World Championships 2013

Yep - read the heading - WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

I did it. I qualified, I went and I raced for my country. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

check these out - still stoked just thinking about it !!!!!

The New Zealand Team at Hampton Court Palace - "for afternoon tea"

Pre race - World Aquathon Championships

Me and a mate, post race - check out the smile !!

wet roads made for "exciting" racing

The finish chute - very proud moment

World Championship finisher medals - Aquathon World Champs on the left and Triathlon World Champs on the right - AWESOME !!!

Kiwi support - all the way !!!

I did it

Holy Crap - I did it !!!

I've been "absent" for a longtime as the last post was in Nov 2011 and it's interesting reading back over the old posts.

The last one was about me trying to qualify for the World Age Group Triathlon Champs to be held in Auckland in 2012 - well, that didn't work and it's been and gone.

BUT

I went back to the national champs the following year and "smashed it bro" (meaning I did it) and quailified for the 2013 World Age Groups Champs to be held in London in September. YEAH !!!

Very excited and still buzzing. I am so new to this wonderful sport and I have so much to learn but to have achieved this goal - I'm very "chuffed"

Here is a couple of pics from the National Champs - enjoy

Race report: Auckland ITU World Cup race

THIS RACE WAS AWESOME !!!!


I have to admit that I was pretty nervous going into this race as it was the first of 2 qualifying races for the 2012 ITU World Age Group Championships to be held in Auckland next October. This race doubled as a warm up event and a qualifying event so huge amounts of triathletes came out of the wood work to race this race.

As far as organisation went, I was very impressed with it BUT That said, this is the first MAJOR event that I have been to so I really have nothing to compare it to.

Canterbury Tri club about to ride the bike course

We flew up on the Friday morning, I put my bike together and relaxed the rest of the day. The Canterbury Tri Club members (about 15 of us) met early on the Saturday morning to ride the course and this was a really good thing to do. Took it easy for the rest of the day and the race was on Sunday morning.

Great idea to stay in a hotel with a lap pool and a hot tub!!!!

Race report.

750m swim / 20km bike / 5km run – Sprint distance around the Auckland waterfront – Stunning course and the course they will be using for the 2012 World Champs. Check out www.triauckland.co.nz for the course details and pictures.

My bike, the red Avanti

We racked the bikes on Saturday afternoon and our start wave was 9.17am the next morning – wave number 18 and the second wave of the Sprint distance. The swim was in Auckland Harbour and the day dawned as a stunner. 18 degrees and a bit of wind BUT the wind got a bit stronger as the day went on.

heading off towards the swim start

There was 30 in my age group and 106 in my wave start – my goal was to come out of the water top 10. I lined up on the far end of the pontoon to make sure that I had clear water so I could set into my stroke and then put the power on as I got more comfortable. This proved to be a great decision as I had clear water all the way to the first buoy and at that stage was in the front third of the field. I passed a few more on the second leg and rounded the next buoy to head for home in the top 10.
Put on a bit of power and exited the water 4th in my Age Group and in the top 10 in the wave of over 100.

That's me - the one on the far left of the pontoon

Swim course

750m swim – 11.49


Had a really good transition from Swim to bike as my bike was in a very good position in the racks.

Bike transition

Started out into the bike leg feeling good right up until I hit the first hill about 2 km in. I was still puffing after my swim effort and the legs weren’t quite there yet so I struggled with that first hill. I came right after a few more km’s and was reasonably happy with my bike leg – one thing that I really took away from this is that I need to do more hill work. The bike was an “out and back” type and we had a nice tail wind out but a head wind all the way home.


20km bike – 42.40

Been doing a bit of work on my transitions and this showed with my bike to run T2 – I was in and out super fast. Very happy.

The run was always going to be difficult as I had not put in the training needed to be able to run fast. I have been seeing a physio and an osteopath for the last few months to try and get my knee right – I refuse to lay blame on the fact that I have a bad knee, the reality is that I didn’t do enough strength work on this and I have this to work on now. Considering that I haven’t been doing much running of late, I thought that I had a good run.

Finishing chute - Done !!

5km run – 27.27


Total time – 1.24.48

21st out of 30 in my age group – the top 10 qualified and there is another 10 spots up for grabs in February.


One point to note is that our age group (45-49) was a very strong group. The winner was an ex New Zealand swimmer and all around sports person. His time was 1.03.45, not too far off the elites finish times.

The winner of the 45-49 Age Group World Championship in Beijing a few months ago was 1.07.47, won by Australian Mick Maroney.

Auckland ITU World Cup Age Group race

Race report to come soon but here is a photo of me running down the finish line chute !!!!

Season 2011 / 2012

I start my 2011/2012 Tri season this weekend at Lake Hood, Ashburton Sprint race


Back in May I entered this race Auckland Tri - it’s come around so quickly I can’t believe this race is in less than 3 weeks time.

I’m treating this weekend as a “training” race where I can try a race pace swim, T1, bike. T2 and a short run off the bike to see how I feel. I’ve been seeing a couple of amazing people who have been so helpful and all with the single aim of getting me to the start line in the best possible condition. I do not want to use my bad knee as an excuse but I do need to be cautious.


Thank you Sarah, Julee and Sonia – you are all AWESOME !!!! – this weekend will give me an indication of where I am, how I am placed and where I need to improve.

In 3 weeks time I have to be ready to step up and race the race of my life if I want to achieve my goal of qualifying for the 2012 ITU World Triathlon Championships in my age group. It started months ago but Sunday will be my first real test – I’ll let you know how I go next week.

Rugby World Cup 2011

I approach this weekend with trepidation – not really sure why but suffice to say, I was not expecting life to be like it is when the announcement was made 6 years ago for New Zealand to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

I remember watching the announcement draw live on TV back in 2005 and I remember jumping up and punching the air when Syd Miller, then IRB Chairman, read out those now famous words – “the host nation for Rugby World Cup 2011 is ………….. New Zealand"

And now, here we are 48 hours out from the Grand Final game between New Zealand and France. Pretty much everyone picked us to be there, almost no one picked France to be there (except my French Canadian wife) and I feel torn on so many levels.

So much has happened since that announcement, so much has happened here in Christchurch. The country is in party mode yet I feel like I’ve been given the invitation, told how great the party will be, bought the outfit and at the 11th hour, had my invitation so cruelly revoked.

I know, these feelings makes no sense at all.

While the rest of the country is partying, we are waiting.

While the rest of the country is partying, we are hoping.


But we will be partying this Sunday night and we will feel good when Richie McCaw lifts the William Webb Ellis trophy aloft – this will be a victory for the All Blacks, for every New Zealander but also for the folks of Canterbury.

After that, we will go back to waiting and hoping while the rest of New Zealand carries on.

Uh oh

Kinda freaking out (just a little bit)

The start list for the Auckland Triathlon next month have just been released, 199 entrants in the Sprint race, 29 starters in my age group and I did a silly thing and checked on the pedigree of my fellow age group participants and WOW, there are some pretty good triathletes amongst them.

This race is the first of 2 qualifying races for the ITU World Age Group Championships in Auckland in 2012.

A few weeks ago I went to the Canterbury Tri Club awards and dinner ( see previous post and I won Novice of the Year, stoked!! ) where Hamish Carter made a small speech and he made one particular comment that I will now share and more so for me – YOU can only control what YOU do and not what anyone else does, focus on this only and race your own race.

That’s why I’m only freaking just a little bit - this is a good thing though!