End of the Season, IMWA

It's that time of year!!

• Do an Ironman (Check)
• Have a break ( In the process )
• Enjoy Christmas and the New year (You know I will)
• Start training and racing locally here in Western Australia. (already excited)

This year has had it's up and down's. But as I reflect on it, it's still been our best year yet!

We had a few up and down races. But Kate won 70.3 Busselton in May (Now she's done the double, Ironman Western Australia and 70.3 Busselton) I went faster than I've ever been Over 70.3 and Olympic distance and started Xterra racing with success.  So I'm still going faster over every distance!! "Can't frown at that"!!!

We went from coaching a few people to starting our business "GK Endurance" and it's really taken off. We have a GREAT crew of athletes training with us and they each bring there own piece of awesomeness to the table!! I'm super excited about the future for them and us.

We have a fabulous group of sponsors!! These sponsors have supported us through thick and thin and we really are lucky to have such a great group of people behind the products! Thanks also to our supporters and family joining us on this Triathlon, Coaching, and training camp Journey into 2015.

70.3 Taiwan

Going back 5 weeks now!! So I'll make it short!!

We arrived back from the USA via NZ and spent 3 days in Perth before heading off to Taiwan.
I love racing in Taiwan, We stay in this cool resort called YOHO (I think part of the movie "Life of Pi" was filmed at the Resort, or so I have been told)
We did some pre race exploring out to the night markets. One word "mental" describes it.
All types of food, LOADS of people and tents for miles, each with there own twist on the food they were selling.
The race itself went well, I tried my hardest to break things up in the swim but to no avail. We stayed in a group of 5, with one Frenchman breaking away towards the end of the swim. He stayed off the front on the bike but suffered for his efforts on the run!!, The rest of us stuck together and it became a running race. Heading out onto the run with this calibre of runner I knew I had to start easy and hope some-one crumbled!! I was very happy with the way I ran on this course, It's hot and slow. I think Cameron Brown is one of the first guys to break 1:20 (very impressive). I finished off the day in 4th and was happy with the performance!! If only Freddie slowed up a bit more!!

Name	Country	Div Rank	Gender Rank	Overall Rank	Swim	Bike	Run	Finish	Points
Brown, Cameron	NZL	1	1	1	00:28:31	02:13:39	01:19:58	04:05:44	3500
Marais, Stuart	ZAF	2	2	2	00:28:33	02:13:46	01:20:46	04:06:38	3483
Croneborg, Fredrik	SWE	3	3	3	00:28:29	02:13:50	01:26:29	04:12:21	3380
Crawford, Guy	NZL	4	4	4	00:28:26	02:13:45	01:27:52	04:13:48	3354
Debiltriathletecaux, Victor	FRA	5	5	5	00:32:05	02:14:41	01:26:42	04:17:03	3296

After this we came back to Perth and supported our GKEdurance athletes at Mandurah 70.3. Followed by preparing for a camp we were running in Busselton in the lead up to IMWA.
The camp was great, not only for the athletes that attended but for us as coaches. We broke some boundaries and I'd like to think each athlete came out of the camp knowing a little more about themselves. I don't think Kate or I will be known for putting on easy camps!!(If you come, be prepared) Work hard, rest easy!!

IMWA

For me, This was going to be a tall task for us. We have been training but we've not had the base training we would have liked coming into IMWA for a variety of reasons. I was fit, but was I Ironman fit??. I wasn't sure but I happily rolled the dice. I still think it could have gone either way (really well or lots of suffering) I finished 9th pro and that wasn't bad, but I thought I had a top 5 in me. Thats not to take away from the guys who finished in the top 5, they were simply better on the day and hats off to them!!
What I am excited about is with limited training time leading into Busso, I managed to knock myself into decent shape and I'm already excited to get back racing. (which can only be a good sign) I'm hungry for more!!

Our team of athletes were amazing. They kept on trucking and each of them got to that finish line.
We were very proud coaches and it bought tears to our eyes on more than one occasion. Seeing people achieve there goals is very emotional. Well done team!!

That brings me to today, I'm sitting in Margaret River (wine country) and once I stop typing this, I think that's what I'll do. Have a red, sit back and relax for a few days. Kate and I also have some planning to do for next year!! Needless to say we will be racing Ironman,s 70.3's a few Olympic's and I'm going to dive into some more XTERRA races!!! But for now it's time to have a week off!!

Thank-you for another awesome year!!
See you soon

Guy