It just seems like yesterday......oops, it was!
#14 is done like dinner, or should we say baked like an apple pie. Man, it was a hot one out there. With strong winds (no, not cooling winds!) at 11-26 kms per hour and the temperature hitting 32 (humidity at 94%) we are glad to be done this one. A great day for both of us and for Tri The World as we got to chat with and run with folks we had met in the UK 70.3 as well as the St. Croix 70.3 who were up to speed on our venture!
Prior to the swim, the race announcer had the entire field welcome us to Cancun with a round of applause which was awesome.
We head back to Canada tomorrow for a couple of weeks until we head to Austin. This weekend coming up, Heather's daughter Jasmine is running her FIRST marathon so we will be heading to Toronto to cheer her on!!!!!!
Pics and reace reports on their way....soon!!!
Brian and Heather
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Some more Pics from Singapore
Catching some zzzs in Hong Kong
Fish Head soup anyone (or hanging geese, heads included)?
Very close to swim start...
The 70.3 advertising all along the beach
Fish Head soup anyone (or hanging geese, heads included)?
Very close to swim start...
The 70.3 advertising all along the beach
Some Pictures from Singapore
Welcome to the Race Site!
Some of the pros at the Press Conference...
Pre-race meal with some Singapore friends
After the race...happy to have #12 done!
At the Award's Banquet, photos of Tri The World
Some of the pros at the Press Conference...
Pre-race meal with some Singapore friends
After the race...happy to have #12 done!
At the Award's Banquet, photos of Tri The World
Buenas Dias de Cancun!
Wow....we are finally here!
We landed yesterday afternoon and were greeted by Michelle from Tri The World.com (our travel agent) with a pick up van to take us to the hotel.
Man, when she does it, she does it right!!!
We are at the Hilton Golf and Spa Resort a few minutes from both transition and from registration. We have our own Villa with a gorgeous ocean view.
After a dip in the Ocean and pool, we had a nice "happy hour" meet and greet with her and her family along with other TTW.com athletes.
With a nice rest last night, Brian is up and was writing his Brazil Race Report and sippin coffee and blogin to y'all.
The bikes need to be built and we must head to the race expo as Brian's bike needs some work that may take some time.
It is SWELTERIN hot out, so today's mission is water, water and more water...as hydration will be the key on race day.
Hasta Luego....
B&H
We landed yesterday afternoon and were greeted by Michelle from Tri The World.com (our travel agent) with a pick up van to take us to the hotel.
Man, when she does it, she does it right!!!
We are at the Hilton Golf and Spa Resort a few minutes from both transition and from registration. We have our own Villa with a gorgeous ocean view.
After a dip in the Ocean and pool, we had a nice "happy hour" meet and greet with her and her family along with other TTW.com athletes.
With a nice rest last night, Brian is up and was writing his Brazil Race Report and sippin coffee and blogin to y'all.
The bikes need to be built and we must head to the race expo as Brian's bike needs some work that may take some time.
It is SWELTERIN hot out, so today's mission is water, water and more water...as hydration will be the key on race day.
Hasta Luego....
B&H
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Chillin' in Brazil-in'
It's Tuesday and we've enjoyed a couple of days post-race recovery. We're in the middle of nowhere, so our options are pretty limited. Still, it isn't too difficult to kill time, walking the beaches of Brazil.
We took the Blues for an easy recovery ride today; travelled to the next town and enjoyed a pastry burger and a couple of cafes at a local "patio" type diner. The owners were extremely friendly and did their best to educate us on Portuguese. Now, Brian's brain is extra tired as he had to speak Spanish\Portuguese and then translate it all to English so Heather could be included in the conversation too!! What a great experience though. We've exchanged e-mail addresses with Paulo and his wife Marcia; hopefully we'll keep in touch with them and they with us.
With less than a day left here, we'll head back to our hotel, break down our bikes and prepare for our departure tomorrow at noon. We're looking forward to Cancun, where we'll have the opportunity to meet and race with some sponsors we now call friends: Michelle from Tri The World Travel, and Chance Regina from Blue Competition Cycles.
We have a 5 hour lay-over in Sao Paolo, and then a 4 hour lay-over in Chicago.....plenty of time to write race reports....
cheers,
H & B
We took the Blues for an easy recovery ride today; travelled to the next town and enjoyed a pastry burger and a couple of cafes at a local "patio" type diner. The owners were extremely friendly and did their best to educate us on Portuguese. Now, Brian's brain is extra tired as he had to speak Spanish\Portuguese and then translate it all to English so Heather could be included in the conversation too!! What a great experience though. We've exchanged e-mail addresses with Paulo and his wife Marcia; hopefully we'll keep in touch with them and they with us.
With less than a day left here, we'll head back to our hotel, break down our bikes and prepare for our departure tomorrow at noon. We're looking forward to Cancun, where we'll have the opportunity to meet and race with some sponsors we now call friends: Michelle from Tri The World Travel, and Chance Regina from Blue Competition Cycles.
We have a 5 hour lay-over in Sao Paolo, and then a 4 hour lay-over in Chicago.....plenty of time to write race reports....
cheers,
H & B
Sunday, September 14, 2008
#13 Is In The Books!!!!
Just a quick hello and update as we've managed to snag an internet connection at the Brasil Telecom booth.
We have both finished #13 and are extremely happy with our results. Ironman.com has live tracking for complete results if anyone is interested. Simply put, a bad experience turned into a great experience and we're happy that everything came together for us to get here in time to race today.
We are staying in a very small town with limited amenities. We are not sure when we'll be able to get internet access again. We are leaving here on Wednesday and are scheduled to arrive in Cancun Thursday afternoon. Worst scenario, we'll update on our lay-over in Chicago.
Congrats to all who race Muskoka today. Preliminary results look promising!!!!
cheers,
Heather & Brian
We have both finished #13 and are extremely happy with our results. Ironman.com has live tracking for complete results if anyone is interested. Simply put, a bad experience turned into a great experience and we're happy that everything came together for us to get here in time to race today.
