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 2nd place was under 2minutes back and 3rd 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
