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Drive By: Leanda Cave trains…

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:16:45 +0000

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Melissa Rollison To Race Abu…

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:04:15 +0000

New Australian triathlon star Melissa Rollison will expand her racing experience this year as she further explores her vast potential in the sport. Rollison wants to gauge her abilities over longer and shorter distances as she looks at racing the Hawaiian Ironman and possibly trying to make the triathlon team for the 2016 Olympics. The 28-year-old from Brisbane has been a triathlon revelation over the past two years since a succession of injuries forced her to give away international track running. She has focused on long-course triathlons, winning last year’s world 70.3 title. Rollison is the favourite for Saturday’s women’s race at the Australian Long Course Championships (2/80/20) at Falls Creek in alpine Victoria, Australia, her first race of the season. She has been training at the ski resort to prepare for the March 3 Abu Dhabi triathlon, which she is using as a potential stepping stone to the Hawaiian Ironman. Abu Dhabi features a 3km swim, a 200km cycle and 20km run – on the way to the brutal Ironman distance. At the other end of the racing spectrum, Rollison will also contest two big Olympic-distance events in the United States this year to see if it might be feasible to target the 2016 Olympics. Read more: Ninemsn.com.au

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Melissa Rollison To Race Abu…

Nevis Island

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:15:59 +0000

This triathlon-friendly Caribbean island makes for a wonderful winter getaway. I never planned on racing a triathlon on Nevis Island, but how could I say no with Winston Crooke’s smile? My wife and I had come to his store looking to rent bikes and were greeted by Crooke—a tall, thin, athletic man with dreadlocks and a surprising British accent (he was raised in the U.K.). “We have a little local triathlon on Saturday if you want to race,” Winston said, pointing to a sign listing the monthly winter races of the FLY (Forever Live Young) Miniseries that lead up to the island’s major triathlon, TriStar Nevis (won in April last year by none other than Chris McCormack). Nevis is the smaller island of the two-island federation of St. Kitts-Nevis, just southeast of Puerto Rico. Its small airport receives some direct flights, but it’s easy and significantly cheaper to fly into St. Kitts on a major airline (American Airlines offers daily flights) and then take one of the frequent boat ferries to Nevis. Nevis offers a variety of lodging options, from a recently renovated five-star Four Seasons resort to private rental homes. The remains of the sugarcane plantations that drove the island’s economy during its early British colonial days are now home to upscale hotels including beachfront Nisbet Plantation and mountainside Golden Rock Inn. The island, which surrounds the often fog-covered mountain peak of an inactive volcano, is only 7 miles long and 5 miles wide, with a major 21-mile road that goes around its perimeter. Driving is on the left side on this former British colony, and though the road is narrow and the rules of traffic a bit improvisational, most island drivers are accustomed to watching the roads carefully for everything from bands of green vervet monkeys to sheep to the wild donkeys that roam the island, so cyclists are just part of the mix. Winston Crooke’s bike shop, Wheel World ( Bikenevis.com ) is the primary bike rental option on the island and it’s far better than your typical beachside bike rental shop. Remember to bring your cycling shoes because Crooke not only offers the typical bike rental platform pedals with cages, but can also set up a bike with Look or Shimano SPD pedals. Crooke and Reggie Douglass, a local triathlete known as the “Flying Rastaman” who qualified for the Ironman World Championship 70.3, lead regular road and mountain bike tours. If you want to get in some serious winter triathlon training, Nevis has two ITU-certified triathlon coaches—Crooke and James Weekes. Training can be arranged through Crooke’s Wheel World bike shop. One of the incredible things on Nevis is the number of young triathletes Crooke and Weekes are training. Expect to see some of these kids one day gracing the stage at Ironman 70.3 St. Croix and beyond. Nevis has several beaches, mostly associated with various resorts, but even if you are not staying at the resort, you’re usually welcome to access the beach, especially if you pay your dues at the bar. Nisbet Beach offers the whitest sands and the best water for swimming undisturbed by boats. After a swim or bike ride, relax at one of the island’s many excellent restaurants. Most of the resorts have good restaurants, but Golden Rock Inn stood out. The broiled lobster tail accompanied with mashed plantains made us pause over every bite. There are several excellent restaurants outside of the resorts that any visitor should certainly check out. Sunshine’s is on Pinney’s Beach and offers a great open-air dining experience. The lobster sandwich is a filling meal after a swim and with a side of conch fritters could easily feed two. Sunshine’s menu changes regularly with what’s just come in from the local docks. The Killer Bee, Sunshine’s version of rum punch, is a favorite. In Charlestown, the capital city, you can stop at the Jamaican Bakery to get a roti, a local favorite that resembles a savory stuffed crêpe. In those dark days of winter, when the whir of the bike trainer and treadmill are all too familiar, Nevis is a welcome break to up your vitamin D and get a solid start to your season. “An athlete can come to Nevis and indulge themselves in their sport without distractions,” Crooke says. On our last full day in Nevis, while temperatures were still below freezing back home, I raced my first triathlon of the year. There were only a handful of us, 20 or so, mostly locals, several of them the high-school-age kids Crooke is training. But there were also some other tourists, with Ironman T-shirts and new beach tans, who I’m sure were convinced as I was that a triathlon on a beautiful island, on a rented bike, with a group of friendly people, can be a wonderful way to start the season. If you want … A rainforest hike Try “The Source” trail. Named for the island’s freshwater spring, the trailhead starts at Golden Rock Inn. Expect to see monkeys and to climb an ancient rusty ladder. Golden-rock.com A beach-side massage Go to the Four Seasons Spa. A variety of massage therapies and other spa treatments are available. Fourseasons.com/nevis/spa An introduction to scuba Go with Ellis Chaderton’s crew to get a taste of reef life and a first-time scuba experience without having to go through a pool practice. Experienced divers can also get a great dive with sea turtles and rays abounding. Scubanevis.com Island-style pizza Eat at Mem’s. This is a local place, not visited by many tourists, but it has some of the best pizza we’ve ever had. Toppings range from lobster to pinneapple and ham (Island Style). (869) 469-1390 To visit Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace Tour the Hamilton estate. This Founding Father was born on Nevis, and the ruins of his family’s estate just outside Charlestown offer a wonderful view of the island. Nevis-nchs.org Take in breathtaking gardens Visit the Botanical Gardens of Nevis. The gardens mix the skill of British horticulture with the wonders of a tropical ecosystem. Botanicalgardennevis.com RELATED: Seven Scenic Fall Triathlons