We are staying in a very small town with limited amenities. We are not sure when we'll be able to get internet access again. We are leaving here on Wednesday and are scheduled to arrive in Cancun Thursday afternoon. Worst scenario, we'll update on our lay-over in Chicago.
Congrats to all who race Muskoka today. Preliminary results look promising!!!!
cheers,
Heather & Brian
Friday, September 12, 2008
Singapore Race Report
When we planned to add this race to our schedule, we wanted to be able to reach as far around the world as we could with our TTW message. Well, as we write this, we are on a plane leaving Singapore back to the USA for a quick stop over on our way to Brazil and could NOT imagine how far our message will go now after this race.
Prior to our leaving, Nick Morales, owner of TriMapper.com and one of our sponsors reached out to someone he knew who was involved with the race in Singapore, advising them to contact us about our being at this 70.3 race. After not hearing back, as is the norm, we dropped him a note before we left Ottawa asking if he had heard about us from our friend Nick. He replied almost immediately and advised that he absolutely heard about it and had been busy flying in from Australia and was sure there had been "some stuff" set up in Singapore. We were not too clear about what he was referring to, so we just thanked him via email and hoped for the best. Just before we left Ottawa, we got an email from the organizers of this weekend coming up thanking us for making it one of our stops and asked if we could "fit in" an interview, as the folks who would be televising this race a couple of months later were looking for inspirational stories for their broadcast. Oh....did we mention.....it was with ESPN!!!!
So, all giddy with that news we headed out for our 27 hrs of travel time.
After a brief stop in Chicago (our main hub for the 3 race leg) we were off to Hong Kong for a few hours, then on to Singapore. We were able to keep our stretching up as well as catch a few hours sleep. We landed in Singapore Thursday and found our way to the Mercure Roxy Hotel, kindly booked by our travel agent Michelle at www.tritheworld.com, who was bang on with this hotel. We would come to find out that the race organizers, pros and athletes were pretty much all staying here....and it was NOT the host hotel....well done Michelle!
It was just after midnight local time, noon at home and we were needing some fuel. We asked the concierge for something that was open at that time. He pointed us to a small local dive where we would find some grub. We had a very nice bowl of noodles and beef and a cold Carlsberg beer each. All of that was $8Sing... about $5.50! We opted to pass on the "live frog" and "Pig Stomach lining" Soups...maybe tomorrow!
Friday morning, we awoke to what we would find to be typical Singapore weather... pouring rain one minute...sunshine the next, but relentless humidity and heat no matter what! We crossed Marina Bay Road and stumbled across an outdoor market where we thought we could grab a bite before we headed to registration. What a score! This place was stall after stall of kiosks where locals operated what could best be described as fast food but cooked in traditional methods. So, fast food price and speed, without the fast food feel. We found many places that we knew would not get our business, as their menu was either reminiscent of the one the night before, or there was no English wording on it at all. We had to adjust quickly to how they displayed their ingredients as well. Seeing oven cooked and boiled duck or chicken hanging at widow is odd enough...but when the heads, and feet are all still intact, well, that took a few minutes to adjust to. After a well enjoyed and well needed bowl, we headed to registration which was located downtown. We grabbed a local bus that dropped us very close to the venue, which was in a mall that had a ton of shops, including STARBUCKS!!! Schwag bags in hand, we opted to take a cab to the race site, where we were scheduled to meet ESPN at the pros press conference. Once we were there (a tad early), we sat at the beach front patio where the press conference was taking place. One of the race organizers approached us asking if we were the ones doing 16 of these races. Well, we assumed for the first few minutes that this was ESPN. We were surprised that it was yet another person who knew of our story (we joke to each other often that we are not sure why we have not gotten used to the attention yet..). It was none other than Whit Raymond, THE VOICE of Ironman Asia! He jotted a few notes on his papers and told us he would try to give us a few shout-outs on race day. We chatted for a bit until the press conference was about to begin. We had not noticed that mulling around us was Belinda Granger, Terenzo Bazone, Simon Thomson and Bryan Rhodes! As we were about to enjoy sitting in a press conference, we got the tap from the assistant to the interviewer for ESPN. They were ready for us down at the beach. Up until this point, we were not sure if there was going to be an actual interview at this time or if it was an "interview for the chance at an interview". When we saw the camera set up at the beach, we both took a deep breath and said "this is it!" Now, truth be told, Heather shys away from the attention we get. Brian is not all that comfy with it either....but hell, this was ESPN. Its as close as he will ever get to "big time" viewership so he was very stoked about it.
After about 10 minutes of chatting and filming "b-roll" as they call it in the biz (lol), Heather headed for a much needed pedicure appointment right at race site...how convenient! Brian opted to hang around the press conference as it was still going on. After they wrapped it up, it was a schmooze fest of the top athletes in this race. He congratulated Belinda and Bryan on their Canadian IM wins a few weeks back. They were envious of our travels yet did not jump on board when he suggested that they join us for the next few. Both truly nice folks.
We did a bit of walking around between the press conference and the Pasta Feast. Brian was snapping some pics with his pocket "point 'n shoot" camera when a guy, with a HUGE camera walked in Brian's field of vision. He apologized for his move and we shared a laugh, as Brian told him, "the man with the bigger lens, should be able to do what he wants"!!! Well, we get to chatting and learn that our new buddy turns out to be the official photo guy for Aviva 70.3 Singapore!!! He tells me he saw us at the press conference knew about TTW and said he would be looking for us on race day! What GREAT PR!
We attended the Pasta Fest at the race site and hooked up with a couple of friends we know from a on-line triathlon group as well as another brother-sister duo who were competing the next day. All checked in and filled up, it was back to the Roxy for a well earned rest until the morning.
Saturday AM brought sun and wind to Singapore. We spent the morning with a warm up ride along the coast and dropping our bikes into our slots in transition. We took advantage of the nice weather to take a dip in the salt water to see how we felt. We finished up the day with a run back to the hotel and a relaxing dip in the pool. A late night pasta meal prepared us for the race the next day.
