TriTheWorld

Austin 70.3 Race Report

2008-11-25T20:14:00.003-05:00

This will be our 2nd last race report for 2008. We can't believe it. When we first put together the list of our races, completing them seemed like such a daunting task. It would be taxing on our bodies and our wallets, and our parents worried for our health. Looking back, we both feel it all passed way too quickly, and we would do it all over again in a second.
Longhorn was a bit of a special race. A good friend of ours was making the trip down from Ottawa, and after having such a great finish in Lake Placid in July, she was hoping to qualify for the Worlds. We were also going to be racing with our sponsor and friend, Nick Morales of Trimapper.com. Plus, Austin is the home of this Lance guy everyone keeps talking about, and Brian was extra stoked about that. His map print-outs included directions from our condo to Mellow Johnny's - a bike shop co-owned by Lance Armstrong.

We were going into Austin expecting it to be flat, flat, flat. Flying in, it seemed there was not a hill in sight, but when we picked Laurel up from the hostel she'd been staying in, she said that she had been hearing it was going to be quite hilly. "No way", we thought, "but one thing for sure, it is going to be hot".

All along we had been told Austin was hot and the water was not going to be wetsuit legal. The week before the race, the water temperature measured 88 degrees, a full 10 degrees warmer than the maximum 78 allowed for wetsuits. Prior to leaving Ottawa, Brian asked H if she was going to pack my wetsuit. "Hell ya!" she said. You never know when a freakish storm might hit, and she did not want to be without her body-floaty should the wetsuit ruling be turned in her favour! Austin is a fresh water swim, and Heather had nightmares of her 11 minute panic attack in Florida when she almost called it quits on the whole race.

Because we were 3 for this leg instead of our usual 2, we afforded the luxury of renting a condo. It was a beautiful townhome "loft", with 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and a gourmet kitchen.
Swanky! We had a deck off the common area, and on sight, knew that we would most likely enjoy a few cocktails there. H believes the word margharita was uttered once or twice. Having the condo also meant we would get to have home cooked meals. That's definitely something we consider to be a luxury these days, and with Laurel having seliac disease, it was almost a necessity. We spent our evening, building our bikes, and chatting. We have been away so much this summer that we have missed time with our friends. Laurel was extra excited about being in Austin to race, and we fed off her excitement. It would seem that since this was our 15th race in 7 or so months, it was becoming a habit to us, and it was nice to be reminded that racing in Texas was pretty cool.

We were up rather early on Sat a.m. The expo and race kit pick-up opened at noon, and we had a side-trip to Mellow Johnny's scheduled. We did NOT want to be rushed there. We all treated ourselves to a few wants...Heather picked up a really cool cycling jersey, a few water bottles, a couple pairs of socks, a replacement for her long lost LIVESTRONG bracelet, and of course a MJ t-shirt. Brian.....let's just say, almost one of everything. He kept busy gawking over all of the Lance memorabilia at the shop.

From Mellow Johnny's we headed to the Race Kit pick-up and mandatory race meeting. The expo was small, and Heather had thoughts of picking up a new pair of Newton's, but seeing as how this was a Zoot sponsored event, there was no Newton booth to be found. Good thing too, since if she had purchased a pair, she would have been tempted to race in them on Sunday, and for reasons you'll read later, she would have regretted that decision.

The best sight in Austin for both of us was by far was the nice big sign outside of registration that read: "Water temp 78 degrees - Wetsuit legal". What beautiful words those are when all strung together like that! We would hear lots of talk throughout the day from people who had left their wetsuits at home since they had been told the week prior that there was absolutely no chance that the water temperature would drop 10 degrees in a week. Lesson here would be to always come prepared for any conditions.

Between the Race Kit pick-up and the mandatory race meeting, we took in the Pro Panel. Heather is not big on the names, Brian keeps pointing out people to her that ewe have seen along the way, but for whatever reason, their names and faces don't stick with her. The panel did consist of a couple of pros that she knew though: Simon Lessing, Richie Cunningham, Michellie Jones, and Canada's own Lisa Bentley. Brian chatted at the back of the room with a Canadian Pro Tyler Lord who he had chatted with in Newfoundland...it was nice to catch up! The floor was open for questions, and being anything but shy, Laurel was first with her hand up. She asked Lisa, being a fellow Canadian, how was she planning on managing the heat tomorrow. Good question, and funny enough, she mentioned all the things we'd learned after having raced in several hot places. Drink lots on the bike, put ice in: your hat, pockets, and pants on the run, and think cooling thoughts. Really, what else is there to do?

From the registration, we drove to the race start to check in our bikes. We did a quick test ride to make sure they had all survived the travel ok, and we quickly noted 3 things: one, the wind and heat were killer and would most likely be a big factor on race day; 2- proper hydration was going to be key and that Brian's bike was still making that gawd-awful noise! He headed to the Mavic guys to look at it. Nothing like having TdF guys working on your bike!!! Austin is ALL about being the rock star!
It was a 25 minute drive from the condo to the race site, so with a 4:30 AM wake-up call looming over us, we had an early carb dinner and headed straight to bed.

As we finished off in transition and made our way to the start, we met up with Nick Morales....great to finally meet him and race with him. We also stumbled on to John....a new friend that had shared some pretty dark times in St. Croix with Brian as they both did the "death march" on the run there. His broken back had healed and had committed to us in St. Croix, that he would race with us again in Austin. He came good on that promise and was heading to the start.
Laurel's AG was the first of our waves to go, Heather followed 15 mins or so behind her, and Brian was the very last wave, starting a full 45 mins behind the pros. He feared that it was going to be a long, lonely day, and Heather only hoped that somehow our paths would meet up on the run. Running together had easily become our most favourite moments within any given race.

As Heather does on any start, she hung back from the rest of the pack. This was a floating start and she stayed back and to the inside. Her goal always being to hug the line and stay on course as best as possible. It was a triangular, counter-clockwise swim in Walter E Long Lake, and since she breathes only from her left side, this made sighting a lot easier. The swim felt relatively fast. There was a small current that flowed in your favour after the first turn. She swam well, didn't panic at all, and when she exited the water and read her watch, for a little while, she thought she may have just had the swim of my life. It read 33 mins and change. What the? No way. Surely her watch must have stopped somewhere on route she thought. Heather knew in her head that the swim must have been short, but it wasn't until she saw Brian half way through the run that we both let the dream go that we had a rocket swim. Funny how your mind can go and what you can convince yourself of in the course of 3 or 4 hours.

By the time Brian got in the water, it was wetter IN his wet suit than in the lake!!! Man, it was hot just standin there. Being last to go brings some good things...he got to see all the prod come out of the water, and knew, FOR ONCE.....all he would be doing for the next few hours...is passin people!!! Not a common thing in the Bman's world!!

The bike was a 90k loop that takes you through the outskirts of Austin, past many sprawling ranches. At a few ranches, horses watched curiously, and one even ran in circles obviously excited by the mass of cyclists passing by. Laurel would tell everyone later that there wasn't a flat spot to be found on the course, but from what we both remember, while there were some rolling hills, the majority of the route was flat - at least relative to the course we'd seen over the last few months. The headwind was definitely a factor in the straighter sections, but a lot of the course was protected. The heat hit hard too, but we were blessed with some cloud cover and at spots during the ride, Heather got rained on. Brian was forced into his saddle for most of the day, so worked on the aero again as the noise reappeared 10k into the race. Man, that is annoying!

In the final 2 mile stretch, they throw a couple of nice hills at you for safe measure. One travels along side the run course and you can see some of the runners climbing what has been affectionally called Quadzilla. It's not all that much easier on the bike. A final climb into transition, and you ran your bike through the grassy pathways to the rack before heading out to the run.

As Heather headed out on her run, Lisa Bentley was running by, quite obviously on her way to the finish. She was being led by the "Lead Female" cyclist, a sure indication that she was in first, so she cheered her on. The run was somewhat of a 10.5 km figure 8. The first half was an out & back that ran along bike paths and paved roads. They had a couple bands playing to keep your spirits up, and each aid station handed out gatorade, coke, water, gels, and sponges. At the 2nd aid station, they were handing out soaking wet, ice cold towels. She grabbed one and wrapped it around her neck, keeping it there until the final few meters of the run. They had also put up a sprinkler tent and a "air conditioning" type unit, but they didn't provide enough water\mist to have much effect.

The 2nd half of the figure 8 ran through grassy trails. You ran down a steep hill on one side of the field, so that they could position you to run back up Quadizilla on the other side. They had timing mats at the bottom and the top of Quadizilla and they were giving out prizes to the male and female who had the fastest "split" times. Heather knew she had no hopes of challenging for that prize, but she did vow to run the entire hill. She was quite amazed with the number (and calibre) of athletes who chose to walk it. She was halfway up Quadzilla when she heard her name being called. She glanced over to the road and saw Brian on his bike. She mustered some kind of wave, and immediately went into math mode. She knew he had about 2k left to transition, and had a little over 2 miles. She tried to work out how fast she would have to run in order to catch him on my 2nd loop. It would be a bit of a stretch, but she figured she had a chance, and it was knowing that which helped her maintain any sort of pace. Brian had no clue what the course was like for the run. He could see Heather on Quadzilla and knew that the paths then dipped back into the woodlands of Texas, only to reappear again near the end of the loop. He headed out and was not sure if he was ahead or behind Heather on her last loop...a good incentive for him to dig deep.

At the 2k\12.5k mark, Heather met up with Brian, and we ran together for the next 5 or so k. One of the first questions was about the swim. From what Brian had heard on the bike course, the swim was approximately 300 m short. Heather realized she wouldn't be going pro any time soon LOL! While we ran\walked the next 4k, we shared stories of our day. We were both feeling the heat, and were looking forward to the cold beer they had promised at the finish. With 3 miles to go for her, Heather parted ways with B and carried on to the finish, running up Quadzilla for her 2nd time. We parted at the base of Quadzilla and Brian could see Heather running the entire thing. Brian may not be as fast, but he has the same "push" as she does....so he ran the Quad as well. WHAT a burn that gives!

Laurel was waiting at the finish when Heather came through, and she was handed her medal, a towel and a water bottle. Laurel and Heather then stood together at the fence to wait for Brian as he passed by to head out on the 2nd loop. She knew that he'd only be 5 or 10 mins behind her. He came around the bend and we cheered for him. He looked at us and said "Guess who I just took a sip of beer from." Heather couldn't possibly guess. "Lisa Bentley!" he boasted. Go figure. She leaves the guy for 20 flipping minutes, and he has the experience of a lifetime. Bugger!

Apparently, when he was coming around the corner he saw Lisa and friends cheering the runners on. Knowing she had won the race, Brian stopped to congratulate her on her win. He also told her that her "finishers beer" looked DAMMM good, and figured there was no harm is askin for a sip. Turns out, it was her hubbies beer...so she turned to him and asked is she could share his beer with this guy. He replied...."Hell ya....this is that guy who is doing 16 of these 70.3's this summer!!!!" Beer never tasted so good!!
While we waited for Brian to finish, Laurel and Heather got a massage and made our way around the food tent. Heathers shoes were an absolute mess. They looked like she had hiked through the Sahara and back, and passed through a mud swamp along the way. They were absolutely filthy, and it was for this reason that she was happy she had not been able to buy a brand new pair of Newtons. These shoes were done.

Heading home on his last lap...Brian was teetering on another death march for the last 4k... until he heard a shout out. It was Tyler Lord. His day was done and he was headin to his vehicle. He said " Keep goin' Bri.... stretch out that stride". As Brian waved to him with very little gusto, and stretched it out as much as he could...he could hear him say "much better Bri....". Its odd....those words will stick with him for a very long time.

In the time that she predicted, Brian made his way to the finish, and the sight of him choked her up as it always does. We had done this 15 times over the last 7 months, and we always feel exactly the same way. Relieved and proud is how we both felt...seeing Heather at yet another finish knowing his baby was home safely. Austria crash always flashes back in Brian's mind, racing the day not knowing where or how Heather was.

We never did get the beer they promised - they were all out by the time we made our way to the beer tent, nor did we see the Longhorn that was supposed to be hanging around. We will say however, it was absolutely cool to race in Austin. Being able to share the race with a friend made it extra special - especially since Laurel ended up placing in her AG and getting a spot at the 2009 World Championships! Very exciting!

At the awards ceremony, it seemed that the sponsors of the events had provided too much swag for the numbers who stuck around. So we snagged 6 FuelBelts to give away as door prizes for our upcoming party. They also started to give away Timex Ironman Ipod watched. "Who ran Boston this year" "Who has last years Longhorn T-shirt on"...the watches start flying out!!! The race announcer, who we had chatted over the course of the weekend saw us there. "Ok, I KNOW who is gona win this one....Who has raced the most 70.3's this year?? These Canadians over here have raced 15 of these already this year folks...so pretty sure they get the gear!" Two watches headed back to Otown on the wrist of two tired triathletes.....bring on the World Championships!!!

More MORE Pics from Austin 70.3

2008-11-25T18:22:00.003-05:00

Race day has arrived!

Time to retire these sox..fitting its in Austin!

The one and only Nick Morales!!!!

RockStar treatment...the boys from France!

Even MORE pics from Austin 70.3

2008-11-25T18:16:00.002-05:00

...only in Texas!

Setting up in the parking lot....again!

Texas sized eats!

Checking in!

At Lances...DeRosa with wooden rims..first $3800 Takes it!

More pics from Austin 70.3

2008-11-25T18:09:00.002-05:00

Lance? PINK??? Sweet!

Maillots Jaunes!!!

Pimped out ride!

What a machine!

Another machine!

Pictures from Austin Texas....70.3

2008-11-25T17:44:00.004-05:00

Shopping at MJ's!

Ahhhh....there it is!!!!

The ladies cooking up a storm!

So much better than a hotel!

Chillin in Texas!!!

Tri The World does Cancun 70.3

2008-11-25T17:27:00.003-05:00

Cancun 70.3 was to be our 3rd race in three weekends. We flew from Brazil to Chicago for a quick stop. We headed out after only a few hours and a meal for a direct flight to Cancun. After the drama in Brazil, we were both looking for some R&R and some time with friends that we knew were going to be participating in this race. Our travel agent, Michelle of Tri The World Travel does this race often and was down again this year with family, friends and several of her athletes. We also bumped into Randy Graham of Ottawa at the airport. We had done Newfoundland 70.3 with him as well and he was determined to come to Cancun for some unfinished business.

We landed in Cancun and looked for our ride. Michelle and her dad offered to pick us up at the airport in her rented van and take us to the hotel we were all staying at. After the small yet cozy accommodations in Brazil, we knew Michelle had hooked a super deal at the Hilton Golf and Spa Resort. Our drive to the Hilton included a partial view of the bike course and pretty well the entire run course which was nice to be able to see.As we pulled into the Hilton, we saw how nice this place really was. We were escorted to this private desk to check in to our villa. We were told about the daily breakfasts as well as the all day snacks and happy hour from 5pm to 7pm! Where WERE we???? All checked in, we chilled out for the first time in what seemed like weeks.
The Friday before the race, we headed to register for the race. Brian needed to get this lingering “carbon” noise problem looked at so he brought his bike. He lined up for the mechanic and Heather followed the line into registration with our TTW.com friends. As he stood in line, Heather returned with her swag from registration….which included an IM70.3 fleece jacket. Um….we are in Cancun, no??Brian was assured that again, the problem was fixed (but would learn on race day that indeed it was not!!!!). As for the rest of the day….chillin in the endless pool!!!!Saturday meant bike drop off and mandatory meeting. We ran the 11 minutes to the meeting and were done in by the heat…it was unbelievable. At the pre race meeting Brian saw some “chaps” from the UK who were wearing their finisher’s shirts. He went to talk to them to share stories about the race over the pond. They actually remembered seeing us out on the course and remembered the announcement of our attendance there at the pre-race meeting…a good bunch of guys!
After the meeting we got a ride back to the Hilton and hopped on our bikes to drop them off in transition. As we were one of the first ones there, be got some sweet spots on the racks. We organized a dinner with Randy Graham, a fellow triathlete from Ottawa who we spent the winter with swimming early in the morning! We had a great meal, relaxing time and great conversation! Off to bed for the big day!

Sunday morning we were greeted with an awesome sunrise. We took a taxi to transition and got set up. There was little to do but still got there with plenty of time to spare… or so we thought! After a quick check, Heather realized that she did not have her goggles!!! So, Brian opted to stay there and finish pumping tires and setting up while Heather got back to the hotel. She was able to get back only moments before transition closed….a relief for both of us!
One of the nicest moments of this race (there were a few) was bumping into Corey. Cory was one of the lads from the UK I had spoken with at the pre-race meeting. He is a towering, soft spoken fellow clydesdale with an even bigger heart. We chatted while Heather made some final adjustments on the way to the beach. Corey surprised Brian during the conversation by saying “since you were so nice to come chat with us before the meeting and are obviously dedicated to the reason you were racing, I will make a donation through your website when I get home!

Corey and Brian would see each other again!

We walked to the beach and waited around for the race to start. As we stood there, we FINALLY hooked up with Chance Regina, our Blue Competition Cycles representative. He was initially slated to compete, but opted to simply enjoy the week in Cancun with his wife. We had a great chat with them, along with Michelle from Tri The World travel and her family, until we were interrupted by the voice of Ironman Cancun, who got the attention of he entire field and announced our appearance at this race, sharing our venture with the entire field. It was a proud moment for us, our friends and our sponsors to all be there for such great PR for our causes.