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Nevis Island

ITU Sprint Triathlon Oceania…

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:31:59 +0000

Photo: Delly Carr/Triathlon.org With several countries looking to nab points towards Olympic qualification, this weekend’s ITU Sprint Oceania Triathlon features a stacked field. Kris Gemmell will return to top competition on Sunday for the first time since his win at the World Cup event in Auckland in November but his focus is very much on one race in April. The New Zealand triathlete has been in a heavy training mode over the past six weeks at the Wanaka Snow Farm with the rest of the Tri NZ high performance squad as he eyes a top finish at April’s Sydney World Champs series race. A top-eight finish there will guarantee a spot in London but, if he fails to achieve that, it will then come down to the selectors’ discretion. Andrea Hewitt is the only New Zealand triathlete guaranteed a start in London. Before all of that Gemmell, James Elvery, Debbie Tanner, Nicky Samuels and Kate McIlroy will all compete in this weekend’s fifth round of the Contact Tri Series in Kinloch, Taupo. A number of international competitors will also race, including Australian Chris McCormack. The ITU Oceania sprint title and valuable ITU points are up for grabs and Gemmell is keen to be at the head of the pack in the 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. “I have won the standard distance nationals five times but never won the sprint title at the elite level,” he said. “It is something I like doing and have spent a good part of my career doing this type of race in Europe racing in club competitions and I always enjoy Takapuna each year over a similar distance. “But there is a big contingent of Australians coming over chasing those ITU points so it won’t be easy and the course at Kinloch is a tough one. Racing over this short distance hurts, too. There is no letting up from the gun with a nasty hill on the bike so I’ll be looking to force the issue there. My aim is to place as much pressure on the field as possible on the bike and come off with a bit of a lead and sort ourselves out over the 5km run.” Read more: Nzherald.co.uk

