10th place – 4:26:09

Having never visited Norway, I decided to travel over the North Sea for this Challenge event largely for this reason alone – a tourist if you like. I had raced in Dublin a couple of weeks prior, and I knew I was travelling again the following weekend for another event. However, as much as a weekend at home in the Shire would likely have been the smarter decision, as my woefully underperformance on race day highlighted, I’m still glad I visited Southern Norway. Sometimes it’s not all about the racing and results.

Riding to ‘The End of the World’ on the southern Norwegian coast: the next stop is Denmark apparently. 

Read on …

4th place – 4:08:20

Last year I came to Dublin hoping to collect the last vital ‘points’ required to qualify for the Ironman World Championships on Hawaii. I was having a cracker of a race midway through the bike ride – leading and on my own. I even started to allow myself to get excited. Then I punctured. Such is life! So this year I was merely aiming for a good, safe race that improved on the previous visit to the city.

Some great crowds for the finish in Phoenix Park, Dublin

Read on …

9th place (7th MPro) – 9:24:31

This is my ‘glad to be finished’ face after a long day of racing.

This was my 5th time racing in Bolton since 2010 and given it was my first full distance event since Ironman Hawaii last October I was looking forward to being back and certainly ready to get back on the horse, so to speak. Sometimes however, it just doesn’t quite pan out on the day as you had hoped it might.  Read on …