Shortly after that, the gun sounded for Brian’s wave. This swim is best described as a two loop floating rectangle where you swam out to the rectangular shaped course, did it twice and then swam back to shore. Heather’s wave was a few after Brian’s and went off without a hitch.

The run to transition as described seemed like a LONG one…..well it was! It was a run through the water-park where transition was located. Once set up, Brian was off to hit the sun on the roads of Mexico, with Heather not too far behind. The ride was fairly boring except when Brian almost ran over a Tarantula that was crossing the road. Man was it huge!!! We had two laps to do out in the Mexican sun and were able to visit some of the outskirts of Cancun. As in many of the races lately, the peletons who we saw going the opposite directions would remind you of the Tour de France!!!

We rode the last little while together and discussed the day so far...and realised how much fun we were having, but realized that it was quickly getting super hot in the sun. We got to transition at the same time and both racked our bikes. Shoes changed, and visors on we headed out to the two loop out and back along the shore-side drive. What a beautiful course…with only some hotels separating the beach and the road we were running on. The only issue was that these hotels blocked any chance of a cool breeze!After only a short while, Heather took off in fine form to challenge her self on loop one. We both came across the best idea in race supplies we have seen yet. Water was supplied to us in bags!!! YES BAGS!These square plastic bags were AWESOME. You could grab a couple to go…and when you feel like it, you rip the corner of it and squirt it into your mouth. SOOO much better than cups, that’s for sure.

Heathers run felt relatively good given the 30+ degree heat. She crossed the line, happy with her day and was spent given that this was race number 3 in 3 weekends, on 3 different continents.
Brian was able to cross paths with Corey a few times. He was having a hard day and was as red as a tomato from the sun. When Brian would go through the water stations, he would grab a couple of extra bags of water for Corey and pass them to him between the stations. They shared a laugh or three over the course of the run. Brian finished the day with a strong finish and a huge smile as he now knew the day was done. After 3 races in 3 weekends… he knew that the pool and beach await!

When we got home, we received an email from the UK. It was Corey!! We were able to see him finish as we rode back to our hotel, so we knew he got the bling. The email made us both sit back and reflect on all of the super people we have met. From his email: Brian and Heather…here is the donation I gave you my word on. “One dollar for every mile we raced together this year…a cheque for $140.60.”

We have 2 more races to go and are truly looking forward to a few days here in Cancun to just relax and soak up some of the sun…which feels much nicer in a pool, then while running!!!
Brian and Heather

More Cancun Pictures....

2008-11-25T17:19:00.003-05:00

....it was a WET DAY trying to keep cool!!!

...for both of us!

Trying to diagnose that noise.

practice makes perfect!

Chillin with the Tri The World.COM gang.

Pictures Cancun 70.3

2008-11-25T17:11:00.003-05:00

....hard to take!

One of the BEST things we saw on race day!!!

What a concept!

#15 in the books!!!

All smiles with only 1 more to go!

Mission Accomplished!!!

2008-11-09T10:18:00.003-05:00

Wow...what a journey.
Just over a year ago, we came up with this idea that we could make some sort of difference in peoples lives. With the conclusion of yesterdays race, we know we did.
16 Half Ironmans in 11 countries on 4 continents in less than 8 months....and we are elated with the result of our venture.

Yesterdays race was could not have been at a nicer place in nicer weather. With us both having great results (given what our bodies had left after these past 8 months), our day was capped off at the finish line with a huge hug from our good friend, the "other" voice of Ironman Don Ryder and a special acknowledgement of our venture by none other than Bob Blais, the father of legendary Ironman John "Blazeman" Blais who was "speechless" about our venture and could not believe what we had accomplished. He humbled us by saying that down the road, he was sure there was a project ahead for us with the Blazeman Foundation....what an honour.
The evening was caped off at the Ironman afterparty with congratulatory kudos from the World Champion Terenzo Bazone who we had raced with in Singapore along with Scott Rigsby (Ironman double amputee) who helped us rip up the dance floor!

We are taking a couple of days to let this all sink in...decompress.....and share some well deserved quiet time.

Back in a little while!

Brian and Heather

The Night before the big day!

2008-11-07T16:59:00.002-05:00

Wow....how nice is it here!!!

The day started early with the Gatorade swim.....someones else's bright idea but ended up being great. The water was calm and gave us a much better feel for the water. We did not swim for long, but it was nice just to get wet.
We then filled the van with our friends and did a Starbucks! We grabbed groceries for supper at the same time then headed back to get our transition bags filled. We do not have access to them in the morning so we had to be sure all was all set to go.

We headed to transition and were ushered to some pretty sweet spots. They walked us through the area from start to finish. After that....it was off to where ever to not think about the race.
We bumped into our new friend Scott ( http://www.scottrigsby.com/ ) who is an inspirational Ironman. He was really interested in our quest as we were interested what he has been up to since his big day. What a super nice guy!

We are now chillin at the condo.... supper is getting prepared and athletes are filing in.

To bed early tonight...we leave here at 5:30ish....transition is a 10 minute walk.

If y'all wanna track us, here is the link and our race bib numbers:

http://ironman.com/ironmanlive/racedaycoverage/livetrackinginfo

Heather: 925
Brian: 1519

See ya on the other side!!!!

Brian and Heather

...so THIS is Clearwater!!!!

2008-11-05T17:13:00.003-05:00

Well, after a slow start this am in Toronto, we got off the ground and back on the ground shortly after 1pm here in Florida.
Our friend Randy from Ottawa sat one row behind Heather and I and enjoyed a chat with his Dad while we waited for all of the bikes to arrive.
With our 2008 Toyota Sienna van (odometer was at 4 miles!!!) runnin, we enjoyed the short ride to Clearwater.
Our place is FANTASTIC... just what they advertised!! It will be perfect for the few days we are here. It even has an elevator in the house...so we can REALLY givver on Saturday!

We have invited a few friends over tonight for some pre-race pops....so I think the game faces will all come on tomorrow morning as we all head over to get registered.

Off to enjoy some of this Floridian air!!!

Brian and Heather

...on our way to the BIG DANCE!!!!

2008-11-04T09:38:00.004-05:00

Hey all!

Well, the Mini is packed with TWO bike bags, TWO checked bags, TWO carry on bags and a lap-top bag.....amazing!!!

The Blues packed up nicely as usual and our regular routine of race trip prep can now be done in our sleep. We are off to Toronto to meet Heather's parents who will be flying with us to Clearwater on Wednesday morning.

I am sure this will not be the first time we write/say this.....but where has the time gone.

In the last 8 months..... we have flown over 140,000km, swam 28.5km, ridden 1350km and run 316.5....thats 1695km of racing.....and it all seems like a blur!

We will drop y'all a note or three from Clearwater.....until then....be safe!!!

Brian and Heather

Post Party Recovery

2008-10-25T13:48:00.003-04:00

It's Saturday afternoon and we're just starting to recover from the Tri The World Sweet 16 party, and are preparing for our last long run before Clearwater.

We think it's safe to say that the party was a huge success and once again we are overwhelmed with the support we've received from our family and friends and the tri\running community as a whole. Many thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated with us - special thanks to Soundcheck for the fantastic music; we wish we could have done a little more dancing...

With ticket sales, proceeds from the silent auction and a very generous donation from Morley Hoppner Construction, Tri The World raised over $3500 for each of our charities: Brain Injury Association of Canada and the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Again, we are overwhelmed and speechless. We truly are blessed.

Now we're setting our sights for the final race in Clearwater on November 8th, and are looking forward to being down there with some family and friends. Hard to believe we're almost done. It's been quite the journey.

Stay tuned for Clearwater talk in a week or so!!!

Heather & Brian

At home....working toward the Big Day!

2008-10-22T21:25:00.006-04:00

It has been nice to be home for a few weeks, but it seems to have been busier than it was out on the road.
We have resumed training for the last race, finally getting out for some nice runs along the canal and some great rides around Ottawa. The swims....well, those are tolerated!!!!

Along with that, we have been working overtime on the season finale, "Tri The World's Sweet 16 Party", a fundraiser for our two charities as well as a good reason to get all of our friends and family together to send us off to Clearwater for our last race.

Our silent auction has done very well and attendance is almost at capacity, so I am sure a good time will be guaranteed.

After Friday, it will be back to training and back to prepping for #16.

If anyone out there wants to take a trip to Ottawa, please , contact Brian for tickets: brian@tritheworld..ca

Here is the info on the party!

Tri The World’s “Sweet 16” Grand Finale Fundraiser
Where: The Westin Hotel Ballroom
When: Friday, October 24th, 2008, 7:30pm
What: Silent Auction, finger foods and LIVE music.
Cost: $55 per person including a $10 tax receipt from each charity)

Well, 14 races ago we kicked off our "Tri The World" venture with a fun get-together. With #16 nearing, we figured that a “Sweet 16” party amongst our friends and all those who have supported us, would be the best way to send "Tri The World" off to the last race.

We also knew that this would be a great opportunity to send a nice chunk of change to our charities. So, we gathered up one of the newest and nicest ballrooms this town has to offer who will be putting out one of the best “finger food and appetizer” spreads known to this city. We have secured one of the finest voices in Ottawa, Jody Delwo and her band and have begun to collect some pretty fine items:

Blue Competition Cycles:
2-cycling jerseys
2-Akona Bike bags
1-Carbon Wing Road Bar (flat top)

Snelling Paper & Sanitation: Corporate Level 200 suite for a Senators game Decemeber 13th vs Tampa Includes: 14 Tickets, 2 VIP - Lot 1 prefered parking passes

Kona Champ Craig Alexander: 1 SIGNED TTW Headsweats visor

MBNA: 4-200level Seats to the Dec 11th Montreal-Tampa game IN MONTREAL.

Headsweats: TriTheWorld Visors

McLeod Optometry: Adidas Sport Sunglasses

Microsoft:
1-Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter mouse 8000
1-Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
1-Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
1-Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008

Héllen Croft: 6 of her fabulous prints

Euro-Sports: 1-Maddison Custom TTW Decaled Fixed Gear Road Frame

The Thomsons: 1 Week stay at the Thomson Retreat on the Manitoulin Island

Door Prizes: Fuel Belt Blue Competition Cycles ...and much more...!

Please email Brian@tritheworld.ca for ticket information.

All proceeds for the evening will be split between the BIAC (Brain Injury Association of Canada) and ORCF (Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation).

The Perfect Way to end a 'Round the World Adventure!!!!

2008-10-15T14:11:00.003-04:00

After many months of silence, we are stoked to announce the worst kept secret this side of Kona.

Tri The World's last race, #16 of 16 will be in Clearwater Florida on November 8th at the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championships.

When this venture began, we thought it would be fitting to end this journey in a big way! So....the offer put out to us was......"If you actually go through with this.......compete in 15 of the 16 Ironman 70.3 events you listed and you WILL do your last one at the big show... "IM70.3 World Championships".

So with Heather qualifying on her own in Newfoundland, the reality was even closer. Now, with the 15 done and obligations met, Tri The World is very proud to announce that they WILL be at the start line with the world’s best!

Thank you to Ironman Corporation for seeing this challenge as we saw it....a world class effort for two causes that touch the entire world.

Any other finish would have just seemed, well a finish. This finish will simply be a new beginning for Brian and Heather. Hmmm...whats next???

Brian and Heather

Texas Toast

2008-10-06T13:13:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, we got toasted in Texas!

Alarms went off at 5h00 in our condo, and we arose and individually prepared ourselves for the day ahead. The air was cool, but the sun had yet to rise, so we didn't expect that to last long. The forecast had promised some cloudy breaks though, and we hoped that to be true, as it would be the only break from the Texan heat.

Parking for the race was off site, and they had set up a shuttle service with one of the local school bus companies. While they were organized, they were not quite prepared for the volume of athletes racing; the participation this year had doubled from last year: 2400 vs. 1200. As a result, getting the athletes to transition took longer than they expected and they were forced to delay the race by 15 minutes to give everyone ample time to get themselves set up before transition closed.

The rest....well that will be left for the race reports.
Lets just say there was a PB, 2 record swims and a mid race encounter with the day's winner. A special congratulations to Laurel who got a podium finish in her age group and a roll down spot to Clearwater 2009! Race reports should be up soon....but for now, we are packing up and heading to the airport to catch our flight to Canada...and the coooold!!!

This race was particularly special to us as we had the privilege of meeting and racing with Nick Morales of www.trimapper.com . Nick has been on board with TTW since day one and has been one of our greatest supporters. He has done some fundraising for us throughout the US and has also hooked us up with some of the folks we have met on the road. Thanks Nick for hangin with us and making this weekend AWESOME!

Its hard to believe that we have now done 15 of the 16..... only one more race for the Tri The World 2008 venture....and it promises to be a BIG ONE!!!!

Cheers.....

Heather and Brian

Welcome to Texas!

2008-10-04T19:05:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Austin yesterday afternoon without any glitches. It was everything we'd been promised: beautiful and hot.
We dropped by the local hostel to pick up Laurel and head to the condo.
We had a relaxing night with a great home cooked pasta dinner and an awesome evening on the patio.

First thing in the AM, we headed to Mellow Johnny's (Lance's bike shop) and were in cycling heaven for about an hour. We then headed to the host hotel to register and to attend the race briefing. We were able to catch the PRO panel which is always interesting.
We headed immediately after that to transition to check in our bikes. We opted to go for about a 30 min ride...and MAN, it was a hot one. Road kill has been interesting, including a possum and armadillo!
We grabbed a quick cooling swim before heading back to the condo for a nice pasta meal and an early evening.
Tomorrow promises one thing....HEAT. We have been drinking water and Gatorade all day to ensure that hydration is not an issue.

Heather is STOKED....as the official temp for the water is.........78...which means....WETSUITS!!!!!

Heading to the patio for our supper....we will drop "y'all" a note when the day is done tomorrow.

Cheers....
Brian and Heather

On the road again....to Austin and #15!!!

2008-10-03T11:51:00.003-04:00

Hey all.....we have been sooooo busy for the few days we have been home that we had neglected the blog for a bit....our apologies!

We have been planning the "TTW Sweet 16 Party" on October 24th at the Westin in Ottawa; we got another gear order for all those that have ordered stuff and on top of that all; a trip to Toronto to watch Heather's daughter run her first marathon AS WELL AS the job thing!!

Nonetheless, we are in Toronto, waiting for our flight to Austin for #15. We are meeting a few friends down there: good friend and training partner Laurel Johnson from Ottawa, Sponsor and extraordinary guy Nick Morales (www.Trimaper.com) and a friend Brian made in St. Croix, Jason Petty who competed with a broken back the last time they raced (or hobbled) together.

Weather looks ok, but Heather is hopping for a severe drop in temp so that she can use her wetsuit!!!!!

We will drop a line from Lance's town....any sightings of him will be noted for sure!!!

Brian and Heather

Pictures from Brazil 70.3

2008-10-01T10:07:00.003-04:00

Some of the sights near our hotel....

A super nice couple we met while riding in Brazil!

...the look out next to our hotel.

We loved Brazil....can you tell?

Pictures from Brazil 70.3

2008-10-01T10:00:00.004-04:00

Bodymarking

...is that not the nicest scene at a swim start?

#13......DONE!

Brian's hand the day after!

Riding to the next town for the day.

Pictures from Brazil 70.3

2008-10-01T09:52:00.003-04:00

Our room in Penha

...one of the smallest we have seen!!!

..with a walk-in bathroom!

On our way race morning.

...all ready to go!

Pictures from Brazil 70.3

2008-10-01T09:28:00.003-04:00

...an arial view of the swim start.

Sao Paulo Brazil

Flying TAM air Back to Sao Paulo

...the trafic that made us miss our flight to Navagants

Our hotel in Penha

Has it been 14 already???

2008-09-22T09:51:00.004-04:00

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

Some more Pics from Singapore

2008-09-19T21:30:00.003-04:00

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

Some Pictures from Singapore

2008-09-19T21:14:00.004-04:00

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

Buenas Dias de Cancun!

2008-09-19T10:00:00.004-04:00

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

Chillin' in Brazil-in'

2008-09-16T13:43:00.002-04:00

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

#13 Is In The Books!!!!

2008-09-14T14:21:00.003-04:00

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

Singapore Race Report

2008-09-12T16:31:00.002-04:00

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!

One Step Closer

2008-09-12T15:11:00.003-04:00

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

Close, but no cigar yet!

2008-09-10T20:06:00.003-04:00

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

Buenas Dias from Braz.....er...Chicago!

2008-09-10T08:17:00.003-04:00

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

Recovery Monday

2008-09-08T01:10:00.001-04:00

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

12 down!!!

2008-09-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-09-04T22:58:00.003-04:00

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

Hello from Hong Kong!

2008-09-04T05:22:00.005-04:00

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

Almost on the road again.

2008-09-01T22:49:00.003-04:00

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

Germany 70.3 Race Report

2008-08-20T10:33:00.002-04:00

After a few more days of rest in Antwerp and Amsterdam, Tri The World packed it all up, loaded the car and drove the 1.5 hrs to Wiesbaden and the Germany 70.3.