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ITU Sprint Triathlon Oceania…

Going Pro: Meet 5 New Female…

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:09:13 +0000

Sarah Piampiano, 31, New York, N.Y. The fastest American amateur at the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii last October, (9:51:17) Piampiano made her pro debut one month later at Ironman Cozumel, finishing seventh (9:57:58). The former investment banker for HSBC Securities in New York City now lives and trains in Los Angeles and will next race in April’s Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston and also has three Ironmans (Texas, Coeur D’Alene and Lake Placid) penciled in her schedule. “Last year I was able to consistently place as either the top or one of the top overall amateurs at every race,” she says. “It was a huge accomplishment for me, but I am not ready to stop there.”

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Ironman 70.3 Japan To Offer 30…

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:35:39 +0000

Registration for the Tokoname City-based race will open Jan. 31, 2012. See the press release from Ironman below: World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) today announced that general entry registration for the third annual Ironman 70.3 Centrair Tokoname Japan will open on Jan. 31, 2012. With this being the only Ironman World Championship qualifier in the region, race organizers have added additional entries; however, as in previous years, a sell-out is anticipated within just a few hours. Scheduled for June 24, 2012, Lixil Ironman 70.3 Centrair Tokoname Japan will be staged in and around the Centrair International Airport, providing easy access to the race for visitors travelling from across the globe with direct flights from Singapore, Frankfurt and Detroit. Athletes will begin the race with a point-to-point swim at Ise Bay in the Pacific Ocean. The 1.5-loop bike course will see some changes in 2012, leading to a smoother and faster route through Tokoname city. The final leg of the course features a spectator friendly one-loop run with athletes finishing on the beach. The event is one of nearly 60 in the global Ironman 70.3 Series, offering 25 age group qualifying slots for the 2012 Ironman World Championship 70.3, to be held on Sept. 9, 2012, at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nev. The event date was moved earlier in the season to accommodate the addition of 30 coveted age group qualifying slots to the 2012 Ironman World Championship, scheduled for Oct. 13, 2012, in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i. These slots will give Asia-Pacific athletes additional opportunities to make it to the starting line on Ali’i Drive in Kona. Professional athletes will be competing for a prize purse of $15,000. For additional information on Lixil Ironman 70.3 Centrair Tokoname Japan or to register for the 2012 race, please visit www.ironman703.jp/e/ .

Video: Javier Gomez Looks…

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:57:51 +0000

Back in October of 2011, Triathlete’s Aaron Hersh caught up with Spain’s Javier Gomez in Kona, Hawaii. Gomez talks about the transformation of ITU since the rise of the Brownlee brothers, what it will take to succeed in London and if he’ll consider racing more non-drafting races in the future. For more on Javier Gomez, don’t forget to pick up Inside Triathlon’s January/February issue , on newsstands now, as it features an in-depth profile of the two-time world champion.

