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!

Fraser Cartmell finished Ironman 70.3 Austin in 11th place overall and as 11th PRO.  (Quick race report below from me – thanks Nikola).

Swim: 22:59

Total: 3:57:07

For full results check Ironman.com.

This race is still within his hard training and he has taper ahead of him (he should confirm this) – main race is Ironman 70.3 World Champs on 14th November.

Phew, i’m all done with Austin 70.3, and certainly less than pleased with the result (on paper), unhappy with the way I fell apart, BUT i’m actually relatively relieved that I was even able to finish the damn race. – On Wednesday it seemed like i was going to have to skip Austin altogether and stay in San Diego to seek further physiotherapy treatment for a gammy leg (AGAIN!)

- I was riding my bike last Sunday after a great longer run in the morning … and after 30minutes I had a sore knee/lower quad (Vastusd Medialis) and by the end of the 90mins easy ride I was struggling to turn the pedals without shooting pains. Perfect. Monday/Tuesday it was sore and I was tumble turning with the one leg in the pool. And I only swam between Monday and Friday ….. thankfully I saw the great phsyio who put me back together in April when i was last in Sandy Eggo and he assured me that i just had crazy tight hammy/adductors that had become good mates and gotten stuck together causing the pain further down the leg. Reassuring to hear but not ideal at all … as I had been laying low on the running anyways since the Duathlon and Spain trip where I had a sore/tight calf!! – Man I need a fulltime massage therapist I think … or at least regulur rubs. Buts thats another story.

Simply fact is that I reckon I’ve ran no more than 200ks in the last month .. maybe a bit more, but i’d be spliting hairs; and I need consistency in my running to feel good off the bike, and therefore it was no surprise I started to buckle after a few decent early miles on the run. - And it was a HILLY run too … so I think it must’ve been short given the splits!

Good points were the swim - I was hanging out at the front for the first half then happily let others do the work there after. I figured I was going to need all the energy i could muster for the bike, as I really haven’t loaded huge milage yet … but I felt great. We were sleeping in T1 and somehow Greg Bennet nipped out super quick and dropped the hammer. I worked hard with Ritchie Cunnigham and Luke Bell to reduce the gap, and for the middle 10miles I got a gap myself and started to think I could ride GB down alone. I couldn’t! We re-grouped as a 3 and ended up reeling in Greg just before T2 where he seemed to park up and not even consider running.

 As I said; the run wasn’t too pretty, but I just decided to enjoy it after 5 miles. I jogged, and thought of it as the long run for the week I needed. I enjoyed the many live bands situated along the course (HOW cool) and tried to have a smile (difficult, but I tried) till the finish; realising it’s not always fun and games out there.

Next stop Clearwater, and if (please!!) I can run every day till then, I think (hope!) I can pull the run back into line. We’ll see. Thanks for all the messages.

and he emailed me this picture!

Very cool – my second magazine front cover, after a mountain biking shot taken at Xterra UK (which became a duathlon!) back in September 2006. This shot was taken in South Africa whilst I was training in Stellenbosch.

I rode along this section of road a number of times for this shot!! Worth it though.

Mr. Cartmell placed 13th at Wildflower long course triathlon.

More info will follow…

Full results here…

So the racing has begun – 2009 is well under way and I’m delighted to have kicked it off with a 2nd place on Sunday in Buffalo City, East London. I started to get a little ahead of myself around 30k on the bike – got a tad excited shall I say, as I reckoned I could win it right there and then. I was riding super well, I thought I was flying, I had jumped away from the 2 others I was with and all I had in front was the lead car/clock. I should know better by now shoudn’t I? However 70.3 miles is a long way and it’s obviously not over till it’s over.

I had a really good fun lead up to the event; training had finished up nicely here in Stellenbosch early last week and then I just had a couple easy days Wed/Thursday coupled with travel to give the legs a little reprieve. Myself and Blair travelled up with Tim Don and his folks, who are in Africa for a holiday just now, so we had a nice and relaxed time leading into race day. Tim was in excitable spirits in anticipation of his debut half ironman, and that easy going atmosphere made the time fly by. We had a good laugh and were pretty much horizontal in terms of our relaxed state I thought.

Back to old school for the sunnies!

