-1 for the season now!

So on reflection I think I did a decent job, all things being considered. Less than 5 weeks earlier I had my first cortisone injection above my knee, and so I lost a couple weeks of bike milage. I think those few extra miles would have helped give me the top speed I needed to ride my 2.02 bike split on the rivet as opposed to way off the scale! That extra effort during the bike without a doubt impacted on my run and dusted off the chance of a 1.15 or so half marathon that I knew I was in shape to knock out. Next year!

Fraser Cartmell finished in overall 10th position at Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championship!

swim: 22:09

total: 3:46:37

Top ten men’s Ironman 70.3 World Champs results:

1 Terenzo Bozzone 3:40:10
2 Andreas Raelert 3:40:42
3 Richie Cunningham 3:41:47
4 Oscar Galindez 3:42:29
5 Reinaldo Colucci 3:43:24
6 Andy Potts 3:44:30
7 Luke McKenzie 3:45:13
8 Brent McMahon 3:45:44
9 Joe Gambles 3:46:28
10 Fraser Cartmell 3:46:37

Full Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Champs results here.

I am pleased to say that I will be racing here in Clearwater on my new Felt DA. I’ve been training on the bike for a couple weeks now, but I only just got the wheels in time for race day, so I thought I would get a picture up of the complete set up.

Toby got caught in the moment with his camera - finding all the angles! And looking at this pic makes me think maybe I should get myself some new shoes that don’t appear to be made for the kids market - velcro and all!

Meanwhile, i’ll leave you with a nice shot of Pier 60 on the beach, which we will swim out alongside tomorrow morning.

Oh, and another funny shot we got trying to speak to George (his name we’re told) outside our room early this morning! He appears pretty laid back, I think he’s seen it all before to be honest.

We arrived in Clearwater this afternoon. Finally, its nearly race time! We got registered, and I did some tv stuff for a programme channel 4 will run in December time at home, which is nice. This 70.3 thing is catchin on…..!

Always surprises me the that people are interested in a camera crew, no matter where you are!

Camera work by the pier…. with finger on the lense!

Tobes and Julie

Carolyn, myself, Toby and Julie in April

I’m all packed and I’m yet again on the move; to St Petersburg, Florida. There is just one week left till the Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, and I am heading over to the same great homestay I enjoyed last time with Carolyn, and also Julie Dibens. We were there in Arpil this year too - on that occasion for the St Anthonys race held in St Pete itself, and my new T.R.I team mate Toby Jameson was there then also. Phew, it’s a big reunion! This time round Toby and his brother Joel have travelled, and the 3 of them have been training away over there for the last few days. I’m looking forward to joining in.

Although I am really looking forward to getting over there, I am also quite sad to be leaving Escondido and California. I have really come to enjoy my training (albiet all on my own) out here and I have found more than enough good rides and trails for running. The weather is also just ridiculously ideal for triathlon training. You just don’t get anything other than sunshine and clear, windless days. I have become really quite spoilt, given what the weather is doing at home just now. - Blair sent me a text message during the week which said ‘I can see me breath all the time now - bet you can’t see yours?!’ I think that sums it up perfectly for me at this time of year!

Anyway, I need to get to bed; another lengthly day of travel awaits tomorrow as I cross this huge country from West to East. Dad is coing over to watch the race and he happens to arrive in Tampa airport just before me, so that’ll be a good end to the journey for me.

Oh - and given it is such a huge deal over here - Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures I took whilst out on my bike last week; a sight I have never seen before, and one which led me to realise I had never considered where pumpkins actually come from. Well now I now - they ALL come from this big field in North County, San Diego. All of them.

I watched online via the xterra.tv link, and that was pretty cool - the swim and finsh at least….the in-between-bits were a bit too much fuzzy-helicoptor-heights and catch-a-glimpse-if-you-can but hey, better than nothing.

My good friend Dan Hugo did a great job first time round with his fine 8th place finish - but you can read his report in his words here. His fellow South African, Conrad Stoltz had ‘one of those days’ whilst defending his title, and describes it well here. Conrad and Dan are both longer-time Nekada.com triathletes than me and I hope to meet up with Conrad at some point in the near future, as he clearly is a character worth meeting!

Finally, but by no means lastly, my other tri-buddy, and homestay buddy as of next week, Julie Dibens brought home the win yet again. Defending must be sweet! Waytago Jules. Read her account from this link here.

Encinitas is down by the beach, about 15 miles away from Escondido - where i stay whilst here in CA. It’s a pretty little town, quaint almost, and for me it typifies everything that California seemed to mean as depicted by the vision (tv) whilst growing up. And what better a depiction of Californian life than this picture below?

I’ve been down to Encinitas mostly for bike issues - which i’ll elaborate in another post soon enough, and for that the Nytro bike store seems to have become a home from home. I even got a ‘pro discount’ today, so things are looking up! Thanks guys!

It was hot today - the dry windy days of the week past are now just dry days. - The Santa Ana winds which i now understand happen every year in southern California have all but gone it seems. I don’t really know what all the fuss is about in terms of ‘gusts’ - I mean it’s always windier than 20mph at home - here that means its all over the news? Either way it was 96F (37C) in Escondido when i got in the truck to drive down to the coast, and a pleasant 75F by the beach. - A beach I had never bothered to go down and have a look at before. So today I did.

My ugly mug AND a ‘random’. - Good work I thought.