Overnight, we could hear the sheets of rain coming down and wondered what the morning would bring. As we awoke and headed on foot to the race sight, the humidity was still present yet there was no rain. As we arrived at race site it was still pitch black out and could see the huge illuminated tent where body marking was being held. We had heard from friends that in Singapore, they used those number stamps for body marking, much like they do in Kona, so we opted to get the stamps and skip our usual self marking. As we stood in line and were close to being next, we were blinded by flashes! The media were there capturing the start of the day. Included in the group was our media buddy we met yesterday, who pulled us out of line and escorted us to the bodymarkers where he directed them to do ours at the same time. Media types are kinda funny....as soon as one starts snapping photos, they all join in! So, as we were getting our numbers, there had to be 5 photographers all taking shots. When we were done, other competitors stared wondering who these two competitors were. We made our way to our bikes for last minute tweeks and to set up our transition. As we walked in transition, we could hear Whit Raymond mentioning our presence in the race...one of the dozen or so times we would hear him mention us that day. Once we are all set, we headed to the beach to get set to watch the Pros head out.
Heather's wave (all women competitors) headed out on the two loop swim 15 min ahead of Brian. We both agreed that this was the most violent swim we had seen. Brian had to stop 4 times in loop one to make goggle adjustments after contact with other swimmers and Heather fell victim to the Sea Tick... who's bites look like small insect bites that itch a lot.
Out of the swim, Heathers transition went as planned and got her onto the bike for her 3 loops. Brian headed to the bike and had a decent transition. We headed out on a 3 loop bike course that ran almost one end of the island to the other. Brian knew Heather was about 15-20 min ahead if her swim went as planned. He was able to see Heather 8 min from the turn around we seemed to be riding at the same pace. Heather did not see the bike course as flat as people had been saying. The overpasses were long and a pretty good climb. Brian felt great on this first loop and really enjoyed the course but he also was surprised at the climbs in each lap. 3/4 way through lap one, as Brian descended one of the over passes, there she was.....Heather on the side of the road waving at him to stop. He pulled over and asked the most important question...are you ok? She was fine, but had punctured and had been waiting for Brian or a mechanic to arrive, whoever came first. Brian dropped his ride and got working on hers. With the rear wheel off, he grabbed his spare tire, Co2 and levers and got started. He was having a hard time with the stem fitting far enough through the rim. We finally made the executive decision to get her rolling enough to get her to the turn around and find the bike support guys stationed at transition. We filled the tire about 70% of the way as the tire bulged at the valve point. Brian advised Heather to open her rear brake all the way and to ride very cautiously as it could blow easily. Heather led until about 200m from the mechanics location. Brian sprinted ahead to get their attention and see what could be done. As we rolled in to transition, they were yelling at us "tell us what you need?" Brian explained the situation and before we knew it, they yelled WHEEL and were putting it on the old Blue. As all of this was going on, our photographer was there again covering the drama. Not only that, but ESPN was there as well, documenting the issues we had. Meanwhile, Whit Raymond could be heard providing all of the spectators with a colour-commentary of the event!!
Once Heather's new wheel was ready to roll, we got back onto the course, with two more laps to go. Heather rode with Brian for a bit, but as we approached the first overpass climb, he knew Heather would over take, so she was waved up to take the lead and hopefully, continue on to salvage some of the 45 min she lost. Brian had close to 30 min to catch up on as the tire repair took about 26 minutes from start to finish. As the kms rolled on, Brian realized that the tire change had taken more than just time out of me. Not sure if it was the elevated heart rate during that time, or if it was working on that rim in the heat for that long, but 20 min into the 2nd loop, there was no energy left to come close to the pace he had in lap one. There was one bottle station for each lap. Brian truly believes that with these conditions, two stations would have been much more adequate. He was dehydrated and spent and still had a 21.2 km run to do! Heather spun out most of the second lap to see where Brian was and possibly ride together a bit more. Once she saw that his day was pretty close to pooched, she rode on strong and arrived in transition with fresh legs, ready for the run.
As Brian headed out on the run, he knew this wold be a long painful afternoon. At all of these races, he would run and then walk the aid stations. He might as well have walked then ran the aid stations as he does not remember ever walking so much in a race. With Heather having one more lap in the bank and having run a smooth, steady lap, she sacrificed her finish time and walked/ran with me for a while....always the best part of the race. With 1k left to go for her, we said our good-byes and she finished with a strong kilometer and was called in by Whit at the finish. Brian, still shuffling along saw Heather at the 18k mark. He can not remember what he said to her whatsoever as he was in another world entirely. Dehydration and sun can play some serious games with your mind.Sadly, the last km and the finish is a bit of a blur. Brian had NO kick for a decent finish, but clearly remembers Whit calling him in...his continuous attention to our cause has been remarkable! With another one finished, he walked over to Heather for his end of race kiss....almost better than the finish line itself! Before we knew it, we looked up....and who was there... ESPN, with two cameras and an interviewer "capturing the moment". We can not remember what we said in the interview really, but do remember thinking, as Brian was bent over trying to stop the light headed feeling from the sun..."get that camera out of my face!!!!"
We were able to grab a piece of watermelon as post race food (yes, that was all they had left!) and head of the the race site and walk back t the hotel. We went straight to hotel pool to cool off. The pre swim shower was ice cold which lowered the body temp wonderfully! As we swam and cooled off, we were joined by a couple of pros who were staying at the hotel. One of them was the 3rd place finisher today who must have chatted about TTW with us for close to 20 min... a nice finish to a LONG day.
We have one more day in Singapore then it is back to the US to transfer to Brazil for next weekends race. This was a very special race for us. Great locale, great organization and great course. If you ever have to travel to this area in September, hit this race....one not to be missed!
Prior to our leaving, Nick Morales, owner of TriMapper.com and one of our sponsors reached out to someone he knew who was involved with the race in Singapore, advising them to contact us about our being at this 70.3 race. After not hearing back, as is the norm, we dropped him a note before we left Ottawa asking if he had heard about us from our friend Nick. He replied almost immediately and advised that he absolutely heard about it and had been busy flying in from Australia and was sure there had been "some stuff" set up in Singapore. We were not too clear about what he was referring to, so we just thanked him via email and hoped for the best. Just before we left Ottawa, we got an email from the organizers of this weekend coming up thanking us for making it one of our stops and asked if we could "fit in" an interview, as the folks who would be televising this race a couple of months later were looking for inspirational stories for their broadcast. Oh....did we mention.....it was with ESPN!!!!
