Hello From Down Under

Quick update from South Western Western Australia, yes that is what this region is called! Drove down to Margaret River yesterday after packing up and leaving Busselton.

Quick report from Sunday's Ironman race, Chris did AMAZINGLY well (as requested by me due to the cost of the trip!). Weather conditions were perfect, warm but overcast. We hadn't had much sleep as Kofi had woken us all at 1am and that was that for the night. By the time we got the start area at 5am, that was all forgotten. The day was already long!


































The swim start gun went off at 6am, mass start of 1000 competitors swimming the length of the 2km jetty and back down the other side. Chris came out of the water in 1 hour 3 minutes, setting the scene for a day of PB's. He cycled half the 180km bike course with bestest mate and ironman mentor Simon, finishing the bike in 5 hours and 31 minutes. He looked strong heading out on the run, and finished the marathon 42.2km in 3 hours and 53 minutes.

Total time 10hrs 28mins, knocking 47 minutes off his Ironman PB.

Simon also did brilliantly, (but don't tell him as he is big-headed enough already), finishing in 10hrs and 57 minutes, only walking the final few metres of the 300m finish shute as he had Seb n' Sid in tow. Also a massive PB and as chuffed as Chris.




UK friend Bryan was competing in his first Ironman and did really well finishing in 11hrs and 47 minutes, running up to the finish with Matthew and Luke. Indie and Kofi enjoyed having their mates from the UK out in Oz with them for a couple of days and it was nice having Nanette as well as Shilpa around for the long Ironman day.



We all met up at about 9.30pm back at the beach flat for race chat and chill out.....all the three boys were so, so happy with their day's work, as they should have been. Us three Iron-widows were really pleased for them all, and secretly a bit glad it was all over at last!!

We are now in Margaret River for a few days, it's still cloudy, but hey, better than back home so I am not not moaning! Off to a historic winery this morning for lunch and a bit of wine tasting.

Off to Ironman Western Australia

Chris' 40th birthday in May seems so long ago.....but the time has finally come for him to 'enjoy' his present!

We leave tomorrow night for Malaysia to spend the weekend with Simon, Shilpa and their boys in Kuala Lumpur. On Monday, we fly onto Perth where we hire a big car to get us and the bike down to Busselton. We will finally arrive in Busselton next Wednesday. Chris' Ironman race is on Sunday 2nd December, starting at 6am. If you want to track his progress or our friends Simon Cross, Sam Pritchard or Bryan May, you can via Ironman Live. http://ironmanlive.com/ Remember the time difference, hopefully Chris will be well into the marathon by the time the UK is waking up!

Good luck Chris - love Chantz, Indie and Kofi xxx

Turbo Dad

Last weekend before we head to Oz and Chris got the whole family involved in his last minute training......

My Little Darlings

HELLRUNNER

Along with 2500 other runners, I competed in the Hellrunner race last Sunday at Longmoor Army Training Camp in Hampshire. The weather has been pretty dry recently so I think the course was probably alot more managable than it could have been. It was however still 10-12 miles (they won't tell you long far you have to run, part of the charm of the race or something) of trail running with lots of steep sandy slopes, muddy banks, huge muddy puddles, the odd rock, The Bog of Doom, the ravine bog and an extra bog for luck. Wading through freezing cold stinking black sludge past your waist, lovely! Paul and I ran as a team, which really just meant he had to keep waiting for me every now and again to catch up.....he did beat me across the line by 1 second...but to be fair I think his victory was somewhat unintentional. (Paul 1.55.47, Chantal 1.55.48)



Meanwhile Chris spent the weekend doing hardcore Ironman training, an 88 mile bike followed by an hour's run on Saturday and a 1 hour bike followed by a 3 hour 10 minute run on Sunday. Quite sensibly, he had refused to take part in Hellrunner due to the high injury risk, and judging by the state of some of the competitors in the first aid area, this was a wise decision.

That's the final race for me in 2007 and Chris is now only 3 weeks away from his Ironman in Western Australia....

Kofi Doing Fine

Kofi has been really brave about his broken collar bone and adapted to life with one arm amazingly well.... as you can see! Meanwhile Indie and Chris made their customary Halloween pumpkins.....This Halloween also marked 16 years since the day Chris and I got together. Oh my god, how did that happen? (It being 16 years, not getting together!)

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Pool's gone and Kofi breaks his collar bone...

Kofi managed to fracture his left collar bone yesterday morning by falling off the sofa (onto carpet?!). He has his arm in a sling now for between 4-6 weeks. He's been pretty brave about it all but was a bit frightened by the x-ray machine at the hospital. Some good news is that the last remnants of the pool disappeared yesterday when the final landscaping in that area was done. The garden seems HUGE now. (That's our posh new bath in the wooden crate on the patio!)

Seeing Sue & Fru in Edinburgh

Had last weekend away in sunny Edinburgh catching up with Sue and Francis before their baby arrives in a few weeks time. Sue looks absolutely gorgeous although she adamantly refused to believe me! Their new flat is being completely gutted but you can still tell it is going to be an amazing place to live, right in the heart of Edinburgh. Indie and I are planning a girl's trip in February to meet baby Daunt....

India is 6!

