Sydney Triathlon Series Race 1 - 2007

The Sydney Sprint Series has been run and won... These events are always so much fun, high octane, no chance to think (other than this hurts but its a good hurt) racing.

Racing is exactly what we did. After watching Rocky movies before Port Half and getting great results, Charlotte and I decided to do that again but this time we got out the new Rocky Balboa movie. Sly has a way with words that can motivate you to demand that little more of yourself!

One line in particular was just before he was building back up to re-enter the boxing world. His trainer said "time to start building some hurting bombs" So yesterday I changed it to "lets unleash some hurting bombs" seemed to work...

Results are below but Charlotte was first female overall in a PB time, that's two wins from last two races... I like three from three odds for next weekend :-) Michael Baker claimed a third in his very competitive AG and is in the best shape of his life heading into next weekends Ironman WA.

John Mergler won his AG and has been putting up huge run km's for his upcoming Sea to Summit (Eden to Kozi) 246km run. John has been a big input into helping, mentoring both Charlotte and I. He has so much of an endurance knowledge base you'd be stupid not to consider his thoughts.

Brenton had a PB and took swim honours in the 30-34 AG, there is no doubt with the work BY puts in, that will see him a podium contender in the near future.

We also welcome in new TriSpecific athlete Anthony Osment who had a good race and had the second fastest run split in his AG. Michael Sinclair certainly looks to be in form leading up to his first Ironman next weekend with a very solid performance and congratulations to the Wee's who have jumped back into racing.

Ok, I had my first ever Triathlon race win and let me tell you it feels pretty good... I have put in some very hard work in the lead up to Ironman WA and my last two race results have shown the fruits of that work. I am very excited about next weekends race.

Extras, it was great to see Craig Hibbard back from Germany and racing in TriSpecific colours and finishing 8th in the 30-34AG, and a big mention to Rebecca Clifford who only met me 2 weeks ago on a Clarence St Cyclery ride and was looking to do her first Triathlon. I told her about the upcoming Kurnell race and she jumped right in, entered then completed her first Triathlon on Sunday in a very impressive 1:19:18 and 10th in her AG. Well done.

David Solomons Elite Tour comes to an end

Last email of my trip,

Today dawned and I had gotten over the disappointment of getting in the truck. Decided to ride to the end anyhow. For the first 15km or so it was the most fun U had had on the whole trip, the scenery was nice, I was not under any pressure and was just rolling along. But the lack of any strength in my legs returned. I was passed by some mates who were going slowly and invited to tag in behind and did try but I just could not pedal hard enough to keep a reasonable pace. It was useless. By the time I has reached the first stop at mile 35 (50 km) I had only just made the cutoff time of 9.15 and 2 hours 45 minutes to do 50km, pitiful. I think that my body is just too fatigued to pedal. I did not think I would sufficiently recover taking a few days off and quite honestly the thought of watching others ride whilst I sat in the truck was not for me.

So tomorrow I bail, try to get to Savannah as quickly as possible and come home.

The end of a tortuous 10 days, and previous 6 months of training. Now a long trip home to plan the next challenge...

David truly inspired us not only in his commitment to training but also to his commitment to this goal. Unfortunately after a crash and what seems to be massive energy depletion David didn't get to finish his elite tour.

Pulling out is probably the hardest decision David has had to make cycling, he is not one to give in easily. Did he fail in his quest? Definitely not as to try and fail means that you are yet to succeed, but if you fail to try then you will suffer the inestimable cost of what might have been.

All we can take is positive from the experience and use them to learn, grow and apply. To read about Davids epic adventure click here

Ticket to Kona at Honu Half

Kate Rowe has reserved herself a ticket to the Big Show of Ironman racing, the Ironman World Champs on October 13 in Kona, Hawaii.

See Kate's race report and her splits at ironmanlive

Well done Kate, see there are no real limitations except the ones that are self imposed...

Firstly I must congratulate both Brenton and Zoe for not only their fantastic efforts on Sunday and becoming “Ironman” but for the work and commitment they put in training for the race. Its pretty simple really, they did the work, asked the right questions, didn’t get bogged down in most of the IM hype and both came up with the goods and the results on their debut Ironman. Well done and its been a pleasure to coach you both and a big inspiration for me to keep doing what I am doing.

An extra thanks must also go to Brenton for getting me to do this race in the first place for without that little nudge it may have been a while longer before I came out with the result I did on Sunday... Giddy Up ;-)

A big thanks also to all the supporters out on the course, this was amazing and uplifting, you probably didn’t get acknowledged but I heard it and appreciated it... So thank you.