On our way there, we HAD to make a pit stop in Kerpen…the home of the Michael Schumacher, famed Formula One driver. Brian had seen his famous karting facility just off the highway on the way out of Germany and made a mental note NOT to miss it on the way back. Wow…what a rush!!! 8 laps of high speed karting at the Schumacher track was something Brian has always wanted to do.

As we pulled into Wiesbaden, we started to see signs for race #11. This was only the second year for this particular event, but apparently they had done such a good job of it, that the number of entrants reflected its popularity. We arrived at our hotel nestled on the Rhine River’s edge in the late afternoon. We got settled; leaving the bikes packed away in the car, as this was officially the smallest room we have ever had! We grabbed a dinner at a near by restaurant and called it a night.
Thursday morning brought us some sunshine and a relaxing morning. The hotel we were in was originally built as the guest house for a HUGE castle that was just down the road, thus no lift. We happened to be on the 3rd floor and we were finding that the 3 flights of stairs were killers on the legs. We ventured to the bike shop that was supporting the race. Brian was hoping to find a bit of euro-cycling shwag, but was out of luck. We also dropped into the downtown core area to see some sights. A nice a quiet day which was just what the doctor ordered.

Friday morning was mid mornings start sending us in the direction of the Kurhaus (Casino) downtown which held the “Ironman Village”. Registration was right in the Kurhaus and was well laid out. We are not sure if it went so smoothly because we were one of the first to register, or weather it was their organization. With kits in hand, we headed out to drive the bike course. We had spoken to Faris AL-Sultan in St. Croix who had mentioned that his training mates had raced and trained on the Wiesbaden course and warned us that it was one of the toughest bike courses he knew of. Since we had the time and the car, we figured seeing the course ahead of time was a win-win. At the 80 km mark, we pulled over to a road-side “chip wagon” style rest stop. By this time both of us were in a bit of shock with what we had just seen.

He was right!

By the profile listed on this races website, they claimed that there were no flats on this course….none. They were right. With 2-12km climbs (some at 10%...some more) and similar descents on very patchy surfaces with switch backs, we were visualizing how Sunday’s race would play out. This guy’s specialty was “sausage with curry”…maybe THAT will make us feel better!!

We had a long day in the car, so another early night would do us well.

Saturday morning brought sunshine for our bike building. We were a bit sceptical of the sunshine as most of the night brought heavy rains. This time, we built the Blue’s on the sidewalk in front of our hotel. Once we were done, we drove the 3km to the race site, where we planned on doing a short ride before we dropped off the bikes at Transition 1. We rode the course out of town, which brought our attention a nasty noise coming from Brian’s bottom bracket. We stopped a few time to try and diagnose what the issue was. All we could tell was that it was getting worse. After an abrupt turn around we arrived back at the car and discussions began as to how to proceed. The sound was not good. Brian’s vote was to head back out of town to the bike shop; Heather’s choice was to visit the tent which is usually set up at transition, run by the shop we visited. Obviously, Heathers’ choice was the wise choice as Brian’s thinking was quite clouded with negativity and despair. As Heather checked her ride in, Brian lined up for the mechanic to see the problem. As he explained the issue and the sounds, the mechanic got it straight way and tightened the bottom bracket….must have been the cobblestones!

With both bikes checked in, it was off to our pre race meal.

Early on race morning, we woke to nice weather and grabbed the first cab we saw outside our hotel to the race site. The driver knew a short cut to get us to the start line. This gave us a chance to see the swim course as we walked by it. Man, this was gonna be one ugly swim. It was in the Rhine, in the marina in what looked like Miso soup with not a cube of tofu to be found! This was one race where Heather started before Brian (there was a 30 min gap). She was set up in transition early and found the “toi-toi” queue. She caught a glimpse of Faris…he had been a last minute sign up for this race. Given how he described it to us, I expected he knew exactly what he was doing and had trained sufficiently for the course he knew well.

By 8:10, Heather was in the water, wading around for the gun to go off. Brian had sufficient time to check transition one more time and watch the pros exit the water, led my Faris, whom every one expected to be in that position. Sooner than later, Brian was in the water and trudging through the miso soup.

Swims for both of us were acceptable and nice to be over. The age groups were well spread out, but still, quite a bit of bashing goin on!

Out on the bikes, Heathers ride was progressing. She was making headway though her age group. Heather could not exactly remember where all the hills were located, so just kept riding managed to ride well for the day. Up hills were steady and down hills were cautious.
Brian on the other hand, had feared this ride for some time; no flats, long steep hills, the 4th race in 4 weekends and the faint sound of that noise he heard during the warm up ride.
The hills started at around the 12 km mark and the first was around 14% grade and 6km long. Soon there was another and another. The 4th notable hill was 10% grade and 14 km long. It had rained the night before the race so the down hills were gonna be extra tricky on top of their technical lay out. On the first decent, about 3k from the summit, there was the first of many 90 degree turns. The outside of the corner was covered in hay bales!!! HAY BALES!!! Man, I love Europe!
The hay bale idea was suddenly less romantic as I rounded the second 90 degree corner, as the rider ahead of him dumped his ride right into the hay bales. Brian reacted with his rear break as he saw the rider slide into the bales. Into a rear skid, he headed towards the bales on a very kind angle. With one foot clipped out, he pushed off from the bales and back into a somewhat straight line, and down the hill, out of the saddle and back on track.
Unfortunately, this was not the only rider he saw go down. It was a busy day for the road rash rangers! On one of the last technical down hills, there were no bales, just a 4 ft drop to a gassy field. The rider just in front of Brian did not negotiate the corner for the conditions and to his surprise, did the power slide across the road, into the air and landed in the field. With no over correcting this time, Brian continued on, incident free.

The race organizers thought that it would be appropriate to put one last hill (or so we thought) at the 78km mark. They called it the “The Hammer”. WOW…one kilometre of 16% grade position at the last place any triathlete would want it!

For all that we were warned about, this ride will go down as the ride you would want to do in order to prove to yourself that it’s not just about just putting in 90k between the swimming and the run. The hardware will be well earned today.

Heather hit transition well before Brian, as her ride was incident free and well raced. It was a treat to have full fledged bike catchers for this onee and transition helpers grabbing our bags and helping us in the tents. For some reason, Heather had to fend for herself in the tent and still smoked transition and headed on to the 3 loop course. It was set mostly in the Central Park surrounded by century old buildings of Wiesbaden! Heather noted that during her run, she was not keeping track of the course and was never quite sure what direction she was heading. She was also leap-froging this one runner for the good part of one of the 7km loops. Heather finally pulled away from her as they got lost in a sea of slower runners. Eventually needing to once again find a “toi-toi” porta potty, Heather ducked in for a quick stop. As she exited the little blue hut, she rejoined the run only meters in front of her recent running buddy. She heard a very pointed groan of disbelief as her leap froging buddy had to have thought she has seen the last of the Tri The World jersey in front of her. Never under estimate her on the run!

Brian hit transition no longer fearing the bike cut off time, as he was well under the allotted time. Given his anticipation, he had hopped for the best on the bike, but prepared for the worst and ran through every calculation possible, trying to see how close his time was going to be to the cut off. As it turns out, it was never an issue as the ride was managed and executed well. As he exited to start the first of three laps, he was pleasantly surprised with the legs and how they felt. Only 21km to go and then it would be 3 weeks off….what incentive!

Rounding his second lap to begin his 3rd and final lap Brian saw Heather all cleaned up and waiting for him. What a relief! After the drama of her crash on the technical roads of Austria and seeing all the offs this day his mind was on her well being until he could actually see her smile. She did the swim, survived the ride and was already done the run and this was the first time he had seen her since 8am! A familiar feeling of calm came over him once again and off he went for another 50 min of running.

With both of us across the line we said to each other….11 down, 5 to go!
As we shuffled our way to the finisher’s shirts and medals, Heather shared the fact that there was a tent with ALLL THE BEER YOU CAN DRINK!!! For a second…the shirt seemed like a “non-essential item”…..however calmer heads prevailed and we sat and enjoyed our medals, shirts and some of Bavaria’s finest golden elixir!!! Shortly after a couple of brown pops, we rode home…all 8 km of it, as has been the trend!!!

Monday morning, the routine continued as we packed the bikes and headed towards Frankfurt. Our flight was a long 8hrs to Toronto, a 2hr layover and then back to O-town. With almost 24hrs of awake time in us, the official TTW airport shuttle was right on time! A huge thanks to Tim McNaughton of Packed Apps for his continued dedication to this mission.

We now have 3 weeks to re-group and rest until we head out again on the road for numbers 12, 13 and 14 in Singapore, Brazil and Cancun….3 weekends in a row!
TriTheWorld.ca is catching on folks…and we feel privileged everyday to be at the heart of it. Pass it on!

Germany 70.3...wow...more pics

2008-08-19T21:20:00.003-04:00

The sketchy decents...

One of the climbs....

Some of the traffic we encountered on Saturday.

Transition....race morning.

Like we said...this was a tough one!

Even MORE pics...

2008-08-16T14:42:00.005-04:00

Some of the sights of Wiesbaden.

Our hotel view of the Rhien

Our little room in Wiesbaden.

Lookie what we found driving through Kerpen.

...and with the fastest lap....Brian Doanmacher

More Germany 70.3 pics...

2008-08-16T14:33:00.003-04:00

Signing in at the Kerhaus

Hmm...who's on the list and who's not...

Heathers cap...

Brian's cap...

All you the stuff you get for the big day.

Pics from Germany 70.3

2008-08-16T14:25:00.002-04:00

The Frankfurt Airport

..mmmaybe THIS is the bike I should ride!

Ahhh....how to take a pic with a beer in yourhand of a girl with a beer in her hand!

Tzone early on Sunday

Hetahers set up......

11 done....auf wiedersehen!!!!

2008-08-16T14:20:00.003-04:00

Well, a few days late, but Germany's 70.3 is in the books.
We enjoyed the " all you can drink beer" at the finish line, packed and flew out the day after HOME!

With three weeks off before Singapore, it's all about the rest!

Will be posting some pics form the race.....enjoy!

Brian and Heather

...and more pics from Antwerp 70.3

2008-08-12T10:52:00.002-04:00

The view form our balcony in Antwerp.

Ugh.....thats where the swim is in a few days!

Schwag back included tire levers, deoderant and wine...go figure!

Taking the elevator down below the river!

Not as shy as us North Americans I suppose!

More pics from Antwerp 70.3

2008-08-12T10:33:00.003-04:00

...a day trip to Amsterdam. WINDMILLS!!!

What a SCORE for a rental car....at NO extra cost!

Heather and one of Amsterdam's canals

Beautifull buildings all overthe place!

...making good use of our balcony in Antwerp!

2008-08-10T17:12:00.003-04:00

11 down, 5 to go....and we are lovin it!!!
We just finished Germany 70.3 and are ecstatic that it is in the books.
We are both happy with our day given this course and the challanges it brought us.
Off to the Wiesbaden Wine festival which just HAPPENS to be in town this weekend......when in Rome!!!

Can not WAIT to be back in Canada soon.........chat with you all then.....

Brian and Heather.......

2008-08-09T15:33:00.002-04:00

We are just about to head to bed for the night and thought we would drop a quick line.

We dropped our bikes and our transition bags off earlier today. We had taken the bikes out for a test ride along the first part of the course and Brian was extremely uncomfortable as his bike was making an unfamiliar clicking sound. A once-over by the race bike support crew and it was apparent that it was only a loose crank. A quick clean-up and tightening, and all was well again.

From there, we headed into downtown for a bite to eat where we happened upon a wine festival. Lucky us, it happens to be on all week! Something to think about tomorrow on that long ride....

Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow; so far it´s looking promising.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

Welcome to Wiesbaden!

2008-08-08T13:42:00.004-04:00

We have been in Wiesbaden now for 2 days resting up and seing the town.
We were able to see the shopping district downtown as well as some of the country side.

We are staying at a hotel right on the Rhein (yet the view is costly, given all of the traffic!) and very close to the swim start of the race Sunday.
We checked in to the race site this morning....and then, as planned, drove the 90k bike course. On the elevation charts, it shows NO flats on this course.....well, we are here to tell you that there are indeed NO flats!!!! This will be one of the most challenging bike courses we have seen, given the number and length of the climbs and the technical decents, not to mention the quality of the ride surface. This ride will be a long day in the saddle. The only plus is the scenery...some of the views are spectacular.

Its past supper time now, and we should really find some grub. We will check in before race start with more news from Wiesbaden!

Brian and Heather

2008-08-06T04:17:00.004-04:00

Well, the race reports are still being written, but in the mean time, here are a few shots of the trip so far!

..the view from our room in Antwerp.

...getting set up in transition before #10!!

The city of Antwerp.

...a quick trip to Amsterdam. Beautiful canals.

..Heathers NEW ride!!!!

Antwerp in the books!

2008-08-03T15:20:00.002-04:00

With 9 races behind us, we were due for "challenging" weather. Today brought wind and rain, with little spots of sunshine here and there.

There are not many 70.3s with mass starts, and Antwerp is one of them. We decided to take advantage of this and raced the whole race together, as best we could.

Although the day came together pretty well, every individual leg felt long. The water was choppy, which made sighting difficult. Many stretches of the bike had head winds, which slowed our speed to sub-25k/hr. The run was 3 loops in town, each loop feeling longer than the last.

Still, we finished, and we're one step closer to our goal. The race announcer put us on the mic at the finish and we were able to share our story with everyone watching; truly the highlight of the day.

We've just finished a meal in the hotel restaurant, which included Belgian Fries and Stellas of course! And on our way out, we had a quick chat with some boys from the UK who had come down for the race. They posted great times; first 70.3 for them! We were able to pass on the story of our journey to them, which they seemed quite amazed about; hopefully they'll drop us a note when they get back home!

Now we're off for much needed bed rest.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

All's well in Antwerp!

2008-08-02T07:56:00.002-04:00

Ahhh....what 17 hrs of sleep can do for the body!
We arrived on time (pretty much) at the airport in Frankfurt, set for the almost 4 hr drive to Antwerp. We grabbed at quick snack and headed to the Hertz counter where Brian's charm got us a BMW 318 Wagon WITH GPS in it!!!!
So, as you may imagine, the drive was much shorter than 4hr when one is in a BMW on the Autobahn!!
We checked in early to our hotel in the heart of Antwerp and crashed for a 1/2 hour or so. We decided to get some fresh air and see a bit of the town. At about 3pm, we decided we should eat and then head back for some more rest. We popped a movie into the lap top and rested. Heather fell asleep at about 6:30 and I shut out the lights around 8pm.
We just woke up!!!! Its 1pm!!!!!
So, off to build the bikes and get registered...check in is this afternoon, as tomorow's race starts at 11:AM!!!! We're still not sure whether or not there will be live-tracking. We'll put a note on here after we've checked in.

So with that we say "fraugehopha" (which is Dutch for "good afternoon"......just pullin yer leg)!!!!

Brian and Heather

2008-07-31T09:45:00.000-04:00

This was our only Canadian stop and we had really looked forward to it for some time. Heathers race report covers much of the pre race goodies (Hmmm...roll reversal here??), so I will keep mine to the race.

I would call this one "a long day at the office" as the whole day seemed tough for me….MANY lesons learned on this one! After some great PR before the swim start (including a photo request of those two "from Ontario") we began the walk into the water.

It was super shallow for the first bit but then dropped off nicely and in we went. I found the sighting tough for this one. I am not sure if it was the minimal amounts of markers or if it was sun...but there was a ton of looking around going on. We stood up, out of the water way to soon, and ran through knee deep water which I found really tough. This was the first time we had stripers for a 70.3 event and it was SWEET! All went well into transition. I much prefer the tent transitions then the "bike rack" transition.

Heather and got to the mount line at the same time and headed out on the ride. I LOVE the scenery in Newfoundland BUT I will say this was not my favourite course. It was wide open and pretty flat or false flats (other than the 4k climb at the turn around) which lead to a nice wind in your face for the out part. Sure, you do get a tail wind on your way back, but the tough riding still takes it toll on me. I blew out my legs in the first 15k which made for a very long ride. I was able to see Heather on her way back in and it seems that she was having a great ride.
My only complaint about the ride course was that the water stations provided bottles of Gatorade that had the regular wide mouth openings...no "pull to" water bottle style that most stores carry. All I can say, is that I do believe there was more Gatorade on me and my bike than IN me!

Into transition I go, feeling spent but thinking that I only had a half mary to go....man, I have done too many of these for sure!!! The legs felt ok…no specific aches or pains, just spent. I was hot and was not gonna be setting any PB's today. I took in what I could, and was pumped to see they had ice, so I was able to lower my core temp.
Heather was running strong and looked in great form. I still had one last lap to do as she headed in, but was actually running better by this point than I was on the first lap. Coming in the chute I was quite glad that this day was done.
I spoke to Heather while I was still bent over in pain. She went and got me some water and Gatorade....what a sweetie!!! We also got to see Lisa come in strong....smile and everything!!!

Heathers reports mentions the Awards Dinner and the excitement of her 3rd place…man, you should really have seen it…it was priceless. I have never been so proud. I think was added to it, was that she was SOOO taken by surprise....a genuine show of happiness and shyness ALLLL built into one. All is said and done for Newfoundland 70.3.