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Video: Javier Gomez Looks…

Inside Triathlon’s Profile…

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:21:28 +0000

Photo: Matt Harbicht The (Deeply Determined, Exceptionally Sensitive, Sometimes Insecure and Downright Huge) Heart of a Champion This story was originally published in the September/October, 2011 issue of Inside Triathlon magazine , before Wellington went on to win her fourth Ironman world title in stunning fashion. It was the first in-depth profile of Wellington—one where a writer uses long interviews with friends and family to paint a picture of who Wellington is outside of sport—ever published. She was featured on the cover with a crown as the Queen of Ironman. PHOTOS: Chrissie Wellington’s Inside Triathlon Photo Shoot We all know Chrissie Wellington as a three-time Ironman world champion, the iron-distance world record holder (8:18:13), the Ironman world record holder (8:33:56) and the course record holder in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (8:54:02). But few of us know who Wellington is as a person. Her fame has come so fast and furiously, getting to know the girl behind the glory has taken a backseat to acknowledging her many achievements. In fact, Wellington has never been the subject of an in-depth magazine profile. Recently, Wellington, who is originally from Norfolk, England, granted me access to a number of her closest acquaintances, and I shared a marathon heart-to-heart session with the icon herself, helping me to uncover the off-course, off-camera Chrissie. And I can attest, while she’s as obsessively driven and outrageously successful in other aspects of her life as she is in triathlon, she’s also down-to-earth, at times uncertain and even insecure. Walk into the home that Wellington rents with her boyfriend and fellow pro, Tom Lowe, on Boulder, Colo.’s north side and the first thing you’ll notice is the fireplace mantel. On it resides a collection of six greeting cards, inspirational missives given to Wellington by caring confidantes at various pivotal points in her life. One gives reassurance for her 2007 decision to quit a secure government job and make the precarious leap to professional sports. Another, a fierce “You showed them!” following Kona 2007, refers to the teammates who shunned Wellington when she first joined Brett Sutton’s TeamTBB training squad. Wellington carries the cards everywhere she travels. Wellington’s friend and family relationships are utterly core to her being, and she expends massive amounts of time and energy nurturing her connections around the globe. “As a result of living in so many cities in the U.K. and traveling to numerous countries, Chrissie has met countless people,” said her mother, Lin Wellington. “It never ceases to amaze us how she manages to keep in touch.” The three-time world champion is far more concerned with the goings on in her friends’ lives than in spouting off about her own. “When you see Chrissie—and sometimes it drives me slightly mad—she bombards you with questions about you,” said Naomi Flood, Wellington’s best mate from graduate school at the University of Manchester. “She’s not one of these people who wants to talk endlessly about herself.” Matthew Wellington, Chrissie’s younger brother, agrees: “Pretentiousness and my sister are like chalk and cheese. It just doesn’t happen—ever.” Georgina Cashmore, a former co-worker of Wellington’s and one of her dearest friends to this day, summed up her pal’s sincerity by saying, “Chrissie will always make space for you in her life. If she says she will be there, she will be there. If she can’t be there, she will tell you she can’t. She will protect me beyond all else. She rightly expects the same in return and knows that no matter what I will always love, support and ground her. It is a no-fuss friendship—we tell each other what we think even if it’s not what the other wants to hear. She farts—I tell her it stinks.” I repeated Cashmore’s words to Wellington, and her eyes welled up (despite a burst of laughter). “That’s touching to me more than anything,” she said, “because it means I’m doing something right. [It’s] sort of a vindication of who I am—that I’m valued as a friend, not just as a sporting icon.” In a way, she hoards love and support; she holds it close, almost in fear it might slip away. “Chrissie doesn’t do second in anything—not as a friend, a daughter, at work, in training or in competition,” Cashmore said. “She takes second place extremely personally and it rocks her to the core to feel that she has failed in any part of her life. Chrissie fears how her actions will be interpreted or how they will impact others, she fears not being able to be true to herself and true to others, but most of all she fears being away from those she loves.” The love Wellington cherishes is a two-way street, however, even with those she hasn’t met. “Letters and e-mails and messages—I save them all. I save every single message that I get to my website,” she said. “Because it’s important.” She replies to fans personally as often as possible. Wellington’s heart stretches even wider when it comes to the charitable causes she supports—groups such as the Blazeman Foundation for ALS, a nonprofit that seeks to find a cure for the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord; the KIDS Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to childhood injury prevention and recovery; and GoTRIbal, which seeks to use endurance sports to empower women. Wellington’s belief in charity is something she harbored as a young girl. “In 1986 [at the age of 9] Chrissie was watching a program on TV that explained the plight of some people in Africa who needed urgent medical attention,” said Lin Wellington. “Without hesitation, Chrissie jumped up off her chair and announced that she was going to organize a ‘bring and buy sale’ in our village, to raise money for those afflicted. The result was that over 300 pounds was raised, which in those days was quite a lot of money.” The following year, she wrote a variation of the theater production “Aladdin” and then persuaded her classmates to perform the piece before a packed schoolhouse, announcing to the audience that it was a benefit for victims of the famine in Ethiopia. She again raised a significant sum. “My dream, even as a kid, was to make a difference in the world,” Wellington said. “I remember