Where's Wally? (2nd from the left inspecting his feet)

Why such a LONG trip up there?? Well, let me try to explain. (Briefly!).

Tuesday evening – arrive back from Florida. Early Wed morning – re-pack bags and build bike, fetch hire car for the drive, dismantle bike and fit into said car, panic about being late (to pick up Mike Adams), squeeze in a quick run, finish packing stuff for trip, really start panicing about being late for Mike, then finally leave around noon. Drive 2hrs to LA International airport to pick up Mike who has arrived from Vancouver. (Get stopped by a police motorbike for doing 87 in a 65 and amazingly do not get a speeding ticket due to being Scottish!!! – Think of Gavin GavinNoble.com and shake my fist in glee with a little ‘yaaahooo’) Apologise to Mike a number of times. Re-pack car with additional ‘Mike-gear’. Leave LAX and find the freeway resembles a car park. All 5 lanes of it. I get stressed again, Mike calms me down (it’s all an adventure for him…kids!) Eventually arrive at our stop off point for the evening – family friends of Mike and his family, who lived in Ventura – a beautiful spot on the coast an hour or so north of LA. Mexican for tea (thankyou Ron and Martha!).

Early Thursday – ride bikes (after building Mikes bike) for an easy spin. Leave for Wildflower after lunch. Make good time and reach Lake San Antonio just before 6. Marvel at the beauty of the scenery and generally start to get excited. Wiiiiilllllldflower, as they say over and over and over again.

Friday was a blur of eating/napping/readding/napping/tinkering (with bike)/eating some more/calming Mike!/some excerise/race brief. Oh . . . . and hoping the rain would stop! – YES. It rained pretty much all afternoon. Some people even suggested I should be ‘used’ to it!

Race day was nice and cool and DRY. I wasn’t looking forward to rain on the bike – the course is hard enough as it is, what with hills called Nasty Grade and stuff! I had as good a swim as I could have hope for – 3rd out of the water behind two fantastic swimmers. Clayton Fettel has led the swim in countless ITU World Cups and Andy Potts needs no introduction. – Eventually I will do a 70.3 in the US that Andy doesn’t race at!

Very quickly the bike pace was ON. A formidable group formed including everybody I had assumed would be riding hard, and so I was just happy to be sitting amongst the players. Bjorn Andersson had ridden away from us, and we formed 2nd through to 9th spots on the road. And so it stayed till mile 40ish, when we hit Nasty Grade which is a gradual 5 miler that culminates in a pretty steep short section. I got dropped here I am afraid. It is the first time this has happened to me in a long time, and I just had to grit my teeth and muscle through the final 15 miles or so. I lost around a minute on the group into T2 so the damage wasn’t too bad in the end. I need to go back to the drawing board to find out why things went a little south on the ride however….. methinks maybe hydration. Maybe.

The run was never going to be pretty.

I had completed my longest run in 9 weeks at the St Anthony’s race the previous w/e – all 10k of it. You can blag 10k at the end of an olympic distance. You cannot however blag or fake a 21k run at the end of the Wildflower race let me assure you. After a reasonable portion of walking (I decided the hills were too steep for me to try and run up!) I got through the first 9miles of trails and actually ran not too badly for the final 4 miles of tarmac . I lost the top 10 spot I had been holding at 7 miles and got passed by another couple of lads in the final half mile descent into the finish chute… and crossed in 13th position, over 11 minutes slower than my time last year – all lost during the run (my longest in 10 weeks).

However the main take home message for me was that there was no pain during the run, and after some sensible post race management (ice and LOTS of Ibuprofen!) I was in none too shabby shape for cheering on Mike during his olympic distance race on Sunday morning. – He finished 9th place in the Collegiate race in tough conditions. He thoroughly enjoyed it and most importantly had sore legs the morning after – he went hard enough evidently! Well done buddy – a great race and an event to remember!

We got VERY well looked after for our lodgings! – This was inside of the house myself and Mike were given to stay at! Quite amazing.

I certainly hope I’ll be back at Wildflower next year!

Not quite sure what I am smiling about, dnf and all....

My race got off to a great start in the water till, oooo, lets say 100m, when I got the good ‘ol dunkin in the water and the goggles ripped knocked off. It’s a long time since that has happened, but it – as ‘they’ say – is racing, and you must deal with it. It happened again midway and I really became unsure of where I was in the state of play. As we neared the jetty I realised I was probably in a good enough spot and sure enough as I ran up I heard the announcer explain that Olly Freeman was mere seconds in front. Safe.