Indie had a girl's day out in London just before her birthday, meeting up with my mum and sister Sasha. She had a trip to Hamleys where she got to build a bear (well rabbit actually) and choose some other presents and then lunch at Rainforest cafe. We walked everywhere with me trying to point out exciting sights and places, and ended up in Covent Garden watching the street entertainers before then getting the train from Charing Cross back to Kent.

On her actual birthday, she had to go to school but in the afternoon we met with some of her friends at an indoor adventure play centre. They had a great time and the particularly gorgeous Bratz cake got eaten in a flash! Happy Birthday Indie!

New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon (1.9km swim, 92km bike, 22km run)

We headed to the New Forest early Saturday morning after dropping Indie in Walmer with friends and Kofi in Whitstable with some more helpful and triathlon-understanding friends.

After an easy registration and early briefing, we set the tents up on a campsite a couple of miles from race HQ and spent the afternoon lazing about, comtemplating what lay ahead on Sunday and winding Paul up. Managed to hardly sleep at all on Saturday night, combination of being in a tent, gripey stomach and a little worried about not really being prepared. Got up at 5am and managed to not eat anything at all. I am getting quite good at doing pretty long days competing on a completely empty stomach.....however, not ideal! Must learn to EAT & SLEEP before races......

Having dreaded the swim, it went pretty well, kept a really good line to all the buoys and came out of the water in 33 mins so was chuffed with that. Out onto the bike and experienced some of the prettiest cycling ever, the early morning light dappling through the New Forest trees and lighting up the dew everywhere.....it would be hard not to enjoy that...and then there were the animals wandering across the roads, had a hairy encounter with a huge cow who actually forced me off the road! There were pigs, donkeys, ponies, cows and partridges on the roads all round the course, and they don't care about your PB!

Came off the bike in just over 3.5 hours which I was pleased with as meant a 16 mile an hour average over a course of hills, undulating stretches and some headwinds. Unfortunately Chris was cheering me from the roadside at T2 which meant he had to quit the race. He had hurt his back on Friday morning and had said he would quit if it was still bad while racing (to save completely screwing it up prior to Australia IM). He had done an amazing swim before he stopped, about 28 mins and did the first bike lap with a 19 mile/hour average. He would have had a great result if he hadn't had to stop.

Out onto the run, now here's the funny bit....first hill, couldn't even walk up it, so bloody steep, managed to stumble up the sand and tree roots, thinking 'they are having a ********* laugh'. Kind of set the scene for the next 22km's, although the last 4 were on tarmac I think....was almost dead by that point so can't really remember. Had nasty stomach gripes and nausea the whole of the run, have never felt that miserable running before. It would have been a really tough half marathon, even if I had felt fine and my legs weren't about to drop off, all in all, a bit of a mental challenge to get to the finish. I was consoled that all the fit looking blokes around me looked equally as bombed, some even worse! Indeed, a massive relief to finally finish. Consoling again, to find Jason and Paul moaning as much as me about it! Group moaning, very good post race therapy!

Eventually stopped feeling sick enough to pack up the tents in the rain and endure the hideous 5 hour Sunday night drive back to Kent. A great weekend in a sadistic way. Some friends back here only ever seem to say to me 'Why would you put yourself through that for fun?'......a question I can't ever seem to ever eloquently answer. However, I know for sure, some of you reading this will understand....

Jason 5.51.42
Paul 6.10.10
Chantal 6.36.35
Chris DNF

Kofi is 3!

Kofi had a fantastic 3rd birthday yesterday. Nanny Julie and Grandad Dave came for the day and took Kofi and Chantal out for a lovely pub lunch. In the afternoon, Kofi's mates all came for a bounce in the garden and a play on his new tractor. Lots of tractor cards, tractor cake, tractor presents.....let's hope he doesn't go off tractors anytime soon!

The Vitruvian

We headed to Rutland Water on Friday afternoon with Jason, Sara, Izzy, Tom, Paul and Purna for a spot of camping by the lake in readiness for the early race start on Saturday morning. The Vitruvian this year was also the Middle Distance National Championships and consisted of a 1.9km swim, 85km bike and 21km run.

Luckily we had good weather (which lasted all weekend), and Chris was definitely ready for the early gun on Saturday morning since our kids had decided to get up at 4.30am!

Jason's wave started and Chris went about 10 minutes later at 7am. The swim seemed to be over in a flash (well, for us spectators!) and they headed out onto the two lap bike course. Just enough time for us to head back to the tents for tea and a fried egg buttie. Chris didn't look totally relaxed when we saw him half way through the run but appeared far more comfortable during the second run lap round the lake. (Turned out he spent the first few miles running feeling very sick and dodgy, all those rolling hills on the bike?) Jason looked very composed which was great as he had spent all week feeling rotten and hadn't been able to run properly for the last few weeks due to an injury.

Jason finished in 5.11.51 (41.13, 2.46.30, 1.38.24) with Izzy in tow
Chris flew in a few minutes later in 5.02.56 (35.21, 2.42.33, 1.41.40) with Indie and Kofi

Paul and I then did a lap of the bike course in the afternoon (for fun? no, got New Forest tri in two weeks and bit behind on the old training as usual!) before an evening of cider, chilli and tired legs by the tents. Had a nice amble round the lake this morning with Purna before a speedy journey back to reality in Kent.