being so disturbed by the images of famine. I would just get incredibly saddened by inequality and suffering. I try to say this in interviews now and I think it kind of sounds trite, but I want my legacy to be more than any world record. Being a role model for kids, being quite vocal about development and advocating for charities—it’s not to be a goody two-shoes. It’s not to pull a media stunt. It’s because sport has power and as sports people we have a platform. That’s really my motivational force.” Early on Matthew Wellington noticed his sister’s desire to make a mark on the world: “She could have been a physicist on the Hadron Collider if she wanted. She could have been a hedge fund manager making 4 million a year. But instead she worked for the government and for an NGO in Nepal.” Indeed, Wellington’s original plan was to be a lawyer, but a two-year stint traveling abroad opened her eyes to a new world, one in which she felt compelled to champion the underprivileged. She received her master’s degree in development studies from Manchester, then landed a U.K. government job working for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that combined her academic aptitude with her natural public-speaking savvy. While at DEFRA, Wellington represented the U.K. at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, wrote and advised on ministerial speeches for British dignitaries including Prime Minister Tony Blair and DEFRA Secretary of State Margaret Beckett, and spearheaded negotiations for the U.K.’s environmental reconstruction policy in Iraq. “What’s weird about my life now,” Wellington said, “is I had this whole life beforehand that nobody really knows about. I suppose everyone does—but it’s not like I was Macca [Chris McCormack], growing up dreaming of racing Ironman. I didn’t watch Ironman Hawaii on TV. I didn’t know it existed. I had never heard of it.” Instead, her intensity and passion were channeled first into academics and then into her professional life. Eventually, this segued into athletics. “I traveled through Africa, Asia and Australia. In Sydney, I started to feel pretty unhealthy from all the eating and drinking I had done. I remember not wanting to run because I’d go bright red, so I just started walking,” she reminisced. “Then I entered the City to Surf 14K race. I was very nervous; I’d done no training. In my diary I wrote, ‘This is going to be torture. I’m going to go bright red. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish.’ It was 14K. I did it in 1:19 [a little over 9-minute-per-mile pace] and I was exhilarated! So when I got back for grad school I ran and swam to become healthier. Being an obsessive-compulsive person, that grew quite quickly into exercising every day.” Best mate Flood laughs when she remembers Wellington’s initial foray into running: “She just kept running. It was a bit like Forrest Gump. It wasn’t necessarily healthy. She didn’t have good trainers. Her feet were cut to bits. The blisters were phenomenal. It was really horrible at one point, but she wouldn’t stop running. It was kind of her way of focusing on something.” Following her time at Manchester, Wellington lived and worked in London, where she ran the London Marathon as a fundraising event and dabbled in short-course triathlon. Tammy Nelson, a friend with whom Wellington shared an internship selling charity Christmas cards, recalled, “She did the marathon in 2002. She did really well—she came in the top 100 women [83rd, in a time of 3:08:17, to be exact], which was pretty good considering she was just doing it for fun and for charity. It was at that point I realized she must actually be pretty good at sport.” Disillusioned with high-level government bureaucracy and desiring more hands-on development experience, Wellington took a sabbatical to work in Nepal, where she helped to improve water and sanitation conditions. She also improved her own endurance. “There’s a town called Pokhara, 200K from Kathmandu [Nepal]. We wanted to go there for New Year’s Eve, so we mountain biked,” she said. “It was me, the Nepali mountain bike champion and a few friends. We set off at 7 in the morning, going and going and going, on these shit roads, carrying our rucksacks. It’s friggin’ not flat. But I would not give in. In the end it was only me and the Nepali mountain bike champ—everyone else got on the bus. We arrived, had a shower and partied all night long. That was quite epic.” Her brother believes that she found her way into professional triathlon simply because she loved running and riding her bike. “I reckon some Ironman athletes train from when they’re 12, 13 years old. Christine [he eschews her well-known nickname] was mountain biking through the Himalayas only five or six years ago,” he said. “She didn’t even know she was training for Ironman. If there is ever a film written about Christine, it will be a hybrid of ‘Rocky’ and ‘The Motorcycle Diaries.’ ‘Rocky’ because from early on she did this without money, without sponsorship, without huge amounts of specific training. Rocky came from nothing and trained in the woods lifting logs, whilst Christine biked across Nepal. And the analogy to the Che Guevara character in ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ is her freedom of spirit and her ambition to travel and see the world. And the two connected is brilliant.” Eventually, the pull of competition proved irresistible, and after winning the overall title at the age-group world championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2006, Wellington gave herself a one-year window to succeed as a professional athlete. That was all the time her savings would allow. She sought the guidance of tough-love triathlon coach Brett Sutton, who, through his controversial school-of-hard-knocks approach, helped channel and calm the rookie’s overwrought nature. “Brett treated me like shit when I arrived. Like absolute shit,” stated Wellington. “He went to great lengths to make me angry. He didn’t pay any attention. He welcomed the fact that all the other girls hated me, because I was a threat. I’ve spoken to Brett since then. He knew I had something special, so the way he approaches that is to not make that person feel special. He put me in a house with five guys and told them to steal my food, throw things, be boorish, turn the music up—just to toughen me up and make me into a friggin’ warrior. But I guess it worked.”

