A quickie ...

This blog is I am afraid going to be uber short for two reasons. Firstly in about 10mins Tom and I are leaving the beautiful Ironman world of Klagenfurt and heading for a week of race preparation in Zurich. The second reason is because I am typing this on a German keyboard and it is making me want to throw it out of the window, the configuration is slightly different than English.

Anyway, more importantly. A solid week of great warm or should I say scorching weather training should put us both in good stead for Switzerland this coming weekend. We have managed to get some great rides and runs in and swimming in the lakes over here is second to none.

Yesterday was Ironman day and we were here supporting loads of our mates. Firstly from Team Southerns were Jo Ladd, Ady Stott and Sam Allen. Leeds and Bradford had a great turnout with big shouts going to first timer Ove who had a fantastic race and looked great all day. Kev who was out with lovely wife Bev, he also had a cracking race, John and Sara Blythe who were cracking on the course, and Simon and Jez. Simon we saw your finish, great time, sorry we missed you Jez but we gave you a holler on the bike. Tom had his cousin Simon doing his first too and I have to say if I would like to emanate a race day then it would be his. Simon paced the whole day perfectly even in the 31 degree heat, finishing as a fresh as the proverbial daisy in 10.52 awesome mate, lovely to meet you, happy recovery.

Jo, Ady and Sam were brilliant out there. True inspirations. For Jo it was her first taste of the Ironman world and what a star she was, having discovered she had torn ligaments about three weeks before the race she was a trooper. Swam like a fish, biked like a star and dug deep on the run, wonderful. Ady was undoubtedly in the best shape of his life leading up to the race and could not have been in better shape until he slept in a hotel bed that did not agree with his back! Struggling to move the day before we all felt a little concerned as I am sure he did too. But filled up with enough paracetamol to kill a baby elephant off he went. What a swim, what a bike and what a run, 11.29 great work. Then Ironman Sam, our best mate who was racing in Lanzarote with us 6 weeks ago. He had a great race too, desperate to break 12hrs he was looking good for it all day, even with 4mins to go we thought he was going to do it, until he got struck by cramp 2mins from the line which stole his sub 12 making a still glorious pb with 12.00.33 or 11:59:93 if you prefer ;)

Over in Frankfurt our good friend Jevon was also giving it his all to pb on what sounded like an equally sweltering hard core day in the office, well done mate, awesome. We cannot wait to hear all about it.

Right, time to hit Zurich and start getting into race mode to see what Tom and I can pull out of the bag.

Big ups to the Kendal Jones family who have been amazing supporters throughout this whole journey and will be there in Zurich with us, our ever presents, cannot thank you all enough.

We plan to try and blog again on Wednesday, the internet access has been impossible here.

Well done to all you Ironmen out there. Alison, we certainly have not forgotten your amazing acheivement in France last weekend, brilliant, just brilliant.

Time to go.....tschuß

H and T. x