Thanks to Q for all the photos he took that day. Also to Meroni and Sons Inc. for all their support for this race...thank you maniac. Not to be forgotten, John (run_longer) for his hospitality...he provided the most memorable "pre-post race" fun we have had yet.

When we got home from the east coast I built the bikes again as we had a press engagement the next day who was doing a "profile" on us. We are off to Antwerp today afternoon, so the bikes were broken down and packed up. Now, if I can just get rid of this post race cold and pinched neck....I would be all set!!!!

Heather's Newfoundland 70.3 race report

2008-07-31T09:40:00.002-04:00

This Race Report brought to you by Marg Meroni and family. Many, many thanks for your generous support!

Only in Newfoundland can the lake water look like beer! But I'm getting ahead of myself. We set out for the Rock on Friday afternoon. I had been especially looking forward to this 70.3. For years now I've wondered if I'm a "dis-placed" Newf. I was born in Ontario, but have always been drawn to the Rock; perhaps it's because I have yet to meet a Newfoundlander I don't like.

After some flight issues, and a forced overnight in Halifax , we arrived in Deer Lake , bikes in tow, around 09h30 NF time. We made the decision to head straight to Pasedena to build our bikes and do our pre-race check-in. With bike check-in not starting until noon, we were among the first people on race site. Brian managed to chat up a few local tri guys, while we built the bikes and as he always does, did well to spread our message. One of them asked for a card so that he could add us to his Tri club web site. Very cool! By the time we had the bikes built and got our test ride in, the race directors and crew were arriving. We headed to the tent to pick up our registration kit which included among other things, our Race Bib, a Visitor's Guide to Newfoundland , a Tech-Tee and a loaf of bread! Perfect! Having yet to have lunch, we were famished! Check-in required us to leave our bikes and our transition bags behind, but since the forecast was promising heavy rain they gave us the option to keep our transition bags with us until morning. We also did not get a timing chip with our kits, and had to make a mental note that we'd need to pick those up race morning. Just outside of transition we bumped into a couple of friends from Ottawa : Tina, Ron and Cynthia, and we got to gawk upon Craig Alexander (who probably thinks we're now stalking him!) and Mirinda Carfrae. It's not too difficult to see how these 2 Aussies pull off the times they do. I don't think they have an ounce of body fat between them. Mirinda's gear had gotten lost on her trip and the race organizers were doing everything they could to find her replacements. Poor Brian had to watch her change with only a towel to cover herself. I think he's still in shock I have to say, she did impress me though as she seemed to be taking this potential crisis all in stride. With our bikes settled in for the night, we hopped back in the car and made our way to Corner Brook .

Our friend John, a.k.a. run_longer, had graciously opened his home to us, and having not seen him since the 2006 Cabot Trail Relay, I was anxious to get re-acquainted. Awesome guy, awesome host, awesome family! He really did everything in his power to make our trip to the Rock enjoyable; from the tour of the town, to the tour of the local bike shop and river path, to the support on the course and the wonderful meals - John you're a true friend and I miss you already! Q and lonerunner were also in town for the race. Lisa was there to do her first 70.3, and Q was there for the beer and ice cream...and to play camera man. They joined us for dinner on Saturday night, and we shared lots of stories about Cabot Trail and other running\racing events. I must apologize to John's wife, Darlene, how boring we runners are with nothing to talk about, but running stories! After a great meal, and a couple glasses more than my usual one of red wine , we said good-bye to Q and LR until the next morning and headed to bed.

As this 70.3 thing is becoming old hack, pre-race jitters are few and far between....or maybe I have the wine to thank for that. We'd agreed on an earlier than usual rise. It was a 20 minute drive to Pasedena and we would be facing parking restrictions. We headed out the door before 6:30 which would give us a good hour to get things set up in transitions before the race started. Plenty of time to prep our bikes and get our T bags to the rack. We even had time to get into the water for a little warm-up swim before the race started. The swim is a beach mass start. This meant I got to stand and swim beside Brian. My absolute favourite way to start a race!
They played our National Anthem which was a little emotional; it always is for me. Then they blew the horn and we were off. The water is shallow for a good 200 metres. It was truly a running start, and when you can no longer lift your knees out of the water, you dive - hoping the people in front of you are using the same approach. The water was warm and beautiful golden colour (just like Keith's beer!), and for the most part the swim went rather smoothly. I had one bit of panic where I had to stop and tread water, and Brian waited patiently while I collected myself. This was a clockwise loop which makes sighting extra difficult for me since I breathe on my left. I put all my trust in Brian and just made sure I could see him on every stroke. We exited the water together - probably running a little sooner than we should have since by the time we made it to the beach, my legs felt dead.
Swim time: 45:59
They had strippers at the entrance to transition. I had trouble making eye contact with one, but finally did and fell to the ground while they tugged at my wet suit. Suit off, hat and goggles in hand, I b-line it for my bike...except I'm not suppose to head to my bike! I skipped the step of grabbing my Swim-to-Bike bag and changing in the tent! With a little bit of light cursing, I ducked under the bike racks, grabbed my T1 bag and headed to the change tent. All that carfuffle, and I still managed to make it out of the tent before the people who were already inside it. I waited at my bike for Brian (we were racked side by side) and we made our way out of transition together. The plan was to at least start the ride together. The bike course is an out and back that you do 1 3/4 times. There is a 4 km climb at the turnaround where we figured, due to my having to carry less weight than Brian, I'd pull away from him, and then for the exact same reason, he'd catch me again on the descent. Only it didn't work out quite that way.

I rode ahead and when I looked back, I couldn't see Brian anywhere. I spun it out for a bit, thinking he may have dropped a chain, but when he still didn't come into sight, I decided it was time to ride my own race. The course runs all along the Trans Canada Hwy. It makes for a beautiful roll, and not a very technical bike. Some may think that is boring, but I loved it! The scenery is still breath-taking. What a beautiful province; I really could not get enough of it. I played leap frog with a couple of girls - they'd smoke by me on the descents and I'd catch them on the climbs. On the big decent I saw John cheering us on, looking very styling in his TTW vest, and I saw Brian on his climb. I was relieved to see that he was alright and was riding well. After the turnaround, I passed the girls I was playing leap frog with and never saw them again. I picked up a new girl on the second loop - this one was in my age group. We chatted a little as we passed each other. The day was getting hot, and we were both starting to feel it. I mentioned to her that I hoped there was shade on the run. She told me she'd heard it was supposed to be flat. Then, when we approached Pasedena, we started to see runners on the highway and we both noted that the run was neither shaded nor flat! This was going to be a challenge.
Bike Time: 3:06:49

As you entered transition, they had volunteers grabbing your bike, so for a minute, you got to feel a little bit like a pro as you tossed your bike and ran. I grabbed my Bike-to-Run bag and ran into the change tent. I accepted the volunteer's offer of sunscreen and exchanged my bike shoes for my Zoots as she hovered over me with her spray bottle. Again, I beat everyone who was already in the tent, out of transition. I grabbed gatorade and water at the exit and made my way to the run course. As predicted, it was unbelievabley hot. We'd find out later that it was a sweltering 32 degrees.
With no shade and very little wind, I was completely reliant on the aid station sponges to cool myself off. In the discipline that I'm my strongest, I felt my weakest. I struggled to maintain any kind of pace. I played "When the Saints Come Marching In" in my head just to try and keep some rhythm. I felt completely beaten, and the only kick I could get was from the sips of Pepsi I'd take at the aid station. Luckily Pepsi was available at each one. Some of the stations gave me a full can which I didn't quite understand; maybe I should have carried it with me. After the first loop - which I was thoroughly disappointed that you had to run all the way to the finish, see it and then take the right lane instead of the left to head back out for another 10k - I saw that I was very close to coming into under the 6 hour mark.
I didn't really have any goals going into the Newfoundland 70.3. I'd raced pretty hard in Vineman, and we would have 2 more races in 2 week-ends so finishing time wasn't so much of an issue, but when 6 hours was that close, I knew I'd feel better finishing under 6 than over. So, I pushed myself. I pushed through the aches and the pains and the heat, and the unbelievable strong sense to walk. I saw Brian 3 times on the run, and as always that gave me a boost in my step. I saw him for the last time with about 1k to go; we stopped quickly and he told me how beaten up he was and that he'd be at least another 2 hours. I figured it was more like an hour 15 min, but still that was a long time to be out there and my heart went out to him. The final stretch of the run is through a trail in the woods.

You can hear the music and the noise of the finish. You can't help, but push yourself towards it, knowing that in a few moments, it would all be over. I rounded the last corner, and saw the official clock - 5:58 and change. A man was ahead of me and his daughters ran out to join him. I slowed my pace so that they could get a good bit in front of me, and have their finishing moment. I was safely under 6 hours, and I was satisfied. When I crossed the line, the announcer said my name, my city, and continued to summarize Brian's and my story, and why we were here. That made it all worthwhile.

Run Time: 2:01:06

I headed straight to the water that I'd been dreaming about the whole run. The shore was filled with finishers, seated in the water, taking obvious relief from the heat. I saw my friend Tina and her husband, and joined them. They'd both had great races. I'd seen Tina on the bike and the run and she looked strong every time. We then went to check the unofficial results and we saw that Tina placed 2nd in her AG! Which meant she had a spot at Clearwater if she wanted it. I looked at my results and it said I placed 7th. That sounded about right to me. We then parted ways - they were heading back to their cottage to hang out with their kids and I made my way to Q who was waiting at the end of the chute for Lisa and Brian. We hung out and chatted until they came in. As I had thought, Brian was in well before the 2 hours he'd said. I was elated to see him finish, and anxious to talk to him since I'd missed our usual mid-race chat. We cheered Lisa in to her first 70.3 finish! She smiled the whole way down the chute.

We then made our way back to our car, threw in our bikes and drove to Corner Brook. The plan was to shower at John's, hopefully have a beer or two before we headed to the Awards Ceremony.
With 2 of our friends having podium finishes, we wanted to be sure we didn't miss it. They ran through the pro awards; Ottawa's own Cynthia Wilson was 2nd. Then they announced the Age Group winners, starting with the youngest. When they hit F35-39 I wasn't really paying attention, since Tina's AG was F40-44.

When I heard my name, it took a minute to hit me, and then I was in disbelief. They had it wrong, and I told them that. I didn't even want to get on stage because I was so convinced they weren't right. They insisted they were and showed me the results sheet. I figured they’d misplaced the first page. I had placed 3rd. I got a very cool piece of the Rock - literally, and a chance to take a roll down spot to Clearwater . The girl who placed 1st had gone last year and didn't want it. So, when they asked me if I wanted to go to Clearwater , I said "Hell Ya!". Brian was sitting front and centre and I couldn't take my eyes off him. ONE OF THE HAPPIEST MOMENTS of this venture. I couldn't wait to get off the stage and hug him! I'm going to Clearwater . I still can't believe it! And I can't stop smiling about it!!!!

Final Numbers: Time: 5:58:59 AG: 3/13 Overall: 119/249

In looking at my results, I noticed that the girl who came in 4th was only 3.5 minutes behind me. Our bike times were within 10 seconds of each other and our run times were within 50 seconds (both in my favour); yet she was over 7 minutes faster in the swim! That tells me that this "podium finish" was won and lost in transition...

Newfoundland 70.3 Pics....

2008-07-31T08:39:00.003-04:00

A cancelled flight is NEVER fun!!! Hello Halifax!

Blues built....ready to go!

...they look much nicer OUT of the water!

Heather....checkin out the temp.

The TRI version of Screeched in .....members of the local TriClub!

Newfoundland 70.3 Pics..

2008-07-31T08:35:00.002-04:00

Our home-stay host John!!!!

Heather checkin in VIP style

Ugh.... the weigh in!!!

...see you in a few hours!!!!

Award for strangest item in our schwag-bag....a loaf of bread!

Newfoundland 70.3 Pics!!!

2008-07-31T08:26:00.002-04:00

Race day......a very SMALL transition area!

Heather packin her bags!

As we boarded AirCan, some athletes traveled in style!

Ottawa here we come....for a few days!!!!

A Grt Day in Newfoundland!

2008-07-28T10:22:00.004-04:00

Newfoundland delivered her best for us yesterday. It was a beautiful day with a slight wind from the west and lots of sunshine. Heather raced very well placing 7th in her age group.....or so she thought!!! At the awards banquet, we were all surprised to find out that she had actually placed THIRD in her age group!
The bonus to that was with TWO slots available for Clearwater, the woman who placed first PASSED!!! So........Heather got a roll down spot!!!!!!

The perfect fit to that was that one of Heather's training partners from the OAC, who came down with her family to race ALSO got a place to Clearwater!! Congratulations Tina!!

Let the party begin!!

Heading out for the drive to Deer Lake to catch the flight home.

We will drop in some race reports before we head to Europe on Thursday night......

TTW had a GREAT day in Newfoundland!!!!

Hello from the Rock!

2008-07-26T14:47:00.002-04:00

They say, alls well that ends well and I guess you can say that's true for us. Air Canada set us up in Halifax for the night, bought us dinner and breakfast the next morning and sent us off to Deer Lake. We arrived, safe and sound with our bikes, just after 9:30 AM NF time. They even gave us each a $100 voucher.

Friends of ours graciously extended an invite to stay with them in their home in Corner Brook for the week-end which is just about 20 minutes away from race site. A quick call to them to let them know we were on the rock, and were headed to Pasedena to check-in, build the bikes, and take a test ride.

We received a great welcome from the admin folks behind Newfoundland 70.3. Their organization was superb, and with each of us receiving a loaf of bread at check-in, we're thinking this is a pretty good bang for your registration fee buck! We even have our own personal membership card for the Newfoundland Triathlon Club. Pretty special!

So, we've tested our bikes; we have a few things we'll need to take care of tomorrow, but nothing major. We bumped into a few friends, Tina and Ron as they went through their own check-in\registration rituals. Saw a couple pros: Craig Alexander, Mirinda Carfrae (who had apparently lost all her stuff .... it does happen to the pros too!) and Ottawa's own Cynthia Wilson. Pretty cool.

Now we're settled in at John and Darlene's and have been promised a special Newfoundland meal of BBQ Fresh Cod and mash potatoes. We're still looking for chips, dressing and gravy...maybe we'll come across that tomorrow as our post-race recovery meal.

We'll post again after the race!!

Heather & Brian

Still in the FAX!

2008-07-25T18:16:00.002-04:00

We landed a couple of hours ago in Halifax and have just learned that our flight has been CANCELED!!!
So, off to the hotel we go soon. We are booked on the replacement flight for 7:45 am tomorrow.
We plan to arrive in Deer Lake by 9:30ish....so cross your fingers for us.

Ugh!!!!

Brian and Heather

...on the road again!

2008-07-25T11:00:00.002-04:00

Willie Nelson said it best...."like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway....".

It is off to race number 9 in Cornerbrook Newfoundland in a few hours. We have only been back home here for about 3 days!!!!
This will be a fun race, as there will be at least 3 or 4 other trigeeks that we know racing this weekend.It is our only Canadian stop on this tour, so we plan to make the most of it.

Enjoy your weekend, and check in later....we will drop a line once we get settled in.

SMILES!!!!!

Brian and Heather

Vineman 70.3 Race Report

2008-07-25T10:59:00.001-04:00

Wow…half way there…..when we started this whole TTW venture, this day seemed like it was years away.
But, July 20th came and went with a good dose of drama and excitement that seemed fitting for the half way mark….you know, to keep us honest!
We headed out to the airport on Friday for #8 and a flight schedule of “Ottawa-Toronto-San Francisco”. We were able to hang out with a good friend of ours, local triathlete Tina Pippy who was working that day. Once checked in, we were surprised by another friend of ours working as well who was able to upgrade us to Business Class for the Ottawa-Toronto leg.
In Toronto, the bad signs began, as my carry-on was pulled for inspection. This is not the first time, yet this screener was adamant that there was something funny looking in my carry on. Since we have done this “airport screening” thing a few times, Brian asked the guy if he was looking for a pair of triangle shaped metal things that are inside a pair of shoes (the usual culprit) ….his reply….”We’ll see!!!” Shocked, Brian told the now TWO people looking in his bag, that if they were indeed looking for something like that, it would be his cycling pedals that are tucked into the white cycling shoes. Their reply…”It could be, but we will find out for sure!!!” Ugh….why bother to try and help!

The flight to the West coast was nice and uneventful. We arrived at around 10:30pm local time and were looking forward to our room. We then were advised that one of our 3 checked bags didn’t arrive and was still in Toronto. The man was nice enough to go all the way down to the baggage area and tell us whether it was one bike, two bikes or our “toiletries and clothes”. Both bikes were there….we would just need to wear these clothes for another day!!! Wheuff!
We made our way to our hotel in down town San Fran to realize, that hotel chains lend their names to places without consultation !!! We pulled into this “chain” hotel to be put in a room that was not fit for anything but being rented by the hour!!! With new tooth paste/brush in hand we crashed and pondered changing our reservation for Sunday after the race….this was to be home for another night!
First thing Saturday morning, we checked out and headed to the water front, as we had a few hours to kill before we had to return to the Airport to retrieve our lost bag. San Francisco has always been one of Heathers favourite cities. It's not the weather (it was a cool 59 degrees when we landed! Heather could have worn her winter jacket!), it's not the Golden Gate Bridge, although that is spectacular - what a cool thing to drive on!, it's a little bit about the architecture and the cityscape - the SF hills are every bit as steep as they seem - but it's mostly because of Fisherman's Wharf and the sea lions who call it home. We even got to have breakfast at Joannies Dinner (Joannie from Happy Days!).