We had a beach start and there were a couple of rolling waves to porpoise through to get into our strokes. I didn’t really mind about leading the swim on this occasion, indeed we were pretty sure one of the three Storm brothers would take up that position, and by half way Anton Storm had pushed on a few meters in front of me.

We had a bit of a choppy swim, but at least it was a lot more like the appropiate distance this year, and not closer to 1500m! As we got to the beach we stopped to wait a few seconds to ensre we caught the one wave breaking in – another Storm brother (Brad) caught it much better than me, and I ran up under the showers in 3rd. I was however aware of a sizeable pack forming behind, and it actually included all of the guys gunning for top positions – something like 8 or so.

I had a pretty smooth transition and was out in the lead on the bike by 3ks. Blair had run out onto the bike course to give us a time check on Raynard – we reckoned we could get up to 90secs relative to previous swims against him. However Blair was shaking his head after receiving a call from Tims dad at T1, telling me it was less than 30secs; ‘get ready for the train to come by’ he told me! Which is just what I did.

From 10 to 30k Raynard really pushed the pace, especially on the ups. We were riding as a 3 along with Brad Storm. Just shy of the turn point we were joined by the German, Bachor. ‘Mike the Mike’, who does the commentry at many many 70.3 and Ironman events round the world (and is also German) had tipped me to watch out for Konstantine Bachor, since he was apparently in great bike shape. I did my homework anyway, and found that he had jumped off the bike at the Roth Ironman last year in 3rd spot; which in simple terms means he can ride a bike!!

We had a solid headwind on the way out (and up) to the turn – and it took me 1hour 19mins. The return leg took approximately 62mins.- We were hooking! I must say I was feeling great. I am not much of a power rider; I struggle with big gear work in training (as Darren always dispaired at) but on Sunday I was riding the 53*11 gear (my biggest) with relative ease.

Between me and Konstantine we surged and pushed Raynard, sensing he was hurting. At times he seemed to drop quite far off the pace, but always managing to claw his way back to contact. Then, being the classy athlete that he is, just when we ourselves we starting to suffer, during the last 5-8ks into town, BANG! He dropped the hammer on the last ramp into East London. And as he powered past I saw his chain was still in the big blade,I thought ‘oh dear’. I had already dropped into the small ring in anticipation of the looming hill! And just like that he has 45 seconds into transition – a healthty buffer.

just after I'd run into 2nd plce

Once onto the promenade and into my stride I realised the sun was HOT, and I didn’t feel so fantastic anymore…. I was in 3rd, the German was literally a surge away – something like 100m and Raynard that bit further again. But they might as well have been a mile up the road. It took me till 12ks to get going – much to the disgust of Blair on the sidelines; and in true talking to myself fashion (we all do it right??) I got going step by step into a decent clip. The lad on the mountain bike sensed it, and started to encourage, and within a couple Ks I had caught and dropped Bachor. 2nd was secure but Raynard was long gone. I crossed the finish line a couple minutes back, but a step further up the podium than last year.

Raynard was impressive on Sunday, and he deserved his win. I know what it is like to win at home, and it’s great fun – the crowd were cracking support for me, so I can only imagine how much of a lift it provided for him, and with his smart tactical racing he ensured his win comfortably in the end. Next year though!

A BIG thanks to all at the Triangle team for a fantastic race, and for looking after me and Blair so well. I look forward to returning next year to an even bigger event.  (photos courtesy of Triangle)

Fraser Cartmell just finished Ironman 70.3 South Africa in second position, only 2 minutes 3 seconds behind last year’s winner Raynard Tissink (raynardtissink.com).

Fraser’s splits:

SWIM: 22:36
BIKE: 2:21:48
RUN: 1:16:28
TOTAL: 4:04:07

Results are available at ironman.com.

PS This is Nikola, Frasers web support

Tim Don, Raynard Tissink and myself at the press conference

I’m in East London now after flying up the coast from Cape Town yesterday morning. I travelled up with Blair, who as I said has been out here with me for a couple weeks plus my training buddy in Stellenbosch, Tim Don. Our bikes and gear all rolled off the bagage belt in one piece and half an hour later we were at our hotel. Happy days.

Blair cruised around town for a look yesterday, although it didnt take very long, for East London is not the most scenic of places i’m afraid! However it does have a lot of hotels, which confuses me slighty.