Overall Pos	Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
50	Kristian MANIETTA	9:37:21	M30-34	13	0:55:37	5:08:40	3:33:02
405	Brenton YATES	11:00:55	M30-34	95	0:56:57	5:57:21	4:06:35
895	Zoe KING	12:22:13	F30-34	25	1:13:30	6:49:35	4:19:06

News 11/3/07

You have to love being able to race on your birthday, just awesome and the team came away with some great results.

Congratulations to Ollie, Charlotte and Kate for taking out their respective age groups and becoming NSW State Sprint Champions.

Sydney Triathlon Series Race 4

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Ollie WHISTLER	1:00:29	M19-23	1	0:12:25	0:30:50	0:17:13
Kristian MANIETTA	1:01:13	M24-29	5	0:12:36	0:30:57	0:17:38
Charlotte PAUL	1:05:46	F30-34	1	0:13:16	0:34:40	0:17:48
Brenton YATES	1:09:20	M30-34	13	0:12:36	0:35:25	0:21:17
Christophe DUMONET	1:12:15	M40-44	18	0:16:06	0:36:16	0:19:51
Kate ROWE	1:18:04	F55-59	1	0:18:58	0:37:18	0:21:46
Sharon RICE	1:19:42	F35-39	6	0:14:40	0:39:24	0:25:35
Vi WEE	1:22:41	F30-34	15	0:20:10	0:39:04	0:23:25
Liza GARRIDO	1:28:53	F40-44	14	0:19:40	0:40:59	0:28:12

News 24/2/07

Ironman Malaysia

With racing, training and life in general there are really no mistakes. There is however massive opportunities to learn and then go better. So I am sure everything can be turned into a positive as you can see what has worked, what didn’t work as well as expected, what to do and what not to do next time round.

Even though my race didn't totally go to plan I am happy with a PB of 10:06 in a race that's been given the title of "The Toughest Show on Earth". Charlotte and Ollie's races fared worse and for Charlotte that was her worst result since starting in the sport.

Is this a negative thing? I think not and believe being humbled in an Ironman is more of a positive step forward. To Charlotte's credit she never took the easy way out by quitting like a lot of pro’s do. As the saying goes Quitters never win and Winners never quit and I know who my monies on... get inspired by her race report. Ollie also toughed it out and he like Charlotte have great things to look forward to.

Check out Tim Moores IM Malaysia Blog at

Huskisson Sprint and Australian Long Course Champs

I hear the team support that was about for both the sprint and then the long course was nothing short of exceptional. I feel truly grateful to have such a great group of people.

Well done to Alex and Troy for completing their first Long course triathlon (I hear Troy needs to learn how to use an allen key!) Zoe what a great race... You are on track for a great day at IM Australia. Kate keep those wins up and before you know it you will be lining up in Kailua Bay for the IM World Champs. Megan that’s now 3 long course races under your belt in your first Triathlon season, excellent work... The question is how many TS athletes will be lining up for Ironman in 2008!

Great work to Liza, Sharon and Vi in the sprint race, I am excited to see how well everyone is going to do in Kurnell and since its both Kate and my birthdays it has to be a great day...

Long Course Results

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Alex Wee	4:53:29	M30-34	61	0:43:25	2:33:03	1:37:00
Troy Latta	4:54:31	M20-24	11	0:43:26	2:41:28	1:29:36
Zoe KING	5:07:36	F30-34	15	0:41:20	2:47:55	1:38:21
Kate ROWE	5:20:00	F55-59	1	0:48:03	2:48:53	1:43:04
Megan MEBBERSON	5:56:31	F40-44	18	0:39:39	3:14:19	2:02:32

Huskisson Sprint Race

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Sharon RICE	1:26:42	F35-39	10	0:13:13	0:40:50	0:32:38
Vi WEE	1:30:19	F30-34	7	0:17:52	0:41:52	0:30:33
Liza GARRIDO	1:36:28	F40-44	12	0:16:42	0:43:09	0:36:37

News 11/2/07

Sydney Triathlon Series Race 3

From what I hear it was a great day out in Kurnell and the race organisers are continually trying to make it better which is great news. TriSpecific had a bunch of athletes out there racing and supporting, unfortunately a few of us missed the action as we needed to do the last big session leading up to IM Malaysia.

Congratulations to Kate Rowe for winning the 55-59 age group and Sharon Rice who did her first tri in 2 years. From the looks of the weather and reports it was rough going in the swim and a nice headwind back into town.