So, all giddy with that news we headed out for our 27 hrs of travel time.
After a brief stop in Chicago (our main hub for the 3 race leg) we were off to Hong Kong for a few hours, then on to Singapore. We were able to keep our stretching up as well as catch a few hours sleep. We landed in Singapore Thursday and found our way to the Mercure Roxy Hotel, kindly booked by our travel agent Michelle at www.tritheworld.com, who was bang on with this hotel. We would come to find out that the race organizers, pros and athletes were pretty much all staying here....and it was NOT the host hotel....well done Michelle!
It was just after midnight local time, noon at home and we were needing some fuel. We asked the concierge for something that was open at that time. He pointed us to a small local dive where we would find some grub. We had a very nice bowl of noodles and beef and a cold Carlsberg beer each. All of that was $8Sing... about $5.50! We opted to pass on the "live frog" and "Pig Stomach lining" Soups...maybe tomorrow!
Friday morning, we awoke to what we would find to be typical Singapore weather... pouring rain one minute...sunshine the next, but relentless humidity and heat no matter what! We crossed Marina Bay Road and stumbled across an outdoor market where we thought we could grab a bite before we headed to registration. What a score! This place was stall after stall of kiosks where locals operated what could best be described as fast food but cooked in traditional methods. So, fast food price and speed, without the fast food feel. We found many places that we knew would not get our business, as their menu was either reminiscent of the one the night before, or there was no English wording on it at all. We had to adjust quickly to how they displayed their ingredients as well. Seeing oven cooked and boiled duck or chicken hanging at widow is odd enough...but when the heads, and feet are all still intact, well, that took a few minutes to adjust to. After a well enjoyed and well needed bowl, we headed to registration which was located downtown. We grabbed a local bus that dropped us very close to the venue, which was in a mall that had a ton of shops, including STARBUCKS!!! Schwag bags in hand, we opted to take a cab to the race site, where we were scheduled to meet ESPN at the pros press conference. Once we were there (a tad early), we sat at the beach front patio where the press conference was taking place. One of the race organizers approached us asking if we were the ones doing 16 of these races. Well, we assumed for the first few minutes that this was ESPN. We were surprised that it was yet another person who knew of our story (we joke to each other often that we are not sure why we have not gotten used to the attention yet..). It was none other than Whit Raymond, THE VOICE of Ironman Asia! He jotted a few notes on his papers and told us he would try to give us a few shout-outs on race day. We chatted for a bit until the press conference was about to begin. We had not noticed that mulling around us was Belinda Granger, Terenzo Bazone, Simon Thomson and Bryan Rhodes! As we were about to enjoy sitting in a press conference, we got the tap from the assistant to the interviewer for ESPN. They were ready for us down at the beach. Up until this point, we were not sure if there was going to be an actual interview at this time or if it was an "interview for the chance at an interview". When we saw the camera set up at the beach, we both took a deep breath and said "this is it!" Now, truth be told, Heather shys away from the attention we get. Brian is not all that comfy with it either....but hell, this was ESPN. Its as close as he will ever get to "big time" viewership so he was very stoked about it.
After about 10 minutes of chatting and filming "b-roll" as they call it in the biz (lol), Heather headed for a much needed pedicure appointment right at race site...how convenient! Brian opted to hang around the press conference as it was still going on. After they wrapped it up, it was a schmooze fest of the top athletes in this race. He congratulated Belinda and Bryan on their Canadian IM wins a few weeks back. They were envious of our travels yet did not jump on board when he suggested that they join us for the next few. Both truly nice folks.
We did a bit of walking around between the press conference and the Pasta Feast. Brian was snapping some pics with his pocket "point 'n shoot" camera when a guy, with a HUGE camera walked in Brian's field of vision. He apologized for his move and we shared a laugh, as Brian told him, "the man with the bigger lens, should be able to do what he wants"!!! Well, we get to chatting and learn that our new buddy turns out to be the official photo guy for Aviva 70.3 Singapore!!! He tells me he saw us at the press conference knew about TTW and said he would be looking for us on race day! What GREAT PR!
We attended the Pasta Fest at the race site and hooked up with a couple of friends we know from a on-line triathlon group as well as another brother-sister duo who were competing the next day. All checked in and filled up, it was back to the Roxy for a well earned rest until the morning.
Saturday AM brought sun and wind to Singapore. We spent the morning with a warm up ride along the coast and dropping our bikes into our slots in transition. We took advantage of the nice weather to take a dip in the salt water to see how we felt. We finished up the day with a run back to the hotel and a relaxing dip in the pool. A late night pasta meal prepared us for the race the next day.
Overnight, we could hear the sheets of rain coming down and wondered what the morning would bring. As we awoke and headed on foot to the race sight, the humidity was still present yet there was no rain. As we arrived at race site it was still pitch black out and could see the huge illuminated tent where body marking was being held. We had heard from friends that in Singapore, they used those number stamps for body marking, much like they do in Kona, so we opted to get the stamps and skip our usual self marking. As we stood in line and were close to being next, we were blinded by flashes! The media were there capturing the start of the day. Included in the group was our media buddy we met yesterday, who pulled us out of line and escorted us to the bodymarkers where he directed them to do ours at the same time. Media types are kinda funny....as soon as one starts snapping photos, they all join in! So, as we were getting our numbers, there had to be 5 photographers all taking shots. When we were done, other competitors stared wondering who these two competitors were. We made our way to our bikes for last minute tweeks and to set up our transition. As we walked in transition, we could hear Whit Raymond mentioning our presence in the race...one of the dozen or so times we would hear him mention us that day. Once we are all set, we headed to the beach to get set to watch the Pros head out.