Today we had a few bits of pieces to do, including the press conference for the event and then the pro briefing. I don’t ususally arrive for a Sunday event on the Thursday, but because of these, I had to. Tim and I also headed out for a look at the bike course, which is something I was keen to do, given the terrible ride I had here last year (which I was asked about plenty already…!). The course is a really honest bike course, just like I remembered – we basically head inland away from the sea and climb steadily for 45ks to the turnaround, which is at 500m elevation. If the wind is like it was this morning then we will have a cracking tailwind on the way home, which is an incentive to get up there to the turn!

We also had a look around the run course, scouted out the swim bouys and generally familiarised ourselves with the whole gig. The run course has been altered since last time, with the ridiculously tough hill mostly being removed, although there is still a reasonable grade for 500m up to a dead turn on the lap. Whilst driving back down it I commented on it being nice to ‘relax and float back down’. To which Tim responded ‘bloody hell, you can float all you like – but i’ll be piss-bolting down it!’ I liked that

I am really looking forward to having a hit out this w/e however, so lets wait and see when the business end gets going!

Athletes started with a 12k surf ski (pictured), 1.5k swim, 50k road bike ride, 13k road run, 12k canoe, 25k mtb and to finish them off good and proper – an horrendous 9k beach run – the kind of soft, horrible sand that you dont even want to walk on! Virtually everyone that I know here in the ‘Bosch was taking part in some shape or form, be it individually or as a part of a team. That also included my brother Blair, for I had decided to enter him in the ‘Terra firma’ event – everything but the ‘wet stuff’. We were barely on speaking terms by the end of the day……. well, he was barely speaking to me!!!!

Gavin (fresh off a flight from Norn Ireland), Nikola (my website guru) and myself watched the early depart with varying degrees of excitement

My job for the day was to be the ’seconder’ for Blair. Every athlete needs a second, since the event is mostly point-to-point, and so you rely upon helpers to set up the next transition area. I have entered the books as possibly the worst seconder in the history of seconding after my dismal attempt on Saturday! Blair arrived here in SA late on Tues evening, giving him only 3 days to acclimatise to the warm climate and get his bearings, yet I went ahead and entered him in the ‘little novice event – it’s only a bike run bike run’. My reassuring words were not ringing so true 5 and half hours later whilst he trudged in from the beach run. I think we started to realise at the briefing on Thursday eve that it might take a little more prep than he had managed in the previous months!!! – Not much! However, he decided that by taking things easy on the runs it should be fine. Ummm, nope.

Fraser was late getting to the first change over after the road bike, missed him mid way thro the road run to give him fuel and was subsequently 5-10mins late arriving with his mtb – parking was a nightmare! Then when Blair finally appeared for the final change over (by which point I was asking race officials if they had heard anything over the radio …) he looked white as a sheet and asked simply, but desperately ”have you got any food?” Err, that would be no. “I’ve got a gel, if you want?” That didn’t go down well at all. Truth be told, between us it was a complete cock up and we hugely underestimated the task at hand, especially for him under the South African sun.

But credit where it is more than due, for he ran off out onto the beach, vowing to finish and claim his medal. Over an hour later he came back into sight – trainers evidently not required.

It all started fairly normally; leave school, start university and believe that like most others on my course I would be finished up four years later. It didn’t quite work out like that though did it? Nonetheless I did eventually manage to wrap up my Chemical Engineering Degree from Heriot Watt University yesterday. It’s a long story…too long for here, but I guess it is closure you could say.

I finished the last of my Final Exams at the end of August last year, but for some reason – misunderstandings on my behalf mostly – I never received my Degree through the post like I thought. What with being out of the country for so much of the time since then, I never got round to nailing down the whereabouts of the damn thing.

However, I did manage to fill out the appropriate forms and get a hold of the necessary gown and hood to be allowed to join the ceremony yesterday afternoon. The graduates were from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences plus the Institute of Petroleum Engineering - receiving Doctorates, Masters and Bachelor Degrees. There was even a Frenchie (with a cracking moustache) receiving an Honoury Degree in ‘recognition of his distinction in the field of optical and quantum physics’. – Seriously over the top of my head type of stuff.  Needless to say there were some smart cookies in the building, and I was really intriguied by many of the titles to both the PhD studies and also some of the Master Degrees that I never even realised were on offer at the University.

As I walked over the stage Blair fought off the urge to shout something alongs the lines of ‘8 years’! And that is enough said on that to be honest.