Onto the bike in 3rd and I just found a really solid pace early doors. This always helps set the tone I find. Quite quickly I could see the two leaders in front and by 10 miles I had passed them, but had also in turn been passed myself by Björn Andersson doing something of a rocket-impression. Off he went. I soon ended up riding on my own for a few miles, until at 25 I was caught by the group of very capable bike riders that had formed behind.

This is something I am still having to work at in my racing – an ability to really dig deep when on my own and capitalise on any gains I may have made in the swim. – I can ride a very quick pace when I am able to pace off of another rider (I said pace not draft) but on my own I struggle to really push that extra gear necessary. It will come in time.

We rode up and over the hills which dominate the second half of the race, and I was determined to really work them as hard as possible. I love that sort of terrain and I had forgotten how good a course this really is. – A really solid, honest bike course, where drafting really won’t be much of an issue I doubt. At 45 miles the Swiss athlete Ronnie (for I cannot spell or pronounce his surname) who was 4th at Hawaii last year zoomed on by and I made an effort to tag along. This effort expired around the 50 mile marker and I was then sucked back into the group of 6 as we entered T2.

I started the run, simply so that I didn’t have to stop in T2 and look like the village idiot who didn’t undertstand what he needed to do. – Run like the rest of them! So I got myself down to just past the first mile marker and walked off the course, which, as I said, sucked.

All in all it was worth it for sure, and I am bouyed by my swim/bike effort. There are no dollars to show for the racing, but I will get my head down and continue to hit the rehab work hard. 

Jog along son. Jog along.

I raced this event last year, and in it’s second outing it was even more impressive this year. My new sponsor for wetsuits is Profile, and they were the title sponsor, so it was a great way for me to meet those folk too.

The race kicked off in near darkness at 7am, as the light was just creeping over the cityscape – it’s a strange scene looking at all the light of the skycrapers before you run into the water! It was a relatively small, but very impressive group of guys that lined up this morning.

I was a little nervous, as always, on the start line (a rapid heart beat never doesn’t anyone any harm right?) but mostly excited to see if I could hang out with these guys on the swim/bike. My swim has been going pretty good in the pool, but that never means much if you can’t hold onto those feet come race day! Unfortunately I let those pesky feet and bubbles go this morning. 4 sets of them! You’d think I could catch just the one, anyone, i’m not fussy.

So I got out onto the bike in 5th spot, and started to try and find the fast tempo required for this distance. – You can’t relax over 40ks. Not one bit, not at this level. Every pedal stroke must count, especially so on a falt course like this one. (There is a bridge we went over 4 times, but in my mind it was flat!). I had led out a small group of guys from the water, including Fred Van Lierde from Belgium – Fred and I am both raced in the 70.3 in South Africa in Jan, so it was good to see him again. He’s a super friendly guy.

It also included a couple other guys – one of whom I had hoped to stay with when he passed me on the bike; but Chris Lieto blew past me so fast that he could have given me a cold. And another lad also did the same. I say ‘lad’ as it turns out he was only 19!!!! Amazing power for someone so young. These two went on to lead out the bike into T2, I guess a couple minutes in front of me. I myself went by a couple of those aforementioned pesky feet, and pulled away from Fred, who stuck with said feet. I got into T2 in 5th spot and not so far behind Andy Potts, which seemed a little enouraging.

Not one for excuses, but I had always decided this would be a swim/bike race for me with a 10k shuffle of it. I have not run properly in over 3 weeks; although I have been running/jogging regularly this week as my leg has improved. The last time I ran as far as 10k was over 3 weeks ago. Some people wouldn’t find this a big deal.

NOT ME!!

I fall apart if I stop decent running for more than 10 days and end up looking like someone who has adopted someones elses lower limbs. Not pretty. So at 5k on the run I was outta the $$’s and in 7th spot. I then got caught by a bit of a legend in non drafting racing – Oscar Galidez.

This was new territory for me, as whenever I have raced him before, he has been off the bike before me, never to be seen (by me) till the tent filled with slices of oranges and cups of coke. So I pulled myself out of my self pity and surged along with him. It was fun, and probably the highlight of my race!

It only lasted a mile and a half, but just before then he barked in broken English ’you on first lap?’ at me …. to which I replied in the negative, and then he took off! He shook my hand at the finish with a smile and that was that. Quite cool though.

