Eagleman 70.3

Hey everyone,

What a day it has been……3.40am start, 4 hour race, packed bike box, packed bags and sat in traffic for 3 hours making our way down to Baltimore, finally making it at 7pm…..wow!!

The day started far too early at 3.40am, after having a restless night sleep with fierce thunderstorms lighting up the sky. Race day had finally come round. Feeling pretty good and having done all the hours of training for the last couple of months I knew it was going to be a good day!!

Raced here at the Half Ironman 70.3 Eagleman in Maryland last year and unfortunately got a drafting penalty of 4 minutes. I finished 2 minutes back in second place….you do the maths!! So I was out to set the record straight today……………

The race start was very interesting……the MC got a little carried away with introducing the pro women that he forgot about the pro men in the water. All of a sudden we hear this ‘GO!’ over the speakers…..15 seconds late and no warning. All of a sudden it was on and the race had started!

After the wary start I managed to get into a good position and find my rhythm early on. I really wanted to push the pace on the swim so I could put myself in the best position possible for the start of the bike. I felt really good out there and exited the swim in second, 20 seconds behind John Kenny.

After a great transition it was out onto the bike in hot pursuit of chasing down John Kenny As I was feeling pretty good I wanted to keep the pressure on as I had about a dozen extremely fast pro men chasing fast from behind. Got into a good rhythm and managed to pass Kenny early on in the bike and now into 1st. Continuing to keep my form strong throughout the bike I managed to put a 3.35 minute gap between me and the rest of the field.

Out on to the run with 3.35 minute lead I tried to get into a good rhythm and keep up a good tempo to hold off the chasing pack. At about mile 9 things unfortunately started to change a little…the legs feeling tired and definitely slowing down……bugger. All I could do was push through this and hope that I had put enough time into the chasing pack during the bike. With about 1.5m miles to go, I turned around just to see if I could see anyone and there was Richie Cunningham who was having a phenomenal run and catching me. With the legs completely finished and feeling like bricks I had to put the hammer down to the finish line. Managed to stay in front and taking the win, with Michael Lovato rounding out the top 3.

Thank you to Luke and Susan for having Kelly and I to stay at your amazing place. We had a great time and hopefully see you again next year.

Heading to Portland, Oregon to hang with my brother Dino and get my final bit of training done before Germany.

Terenzo

Buffalo Olympic distance Triathlon - Minnesota

Hi,

The last few days we have been hanging out in Buffalo, Minnesota with Bret Oden, the race director and his family. Kelly and I have had a great time here, we were expecting it to be hot up here but even though the weather has been freezing the setting here is beautiful and the Oden's have been so hospitable.

Training has been going great the past few weeks, I have managed to get some good workouts done and the form is coming up nicely. Unfortunately we have now left Santa Barbara for this trip, just as we were getting used to the place and I was finding the good hills to train on. Oh well, guess we will have to come back. On Tuesday we are off to Cambridge, Maryland for the Eagleman 70.3 next weekend, then we are back over to the west coast, Portland, Oregon for my final 2 weeks of training before heading over to Germany for the Ironman.

The race today was a good challenge. I really struggled to find my rhythm throughout the race as my body didn't like the icy weather, it was about 45'F/ 6'C a typical winters day back home in NZ, but now I feel soft complaining because I heard that the Nordic skiing team here trains and races in -30'F in the winter…crazy! The pace was on from the start of the swim, but I managed to get away and keep a small lead for the rest of the race to hold on for the win but 2^nd place was under 2minutes back and 3^rd close behind. The course was great as it had a bit of everything, the volunteers and race organizers were awesome and did a great job and to top off my experience here I got to race with a truly inspirational guy with a great team behind him. Paul, who is melanoma cancer patient was receiving chemotherapy 2 weeks ago while the rest of the competitors were out there hitting their hard training and getting ready for the race. Not only did he, his wife and son along with a whole group of supporters turn up and finish the race but he carved it up big time. I saw him out there on the course and there is no way you could tell what he has been through. Congrats Paul, keep up the great fight, you are a true inspiration!!

Along with racing with Paul, the proceeds from the race went to sports teams at the local high school who's budgets have been cut, without this funding the teams would not be able to continue.

Just got back from the movies, saw "The Hangover" an absolute must see, it is hilarious!

Will be in touch

Regards

Terenzo