After we retrieved our bag from the airport, we made a bee-line for Santa Rosa which was where we were staying for the race. After checkin into our hotel there, we headed to the race site which was yet another 20 min down the road!!
As we approached the venue that held the registration, kit pick up and expo, we decided to get checked in and make contact with the race organizers that knew we were competing. Once we had our race kits, we walked the transition. We were told that the California rep for BLUE was there. We chatted with him for a while and he introduced us to one of his pro riders whose hubby was a TC surviour as well…..we shared some stories for sure!!!
After that, we happened upon a promo tent where Craig Alexander was signing schwag. We thought we would say hey, since we had chatted with him in St. Croix and had exchanged a couple of emails. As we approached the table (no one else was in line!) he saw our TTW vests, immediately recognizing us and making us feel very welcome he and his friends. He even signed a TTW visor (we are both sponsored by Headsweats) which we will auction off at some point.

THIS is where the drama begins. We head to the parking lot to build up the bikes. With Heathers’ built, Brian began on his, immediately noticing that the wheel is sure not fitting in as well as it always does. After a very close inspection, he saw that the derailleur hanger is bent along with a badly bent derailleur! Damage control begins! We go back to see Devon from BLUE. He puts us onto a mechanic on site, who happens to work on BLUE bikes. He thought there is nothing he can do onsite and his shop is over 40 miles away. Brian then sought out Amy (race management) and told her of the situation. She immediately contacted a bike shop about 20 min away that would either try to fix it, find a demo bike B could use, or sell him a bike, which, crazy as it sounds, beats a DNS any day!!!
We tossed the rides into our rental and bombed it to NORCAL Cycle shop, where the 18yr old wonder kid delicately bent the hanger into place, replaced the derailleur with a new shimano part, and got my BLUE back to tip top shape!!! He did say, as we left there, “I hope it holds out tomorrow!!!” Ugh!After a couple of “nerve calming” cervezas, we headed out for our pre-race meal to put together our race plan for the next day.

The Swim:
Race morning brought cool temps and a 30 min drive to the race start. To be clear, this race, logistically, was the worst we had seen. The swim start/swim end and bike start (where we would park our car in the AM) was 15 miles from the race end. At the end of the day, we would need to take a shuttle back to the swim start, with out bikes, to get the car, just to drive it BACK to the race end to get the bikes….confused yet?

Brian's wave was set to start at 6:54 AM with Heathers 40min later. We left in what we thought would be ample time, but once we got there, everything felt really rushed. To save time, we had body marked ourselves in the usual spots before we'd left our hotel. As we walked through the body marking area on our way to transition, we noticed that they also seemed to putting numbers on participant's hands and right thigh. Not wanting to risk any kind of penalties, we thought we should probably follow suit. We're still not exactly sure what the purpose of having the bib # on our hands was - we were told so they could be seen on the bike, but when ya ride, we’re pretty sure WE were the only one that had the right view point to be able to read the hand numbers. We surmised that it was for the swim

This was a river swim which Brian had done before in Carleton Place, Ontario for a half iron there, so it was not new. After a few delays, Brian wracked his bike as did Heather in transition which was set up in a make-shift rock covered parking lot and made my way to the swim. We were told that the swim “at some points would be only 4 ft deep”. We both had goggle issues during the swim. Once we noticed that some guys were RUNNING parts of the swim, it allowed us to fix the goggle issue easily!
The finish of the swim came sooner than both of us expected. As always, Heather was happy to exit - only 8 more swim starts to go. Whewf!

The Ride:
What a ride…! The country side in Northern Cali is SWEET. The course was a lone loop ride with a good number of hills with one “big one” at the 72km mark. These hills were rolling hills with a good amount of aero possible. Brian rode for a while with a guy who had done a ton of races for CAF, and had rigged up a speaker for his ipod that was mounted in his rear too pouch. He had a great selection of Snoop playin, including “Gin ‘n Juice”, one of my faves. They chatted for a while and told him that he had just received a card for the “loud” music...but was more than happy to give IM 4 min of his time in a penalty box then not have his tunes. This guy was alllll about havin fun and making a difference! Most of the course was beautiful though, with undulating hills winding through the many vineyards of the Russian River Valley. What evil temptation those vineyards are! The movie Sideways kept playing over and over in my head, and it kept me company for most of the ride. What a great flick.
Heather saw one crash. A girl was lying on a stretcher with a neck brace and appeared to be out cold. She reminded myself of how lucky I was to escape serious injury in Austria. She wished for her to be ok.

The Run:
Not knowing the run course at all, we knew not what to expect. Brian has been having issues with his feet going numb on the bike. Have ruled any relation to my orthotic, and suppose it may be cleat placement. None the less, he started his run first on numb feet…its like trying to open a beer when your arm has “fallen asleep”….try it some day! By mile 1.5, they started to “thaw” out. But his left foot was SUPER sore in the toe box area of his shoes. By mile 2, the pain was stupid and he knew he needed to stop and see what it was (far too early for a blister!). As B pulled his shoe from his foot, out fell a GU gel that he had put in his shoe for the run!!!! It did not pop (thank fully) but the edges sure did a number on his pinky toe!!! STOOPID!!!!
Heather headed out on her run next. She knows she has been an avid supporter of Newtons, but she had been eyeing these Zoots for awhile now, and after having tight calves in Lake Stevens, she thought she'd give them a shot. She was told that she could wear them without socks since they were virtually seamless. Bonus! Of course when she told that to Brian the night before he warned her that she'd get blisters, and she TOTALLY “foofooed” him.
Blisters. There are no seams!!!! Ha!
By mile 4, she started to feel a little rubbing. By mile 7 she thought it was going to be a bit of a factor in her run. By mile 10 her feet were hurting so badly she wondered how she was going to pull of another 5k. The only thing that kept her cadence up and kept her focused was knowing that there was the chance that Brian was waiting for her. On the out of the out and back, she had figured that if she was going to catch Brian on the run, she could not see him before the 6 mile mark. That would mean that he would be just a mile ahead of her, and if she made up a minute a mile, we could finish together.
Brian’s average per mile was 10:10 and held that to the end. At the 12 mile marker, Brianlooked back and Heather was within sight so he pulled to the side momentarily and waited to thoroughly enjoy the last mile together, even though neither of us had big smiles by this time of the day.

With heads held high, side by side, we crossed the finish line together to 2 TTW PB’s!!! We were also reminded that we were half way through this odyssey.

After taking a moment to ourselves (as we do after each race) we shared some war stories over a fabulous food spread at race site. We then walked bike-less about 750m to the busses that were to take us back to the swim start. We saw, however, that they were letting people take their bikes…SWEET! So, a 180 back to the transition zone to grab our rides. Walked the 750m again to the busses only to be told that they should not have been allowing the bikes and would not allow any more. So, we decided Brian would leave the bikes with Heather and take the bus to the swim start, grab the car and return. 1.5 hrs later, the bikes were packed, we were beat and we still needed to drive to San Francisco.
We had cancelled that nasty hotel and chose to stay closer to the pier. After a huge sushi dinner, TriTheWorld said BYE to San Francisco and called it a night.

This was the “half way” race for Heather and me…..eight 70.3 races under our belts in less than 4 months…yet we are as stoked and as pumped as we were in Oceanside at race one!!!
We have 3 more in 3 weekends, so perhaps the spring in my step may not be there by the end of Germany, but we are off this weekend to Newfoundland 70.3, brought to you by Meroni & Sons International, proud sponsors of TTW!

Ride safely!

Brian and Heather

Photos from Vineman 70.3 III

2008-07-24T15:07:00.003-04:00

...transition at the swim start...yes, that's gravel!

It ws a busy Tzone!

On the way to the airport..8 down, 8 to go!

...what a view!

Photos of Vineman 70.3..II

2008-07-24T15:03:00.002-04:00

...on the way to Santa Rosa

...keeping you informed!!

...signed by Craig Alexander!

..heading to the start line....chilly!!!

Photos from Vineman 70.3

2008-07-24T14:56:00.003-04:00

Our very own Police Escort!

The fog sets in San Fran!

..a couple of our buddies!

The Pier

Headin over the Golden Gate Bridge!

HALF WAY THERE!!!!!! 8 DOWN, 8 TO GO!!!

2008-07-20T22:54:00.004-04:00

Here we sit in our hotel in San Fran STOKED at the great day TTW had!
Two PB's for this TriTheWorld tour, 8 races behind us, and we are both safe and sound....what more do ya want!!!!

Anyway, this will be very short and sweet as we are DONE.....the hills, the sun, the running around (ugh.... what a backwards race site THIS was!!!)

So... off for a bite and off to bed....since we need to be at the airport by 8am!!!

Brian and Heather!

Welcome to California (again)!

2008-07-19T21:12:00.002-04:00

Where do we start? It's been a long day and a long trip, and we haven't even raced yet! Despite the trip starting off fantastically with running into friends at the airport, and having one of them generously upgrade us to Business Class for our Ottawa - Toronto leg, we seem to have a black cloud hanging over us...

1. Brian was held up at security in Toronto while they went through his carry-on piece by piece.
2. We and our bikes arrived in San Francisco last night, but our luggage (which has all our casual clothes, toiletries, etc) didn't.
3. We put our bikes together in the parking lot of Windsor High School - the site of T2 and the finish, to realize that the derailer and hanger on Brian's bike was completely bent.
4. Well, there isn't a 4 and we're hoping it stays that way. They do after all, say that bad things come in threes, but it wouldn't hurt if there was a little finger-crossing going on :)

We arrived in San Francisco late last night. Our flight was very smooth with no delays - the upgrade to Business class was greatly appreciated. What a treat to be at the front of the plane and to have all that cushy room! The G&Ts didn't hurt either ;)

Since we travelled through Toronto, we had to pick up our luggage there before going through customs. We had a tight connection as it was and were a bit anxious that the bikes wouldn't make it. As it turns out, they did, but our other luggage didn't. Good thing we had planned to stay in San Fran last night as we were able to go back to the airport to get our bag before we headed north to Windsor to check-in. Before we headed out of town, we took the time to go to Fisherman's Wharf and watch the sea lions in action....if lying on the docks, with an occasional scratch and shift in position can be called action. I don't think it's much wonder how they get to be so big.

The drive north was absolutely beautiful. What started out as a foggy, 59 degree day, turned into a sunny 85+ degree day. We're both a little worried that we may run into the same conditions tomorrow, as the weather forecast hadn't prepared us for that. We both always travel with sleeves though, so we should be OK.

Race check-in went well. No hiccups. We got to talk to the Blue reps from the northern California area, and chatted briefly with Craig Alexander...kind of nice that he recognizes us without us having to remind him of who we are. He told us he'd cheer us on tomorrow, but we suspect his race will be well over before we make it into T1....

The problems didn't start until we started putting the bikes together and Brian realized that his derailer didn't line up the way it should. We took the bike over to the Blue rep and he sent us over to the mechanic on site hoping he could work some magic. His first assessment was that the hanger was bent, and while he could try to straighten it, he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't snap on him. He suggested, to be safe, that he try to readjust the derailer so that Brian could at least get his bike to shift into some of the gears. Unfortunately, once he started working on the Blue, he surmised that the derailer was bent and otherwise defunked. Barring some miracle, this meant that Brian would not be able to ride.

It's not over until the fat lady sings, or so they say, and Brian headed straight to the Race Registration Director, Amy, and she referred us to the local bike shop (which happens to be right across from our hotel). She even called them and told them we were on our way. Good karma...

By this point is was 4:45 and we knew that timing would be tight. While Brian packed the bikes into the car, Heather ran with their Bike to Run stuff (shoes and visors) and set them up in T2.

A little side track, but I should explain the race setup. Vineman is like no other race we have done to date. Swim start, T1 and T2 are all in different locations, and instead of leaving your bikes behind the day before, you leave only your shoes. You bring the bikes with you on race day morning, set up T1 and then get shuttled to the swim start - this could make for a long morning if the weather is cool.

Once we got all packed, we left (high-tailed it!) for the bike shop. They had been expecting us and impressively attended to Brian's bike right away. They concurred with the original assessment, and immediately got to work, exchanging his defunked derailer with a brand new one. They were able to successfully straighten Brian's hanger, and with a little oil and small adjustments, his Blue was looking good and ready for tomorrow. A Big Thank You to the boys at Norcal for their awesome work!

Now, we're checked into the hotel and are looking forward to cleaning up and headed out for our pre-race meal. With his Blue being all fixed up, Brian's tummy has settled and sickness has turned into hunger pains.

For those who wish to follow along tomorrow, Brian's number is 338 and his wave goes off at 6:54 AM. Heather's number is 1183, and will be in the water 40 minutes later at 7:34 AM.

We head back to San Fran after our race and have been told that our hotel has Internet so we hope to get a post-race blog in before we head home.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

Lake Stevens 70.3 Race Report

2008-07-16T09:29:00.002-04:00

Lake Stevens 70.3 was to be our 7th 70.3 since we started the Tri The World tour.
We both certainly took advantage of the 3 weeks off to rest our bodies and mentally prepare ourselves for the rest of the journey.
We filled our time with media engagements, visits to see Paul Phillips at Westboro Massage and Duane Smith over at Westboro Chiro (thanks boys!!), a bit of training but mostly our regular jobs!

We flew out on Thursday evening after a ride to the Airport kindly provided again by the PackedApps Team Van. We were scheduled to fly Ottawa-Chicago-Seattle. As what seems to be a pattern, we were held up in Chicago for several hours, leaving us to find our hotel in downtown Seattle by 2am (5am Ottawa time)!!! Yet again, we find ourselves arriving to our destination with no meal to be ad before we retired for the night.

With the next day being July 4th, Independence Day, we had a scheduled day off. We enjoyed Seattle after a late sleep in. We saw the Pikes Market and the aquarium, along with the fireworks ending the day.

In the AM, we packed up and headed 45 min north towards Lake Stevens. The host hotel and registration was in Everett, WA. We went immediately to registration where we happened upon Sister Madonna Buder….simply amazing. With yet another pre-race meeting complete, we headed to Denny’s for the first meal of the day! We then drove on another 20 min to the race site in Lake Stevens.
We then parked and started the process of building the bikes. We have done this in parking lots, fields, hotel rooms and now, on the side of the road. As we have mentioned, we have seen no other BLUE bikes and only one other set of Spinergy wheels, so we seem to draw quite a bit of attention when ever we build them….yet another great op to spread the TTW message! As we were doing this, we bumped into some friends of ours and chatted for a bit, solidifying plans for our pre-race meal.

We were all checked in and bikes set on the racks, we head off to drive the course. We have always liked to do that when possible to know what the day ahead brings.
We had a great meal with our friends and chatted about the day ahead.

We rose early and headed back to Lake Stevens. With the cloud cover looming, we thought we may see rain! The lake was calm, so THAT was a great sign for both of us, and the rain held out all day!

The Swim:
With what we would now consider nice and warm water, Brian headed off on the swim first with Heather following 15 minutes later. There was a line in the water just like in Placid, so no doubt, sighting was MUCH easier than usual. The body contact was intense with defensive measures necessary! We both swam well and both pleased with our times.

We headed off on a ride course that many had touted as a tough bike course with big hills. We assume they had not expected US to be there with the 70.3 experience we have had this year…hahaha! We both felt that this course was very similar to a lap of Placid so used the down hills as momentum for the ups. We BOTH wanted a turnaround from our experience in the UK. Mission accomplished as we were both happy with the rides. They were incident free and within our anticipated times.

The run course was a two lap course with an out and back section built into it. We hopped to see each on the run as usual and it was just over the mile mark when we hooked up. This is by far, our FAVE part of the race. Heather and I chat for our usual mid-race debrief and share some smiles and stories. She headed off to complete yet another stellar run. I followed a tad bit later being pleased with my run for sure as I felt like it was well managed. By managed, I mean well executed and we were able to chat with others about our quest.

We were both happy with race number 7. It went as planned and I believe gave both of us the mental strength to conquer the upcoming stretch.

We leave this weekend back to the west coast to Sonoma County California. We then return first thing Monday and back on the plane Friday to Newfoundland, our only Canadian stop. The following week we head back to Europe for two races….so yes, that means FOUR 70.3`s in FOUR weekends….!

Wish us luck!

Pics from Lake Stevens 70.3/Seattle

2008-07-16T08:52:00.003-04:00

Heather and a local down at the Pikes Market

....the waterfront of Seattle.

...THE orriginal 'buckies!!!!

Hmmmm....add these to your next Chilli!!!

Pics from Lake Stevens 70.3

2008-07-16T08:44:00.005-04:00

Transition emptying out...another day done!

....well, they certainly had the right flag out!

..one of the tightest transitions we have seen!

...the lake was calm....but those clouds!!!

...parked on the street, ready to build the bikes!

7 down, 9 to go!!!

2008-07-06T19:04:00.003-04:00

We are back in our hotel room, showered and are enjoying a celebratory Stella. With another successful race in the books, we are both very happy with our results.