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Brenton Yates	1:08:09	M30-34	12	0:12:49	0:35:09	0:20:09
Alex Wee	1:10:56	M30-34	16	0:16:46	0:35:29	0:18:39
Kate ROWE	1:21:08	F55-59	1	0:20:11	0:38:00	0:22:55
Vi Wee	1:25:55	F30-34	19	0:21:16	0:40:11	0:24:26
Peta Rounsefell	1:27:06	F24-29	15	0:17:49	0:42:52	0:26:23
Sharon Rice	1:28:21	F35-39	16	0:16:33	0:41:50	0:29:57

News 27/1/07

Audax Alpine Challenge

If there is a cycling event to do that is challenging, fun and you get to meet a heap of really nice people then the Audax Alpine Challenge is it.

The event is help in the beautiful alpine town of Bright in Victoria, it is pretty much the base of Falls Creek, Mt Hotham and Mt Buffalo ski resorts.

You have a few options open to you for the event. From a 70k, 72km, 130km, 140km and the grand daddy 200km which covers all climbs and routes that the other distances only cover portions of.

TriSpecific had 6 athletes and myself doing the challenge with 5 of us doing the 200km and 2 doing the 72km distance. The organisation of such a huge event was excellent and the day went by without a hitch.

The 200km event sees you leaving Bright and head towards your first climb of Towoonga Gap and down into the town of Mt Beauty before the 30km ascent of Falls Creek. After climbing Falls there was a time card drop and refueling station at the top.

From there you descended back to Mt Beauty, re climbed the other side of Towoonga Gap and then headed back to Bright which was the next time card drop and lunch stop... With 140km in the legs here is where the day really starts with the 27km climb up Mt Buffalo . This is a real solid climb but you feel great once reaching the summit, another time card drop and quick refuel then the fast descent and flat 10k to Bright...

It was great to return to cheers from Megan and Liza who had done the 72km from Bright to Mt Beauty over Towoonga gap both ways. I rode the last 2 hours with David from Tumut, well i should say sat on up the climb to Buffalo and then we hit it back to town to get under 8 hours total time (we got in 7hrs 48) with 7:30 of riding time.

Both Teresa and Charlotte pretty much came in around the same time and then David and Alex around the 9 hours.

I have already booked two cottages for next year and TriSpecific and friends will be out in force. For more information on Audax and the Alpine go to here..

News 14/1/07

Tasmania Half Ironman

What a day what a great race... TriSpecific was represented by the trio of Brenton Yates, Megan Mebberson and yours truly. Racing Tassie was brought on by a few drinks after Port 70.3 where Brenton had qualified for the big show! Somehow i asked if he'd rather the coach on the sidelines or in the race...

So off to Tassie to get that spot to the big show. It turned out to be a great day, I knocked off a solid 4:35 for my first half since 04 and Megan Mebberson was the TriSpecific star of the day with a massive PB of 34 minutes and a 2nd place in the F40-44 age group.

Just a note: If you are going to Devonport to race a triathlon the three of us would not recommend Noodles in a Box the day before the race!

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Kristian Manietta	4:35:42	M25-29	8	0:30:21	2:32:10	1:33:11
Brenton Yates	5:26:57	M30-34	36	0:30:59	2:54:16	2:01:42
Megan Mebberson	6:09:37	F40-44	2	0:38:18	3:28:57	2:02:22

News 14/1/07

Sydney Triathlon Series Race 2

Name	Time	Gen Cat	Cat Pos	Swim	Bike	Run
Troy Latta	1:10:09	M24-29	13	0:16:55	0:35:14	0:17:59
Alex Wee	1:12:31	M30-34	24	0:17:40	0:35:52	0:18:56
Kate ROWE	1:23:10	F55-59	1	0:21:48	0:38:09	0:23:12
Vi Wee	1:29:07	F30-34	18	0:23:46	0:40:42	0:24:37

News 3/12/06

Ironman Western Australia 2006

After dubious weather all week race day welcomed us with perfect clear skies, and no wind! The pro’s got a 15min head start on the rest of the field and the day was underway.

Charlotte had a PB swim with 55 and change and then had the bike of her IM career to date with a smashing 5hr 11mins (26 minutes faster than last year) and then went on to equal her marathon with a 3:10 her total time of 9:17 is just astonishing.more...

News 26/11/06

Sydney Triathlon Series Race 1

The winds where up and the bindys where out in force for the athletes to negotiate from swim exit to T1! However that didn't deter all athletes to give it their best.

TriSpecific's athletes all stepped up and had stand out performances. Ollie Whistler and Charlotte Paul used the race as hit out for next weekends Ironman Western Australia and both took wins today. more...

News 5/11/06

A day of learning

The inaugural 70.3 in Port Macquarie was wet to say the least. Just shy of 900 athletes turned out to brave the conditions.

TriSpecific had four athletes that braved those conditions and i would say all had learning experiences that can be turned positive with the right mind set.more...