Ironman Uk - race report

visit my website to read the report of last weekend's race, ironman uk 2013

My report published on Tri247.com 


& get up early on sunday morning to see it on channel 4 tv!

Ironman UK 2013 Report - Jo Carritt

With heavy rain having fallen through the night, the forecast for the day was typical for Bolton during the summer: sunny spells with high likelihood of rain. The rain started almost exactly at 5:59am – by which time all 1500 athletes were zipped up in their wetsuits, and I was bobbing on the start line with the other pro athletes. With a relatively small group of us, the majority being British athletes who have trained together at some time or other, it felt friendly and relaxed.

The mass of age group racers in the water behind us would start on the same gun, offering a rough start but also the prospect of a good draft when the faster swimmers pass me. Unfortunately the visibility through the water in the Flash is less than the length of an arm, and which adds to the likelihood of an accidental punch in the eye and makes it more difficult to locate and stay on feet. That said, I did a reasonable job, swam strong and was rounding the Australian buoy in 26 minutes. The second lap is a hundred meters or so longer and much more spread out / less frantic – and my total swim time was 56 minutes. A best for me, and on my way into transition a friend yelled to me that I was in fourth. The rain had stopped by then, but considering the forecast I opted to throw on a light rain vest for the ride and had put toe covers on my bike shoes also.

It was not the most slick start to my ride; there are a set of very aggressive speed bumps to negotiate on the road out of the site, which I was well aware of having lost all my drinks to them in when I raced here in 2010. I made it to the very last one this time, going quite carefully to avoid a repeat of that ..and could not believe it when my 500ml bottle made it’s leap for freedom. A nearby spectator offered to run back and fetch it for me…but in my haste to get on the road I declined – I was thinking that I survived in 2010 without a drink, it would be OK. Naturally within about 15 minutes I felt really thirsty, and spent that first 30km riding with an eye out for any discarded bottles that I might stop and pick up in order to wash a gel down with. There were very few people on the road around me, other than the periodic appearance of the film crew’s motorcycle, who informed me that I was in second place. Given that I’d passed none of the other girls on the road, I figured that my rush through transition had paid off and I’d made two places up in doing so. It was worth sacrificing my drinks then! I just hoped that this early deficit would not come back to bite later in the day…and rode “on power” which at this point in the day felt very conservative. 

The UK Ironman bike route consists of an initial point-to-point section of about 30km from Leigh to Rivington, and from there we ride three times around a 50km lap. Each lap starts with the climb up Sheep House Lane, which has a tea house with large garden at the bottom. Perfect for spectators - and so this part of the course was thick with loud and welcome support. I’d managed to pick up a drink at an aid station just prior, the sun was out and I was really enjoying the day. There were a lot of people who knew me out on the side of the road, many of them offering information about my time to the leader, who I now knew to be Lucy. I also knew that it would be unlikely that I’d be making up any time on her, and true enough, each time I had any information that gap was greater. Believing Bella to be somewhere behind me (I was not sure how that had happened as she is by far a stronger swimmer than I, as well as having enormous experience and so unlikely to have stuffed her transition), my prime concern was of not getting caught. I was feeling really good on the bike – not amazingly strong but really in control and comfortable riding at a consistent effort, which on a course like this – with frequent undulations, turns and short steep pulls, is important…and did seem to result in my passing a lot of guys who had bolted off ahead of me early in the ride. 

By the second lap the roads were becoming busier with age group riders at the back of the field – nice to see a few that I knew, but also required a constant focus to pass safely and politely, with frequent need to ask people to move over to the left. I have to confess that this became frustrating for me … I did not wish to take this out on them, but it was hard to stop myself from expressing anger at those who were coming to a complete stop at aid stations and not bothering to move out of the middle of the road. I have to say that the atmosphere on the final lap was much more like a low–key sportive event than a “race” …and I half expected to see some fancy dress along the way. With vehicle traffic building by this time, riders getting tired and loosing focus a bit, I did feel that it was not entirely safe to have racing athletes and “casual completers” on the same stretches of road. This is something that I understand Ironman are aiming to address with the change to a two- lap course here for next year.