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12 Days: The Story Of…

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:22:24 +0000

A bike crash two weeks before the Ironman World Championship would ultimately reveal Chrissie Wellington’s greatness as an athlete and Dave Scott’s gifts as a coach. Photo: Kevin LaClaire On Saturday, Sept. 25, two weeks before the 2011 Ironman World Championship, three-time winner Chrissie Wellington swam 5000 meters at Boulder Aquatic Masters with her coach—six-time Hawaii Ironman champion Dave Scott—in an adjacent lane. Scott’s sister, Jane, was coaching. According to Scott, Wellington was putting on the finishing touches of her best preparation yet for a 13th Ironman (she’s yet to finish an Ironman in any position but first), an enormous statement given that 11 weeks prior the 34-year-old Brit lowered her own world record to 8:18:13 at Challenge Roth. “She was very fit. It was a stellar preparation,” says Scott. The next day Wellington went out with a group for her last long bike ride before Kona. While riding with her hands on the drops and into a turn she says she’d “taken millions of times” before, the front tire flatted and the wheel slid out from under her. Crashing to the pavement with her was Scott’s 20-year-old son Drew, who was preparing for his first appearance in Hawaii. While on his own ride, Dave had seen the pack that his son and Wellington had gone off with. When he finished, a text message from Drew was waiting for him. “He’d texted me that they’d crashed and that Chrissie seemed OK.” But the sentence was punctuated with a question mark. The ensuing hours and ultimately the next 12 days would prove to be a physically and emotionally demanding test for Chrissie Wellington, the athlete, and Dave Scott, the coach—perhaps the most demanding tests ever within these roles for two inarguable legends in the sport. This test was made radioactive by the vivid memory that in 2010 Wellington made the most painful decision of her career in not starting the championship due to a viral infection. Although Wellington had suffered deep contusions to her hip and shoulder, and large swaths of road rash on her thigh and lower leg, X-rays showed no broken bones. “It was a big sigh of relief,” says Scott. “But I knew she was banged up badly. She was sore. And on Monday the soreness was worse. There was both physical and emotional trauma involved, partly because she knew she was the most fit she had ever been. I tried to help her maintain her confidence to get through this. Obviously we had to tweak her schedule.” Scott insisted to Wellington that she would have to resist any panicked desire to train when recovery was the critical issue. “‘You’re doing the wrong thing if you try and train through this,’” Scott recalls telling her. “‘Just let your body heal.’ There wasn’t any need to panic. She had to be diligent to the highest level possible.” Wellington would later say that before the crash, “I was in the best shape of my life.” The day after the crash Wellington insisted on trying to do a workout on an elliptical trainer at the gym. Her body would have none of it. “She had an infection from the road rash and was taking antibiotics. She couldn’t bear any weight on her leg—it had swelled up and she ended up lying on a couch,” Scott says. “She was shivering.” Scott and Tom Lowe, Wellington’s boyfriend, carried her out of the gym to the car. “She was a wreck,” says Scott. Wellington postponed her departure to Kona, arriving on Saturday one week before the race rather than the planned 10 days. Sponsors were contacted and her media schedule was pared down to a minimum. “We took things day by day,” Scott says of race week. Although Scott and Wellington were buoyed when a test ride showed she would be able to bike on race day, it was during a 4K test swim on the race course that Wellington developed a sharp pain in her chest, and it became progressively worse later in the day. “Injuries from the crash were manifesting themselves into different issues,” Scott says. Wellington tried one final swim in a pool. After 1000 meters she gave up, later explaining that it “felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest.” After Wellington left the pool her active release technique therapist, Mike Leahy, said it was time to go back to the hospital. X-rays were conducted to search for broken ribs and a CT scan was issued to check for the possibility of a pulmonary embolism. Both tests were negative, but doctors thought she’d torn a pectoral muscle. “I told them I thought they were wrong and wanted a second opinion,” Scott recalls saying, in part to dilute negative information that would only work to harm his athlete’s state of mind. With just three days before the start cannon, Wellington’s race became all about the swim. The race plan had in essence boiled down to simply getting through the swim and then taking advantage of three facts: The Ironman is a long day, Wellington still had a tremendous reservoir of fitness to tap into, and she’s Chrissie Wellington, winner of 12 consecutive