We had originally thought that Lake Stevens would be another mass start, but found out yesterday that we had been assigned waves. Brian's wave went out at 6h41 and Heather's followed 15 minutes behind at 6h56. The water was a pleasant 72 degrees which meant wet suits were legal, but we didn't have to freeze - 2 very big pluses. The course, much like Lake Placid had a rope that ran under the buoys, and we both managed to hug the line the whole way. With no sighting issues, we managed to pull off a couple of stellar swims (by our measures), and exited the water feeling calm and refreshed.

The bike course was two loops with an added 6k "to and from" from transition. Similar to Lake Placid, it was filled with rolling hills, and boasted a couple of good climbs, but nothing that had compared to our previous races. The riding surface wasn't the greatest, but it helped to make you more appreciative of the newly paved sections where you could get a better roll. We were both happy with our rides, Brian a little extra happy as he managed to hold Heather off for the whole ride...

As we've managed to do in most of our races, we met up with each other on the run and got to spend just under a mile with each other, as we chatted about our individual days. With Brian having to take a pit stop, we parted ways at around the 2 mile mark, knowing we'd have a couple of more opportunities to see each other before the finish. The run was a 2 loop figure 8 with a scrunched up bottom - meaning the bottom of the loop was really an out and back. There were a couple of good hills which helped to break up the run, giving your legs a chance to use different muscles. We both saw Sister Madonna Buder on the course, and it's quite something to come upon her and look down on her leg and see 78 - her age. Very inspirational!

The only disappointment (and not really a disappointment, more of a point of notice) with this race was the aid stations. They offered water and Gatorade at all, oranges and powerbars at some. That was it. Note that there wasn't any coke, and when we asked for it, they look at us like we were crazy. We don't think it ended up being a factor, but when you spend the last half of your ride thinking about that nice, warm, flat cup of coke, it's a bit of a downer to realize there isn't any being offered!

To sum it up, it was a great day. Pizza and chips at the finish made up for the absence of the coke, Starbucks on the drive made it just a little better, and well, Stella in the room....what coke?

Now, it's time to relax a little before we start to think about where we'll grab a bite to eat.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

Ready.....set....

2008-07-05T23:32:00.003-04:00

With two bellies full of pasta, we are just set to call it a night.
We left Seattle at noon and got to the Holiday in Everett in less than an hour. The place was crawlin with tri-geeks as this was the host hotel for the race.
The mandatory meeting was LONG and could not have been done soon enough. We got our race kits after the meeting and headed over to the only restaurant in sight.....Denny's!
We had not eaten yet today other than a latte so we were both hungry.

We then hopped in the rental and drove to the race site which was only about 20 min away. We unpacked the bikes from our road side parking space and did a short but good ride. We hen got to transition and claimed our spots on the racks and went on to drive the bike course. It seems to be a challenging enough course, but luckily nothing like some of the really tough ones we have seen this year. Its technical and hilly, but if ridden smart, it should be ok.

There has been some wind over the past day or so, so the swim maybe a long part of the day!

Once we got back to the hotel, we bumped into Jeff, Heather and Nathan, cyber friends of ours through runningmania.com and grabbed a enjoyable pre-race meal.

Off to neverland for a few hours before the 4am wake up call.

See y'all after the race!

Brian & Heather
PS: We got to see Sister Madona Buder at the race sign up....one unbelievable athlete...Google her!!!!

Welcome to Seattle!

2008-07-04T12:29:00.004-04:00

After another long day of travel, we arrived safe and sound with our bikes in Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks!

Yesterday was hectic as we had an early morning interview with A-Channel's Kurt Stoodley. Kurt has been actively interested in our venture, and it was nice to meet with him and talk about how things have been going since our first interview back in February.

We went straight from the studio to work, worked a full day then headed to the airport for our 17h00 flight. Our scheduled 3 hour lay-over in Chicago turned into a 4.5 hour lay-over due to crew delays, and we did not reach the comforts of our hotel room until 1h30 Friday, or 4h30 our time. We must have been spoiled by our intercontinental flights because we were not prepared for the limited service offered by UA on a 4 hour flight. We received 1 drink, and both of us had yet to eat since lunch! Needless to say, we went to bed a tad hungry. In the future we'll have to be sure that we pack nutrition bars into our carry-on luggage.

It's July 4th, and we do not head up to Everett (the host town of the Lake Stevens 70.3) until tomorrow so we have a bit of time to "vacation". We've already enjoyed a Starbuck's latte and are now looking forward to taking in some of the sights and festivities.

We'll drop a note tomorrow once we've checked in and have more details about Sunday.

Happy Independence Day!

Heather & Brian

U.K 70.3 Pics

2008-06-24T10:45:00.002-04:00

Landing at Heathrow..

Home sweet home in Porlock.

...narrow enough for ya???

The Ship Inn, Porlock.

UK 70.3 Pics!!!

2008-06-24T10:39:00.003-04:00

...headin home over Newfoundland

Transition...the two Blue's side by side

Race Day

Heather signing in

Brian getting his number

Training in Ottawa

2008-06-22T16:21:00.002-04:00

We've been home for almost a week now and have the luxury of getting in some actual training before our next race. We seem to be recovering well - no serious side effects from the travel or the first 6 races that a couple of ART sessions with Dr. Duane Smith haven't been able to fix. Next week we head up to beautiful Manitoulin Island where we'll be able to enjoy an extra long week-end, resting, training and visiting family.

We apologize for the delay in getting our race report up from the UK. It is in the works and we will be posting it over the next couple of days.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

6 down, 10 to go

2008-06-15T12:20:00.003-04:00

Despite the fact that we're not showing official times, we both successfully finished the UK 70.3 today. We will get into details re the timing issue in our next blog, but wanted to put a quick post as we know some of our loved ones would be anxious to hear from us given that there aren't any finishing times to be found.

We both had a good day - it was cold, the bike course was extremely tough, and the run was a scenic trail run with challenging ups and downs.

We're back at our Inn, will wash up, enjoy a cold bevy or two then pack up as we have an early departure tomorrow a.m.

Thanks to all for checking in - we'll provide updates in detail on our next blog.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

'Allo from the UK!

2008-06-14T15:14:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note as we're borrowing the office computer...

We arrived safe and sound yesterday, bikes in tow. We're staying in the small town of Porlock approximately 45 minutes from race site. After an adventurous drive to the race start, we've registered, taken our bikes for a quick spin and checked in our transition gear.

Now, with a warm meal in our tummies, we're off to bed as the alarm is set to go off at 3:30 AM!

All the best to those racing this week-end! We look forward to reading about your results when we get home.

cheers!
Heather & Brian

Pictures from Switzerland 70.3

2008-06-06T10:39:00.004-04:00

...one of the views form our hotel in Serfaus.

...a couple of our transition zone buddies

Transition Zone

5 down, 11 to go!

..the bling!

Home for a rest.

2008-06-03T20:30:00.007-04:00

We are back from over seas yet our bags and bikes are still on their way!!!
When we checked in at the Swiss Air counter, they quoted us a price of $50 CHF ($50 CDN) for each bike. We reluctantly allowed the bikes to be checked in but were not happy with the fee, as we saw stroller after stroller go by with parents that were not getting charged for something that took up as much space as our bikes!
When we got to the "cashiers" desk to give them the Visa, she advised us that there was "mistake" when we were told about the $50! See, it was actually $200 CDN for EACH bike!!!
HUH?
With little to no other choice, we paid the $400 and were on our way! Well, it seems that shipping it would have been cheaper and faster! We are still waiting for the $400 bags!

Other than that, we are catching up on emails and race reports, so please be patient with us.
Our photos and videos are will be downloaded here once we get all of our stuff back!

Cheers.....!

Brian and Heather

Switzerland 70.3

2008-06-01T16:26:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone!!!
Sorry, we have had very limited internet access here in Switzerland, so this has been the first chance to spend some time on the blog.
We got here safe and sound from Landeck Austria. We took the train and it was soooooo scenic!
We were picked up at the train station by our friend Simone who took us for a very nice dinner.
Set up in our hotel, we were done for the night!

Saturday: This was the day before the race, and we built the bikes early. We took the train to Rapperswil and found that from the train station, the race site was only about 1km away!
The entire race site was surrounded by a ZOO!!!! It was so awesome!
So, we got all checked in and back to our hotel.

Race day.... well full race reports will come, but I will say, that we both LOVE this race...it was like nothing we have ever experienced, and yes........2 finishes this day!!!!

We will drop a line once we are back in Canada......5 down, 11 to go!!!

Brian and Heather

Recovering in Salzburg

2008-05-26T10:31:00.003-04:00

It has been 2 full days since the Austria 70.3 and we're both starting to feel a little more like ourselves. Heather's wounds are healing nicely, and with the exception of her black eye, things are looking pretty good.

Heather's cousins have been extremely hospitable- driving us through a lake district on our way from St. Polten to Salzburg, and playing tour guides, pointing out all the different sights. We drove up the mountain that over looks Salzburg, enjoyed a beer and some excellent Austrian nuddel suppe.

We then spent the evening at their house, chatting over dinner and several bottles of fine Austrian wine.

We spent today walking through Salzburg, doing the touristy things. Tomorrow we should feel good enough to get out for a short run - get the legs working again, making sure they don't forget the job they will have to do in Switzerland.

cheers,

Heather & Brian

A quick note and update from Austria 70.3

2008-05-24T14:17:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note, for those that were tracking the race, Heathers day ended at the 20km mark of the ride with a crash on the bike. SHE IS OK....some nice road rash and a good cut above her eye. With the helmet making contact withe the road, her day was done. It ended up that when she hit, it took a good slice out of her tire so she would not have continued.
She was taken to the hospital and returned to the race site.
Heather decided at the time I came upon her crash, that after a chat and some checks of the important places (collar bone, wrists) that she would continue on to the hospital on her own, and I was to ride on and finish it for US.
I got to see her on my run, so my heart was suddenly much better.
Leaving the one you love in an ambulance and trying to ride the remaining 70km with my mind only on her......well, lets say, I will not soon forget it.
We are back at the hotel....and as you all know, a conld "pop" heals many wounds.

We will drop a note tomorow morning....but for now....food is needed badly.

Sorry if we worried anyone.....but 4 is done....12 to go.

Brian and Heather

The night before race # 4!

2008-05-23T15:15:00.007-04:00

We are all checked in with no hiccups so far!
Check in was very interesting.... when you bring your bike to transition, they actually take a pic of you and your bike as ID for pick up!
We got to see lake #2 of the swim portion....quite shallow and some very nice swans nesting right near the swim exit. The run from one lake to the next is about 200m - we are still not sure whether or not that is included in the swim distance....fingers crossed!

We attended the pre-race meeting, where we learned that there was no mechanical support offered during the bike portion....wheels don´t fail me now! Then used the travel back to the hotel as a nice shake down of the legs with a run and walk.

We have just finished the pre-race meal of Wiener Schnitzel and spaetzle (an Austrian favourite), and enjoyed chatting with a new friend, Eduardo of Mexico and his family who now live in Rome.

Now, 9:15 and off to do one last check on our stuff and then off to rest.
We have scored a ride to the race from Jaime, a transplanted UK'er who was kind enough to offer.

Here is to a good day tomorrow.....we will drop a line after the race.

Enjoy your Saturday! Best of luck to all our friends racing at NCM - we look forward to reading\hearing about your race!

Brian and Heather

Welcome to St. Pölten!

2008-05-23T02:05:00.003-04:00

Wow... what a different atmosphere than our last race!
From the busy touristy Orlando to the small Euro town of St. Pölten, Austria.
We have to say....what a nice change.
We are located just south of town and about 6k from the race site.
When we arrived yesterday, our taxi (Heathers cousin Alex) rang the bell of the hotel that seemed to "open" at 5pm to ask if we could be let in early.
Our room is great, very European and suits our needs at the time....a warm shower and a BED!
We grabbed a fabulous meal at the hotel and then crashed at about 7pm...it had been a long day.
We awoke at 5:30am to traffic and we were both pleased to have settled any time zone issues. We have just finished our breakfast and will head up to the room to build the bikes and test them out.

We have been able to meet and chat with a few other racers. One from Munich and a family who has come up from Italy.

There is no wireless or room-wired internet, so we are standing in the lobby updating the blog. We will pop in a pre-race note later. Now, off to see how the bikes made out!

Cheers!

Brian and Heather

Vienna Bound!

2008-05-22T02:59:00.004-04:00

It's 8h00 London time, 3h00 Ottawa time and we're sitting in Heathrow waiting for our flight to Vienna. The flight from Ottawa to here was awesome, and did well to keep us entertained with on demand movies and free wine. We had choice seats at the back of the plane, and we seemed to be on the right side of the plane as we got to see the full moon rising. Spectacular. We got a couple of shots - if they turn out, we'll load them onto the Blog when we get settled in St. Poelten.

We have an hour and a half wait for our flight to Vienna, but with everything to see here, the time should pass quickly.

We'll write again when we've reached our final destination.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

Brian's Race Report from Florida 70.3

2008-05-21T13:44:00.003-04:00

Well, this is number 3 of 16……and was what I considered my “A” race of the all of them. Leading up to this one, having done next to nothing since St. Croix, I figured my body had sufficient time to recover……what a silly boy!

Our flight leg this time brought us from O-Town to Washington and on to Orlando. What we didn’t expect, was the 5.5 hour delay in Washington. Once that got sorted out, off to see Mikeysville!

We grabbed our rental car with ALL OUR BAGS in tow (woohoo!) and found that since we were delayed so long, our reservation was done, so we were bumped up to a Chevy Trail Blazer!! The nice thing was….very little pushing and shoving to get the bikes in there!!

Once checked in to our posh digs (I am sure I saw Paris Hilton checking out when we arrived) at the Main Gate EconoLodge, we crashed…..it was yet again, anther 10hr+ day of flying….ugh!
(*Note….usually when we travel, I have a “no shoes” rule that I like to follow….being the germaphobe I am. HERE….it was a keep shoes ON rule in full force!!! I guess that’s what $36 a night gets ya!)

Registration Day:

We awoke to sunny skies and lots of warm winds and headed to transition, driving the familiar route into Disney as we did last year….. what a difference a year makes!

It is a “day before” bike check in, so all was in order, number checked, bikes dropped and off to get some Co2 cartridges for the race at the expo (we can not fly with them, so they need to be purchased at each race!). While in line, I was lucky enough to overhear a convo behind me that included the word “testicles”, so of course my ears perked up.
It was Tom Murphy….a 30ish year old “veteran” of some combat time in Iraq. He found out shortly after coming back from his tour that he had Testicular Cancer, and was now going to be competing in this 70.3 in front of his wife and 4 kids. He too felt lucky, honoured and privileged to be able to do this craziness. I was lucky, honoured and privileged to meet this man and hear his story. We shared a few laughs and heart felt handshakes…..we would see each other again!

We also had a meeting scheduled with one of our sponsors. We found Matt Perkins of Headsweats at his booth and were able to hang out for a bit with him and meet some reps from some other tri companies. Matt was always very quick to tell them how insane we were. Thanks for a great time Matt!

The rest of the day was spent with some awesome friends of ours and their young daughter that we had not yet met. They drove down from Jacksonville and were grateful to see them.

Race Day:
Up and at’em at 4am. Its nice doing the pre-race bike check in as logistically, it’s a WAY better. We arrived at the parking lot, to find a massive line for the busses to take us to transition. Once we boarded, and arrived to the race area, we were greeted with “Guys, you have 4 minutes to get INTO transition before it closes!!!! Holy Carbon! So off we went to our respective bikes….I pumped tires as H readied her nutrition and set up. As we were putting on the final touches….still in the dark….we heard “Ok…everyone OUT of transition…..now!!!” Well, that’s as good as it will get!
H’s swim was off first, so it was my turn to stand on the beach…..surrounded by many, but so alone when another part of you is swimin away.
I really had a feeling as I swam that stuff was coming together….good form, efficient and a TON of drafting (yes…legal on the swim…). All in all….my best performance of the day.
Swim Time: 46:39 (52:20 last year)

The Ride:

Well, here in lies my disappointment of the day. Not because it was not a good ride, but simply because I wanted a better ride than last year (3:04:19) and felt like I had pulled that off. Yes, there were course changes that incorporated more rolling hills, but no really good reason for it. The positive….I spent about 75% of the time in aero position which was good practice for me.
Mikey at Kunstadt Sports did an awesome pre-race check on my Blue…even installed my new Cateye computer. It does no good though when you forget it in your pants pocket in O-Town!!!!
Bike Time: 3:15:57 (3:04:19 last year)

The Run:
Ahhh yes, the run…..the bane of my existence it seems! All in all, when I got off the bike, I felt done. DONE. I (and my coach) can pretty much attribute it to my recovery from St. Croix, or lack there of, but it does still not make me feel any better. Essentially, it was not going to be a record breaking day in this 94 degree heat with 100% humidity, so I would make the best of it….remembering that I will be doing this all over again in 6 days. Heather ran with me for a bit…as we re-hashed the day…its always my fave part….you spend the day wondering how the other is doing….so it nice not to have to wait another few hours to catch up!
Remember Tom Murphy? Well, who did I see on my first of three laps of the run….but good old Tom. I snuck up on him and said nice and loud “look at this kid…makin his way through one mile at a time!!” Tom turned, and gave the old Bman a huge “Hoorah” and one big bear hug! We chatted and Tom told me that his day was done….he was spent….and he wanted to kill whoever told him to do this. I reminded him that it was HE who shelled out his $$ and signed the form. We laughed. As we parted ways, I reminded Tom of our dark days….the days when we were sayin “why me”….the day when we, as survivours said we would make a difference. I am sure I saw the corner of his lip turn upwards.
I saw Tom a few more times…each time uttering the words “the dark days Tom…the dark days”. Yesterday, I looked for Toms results…..Tom did not finish the race. Seeing the moxy in this kid the day before….I am confident I will get an email shortly saying he will be back at it…..
Run Time: 2:56:34 (2:26:48 last year)

The Day: 7:07:09 (6:31:30 last year)

All in all, yes it was a hot, humid day, yes, my goal was not really met (how ever unrealistic it was for me) but it was a great day all around. We have gotten some great hits on TTW from Florida and around the US since we returned.