Heather's wave (all women competitors) headed out on the two loop swim 15 min ahead of Brian. We both agreed that this was the most violent swim we had seen. Brian had to stop 4 times in loop one to make goggle adjustments after contact with other swimmers and Heather fell victim to the Sea Tick... who's bites look like small insect bites that itch a lot.
Out of the swim, Heathers transition went as planned and got her onto the bike for her 3 loops. Brian headed to the bike and had a decent transition. We headed out on a 3 loop bike course that ran almost one end of the island to the other. Brian knew Heather was about 15-20 min ahead if her swim went as planned. He was able to see Heather 8 min from the turn around we seemed to be riding at the same pace. Heather did not see the bike course as flat as people had been saying. The overpasses were long and a pretty good climb. Brian felt great on this first loop and really enjoyed the course but he also was surprised at the climbs in each lap. 3/4 way through lap one, as Brian descended one of the over passes, there she was.....Heather on the side of the road waving at him to stop. He pulled over and asked the most important question...are you ok? She was fine, but had punctured and had been waiting for Brian or a mechanic to arrive, whoever came first. Brian dropped his ride and got working on hers. With the rear wheel off, he grabbed his spare tire, Co2 and levers and got started. He was having a hard time with the stem fitting far enough through the rim. We finally made the executive decision to get her rolling enough to get her to the turn around and find the bike support guys stationed at transition. We filled the tire about 70% of the way as the tire bulged at the valve point. Brian advised Heather to open her rear brake all the way and to ride very cautiously as it could blow easily. Heather led until about 200m from the mechanics location. Brian sprinted ahead to get their attention and see what could be done. As we rolled in to transition, they were yelling at us "tell us what you need?" Brian explained the situation and before we knew it, they yelled WHEEL and were putting it on the old Blue. As all of this was going on, our photographer was there again covering the drama. Not only that, but ESPN was there as well, documenting the issues we had. Meanwhile, Whit Raymond could be heard providing all of the spectators with a colour-commentary of the event!!
Once Heather's new wheel was ready to roll, we got back onto the course, with two more laps to go. Heather rode with Brian for a bit, but as we approached the first overpass climb, he knew Heather would over take, so she was waved up to take the lead and hopefully, continue on to salvage some of the 45 min she lost. Brian had close to 30 min to catch up on as the tire repair took about 26 minutes from start to finish. As the kms rolled on, Brian realized that the tire change had taken more than just time out of me. Not sure if it was the elevated heart rate during that time, or if it was working on that rim in the heat for that long, but 20 min into the 2nd loop, there was no energy left to come close to the pace he had in lap one. There was one bottle station for each lap. Brian truly believes that with these conditions, two stations would have been much more adequate. He was dehydrated and spent and still had a 21.2 km run to do! Heather spun out most of the second lap to see where Brian was and possibly ride together a bit more. Once she saw that his day was pretty close to pooched, she rode on strong and arrived in transition with fresh legs, ready for the run.
As Brian headed out on the run, he knew this wold be a long painful afternoon. At all of these races, he would run and then walk the aid stations. He might as well have walked then ran the aid stations as he does not remember ever walking so much in a race. With Heather having one more lap in the bank and having run a smooth, steady lap, she sacrificed her finish time and walked/ran with me for a while....always the best part of the race. With 1k left to go for her, we said our good-byes and she finished with a strong kilometer and was called in by Whit at the finish. Brian, still shuffling along saw Heather at the 18k mark. He can not remember what he said to her whatsoever as he was in another world entirely. Dehydration and sun can play some serious games with your mind.Sadly, the last km and the finish is a bit of a blur. Brian had NO kick for a decent finish, but clearly remembers Whit calling him in...his continuous attention to our cause has been remarkable! With another one finished, he walked over to Heather for his end of race kiss....almost better than the finish line itself! Before we knew it, we looked up....and who was there... ESPN, with two cameras and an interviewer "capturing the moment". We can not remember what we said in the interview really, but do remember thinking, as Brian was bent over trying to stop the light headed feeling from the sun..."get that camera out of my face!!!!"
We were able to grab a piece of watermelon as post race food (yes, that was all they had left!) and head of the the race site and walk back t the hotel. We went straight to hotel pool to cool off. The pre swim shower was ice cold which lowered the body temp wonderfully! As we swam and cooled off, we were joined by a couple of pros who were staying at the hotel. One of them was the 3rd place finisher today who must have chatted about TTW with us for close to 20 min... a nice finish to a LONG day.
We have one more day in Singapore then it is back to the US to transfer to Brazil for next weekends race. This was a very special race for us. Great locale, great organization and great course. If you ever have to travel to this area in September, hit this race....one not to be missed!
One Step Closer
We are now sitting in a Starbucks in Chicago, killing time before our 9:30 PM flight to Sao Paolo. We picked up our visas from the Brazilian Consulate this morning, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It has been a stressful couple of days, not knowing 100% that everything was going to come together.
Michelle, from Tri The World, has been excellent, adjusting our travel arrangements and communicating with the Race Directors for the Brazil 70.3. They have been notified of our situation and have promised to keep everything open until we get there. If all goes smoothly, we will be arriving at our final destination, Penha, at 1:30PM tomorrow, just over 15 hours before race start. We will have to get ourselves to the race site, register, assemble our bikes and take care of all the mechanical issues that we encountered in Singapore. Needless to say, we'll have our work cut out for us. In a way, it will be nice to get the race done with right away so that we can enjoy a few days of relaxing on the beaches of southern Brazil.
Many thanks to Michelle, who truly made us her #1 priority these past few days. We don't know what we would have done without her.
Still, we're not in Brazil yet, so we'll continue to keep our fingers crossed.....
cheers,
Heather & Brian
Michelle, from Tri The World, has been excellent, adjusting our travel arrangements and communicating with the Race Directors for the Brazil 70.3. They have been notified of our situation and have promised to keep everything open until we get there. If all goes smoothly, we will be arriving at our final destination, Penha, at 1:30PM tomorrow, just over 15 hours before race start. We will have to get ourselves to the race site, register, assemble our bikes and take care of all the mechanical issues that we encountered in Singapore. Needless to say, we'll have our work cut out for us. In a way, it will be nice to get the race done with right away so that we can enjoy a few days of relaxing on the beaches of southern Brazil.