Ironman starts and three Ironman world championships. Scott knew that originally Wellington would have come out of the water at the 54- or 55-minute mark, and calculated that the new situation would cost her three or four minutes. He watched the women exit, seeing the likes of Mirinda Carfrae, Julie Dibens and Rachel Joyce streaming away on their bikes as the clock continued to tick. “I was tracking all the women,” he says, admitting his concern at the time. “I knew she just had to get through the thing.” Wellington exited in 1:01, slower than Scott had anticipated. Wellington smiled as the crowd acknowledged her, elation that she would at least be able to finish the race. Scott saw the smile. “I had talked to her about how much she feels she owes her fans while racing. She gives them so much during the race in smiling and waving to them. I told her that if this lifts her up and gives her energy, then smile. But I also told her this time around she was going to need every last oxygen molecule and to try to conserve as much as absolutely possible.” Scott said this not only because of the injuries but also because of the competition. “We knew Mirinda was not going to be intimidated by Chrissie,” he says. “Mirinda was the world champion. She was going to do everything possible to deny Chrissie the victory. I have great admiration for Mirinda. Before the race I told her, ‘Let’s have a battle.’ My comments were genuine.” In past victories at Kona and elsewhere, fans were used to seeing Wellington dominate the bike early and command the race through the run. In 2011 Wellington caught Carfrae only in the climb toward the turnaround in Hawi. In her 2010 win, Carfrae broke the run record with a 2:53:32 marathon, averaging 6:37 pace, running the final miles at sub-6:30 pace. In 2011, Wellington went into T2 22 minutes down on the leader, Dibens, and 10 minutes behind Joyce and Leanda Cave, and with the knowledge that the Ironman champion and course run record holder was stalking her. Before the accident, Scott had worked with Wellington on erasing what he felt was her most serious vulnerability: the second half of her marathon. “This has been a huge weakness,” he says. “Chrissie will blast the first half of the run in 1:22 but come back with a 1:30.” In Roth, Scott saw what he wanted to see: fast, even splits, a 2:44 combining back-to-back 1:22 half-marathons. Scott knew that the race dictates strategy and Wellington had to go hard early. But it wasn’t pretty. Despite running sub-6:25 pace in the opening miles of the run, she looked broken to Scott and everyone else watching. “It was an unsightly looking run,” Scott says. “Her left foot and glute weren’t firing. Her form was ghastly.” The smoothness they worked hard to polish was gone. “She was running through pure willpower.” Scott watched as Wellington picked off rivals one by one to assume the lead by the entrance to the Energy Lab, the race boiling down to holding off Carfrae. “Mirinda was running steady and Chrissie started to fade. I watched the lead drop from 5:10 to 3:35,” he recalls. The previous two weeks of pain, healing, anxiety and the tightrope walk of getting to the starting line had finally caught up. “The emotional trauma had taken so much out of Chrissie,” Scott says. “Her body was finally starting to shut down. She just had to hang on.” Carfrae was not having the best day either, reporting afterward that she struggled through the first half of the marathon. But as Wellington began to fade Carfrae poured it on with a 6:12 pace. It wasn’t enough. In fact at 2:52:41 Wellington stole the course run record from Carfrae, a record the 2011 champion would hold less than three minutes as Carfrae recorded a 2:52:09. But despite setbacks that came close to forcing Wellington not to start the Ironman World Championship a second year in a row, she had regained her crown. It was one of the greatest victories in the history of the Ironman. Since 2007, the year of Wellington’s first attempt at Kona and the first time she would routinely crush her competition, Wellington seemed to fly above the greater mythology that possesses the Hawaii Ironman—the idea that only through trial by fire can one develop the inner mettle it takes to even have a shot at the top five. Wellington, of course, is blessed with great physical and psychological talents—what she’s accomplished has not come easy even though she made it look that way. Any questions of how Wellington will react when pressed have been answered: She’ll just go harder. “There are only a handful of champions who have that brand of innate inner calmness to prevail and dig so deep,” says her admiring coach. When asked about the external pressures surrounding her career, Wellington says that no one puts more pressure on her than she does: “I feel pressure from the expectations fans have of me. I also have a desire to achieve great things to inspire and empower people. But ultimately I do this for me. I will never, ever, ever rest until I know I’ve given absolutely everything.” RELATED: Chrissie Wellington To Take Break From Ironman