TTW moves on to Austria this weekend……so best get packin…6 hrs till we board the plane!!!

Thanks all!!!!

Heather's Race Report from Florida 70.3

2008-05-21T13:39:00.004-04:00

I have very few memories of my youth, but the ones I do have are very vivid. There is one in particular that comes to mind more often than I'd like. I don't know how old I was - likely 6 or 7. I was with my family, visiting a neighbour. They had a pool. I jumped in and realized right at that moment that some time over the Winter I had forgotten how to swim. I was in a complete panic, flailing and screaming. Then my brother jumped in and saved me.
I wrote in my journal the next Fall in school, that he was my hero.

This feeling of panic was with me for the first 10 minutes of my swim in Florida. The water is so warm that wet suits are banned due to health and safety reasons. From the moment the water became deep enough to swim, I had an awful feeling like I was sinking. My chest became tight, I couldn't breathe, and my heart rate monitor chest strap felt like it was 3 sizes too small. I did the breast stroke, and blew bubbles, trying to calm myself down, but every time I tried to get into a front crawl, I would start to panic and finally I decided I needed to pull myself out and find the nearest life guard. I b-lined it for a girl on a surf board. She threw out a buoy to me, which I grabbed a hold of, feeling relieved for the first time.
I did not know the rules and at that time, I thought I had just called it quits on my race. I told her how I was feeling and she said, "Just rest here as long as you need to". Those were magic words to me. Rest. I could rest. I didn't have to quit - I could just wait, and rest, and collect myself. And that's what I did. When I was ready, I told her thanks and she said "No worries. There are plenty of us out here so you can rest again if you need to". That reassurance was all I needed. I finished the swim, not strong, but controlled. And to keep myself entertained, I started counting the reasons why running is better than swimming. I would love to switch disciplines with Kiza for just one race - she give me her swim, I give her my run - I'd love to know the feeling of what it's like to feel comfortable and strong in the water and not exit the swim DFL, or very close to it.
Swim Time: 54:18 (106 AG, 1803 overall)

I ran into transition happy to still be racing. I quickly glance to Brian's rack - I had fully expected that he would have passed me in the water - but I saw that his Blue was still racked. There was another girl getting ready for the run on my rack and we looked at each other and just shook our heads. I told her the race starts now, wished her luck and set off with my Blue. T1 Time: 4:00 The run with your bike from transition to the mount line is long and narrow, and gets quite congested. Even with the best intentions, you're slowed to a walk due to the people ahead of you taking their time. This is just a tad frustrating, but slightly welcomed as it's a great excuse to relax and slow down your heart rate.
I loved the bike!
The course is a little different from last year. A little more hilly, a little more technical. They added some out and backs and coming back from the first one, I saw Brian. He was only 6 or 7 minutes behind me which meant he had a fantastic swim since his wave started 12 minutes after mine. We shouted out to each other, and that would be the last time I saw him until the run. I felt strong on the bike. I was constantly passing people, including a few guys from Brian's AG who were riding some pretty expensive bikes. It felt good to pass the boys on the bike who had started after me in the swim, and I hoped a few of them were the ones that had clubbed me in the back of the head in the water (one of the reasons why running is better than swimming - no punching\clawing allowed). Dark clouds formed about halfway through the bike, and we got poured on for 20 minutes or so. A guy riding near me commented that we should hope the rain lasts into the run or the humidity will be killer. Hmm. Hadn't thought about that.

At one point, I passed a guy and he shouted out "Hey Tri The World!". Then he raced to catch up with me and asked me how my husband was doing. I chuckled at that one. He was a guy we had met in line at the Expo on Saturday, and he and Brian were T-C brothers. Seeing someone we just met show excitement for us and what we're doing is an absolute thrill.
According to results on Ironman's site, I finished the bike 48th in my AG which means I picked up close to 60 places since the swim. No wonder the bike went by so fast.

Bike time: 2:51:45 (25 AG, 1007 overall)

The run back into transition is similar to the run out with the bike. Narrow and congested. Again, it was bitter sweet for me as I was anxious to get to the run, but I also welcomed the opportunity to take my time.
T2 time: 1:56
The rain had stopped. The temps were high. The humidity was almost unbearable PLUS the first aid station did not have coke! I knew I was in for a rough run. This is a 3 loop run course which alters between pavement and grass, and after the first loop, I decided I like 2 loops or 4 loops much better than 3. With 4 loops (5k), it doesn't take as long to get around, and you feel like you're accomplishing things more quickly. With 2 loops or 10k at least when you're done the first, you only have 1 left to do. 7k is a funny distance, and mentally, I found it to be a challenge. I had revisited my race plan during my swim and while I had intended for this to be an A race, I decided based on how things unfolded in the water, I would be happy to just get it done. All I could do was to do the best I could with what the day delivered, and that's what I did.

On the 2nd loop Brian and I happened upon each other (he on the back and me on the out) and I ran to catch up with him. Then we ran together for a little, shuffled for a little, walked for a little. He shared his water with me and I was happy for that time together. It was a boost for both of us. I stayed with him until the next aid station, then we parted ways and I ran ahead to finish my run. I saw him one more time - this time he was with his new buddy Tom.
Awesome.
I did have one personal goal in this venture which I have kept to date (I don't want to say it out loud for fear that I might jinx it), but what it equates to is that I never give up. There is some kind of saying - you can take the girl out of the competition, but you can't take the competition out of the girl....well, as long as I'm able, you can't do either with me - and don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying this is necessarily a good thing - I know there is some controversy over us "competitive" types. Anyway, despite feeling completely spent with over 1 mile to go, I kept my focus and continued to pick off girls in my AG. I must have passed 3 or 4 in those final minutes of the race, and I finished the race, happy to have it done, and pretty sure I never wanted to see that run course again.
Brian's says I should give it time before I make that decision...

Run time: 2:03:38 (24 AG, 511 overall)

Overall, I'm satisfied with my race. There were highlights and there were lowlights, but I think that will be true with most races. I did what my coach always preaches - I did the best I could on that particular day. I don't think there was anything I could have to done to change my results. Plus, I got to run a bit with my BFF.

Final numbers: 5:55:30 28/119 AG 800/1995 overall
Heather

We're back.......but not for long!!!!!

2008-05-20T20:22:00.006-04:00

Ahhhh.....home again.....but only for about 48 hrs!!!Flights back from Orlando went nice and smoothly other than witnessing the baggage handlers in Detroit loading our bags! Sure, we knew they would arrive in O-town....but in how many pieces??? Wow...who knew BAG TOSS was a international sport!

Back at home by 11:30 Monday night, no bags touched.....other than the tooth brushes and it was off to a much needed sleep.

Today, well, it was not only catch up on work stuff for both of us, but it was also catch up on TTW stuff too! Scrambling to get various appointments (chiro, banking, orthotics, supplies) lined up for late Tuesday and early Wednesday. After work, Heather attended some appointments and I broke down the bikes for a much needed clean and check-over. Did I say "broke down" the bikes? No need to.....!!!Remember the baggage handler in Detroit? I opened my bike bag to find a nice sized chip out of my Blue....along with a broken Carbon fibre bottle cage in two pieces. AGGGRGGRGRRRR! A nice gift from our sponsor down the tubes. Needles to say, it was replaced with a wire cage!!

After the rain and filth of the ride in Orlando, you could eat off of the Blues!
We are now set off to the washer/dryer/closets to prepare for the 13 day junket to Austria and Switzerland!We may not say it enough, but we want to say a huge THANK YOU to you all for following us along. PLEASE feel free to drop us a note while we are on the road...we would
LOVE to hear from you.
In the mean time, check out our interactive map to see exactly where we are headed next.

Will drop a note once we get to Europe!

Brian and Heather

Pics from Florida 70.3

2008-05-20T19:58:00.008-04:00

Killing time at the airport!

Preparing to ride to transition to drop our bikes.

Disney with a rural flare...Florida 70.3

Heather done racking her Blue.

...while I get prime retail near the Porta-Potties!

The good, bad and the ugly!

2008-05-18T16:18:00.004-04:00

Well, 3 down and a whole WACK of these to go!
Florida 70.3 is in the books!
We are back at Casa Econolodge and heading straight to the pool.
A good day all around, not without its own personal defeats.

We both are ok with how today worked out..despite individual times on particular legs of the race, but in short, given the 94 degrees it was for the race, it's all good.

We will drop a line later....but the pool comes first!!!

Brian and Heather......

All checked in, and no where to go!

2008-05-17T13:35:00.004-04:00

Well, it is just after noon, and all is done at race site.
We are very glad we made the call to get up early and head there, as lines were just starting.
We drove to to the race site to drop of our T-14s, register and to meet with one of our sponsors on site (Wassup HEADSWEATS! They had a primo spot INSIDE the registration area. It was one of the nicest lookin booths goin!)

After a short "shake down" ride, all was well.
Registration was smooth as silk. Funny thing about these IM events....you need to register before you drop your bike in transition. So on your way to register, there are bikes, unattended all over the place. We did the same and came back to find them untouched and all in one piece!! The way everyone looks at it.....there is always a nicer ride next to yours, so its SAFE!

While in line for C02s, I met a young guy who, after a tour of duty in Iraq found out that he had testicular cancer. This was his second 70.3 after remission and was sooo happy to be able to race this. He saw life as I do.....go hard or go home.

We are back at the Econolodge...which has turned out to be a pretty good steal for $36/night! We will be having a pre-race, non cream sauce'd pasta dinner with friends of ours who are driving down from Jacksonville for this dinner.

Off to rest.....we are both pretty beat after the travels yesterday.

Later all......

Brian and Heather

Welcome to Orlando!

2008-05-17T09:34:00.003-04:00

We left for Orlando at 14h45 on Friday. We arrived at our hotel at 1h00 Saturday. We had a lay-over in Washington that ended up being 5.5 hours due to plane delays. That's twice in 3 trips...our prediction that the travel was going to be the most taxing on us during our 2008 venture was turning out to be pretty accurate. Washington was filled with travellers facing the same situation as us or worse so we were happy enough that our flight was at least, still a go.

The good news is that everything made it to Orlando in good shape. We've been pretty lucky about that. Brian is doing the last little adjustments on the bikes, then we'll load them into the SUV and drive over to the park. We're planning to do our test ride out there since bike check-in is today and we'll have to leave our Blues in transition over night.

We'll write more when we get back.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

Brian's St. Croix Race Report

2008-05-15T11:12:00.004-04:00

Highlight: TWO down….14 to go!!!!
Lowlight: …read the race report below!

Well, that may not be entirely true, but when one does not have a good day, it can take a few days to envision the pluses that one forgets about. In typical ME fashion, 2 hrs after the race, all was well in Bman’s world.

I was looking forward to this race for quite some time…..nice location, one of the toughest ½ Irons going, and had watched TSN’s coverage from 2006 about a million times. You would think that would prepare you enough for the challenges ahead…. man was I wrong! Getting to St. Croix was long, but uneventful. Once we got on the “island hopper” flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico it was ALL ABOUT IRONMAN. Bikes, Mdot tatts, gear, attitude…this plane was FULL of TriMental-On.

Checking in: Well, talk about an “island attitude”….certainly not one of Ironman 70.3 most technical set ups. Generally, there are people guarding the main door so that NO ONE but athletes get in, official ID needed, weigh in, 47 signatures and “follow the lines on the floor” mentality. Here, we were asked our names, our bib numbers written on a “post it” and told to sign this 1 paragraph waiver and go inside this little room. There, we got a generic bib number, similar to “fun run” numbers, a cotton T and a chip.

We assembled the bikes and did a short 20 min ride in the direction of the race course. We went back to Rum Runners for our pre-race meal.
I had a creamy Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken…..sounds harmless eh?
Back to the room to prep pretty well everything as the plan was to walk the bikes to the T Zone at 5am and then head back to the room to relax, change and head out for the swim.

D Day: At 2am on the nose, the rumbling began. Sharp pains in the old belly gave me that eerie feeling that no good was gonna come of this day. Before I knew it, it was 4am and I was still in the washroom and my alarm was going off out in the bedroom. This was not a good start. We took our bikes to transition and man, I was not into it….at all. A volunteer was trying to tell us about a new rule they had about needing to be body marked before we got into transition, which is never the case, so feeling as I did, nothing but attitude came out of my mouth to this poor guy. When we returned closer to the start time, I made a point of finding this guy again…..I walked up to him and extended my hand and said “Guy, I gotta apologize to you…I gave you nuthin but ‘tude earlier and I was way out of line…my bad.” He thanked me, I felt stupid….but good it needed to be done.

The Swim: We needed to jump off of the pier to begin the swim out to the Cay where the race begins. My goggles filled with salt water as did my yapper….man, this was NOT gonna be my day. I was so out of it, I only realized as I lined up for my swim that the reason my goggles filled with water was cuz they were on UPSIDE DOWN. The savings grace was that I met someone in my holding area from Kingston who knew all about TTW and had been following along since the beginning……that kinda gave me a boost. Took one last look at Stella before I left for my wave and knew at that point that it was gonna be a long time before this day would end. I knew she was worried, but did not have the heart to tell her I was scared ****- less…..allll puns intended. Not having your mental on, is far different from your body fighting you back like it is determined to take you down. All in all, I knew my swim was not horrible….it felt pretty good, but knew there was no PB swim given the waves we had to endure.

Swim: 48:18 63/74 AG

The Ride: Transition went well…given that I knew I was in for a long ride on my BlueT14. It started out relatively flat, so nutrition was foremost on my mind….long day, lots of heat, hills, wind…better load up. So, in went the first GU Gel. It lasted all of 20-30 second, and out she came, all over the fine roads of St. Croix. As I grumbled that THAT was not good….the rain came. I am usually a HUGE speed freak on the ride, but today, in this rain….there was no where near enough brake on this bike. Moments later….CRASH, not me, but two riders about ½ a km in front of me, their days done.
The BEAST came at mile 20ish. I knew I was in serious trouble, as there were two climbs before the beast that were noted on the road in paint to be mere 10% grade and they were tough. I had told Stella days before that my goal was to keep her back until the BEAST at least. As she rode beside me up the first part of the BEAST, I said to myself, good…..ONE goal met today. Off she went...she beat the BEAST...I knew she would! Well, that would be the last goal met, as I crossed the halfway point I clipped out…and walked….the shame is inked on me for good. I walked to the next curve in the road, my HR was in Z4 as I dismounted, and had lowed to upper Z2, so as I was mounting again, a woman beside me let out a shreek as she crashed, having accidentally clipped out and her momentum tossed her toward the ground. I managed another section of this damm hill but was forced to clip out again with 20 meters or so to go. They cheered as you summated, but there was no return smile from me.
The only good feeling I had was that at least one of us conquered the BEAST….she made me some proud!
In all my years of riding, both in Canada, Cuba, US ect…I have honestly NEVER seen a bike course like this….rough roads, technical decreasing radius turns, hydroplaning pavement, climbs….dozens of them…most with at least 9-11% grade. The views were un imaginable, yet no time to enjoy them. I dropped my chain at the 48 mile marker and was looking down to try and correct it on the fly…. Do not try to do this when you are foggy already and the roads are rough. Before I knew it……BLAM, into the ditch!!! I have no clue how I went off the road, into a ditch, up the other side and did NOT crash it!!! All in all, I saw at LEAST 15 punctures and 7-10 crashes…..it was all out was against this course, and I think the course won on this day.

Nutrition on the bike: 2 salt pills, 1 gel, ½ bottle Gatorade and water.
Bike: 4:35 (69/74 AG)

The Run: As I dismounted my bike, I was urged on to “run my bike” into transition…..there was no running in me. I got to my t-zone spot and racked my bike. I looked up and saw Chris, an Ottawa TriGuy standing in front of me. He looked at me and gave me that “Oh my dear lord” look and asked if he could get me anything….I said water I think…but saw in his eyes how I truly must have looked…I felt like I had been hit by a truck…a big one. Off I went…. My goal was to hit every aid station there was (every 1km thank gawd!) and take in what I could. As I approached the first station, I grabbed a Gatorade to go and took a gulp of it as I ran (lets be honest…it was a shuffle). Just like on the bike, it was down for a short period of time before I bent over and puked it all out. As I wiped my face off, I looked up, and my sweet Stella was standing in front of me….how friggin embarrassing is that! Each water station was the same….my thinking was if it stayed in me for a minute, my body could absorb some kind of nutrition.
As I entered Buccaneer Resort for the Golf course loop, Stella sacrificed a great run to keep my delusional and angry self company. Her time with me was the only part of the race I truly remember. She did have to tell me later about a few delirious comments I made, of which I totally deny! As I insisted she move on, I was back in my tearful world.