Many thanks to Michelle, who truly made us her #1 priority these past few days. We don't know what we would have done without her.
Still, we're not in Brazil yet, so we'll continue to keep our fingers crossed.....
cheers,
Heather & Brian
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Close, but no cigar yet!
Ugh....not sure there is much more to say!
When we last posted, we were on our way to O'Hare to drop our bags and head to the consulate.
Well, we got to the airport to be told that since 9-11, lockers are no longer allowed at airports! So, as we head into town, we have two transition bags (full of all our tri gear) and our carry on briefcase (with laptop and stuff) to lug around all day.
As we got off the EL, we had a bout 4 blocks to walk to the Brazilian Consulate. Once inside, we queued up at the wicket to speak to the counter people. We advised them briefly that we were requesting a "day-of" tourist Visa. We were advised, without hesitation that "we do not give day- of" Visas and that we would not be going to Brazil on Wednesday! She advised that the soonest we could get one is 15 days. After some respectful persuasion she returned and advised us that she had gone to speak directly with the Consular General who advised that given our mission, he would grant us one on Friday at noon. A huge thank you!
Talk about looking at a silver lining when the sky's are certainly grey.
So, we needed to go and get passport pics, find a US Postal Office for the money order for the Visas and return ASAP to complete the application. Once that was done, it was a day of emails and phone calls to Michelle at Tritheworld.com who was looking into once again changing our flights to Brazil and the ones from SaoPaulo to our final destination; getting a hold of IM 70.3 Brazil and obtaining "special arrangements" for check in as we will be late for registration; cancelling the hotel in Penha for the race (the hotel would not hold them) and finding another hotel in a city that is sold out due to the race.
Speaking of sold out, our next problem was that Chicago is sold out of rooms, unless you go out of town, out near the airport (read: near nothing!!). So we opted for a "just outside the downtown core" Hilton which, for the price, should include our flights to Brazil...lol.
So now we have a day to blow in Chicago....but to be honest, we are so beat mentally and physically from carrying the bags all day that we will just chill. We have no workout gear so the first time in our gear, on our bikes or in the water.......will be race day!
Still looking more silver linings here.....so cross your fingers. Hey, maybe we will see Oprah!!!
We will try and update after we find out our fate on Friday!
Brian and Heather
When we last posted, we were on our way to O'Hare to drop our bags and head to the consulate.
Well, we got to the airport to be told that since 9-11, lockers are no longer allowed at airports! So, as we head into town, we have two transition bags (full of all our tri gear) and our carry on briefcase (with laptop and stuff) to lug around all day.
As we got off the EL, we had a bout 4 blocks to walk to the Brazilian Consulate. Once inside, we queued up at the wicket to speak to the counter people. We advised them briefly that we were requesting a "day-of" tourist Visa. We were advised, without hesitation that "we do not give day- of" Visas and that we would not be going to Brazil on Wednesday! She advised that the soonest we could get one is 15 days. After some respectful persuasion she returned and advised us that she had gone to speak directly with the Consular General who advised that given our mission, he would grant us one on Friday at noon. A huge thank you!
Talk about looking at a silver lining when the sky's are certainly grey.
So, we needed to go and get passport pics, find a US Postal Office for the money order for the Visas and return ASAP to complete the application. Once that was done, it was a day of emails and phone calls to Michelle at Tritheworld.com who was looking into once again changing our flights to Brazil and the ones from SaoPaulo to our final destination; getting a hold of IM 70.3 Brazil and obtaining "special arrangements" for check in as we will be late for registration; cancelling the hotel in Penha for the race (the hotel would not hold them) and finding another hotel in a city that is sold out due to the race.
Speaking of sold out, our next problem was that Chicago is sold out of rooms, unless you go out of town, out near the airport (read: near nothing!!). So we opted for a "just outside the downtown core" Hilton which, for the price, should include our flights to Brazil...lol.
So now we have a day to blow in Chicago....but to be honest, we are so beat mentally and physically from carrying the bags all day that we will just chill. We have no workout gear so the first time in our gear, on our bikes or in the water.......will be race day!
Still looking more silver linings here.....so cross your fingers. Hey, maybe we will see Oprah!!!
We will try and update after we find out our fate on Friday!
Brian and Heather
Buenas Dias from Braz.....er...Chicago!
Ugh!
Yes, we had an 8 hr lay over here in Chicago on Tuesday after arriving from Singapore. So, we opted to get a "day rate" at the airport hotel to shower and nap for a few hrs. Once we got back to the UA desk, we checked in and everything and sat around for another 2hrs. Once in line to board, we noted that the lady from UA was looking closely at our paperwork, only to ask us "where are your Visas?"
Visas?
No where had we seen anything about visas to enter Brazil!
So, we were not allowed on the flight to Brazil that we had waited all day for. We spent the night at another airport hotel, courtesy of United Air and are off in a few minutes BACK to O'Hare airport to stow our bags and hop the train to Michigan Ave (no, not to shop) and visit the Brazilian Embassy to apply for a "Day-Of" Visa. Michelle (our Travel agent) has faxed all of our pertinent docs and info to the embassy here from her office in Washington DC with a nice letter asking for expedited service. She was on this within 10 minutes of us advising her of the issues... :)
Depending on Internet access, we will try to advise you all where we are later today...if all goes well, we are slated to be on the Brazil flight tonight at 9ish.
Cross all of your fingers for us!!!!
Brian and Heather
Yes, we had an 8 hr lay over here in Chicago on Tuesday after arriving from Singapore. So, we opted to get a "day rate" at the airport hotel to shower and nap for a few hrs. Once we got back to the UA desk, we checked in and everything and sat around for another 2hrs. Once in line to board, we noted that the lady from UA was looking closely at our paperwork, only to ask us "where are your Visas?"
Visas?
No where had we seen anything about visas to enter Brazil!
