Jetty 2 Jetty 2012
It has been a while between drinks and by drinks I mean races and by a while I mean 70 days since I have been in any sort of competition with my last event being the Noosa Winter Festival
BSHS Awards Night Speech
Over my years I've attended plenty of sports awards dinners and heard even more guest speakers at numerous different events. Being the guest speakers is always an honor but it isn't without nerves that you get up infront of an unknown audience to share what you feel are words of wisdom and inspiration in the hope that the audience take something positive away from it.
DAT Awards Night 2012: The Main Event
I feel ample time has passed since I posted DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel that it is now time to move on to the main event. But for anyone out there unaware of the enormity of this event check out what went down at the 2011 DAT Awards Night and try to get your heads around the fact that this years edition was hyped up so much that we had club members flying home from holidays just so they could make the event and even athletes from other clubs putting themselves through the torture of a weeks training with us just to attend this event!
Bryton Cardio 35 Review - Oceania Bicycles
Training with GPS is almost considered standard practice these days and it is becoming an ever more competitive market with the number of new products hitting stores on a regular basis. And for anyone who follows this blog, you will know that on the bike my preferred method of data collection is via the use of my Bryton Rider 50T.
DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel
The DAT Awards Night may have been and gone for 2012 but after the wrap I gave it last year I thought I had to do the same again for this year. But even before I get into that I will tempt your tastebuds with what could only be described as one of the most hyped up speeches for the evening!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Jetty 2 Jetty
The Jetty 2 Jetty Half Marathon this morning was my first attempt at racing a half-marathon and also the first step in a longer journey towards competing in a 70.3 triathlon towards the end of the year. I carried a lot of confidence in to the event having run over 90km a week for the last 4 weeks and also after my result from the 10km Running 4 Research fun run not so long ago. However 21.2km is a long way and there was a certain element of unknown going into the race.
The biggest factor was controlling myself at the start and not going out too hard and as the gun went off I found myself at the front of the field but fortunately at a pace I could control and going through the first km in 3:32 I still had a few runners around me. And personally I made one of the smartest race decisions at this point and didn't continue with the guy that increased the pace and even sat back as another guy ran past me in the opening km's. After settling in to my own pace I slowly began to real in the two leaders and at the 11km point I caught the leader and was still feeling great so made a determined effort to push the pace out and around the jetty, which also happened to be into a fairly strong headwind, wanting to put a gap between myself and second place. I knew there was still a lot of running to be done and was still holding a pace that I would by no means call comfortable but something I could maintain and trying as hard as I could not to look back and focus on my own race. It was great going past all the other runners who provided me with some fantastic support on the trip home but there were certainly some lonely moments when all I had to focus on was the lead bike ahead of me but that's what long distance racing is all about!
Coming up the last hill and still with approximately 2km's to go I took the time to look behind to check where everyone was but didn't want to relax incase I'd missed anything.
The most satisfying moment of the entire race came just after this when a spectator told me not to worry and that there was no one in sight which allowed me to enjoy the final 1500m and I don't think I stopped smiling the rest of the way home. And to top it all off I ran past all of the guys and girls that I train with who were doing their warm-up for the 5km and was able to enjoy the moment and even slow down to give them all high five's before the final down hill run to the finish. Just made the race that little bit more special!
I crossed the line in 1:13.07 and was and still am completely stoked with not only the result but the time as well because I had thought I was capable of a time around 1:16:00.
I couldn't finish this blog without mentioning all of the guys and girls that I train with who also competed in either the 3km, 5km, 10km or half-marathon events. Well done to Geoff who continues to amaze all of us and finished 2nd in the 50-59 age group and improved his time from last year. Also to Tom who finished 3rd in the 5km after a lengthy period off running through injury and Wyatt who finished in the top 10 and is a star to watch for the future. And of the girls, Emily who took out the girls 5km and Bonnie who claimed the runners up position. I thoroughly enjoy training with everyone at DAT Racing every single day and to be able to share today's race with some of them was something special!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
New Weaponry
Malvern Star have come on board with some great support and provided me with the Oppy C7 Team and the initial results are unbelievable. Below is a link to one of my first rides on the bike over the weekend from my Bryton Rider 50T totalling 96km that included 45min of hill reps and close to an hour of time trialling.
My first ever bike was a Malvern Star and it is great to see them coming back stronger than ever and I am very excited to be working with them. More pictures will be up soon of not only the Oppy C7 Team, but also the Oppy TT7 that will be joining the stable shortly. And if anyone is interested in checking out the rest of the range head to http://www.malvernstar.com.au/