Happy thoughts returned as I got many shout outs from people we met, and others who had heard we were there…”TriTheWorld ROCKS” from strangers does something to the brain for sure. Ottawa Triguy Dev Paul rode beside me for a few click, insisting that a “shuffle” was 2.5 times quicker than a walk”…at the time I didn’t like the sound of that, but not wanting to argue with a mutli-Ironman, accomplished athlete that he is, I shuffled….dammit, he was right…forward momentum for us clydes is easy…we just sorta tip forward and off we go!! LOL

With the last 4k in site, I came across the only other “38” yr old man I saw on the course…sure there were others, but he was my only “competition” I saw. He was havin a rough day. I told him to latch on…he said he had nothing. See, Jason had signed up for this race, suffered a bike crash a few weeks back and broke a bone in his back. He came all the way from Dallas Texas and he was FOR SURE gonna get ‘er done. We talked, shared and pushed each other through walks and runs….I gave up my salt tabs to him (like they were doing ME any good). With about 2k to go, he said he wanted to finish this up, pushed me to go ahead with what ever I had left…I told him I WOULD see him at the end…and I departed. I am proud to say that I ran that last 2 k! I felt guilty as I saw that Stella had waited around and told me as I “ran” by her “you had me worried mister”…I realized how bad it really was. Finish line just ahead….

Nutrition on the run: 2 salt pills, one bottle of water…lots of ice.
Run: 3:08:44 (66/74AG)

**Race Fact….. I only found out later, that 10% of the field on this day DNF’d.

Post Race: Jason finished with a huge hug for his “Half Ironman Brother”….that was his day, even though I left him with last finisher in our AG….neither of us cared!! I truly collapsed at the end…I was spent, sad and very emotional. Fighting with your body sure makes you appreciate your conditioning and luck some days. I avoided the MED tent as I knew an IV would have meant a trip to the hospital. At any other IM, it’s a quick top up on site….but in St. Croix, it would me something WAY different. Turns out, I just needed the Gatorade to stay in, which it did after I stopped the up/down motion. We got back to our room and cleaned up, mostly just re-generating.
A few hours later we went to the awards dinner, as many of our Ottawa buddies were going. One of them was in line for a Kona slot, so we were anxious to be a part of that. All in all, a great time…great setting….and lets be honest, I ate my face off!!!! I did not care if it was gonna stick or not!!! Shortly after the awards ceremony, I was time to just hang out. I got to chat with one on the Tri community legend Mike Pigg, superstars Craig Alexander and Faris Al-Sultan…..life was suddenly good again. Both Faris and Craig said that this was THE toughest ½ Iron out there…my day began to look not as bad as I had thought. Faris even invited us to his “after party” but we declined…..what was I thinking!!! Mind you, he was on our flight the next day and looked some rough, so perhaps a good decision on our part!

TTW had a great weekend in St. Croix. Word travels fast in the Tri community…and people genuinely care. When we get approached by strangers saying that THEY heard about us, makes us feel great. But when we try and share the “why” behind it all, and they interrupt us saying that they already know….that proves to us that THIS is working.

Overall Time: 8:32:55….66/74 AG

2 down….14 to go.

Heather's St. Croix Race Report

2008-05-15T11:06:00.003-04:00

I climbed the Beast! I could start and end my race report with that, but I guess it's my obligation to share a little more about the race - the course - give you an idea of what it's like should you be thinking about adding it to your future race schedule... Ok....if I must, but I'll warn you, it's long.

This wasn't my first visit to the Virgin Islands. I knew what was in store - beautiful beaches overlooked by mountainous terrain. We'd seen footage of the St. Croix 70.3, we knew what the temperatures could reach, and all things considered, we thought we were pretty well prepared. This was my 3rd 70.3 and my 4th Ironman event. I had grown a little accustomed to the professionalism that comes with Ironman. The security, the attention to detail....all that was out the window here - we truly were in island mode. We made our way to the registration on Saturday morning prepared to go through the regular steps of checking in...show ID, get ourselves weighed....instead, we simply had to state our name and they wrote our Bib # on a sticky note that would then be our "Id card" for the rest of the way. We picked up our Race numbers, t-shirts and when we had our chips checked, we had the choice of a plastic chip strap or paying $5 for the regular neoprene style. Sunday was going to be a long day and we were going to get enough chaffing from just our own gear. $5 seemed like a cheap investment for pain free ankles...although it did hurt a little to spend that money when we both had perfectly good chip straps sitting at home. The reason given by Sportstats was that it cost them too much to ship them....we're still trying to figure that out. We spent the rest of Saturday putting our bikes together and taking them for a trial spin. My pre-race dinner was my usual - Pasta Bolognese and a glass of red. Early to bed as we had a 4h30 wake-up.

Our hotel was literally a 4 minute walk from transition so we got up, walked our bikes to transition at 5h00 when it opened and made our way back to the hotel where we prepped ourselves for the race. What a luxury! I wish we had at all our events. The swim starts on a cay about 300m from the main island. We were asked to be there by 6h00 as the Pro start was at 6h30. I'm not sure if it's because this is an ocean swim, or because the water is warm or a combination of the two, but wet suits are not allowed if you want to qualify within the AG categories.
This would be my 2nd open water swim of the season, and I'm not all that comfortable in the water to begin with. Add the insecurity of not having a floatation device and well, I guess that's what Kim was doing all that worrying for me for.... thanks K, you did an excellent job. Brian's wave started 13 minutes before mine. He had been up most of the night with stomach pains and when I watched him start, I was both proud of him and extremely worried. Biking and running with an upset tummy, while unpleasant, are at least manageable. Swimming, I wasn't too sure. I think that was the most difficult part of the day for me.

OK, the swim. AAARRRGGGHHHH! I am so frustrated with this event! I only do it because they say I have to. Whatever. I feel like my stroke is ok, but I couldn't sight for the life of me. There was a woman in my AG doing the backstroke and she was sighting better than I was. There was a point in the swim that I couldn't see a buoy or another swimmer. I was facing in completely the wrong direction, and I had to tread water for awhile in circles until I could make out what I believed was another swimmer. One of these times I'm going to tuck my garmin under my race cap so I can look back and see what the $%@% I was doing out there. Seriously. There is absolutely zero fun factor for me during the swim and I spend all of my time wishing for it to be over. I exited the water last in my AG and managed to pass one person in transition as she took her time getting ready for the bike. I knew I had my work cut out for me, but I'd rather be the chaser than be chased, so I guess in a way, I was in my comfort zone.

Swim Time: 55:17 (24/25 AG).

It was overcast with isolated showers and the roads were quite wet. The bike starts by heading East out of town. There are rolling hills, some bigger climbs and some steep descents. I saw my first crash within the first 6 miles of the course and I spent the better part of the bike worrying that my brakes weren't tight enough as it seemed even though I was squeezing them as hard as I could, they just weren't gripping my wheel. I would have stopped to double-check them, but of course I was too pre-occupied with the fact that to the best of my knowledge, I was still 2nd last in my age group. Pathetic, I know. I don't remember the course in great detail - Brian's report will probably describe it better. It does have many breath-taking views though with ocean on either side. I'm not sure we'll see a more beautiful course this year.
Some fellow Ottawans who had had the opportunity to ride the course a couple of times earlier in the week, had debriefed us a little on Friday night over dinner. We knew the Beast (which boasts as much as a 21% grade) was scheduled to arrive at mile 20 and Dev Paul kindly gave us a little warning of when we need to get into our smallest gear. Any later, and we'd miss it. I heeded his advice, and at the base of the Beast, I sat up on my hoods and cranked it. Left, right, left right. There were a number of people who had already opted to walk - it really is humbling. To my surprise, I saw Brian just ahead of me and we rode beside each other for a bit of the way. I was happy to see him as I knew he'd be hurting and I was truly worried about him during the swim. With his determination, I knew if he survived the swim and was on his bike, barring any catastrophe, he'd make it to the end. I wouldn't see him again until the run, but he was on my mind for the rest of my race. When I was standing on the beach, waiting for my wave to be called, a couple of guys were chatting behind me. One had done St. Croix before, and they were talking about the course. He said that everyone spends so much time worrying about the Beast, but the race really starts after that. He said that the rolling hills and coastal winds are much tougher than the Beast - that that hill is the least of your worries. I kept that in the back of my mind and sure enough, he was right. The 2nd half of the course is filled with rolling hills and head winds. Just when you think there can't possibly be more, you turn a corner and there's another climb. I spent the latter part of the course chasing a woman in my AG after she passed me, and I think that helped to keep me focused.
In the last couple of kms, the bike course merges with the run course and I can't say it was easy to still be on the bike and watch others making their way on their 1st or 2nd loop of the run. At this point, I already felt quite defeated and to know all those people were well into their run was difficult to say the least. I ran my bike into T2, racked it and transformed myself from cyclist to runner. I managed to pick up 2 places in transition, including the girl I'd been chasing for the better half of the bike course. I was in my element now, and despite the heat, I was extremely happy to be facing the 1/2 marathon. This was my reward.

Bike Time: 3:31:01 (10/25 AG).

I felt great on the run. I had been disciplined with my hydration on the bike since I knew the effects the heat could have if I didn't. I experienced little to no cramping in my quads which has plagued me in previous races. The course heads East out of town and makes it's way to a golf course where you spend 2 miles before making your way back into town. There were aid stations at approximately every mile and they had all the usual goodies - water, Gatorade, Coke, bananas, ice and sponges and I took full advantage of all of them. Who knew that I would come to crave warm, flat coke, but in my experience, there is no better picker-upper after a long bike in the gruelling heat. It's like magic and I'm not sure how I'd fair without it.

At just about the 6 mile mark when I was heading back to town on my first loop, I met Brian as he was heading out on his first. He seemed a little delirious, so I pushed it to catch up to him. In the time it took me to catch him, I decided that I would stick with him for the remainder of his first loop to hopefully give him a little boost and to put my mind at ease that he was going to be ok. We ran 2 or 3 miles together, reflected on the course, shared some laughs, had a good photo opp with ASI and then he insisted that he was going to be ok and that I should carry on and finish my run. So I did. Those 2 or 3 miles were by far, my favourite ones of the whole race, and I wouldn't have traded them for anything. Running together like that solidifies what we're doing, why we're doing it, and that we're doing it together. What an amazing experience.

I finished the run strong and I'm very pleased with my overall performance. They called my name at the finish line, I stumbled across and they hung my finishing medal around my neck...only it wasn't metal, it was wood and had no weight to it. I had to keep looking down to make sure it was still there. There was no finisher hat or T, and I guess because the race is so small (575 participants in total) it took on more of a local race feel than an Ironman 70.3 The recovery food was bananas, oranges, juice, chips and cookies...a little disappointing to say the least.

Run Time: 2:06:55 (11/25 AG).

I stood in line for a massage - where my massage gal tried to sell me on starting my own on-line travel agency....very odd. Then I milled around the finishing area and waited for Brian to come in. I tried to calculate how long it would take him and started to panic as Sportstats began packing up and the finishers were becoming few and far between. As I mentioned earlier, the conditions were hot and he was having difficultly keeping anything in his system. The heat can be a terrible demon and knowing Brian couldn't take ample hydration, risks of heat exhaustion were high. I was extremely relieved when I saw him coming in....but I won't go into too much detail as I'm sure he'll tell you all about it in his race report. In simple terms, I was very proud of him and even prouder to be partnered with him on the venture.

We attended the Awards dinner with the Ottawa crew, and shared stories from the day. Everyone had seen something or done something different and it was interesting to hear different perspectives - although they all came to the same conclusion - it was a tough day. A couple from the UK joined our table and I chatted with the woman. She had said she had trouble sighting in the water too, so I felt a little better knowing it wasn't just me. This was her first 70.3 and I congratulated her - telling her she couldn't have picked a tougher course. Then about 1/2 an hour later, I watched as she went up to accept her 5th place award for the Pro Women. Boy! Did I feel like an idiot. Her tough swim was twice as fast as mine....all of a sudden it didn't seem to me like we had exactly the same experience in the water.... After the awards, Brian introduced himself to Craig Alexander, Mike Pigg and Faris Al-Sultan, and told them about Tri The World. They all had very good things to say - another successful day of PR, plus I got to shake their hands.

In summary, St. Croix was an awesome race. If you're looking for a lot of bling and swag, then it's definitely not for you, however if you're looking for a course that will challenge you and push you to limits you've never been to before, then I can't think of a better race. The scenery is beautiful, and the people are awesome. There's a bonding that happens in St. Croix that hasn't happened in previous races. I'm not sure if it's because it's approximately 1/4 the size, or if it's because the island is small, but it's an amazing feeling.
And now, for the rest of my life I'll be able to say, I climbed the Beast!

Final Numbers: Time: 6:33:12 Place: 11/25 AG, 349/575 overall.

Pics from St. Croix...Pt2

2008-05-06T14:52:00.004-04:00

Legend Mike Pigg race winner Craig Alexander

..a great ending to a tough day.

..these little guys were everywhere.

..as you left transition, the start of the run and bike.

...headin home!

Pics from St. Croix..Pt1

2008-05-06T14:47:00.005-04:00

Just landed.......

Transition being set up....

This is the Cay where the swim start was....

Post Race awards dinner.....

My new buddy Faris Al-Sultan!!!

2 down - 14 to go

2008-05-05T09:57:00.003-04:00

What a day. The courses just seem to keep getting tougher and tougher. At least we know that Florida is going to be flat - I think we've had our fill of hills for the time being.

Having spoken to experienced 70.3ers, including Craig Alexander, St. Croix is known to be the toughest of the 70.3s. Mother Nature did her best to make it extra challenging with rain, strong winds and temperatures into the 30s. We saw a lot of crashes, punctures and other malfunctions and I think it's safe to say, we both feel extremely elated to have completed this one!

We won't go into too much detail as we'll be submitting a race report in the next day or two, but overall, given the conditions and a stomach bug Brian picked up the night before, we're both quite satisfied with our results. Afterall, this venture is about perserverence, and we succeeded.

We met quite a few people on this trip - from Edmonton to Vegas, Kingston to New York - people taking genuine interest in our quest and our causes, it really helps keeps our minds focused on continuing to raise awareness for our causes.

On this leg, Brian managed to share our story with Craig Alexander, Mike Pigg and Faris Al-Sultan to name a few.....

Full report to come. Thanks for tagging along.

Heather & Brian

The Day before the BEAST.

2008-05-03T19:26:00.004-04:00

Well, we are off to our pre-race meal down on the waterfront.
We unpacked the Blues and all was well with them. We went for a 20 min spin on them to ensure all was working. We rode the first few miles of the course and found that, although there are sections of new pavement (as new as last night!) the course is very rough in many places. It took a while to realize that riding in the LEFT hand lane was the proper lane to be in, as well and we pass on the right in this race....wonder how many times we will end up calling out "on your left" and actually pass on the right!!!!

We are all registered....and man, do they do it ISLAND style here....no ID, no weigh in...and the only technology we saw were the guys from Sportstats!!! We did see Craig Alexander..picking up his ride...waiting in line like everyone else!!!

The rest of the day comprised of the mandatory meeting, lunch, watching crabs walking on the pier and taking in all of the island air we could.

Transition is a 4 min walk away so we will be there at 5am to drop the bikes then back to our room to do the rest of the prep.

For those who wish to follow along, live updates are available on www.stcroixtriathlon.com

Our bib numbers are:
Brian: 279
Heather: 652

See y'all after the race!!!!!!

Brian and Heather

Welcome to St. Croix!

2008-05-03T08:52:00.002-04:00

With an early flight and 2 tight connections, we are very pleased to say we and our bikes made it here without any complications. We left Ottawa at 6h15 and arrived in St. Croix just after 15h00. The weather is what they promised - cloudy with isolated showers :(

We checked into Company House and quickly made our way to the wharf to get something to eat. While sitting waiting for our table, we happened upon fellow Ottawans Zoe, Chris, Dev and Mike. We joined them for dinner and great conversation, and then made our way back into the street to check out the "Jump Up" festival. The locals put this on in celebration of the 70.3 race and it's a fantastic display of culture with music and dance including a full steel band and many dancers on stilts. Fantastic!

It was an early night for us as we were up early and the travel proved to be taxing. We are up early, have eaten breakfast and are now making our way back to the room to put together our bikes and take them out for our pre-race spin.

We'll drop you a line a little later. Internet is only available in the lobby on a common computer so updates will be as often as we can.

cheers,
Heather & Brian

'Twas the night before St.Croix!!!!!

2008-05-01T21:24:00.003-04:00

Well......we are pretty well packed!
Most of the prep was left for tonight as lately we have both been bagged. We are not sure what it is, but it has just been draining the past two weeks.
But alas, we fly out of Ottawa Friday AM at 6:15am and on American Airlines to Chicago, on to Puerto Rico and then a quick jaunt to St. Croix.
We have heard form a few friends already there....they said not to be too surprised if our bikes do not make it to St. Croix on the same plane as we are on!!!!
...let the drama begin!

We will drop a note once we get there.....

Brian and Heather