So, we were not allowed on the flight to Brazil that we had waited all day for. We spent the night at another airport hotel, courtesy of United Air and are off in a few minutes BACK to O'Hare airport to stow our bags and hop the train to Michigan Ave (no, not to shop) and visit the Brazilian Embassy to apply for a "Day-Of" Visa. Michelle (our Travel agent) has faxed all of our pertinent docs and info to the embassy here from her office in Washington DC with a nice letter asking for expedited service. She was on this within 10 minutes of us advising her of the issues... :)
Depending on Internet access, we will try to advise you all where we are later today...if all goes well, we are slated to be on the Brazil flight tonight at 9ish.
Cross all of your fingers for us!!!!
Brian and Heather
Monday, September 08, 2008
Recovery Monday
What a day!Singapore 70.3's event was one that we will remember and will be placed in our "Top 3" for a few reasons.When we first arrived, we found this placed unbelievably clean, and was a welcome arrival to a foreign land. Our cab ride to the Mercure Roxy was quick and easy, dropping us at our hotel just before midnight. The Mercure Roxy was chosen by our new ravel agent, Michelle from TriTheWorld.com (no...we are NOT kidding...!). This venue was a 15 min walk to transition and was patronized by all of the pros and race organizers (and it was not even the official hotel).
When we woke Friday, we chilled for a bit, trying to get accustomed to the 12 hr difference in time. We headed off to registration which as located in a huge mall in the business area of Singapore. After a Starbucks and some shopping, we bused it to the race site, as we had received a request from ESPN Sports - they were covering the race for a further broadcast....to 2 Million homes!!!!!We were told to look for the Press Conference location as that is where they would meet us. We grabbed a quick drink as we waited and were approached by Whit Raymond....the VOICE of Ironman of Asia! He recognized our kits and said "I just heard about you two...that you were actually going to be here...and here you are!" Whit sat with us for a bit and said that he would do his best to spread the word of our adventure.
Once the Press conference had been started, Jaclyn's assistance came and got us for our quick interview. What a nice setting, right on the beach in the heat. As it goes with most interviews, we were unsure how it went but we were assured by the interviewer and the camera guy that it was truly a good interview and a great story. Heather and I started to think about the interviews we had seen on other IM broadcasts.....could this be one of those features where they cover your day? Hell, we were not even sure it would get used!
As we walked over to the Pasta Feast, I was taking a picture of the finish line, when a guy, with a HUGE camera walked in my field of vision. He apologized for his move and we shared a laugh, as I told him, the man with the bigger lens, should be able to do what he wants!!!Well, my new buddy turns out to be the official photo guy for Aviva 70.3 Singapore!!! He tells me that's his job and said he saw us at the press conference, knew about TTW and said he would be looking for us on race day! What GREAT PR!
I will leave the details about the rest of the media stuff, but I will say, we were actual rock stars for the weekend!
We enjoyed the Pasta Feast and were pleased to to meet up with some friends of ours from an IM online group "iamtri.com". We met Frenz and Lindsay, their friend Peter and a brother and sister pair we sat with, Susan and Ken who were super nice. We would see them several times on race day.
Well, today is Monday and after a restless night (due to fatigue, dehydration and a bit of sun stroke) we were up and at it and have dome some laundry here at the hotel (yes, they had a laundry room for guests to use!) We are off to buy some needed bike parts and perhaps an hour or two by the pool.
Singapore has been good to the two of us...I think we will miss it the second we get on the plane!
Race reports to come, but first, we will grab a flight BACK to Chicago tomorrow and then off directly to Sao Paulo Brazil. We'll drop a note then!
Brian and Heather
When we woke Friday, we chilled for a bit, trying to get accustomed to the 12 hr difference in time. We headed off to registration which as located in a huge mall in the business area of Singapore. After a Starbucks and some shopping, we bused it to the race site, as we had received a request from ESPN Sports - they were covering the race for a further broadcast....to 2 Million homes!!!!!We were told to look for the Press Conference location as that is where they would meet us. We grabbed a quick drink as we waited and were approached by Whit Raymond....the VOICE of Ironman of Asia! He recognized our kits and said "I just heard about you two...that you were actually going to be here...and here you are!" Whit sat with us for a bit and said that he would do his best to spread the word of our adventure.
Once the Press conference had been started, Jaclyn's assistance came and got us for our quick interview. What a nice setting, right on the beach in the heat. As it goes with most interviews, we were unsure how it went but we were assured by the interviewer and the camera guy that it was truly a good interview and a great story. Heather and I started to think about the interviews we had seen on other IM broadcasts.....could this be one of those features where they cover your day? Hell, we were not even sure it would get used!
As we walked over to the Pasta Feast, I was taking a picture of the finish line, when a guy, with a HUGE camera walked in my field of vision. He apologized for his move and we shared a laugh, as I told him, the man with the bigger lens, should be able to do what he wants!!!Well, my new buddy turns out to be the official photo guy for Aviva 70.3 Singapore!!! He tells me that's his job and said he saw us at the press conference, knew about TTW and said he would be looking for us on race day! What GREAT PR!
I will leave the details about the rest of the media stuff, but I will say, we were actual rock stars for the weekend!
We enjoyed the Pasta Feast and were pleased to to meet up with some friends of ours from an IM online group "iamtri.com". We met Frenz and Lindsay, their friend Peter and a brother and sister pair we sat with, Susan and Ken who were super nice. We would see them several times on race day.
Well, today is Monday and after a restless night (due to fatigue, dehydration and a bit of sun stroke) we were up and at it and have dome some laundry here at the hotel (yes, they had a laundry room for guests to use!) We are off to buy some needed bike parts and perhaps an hour or two by the pool.
Singapore has been good to the two of us...I think we will miss it the second we get on the plane!
Race reports to come, but first, we will grab a flight BACK to Chicago tomorrow and then off directly to Sao Paulo Brazil. We'll drop a note then!
Brian and Heather
Sunday, September 07, 2008
12 down!!!
It was a hot one today with is fair share of drama but we have two finishers medals in our room here!We are running out of battery on our laptop and need to buy a converter tomorrow, so we will update more then.
A FAB day for TTW.....off to rest!!!
Brian and Heather.
A FAB day for TTW.....off to rest!!!
