Hey! How's it going guys!? Sorry I haven't written on this blog for so long, and I know how much you lot love reading this blog.
Well the truth is I have been so busy with other things like...dancing, singing, knitting, cooking and stuff like that. Not really I'm just kiddin'. That was a trick for all you guys that are thinking "he likes that too?" Well it was a joke so you should be ashamed of yourself! I was probably lifting weights or boxing or something!

Anyway I have four races to report for you guys so get ready! I raced Kansas 70.3 and came...I can't remember ok so move on... Dino tri and came 3rd, Tri n July and came 1st and then Calgary 70.3 and came 5th. Right enough about the races lets talk about the juicy Boulder gossip!!! Well the college girls are back in town next week and the lads are pretty excited about that...I'm not, that means nothing to me.

Anyway I'm just teasing again lets talk about my latest race...Calgary 70.3. First of all the race was supremely organised. I e-mailed Dave Cracknell about 4 days before the race pleading to get me in. He did everything he could to get me on that start line and even found me an awesome home stay for the week-end. So that was a great start already.
I had to wake up at 3:55am in order to get the bus to the airport, and anyone that knows me will be know that that was not good at all. I tried to accept a lift to the airport from my misses (Heidi Spees), but she very hastily reclined her offer. Which denied me that extra 30 mins sleep in I could have had. So I managed to drive my car down to the car park and leave it there as I hastily made my way four blocks across town to the bus station. I arrived as the bus was leaving the depot...fortunatley the driver stopped and let me on...phew!
Anyway the rest of that trip is history.

I was pleased to discover I had three seats to my self on the way to Phoenix until I sat down and became rudely disturbed as I was just dropping off to sleep by a loud high pitched whail. I then noticed a screaming baby two seats back. Now don't get me wrong, babies are cute etc, but not when I wanna sleep. Hence for the rest of the flight my eyes were wide and tense as I listened to the beautiful sound of shrieking!
To my pleasant surprise, the next flight I was on to Calgary I was situated next to a nice young professional female golfer. At last someone I could brag and impress with my triathlon credentials lol. Which actually didn't take more than 1 minute lol! Well, 1 minute of the truth and the rest was total BS ha ha. Not really, it was all true damn it!

Anyway, I got to Calgary and was all ready to get going to my homestay. However it became apparent that my bag wasn't to make it there to be with me just yet. So I left and had to wait until 1am to get the call from the airport that it was safe and to be delivered to me later.
Lets fast forward to the race.

Well it turns out that I'm not as organized as I thought I was. As I got to transition 1 which was 40 minute drive away, I realised that I had left my timing chip, my Advil and my No Doz caffeine tablets in my other bag. But at least I remembered my goggles lol! Anyway fortuanatley I went scrounging around for the gear. Steve Hackett saved the day when he gave me some No Doz, and then another girl gave me some Advil. The only thing to sort out was the timing chip. That was ok too as I attained a spare from the race start...now it's hammer time!!!

All the Pros started together...male and female. So just for the start of the race I treated the chicks like they were guys...like I said hammer time ha ha! I started out well with Stevie Hackett and Tim O'Donnell. Just as I was smiling to myself and totally praising my performance so far Stevie decied to take off as did Tim. They got a 4 metre gap on me so I quickly realised the danger and ignited the turbos!...I actually got no closer to them whatsoever and they eventually dropped me! But it was worth a go.
I exited the water in third after swimming against a tide of age group swimmers warming up. It turns out that the buoys had drifted into their path, hence why we swam into the middle of them. I told Tim afterwards that I reckon that mistake cost me 10 minutes, so really I probably should have won the race...I was lying of course.

Anyway I was biking like a beast...that was until Ben Hoffman flew past me with Jamie Whyte and James Cotter on a cadence of about 60! I managed to stay with them for about 45km until I was dropped on a downhill. I blame it on running out of gears and not having a disk wheel. But in truth, they were probably just real strong riders. I have to blame it something though hey? I have a rep to protect lol!
Well it turns out I rode solo for the rest of the ride until the next group caught me with 2km to go which involved Kirk Nelson a local triathlete to the Boulder area.

So the run was on baby! I ran out of transition like a gazelle! That was until I got out of everyones sight and then I chilled out to get my breath back. the run was tough and hot! I was trucking along with determination though and managed to pass two athletes, one of them was a guy that dropped me on the bike which was a good confidence boost for me as I knew him to be a good athlete and that the riders that dropped me may have worked harder on the bike which meant the run might be a bit tougher to endure in this heat for them. As it turns out I ran strong enough to take three places back to eventuate the race in 5th!!!
I was happy with the race overall as I really think the field was strong and the course was tough. I also grabbed a spot for the World Championships in Florida!
Well I basically had to go straight from the race to the casino to get the taxi back to the airport...I was starving! I didn't eat until I got back to Denver, but I was glad to be home!
Next race is Lake Stevens, and I promise the race report won't be as long as this one! Wake up!
Anyway girls and lads, I will write again when something juicy arises from the depths of Boulder!
Until next time amigos!

Hadmeister