The race won by Matty Reed, a mere 2 secs in front of fellow American olympian Andy Potts, with Ironman bike ace Chris Lieto in 3rd. Results here.

I’m quite tired now as I write this, in the early evening. It’s been a long day – breakfast was at 4am, and I am sure there will be a whole host of aches and pains come the morning time, coupled with the blood blisters that running in brand new racing shoes ensure….. Wouldn’t want it any other way.

Next race is Oceanside Ironman 70.3 in California in 3 weeks time (ironmancalifornia.com), where I will get to race a lot of the same faces, but over a distance I am much more comfortable with. Onwards and upwards. It’s a long season ahead; patience is key.

Thats me .... in the background

I am excited to announce that this week I signed with TYR Sports as my Apparel sponsor for the 2009 season.

Founded in 1985 and based in Huntington Beach, California, TYR is the second largest branded swimwear manufacturer in North America, supplying some of the world’s most famous swimmers and sportsmen. 

TYR’s elite triathlon team members include Chrissie Wellington (2-Time Ironman World Champion), Andy Potts (2-Time USAT Elite Triathlete of the Year), Becky Lavelle (2008 Life Time Fitness Series winner), Pip Taylor (ITU World Cup winner), Desiree Ficker (70.3 winner, 2nd 2006 Kona), and T.J. Tollakson (70.3 winner).

Given that I intend to race predominantly in the US next year, TYR are a great sponsor to help me become one of the worlds top athletes at the 70.3 distance, and I feel very lucky to have been taken on board and included into the TYR family.

If I can swim even a tiny bit as fast as the TYR swimmers are doing around the globe at the moment then I will be over the moon!!

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.

Kona is all bustling and ready for action; the biggest triathlon of the year is nearly upon us, and there are 1800 Ironman athletes assembled on the volcanic Island to get the race underway on Saturday morning.

I have gradually, year by year got more ‘into’ the Ironman vibe – and this year especially, after racing in the States a few times. It’s just simply the biggest triathlon out there and one I now appreciate the size of. I think it’s almost a good thing I didn’t manage to get to the finish at Sherbourne last month – as if I had been offered a slot for Kona I think it would have been hard to turn down – simply because it’s Kona!

Anyway; anything can happen on the day, it’s the nature of the beast as they say, but I like to speculate as much as the next punter. Who’s gonna win? Who’s gonna come from ‘nowhere’ a la Chrissie Wellington last year, and what might go wrong, similar to Normann Stadler last year.

For the men: winner, i’m going with Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack, although i think Craig ‘Crowie’ Alexander will push him hard, just like last year. I’m excited to see how Andy Potts shakes it up – I can’t imagine him doing anything other than stretch the swim; it’s how he races, plus if Beji Sanson starts (he was 3rd at Brazil) there is a very formidable swim duo right there. I’d expect a couple minutes at least. But who knows; currents and the swell all factor in at Kona; plus it’s a non wetty swim.

If he doesn’t blow his doors wide open on the bike, Normann Stadler will be in the hunt, but I’m only saying top 5, along with Eneko Llanos – he’s been close to Macca twice this year, so again, I think he will be in the hunt. So that’s my top 5. No doubt be all wrong, so I won’t be looking to place any bets!

Other notables I wouldn’t be surprised to see mixing it up and finishing top 10 are American Chris Lieto, German Faris Al Sultan, Aussie Luke Bell and after a few poor years, and possibly his last ‘real’ hit out - Kiwi Cameron Brown.

For a wildcard shot, I’m going with Brit Paul ‘Amos’ Amey. He’s just won World Short Course Duathlon, so he is clearly in shape. Other than Macca and Crowie, he is actually one of the few guys there to have really hit the top tier of short course racing; so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him giving it some. Possibly top 5-8 shot, but probable off the radar shot. Good luck also to the other GB guys racing pro.

For the girls; winner – Chrissie Wellington. Failing a mechanical or other problem, it’s a no-brainer for me. I’d love to see Leanda Cave get up there in the mix. She made 8th last year, and it went largely unnoticed due to the amazing result from Chrissie. Bella Camerford could go top 10, I hope she does, it would cap a tremendous year for the Aberdonian.

Kate Major, Jo Lawn, Belinda Granger plus that girl who broke the World Record no doubt will be somewhere in the top 10. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not much clued up on the girls side of racing…