Brian and Heather.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
It is now 11:00 AM Singapore time, and we are feeling well rested and pretty much adjusted to the new time zone. We arrived at our hotel late last night; everything having gone smoothly with the arrival and check through customs.
Feeling a little peckish and in need of a drink, we took a recommendation from the concierge, and walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to a "Beer Garden", which didn't seem to be much of a Beer Garden at all. There seems to be some kind of a liquor ban here after certain hours - we'll be figuring that out today - we ordered a couple of Carlsberg (apparently, according to their sign, this is possibly the best beer in the world; we beg to differ), and we interpreted from our waitress that they could not serve it in a bottle and had to pour it into the glass for us - thereby we only ended up ordering one beer. We were just happy to be getting anything. The menu offered a variety of dishes, including a live frog dish, a live drunken shrimp soup, and some other items we couldn't quite understand. We opted for the safer Noodles with Pork, medium spicy; which still left our lips feeling slightly burned. With satisfied tummys, we headed back to the hotel room to get some much needed rest.
Now, we've built the bikes, and are preparing to head out for the day. We will head to the Race Registration site to take care of the administration stuff, then have a meeting scheduled with ESPN at 5:00 PM. We were contacted by the Singapore 70.3 staff just before we left Ottawa asking if we'd be interested in meeting with ESPN as they were looking for inspirational stories, and ours made the list. If selected, they'll add us to their coverage which should air in a months time. What an opportunity! We're extremely excited!!!
With limited Internet access (read: it's not free with this hotel!) we'll be updating the blog as we can. Best of luck to our friend David for his Ultra this week-end!
cheers,
Heather & Brian
Feeling a little peckish and in need of a drink, we took a recommendation from the concierge, and walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to a "Beer Garden", which didn't seem to be much of a Beer Garden at all. There seems to be some kind of a liquor ban here after certain hours - we'll be figuring that out today - we ordered a couple of Carlsberg (apparently, according to their sign, this is possibly the best beer in the world; we beg to differ), and we interpreted from our waitress that they could not serve it in a bottle and had to pour it into the glass for us - thereby we only ended up ordering one beer. We were just happy to be getting anything. The menu offered a variety of dishes, including a live frog dish, a live drunken shrimp soup, and some other items we couldn't quite understand. We opted for the safer Noodles with Pork, medium spicy; which still left our lips feeling slightly burned. With satisfied tummys, we headed back to the hotel room to get some much needed rest.
Now, we've built the bikes, and are preparing to head out for the day. We will head to the Race Registration site to take care of the administration stuff, then have a meeting scheduled with ESPN at 5:00 PM. We were contacted by the Singapore 70.3 staff just before we left Ottawa asking if we'd be interested in meeting with ESPN as they were looking for inspirational stories, and ours made the list. If selected, they'll add us to their coverage which should air in a months time. What an opportunity! We're extremely excited!!!
With limited Internet access (read: it's not free with this hotel!) we'll be updating the blog as we can. Best of luck to our friend David for his Ultra this week-end!
cheers,
Heather & Brian
Hello from Hong Kong!
Well, we are at the Hong Kong International Airport waiting for our connector flight to Singapore.
We left Otown this morning on an 8:45 flight to Chicago. We had a 4hr lay over there and then on to the LONG flight to HK.
There was enough time for 4 movies and 3 meal services!!!
We were able to grab about 3-4 hrs sleep and actually feel like the time zone isn't too far off, even though there is a 12 hour difference.
All the blinds were closed on the plane, so you would not have known you flew with daylight for the entire 14hr flight - and that we flew OVER the North Pole. Pretty cool feeling, all the same.
We should land in Singapore at 11:45 tonight and ready for a good night sleep.
Friday is a pretty big day for us at the race site....but we will fill you in on that tomorrow!
Brian and Heather
We left Otown this morning on an 8:45 flight to Chicago. We had a 4hr lay over there and then on to the LONG flight to HK.
There was enough time for 4 movies and 3 meal services!!!
We were able to grab about 3-4 hrs sleep and actually feel like the time zone isn't too far off, even though there is a 12 hour difference.
All the blinds were closed on the plane, so you would not have known you flew with daylight for the entire 14hr flight - and that we flew OVER the North Pole. Pretty cool feeling, all the same.
We should land in Singapore at 11:45 tonight and ready for a good night sleep.
Friday is a pretty big day for us at the race site....but we will fill you in on that tomorrow!
Brian and Heather
Monday, September 01, 2008
Almost on the road again.
Wow...3 weeks can pass so quickly!
We are now 36hrs away from heading out to Singapore for #12 and we are just getting in from a wonderful weekend away at Heather's parents place up on the Manitoulin Island.
We were able to catch up with Oma and Opa as well as soak up some much needed sun. We also snuck in a nice HOT run (in prep for Singapore's weather) and a nice non-wetsuit swim.
What a great training area up there!
After a 7.5 hr drive, we are doing some laundry and are looking at bikes that need to be broken down, some bags that need to be filled and a full day for both of us at the office tomorrow.
We will be headin to the Ottawa International Airport early on Wednesday morning.
We have about 24 hrs of flights until we land in Singapore, so you should hear back from us late Thursday (your time) which will be Friday morning. We have some media events lined up in Singapore when we get there...so we may be busy, but will do our best to update!
Brian and Heather
We are now 36hrs away from heading out to Singapore for #12 and we are just getting in from a wonderful weekend away at Heather's parents place up on the Manitoulin Island.
We were able to catch up with Oma and Opa as well as soak up some much needed sun. We also snuck in a nice HOT run (in prep for Singapore's weather) and a nice non-wetsuit swim.
What a great training area up there!
After a 7.5 hr drive, we are doing some laundry and are looking at bikes that need to be broken down, some bags that need to be filled and a full day for both of us at the office tomorrow.
We will be headin to the Ottawa International Airport early on Wednesday morning.
We have about 24 hrs of flights until we land in Singapore, so you should hear back from us late Thursday (your time) which will be Friday morning. We have some media events lined up in Singapore when we get there...so we may be busy, but will do our best to update!
Brian and Heather
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