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admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:54:44 +0000

Reigning four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington announced on her website that she will not compete in Ironman events in 2012 to pursue “other opportunities”. See the news release from her website, Chrissiewellington.org , below and check back to Triathlete.com as we continue to cover this breaking story. Photo: Nils Nilsen Four time World Champion and World Ironman Distance Record Holder, Chrissie Wellington has announced that she’ll be taking a break from competing in Ironman during 2012 to explore other opportunities, including the forthcoming publication of her autobiography, A Life Without Limits . Chrissie, who won her fourth World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, last October and maintained her unbeaten record at Ironman distance – making it 13 victories from 13 races – said of her decision, “I’ve given absolutely everything to Ironman over the past five years. However, this year I’ve decided to take a break as I would like to spend more time focusing on other pursuits including dedicating more time to my chosen charities, the publication of my book and more active promotion of the sport in the UK, as well as giving myself the chance to explore and seize new opportunities within triathlon and outside. I feel that I wouldn’t be able to pursue all of these different goals whilst simultaneously dedicating the energy and time needed to compete in Ironman events and treat them with the respect and complete dedication they deserve. PHOTOS: Chrissie Wellington In Kona The past five years have been absolutely incredible and I am extremely happy, proud and content with everything that I have achieved in the sport – topping it all off with the race of my life in Kona last year. I have always seen triathlon as a part of my life, rather than the be all and end all, and am looking forward to a little more variety and balance by pursuing other interests, as well as spending more time with my family and friends. I am really excited about what the future holds and being able to spend more time around the sport without the commitment of full time ironman training and racing”. RELATED VIDEOS – Chrissie In Kona: The Post-Race Interview Series

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Chrissie Wellington To Take…