At around half way through the ride I was told that I was in fact in third place, and Bella was indeed ahead, but not by too much. I had settled into a pace on the bike and just focused on holding that as the ache in my legs grew – but this news slightly changed my mentality. I figured that if I pushed it a bit more I might be able to limit the gap, and be in sight of her on the run.

This happened sooner than I expected! Having finished the ride in the start of a light showering of rain, and made a very painful 200m barefoot run across the school playground into the indoor transition area, I was told that Bella had left there just two minutes ahead. I felt really good at that point, and although I know well what Bella is capable of, two minutes was a lot closer than I would have expected it to be. I set off on the chase, in the company of my 'third female' bike escort.

Similar to the bike course, the run route begins with a point-to-point from Rivington to the centre of Bolton. I like this aspect of the race – not only is it a net descent, but takes in the canal and allows 10 km to get into a pace without having to make any turn around. With everything still to race for I was careful not to run too fast for those first miles, but did hope I was doing enough to gain on Bella. As it happened, after about only about 2km we passed the second placed female’s bike escort, who was then obliged to ride with me whilst Bella was having a loo stop! Wow! That was easier than I expected, I joked to the camera crew…and sorry to Bella, but picked up my pace to get as far out of sight of her as possible. On a good day she’d run faster than I have ever managed over Ironman and the next time that I saw her, at the turn around onto the lapped portion of the course, she was worryingly close behind.

The support along the Chorley New Road was amazing as we lapped our way up and down the hill three more times….there were many people that I knew from my years of racing on the domestic scene, and I had a couple of friends who had made the trip over from Calderdale especially to ROAR. They were riding up and down the course with encouragement and also some split info. By 25k I was 12 minutes ahead of Bella, but had become aware of Amy Forshaw (from my old tri club and racing her First ironman as a Pro), moving at speed and with apparent ease not far behind her. I reckoned that she was more of a threat to me. I was definitely running scared, which seems to be the best scenario for me in terms of my motivation, but also made me pretty paranoid about any time stopping for aid or the toilet.

Getting through the final 9 km lap was tough, as always, especially knowing that Lucy the race winner was by this time about half an hour ahead of me and would very soon be crossing the line. Fortunately I came upon a friend of mine, who’d passed me early on the bike course but was struggling with pace now. I focused on catching up to him, and we ran together fro a few kms which was a boost for both of us (he eventually secured a Kona slot . With just 2km left to go I asked Caroline for a time check. Ten-to- four…. So I had 10 minutes to cover 2km for a sub 10 hr finish. At the pace I was running I felt this should be possible, and sped up a little. I’m not sure therefore how my calculations went wrong, as I crossed the line in a time of 10:05…in second place…just as the heavens opened and heavy rain set in for the rest of the evening!

This was a best ever placing for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. Although there are aspects of this race that could do with improvement, and it is a tough/slow course, It has improved each year that I return, in particular due to the growth of support that the local community offers on the day. I’ll be back!


Jo is a Skechers ActivInstinct Performance Team athlete, and is proudly supported by Skechers, ActivInstinct, Virgin Active, Timex UK, HUUB wetsuits, Nectar Sports Fuel, Forgoodness Shakes, Specialized and Wings Transport.

race week preparations

Although every race I travel to is a unique experience in terms of the location, degree of access to the courses and other training facilities and nature of my accommodation, there are a few features of my race week preparations that I try to keep consistent. By the time you are on race site there’s very little in the way of training that can improve your fitness for race day, but feeling prepared by following a few key workout outs as “looseners” and to gain some familiarity of the course is essential to get me ready to race. Whist having rigid set of pre-race rituals is not something that I personally believe to be productive - these can verge towards superstition and there is a danger of undermining confidence if it is not possible to observe the “rituals” -  know what works for you in the run up to an event makes planning simple and provides a degree of stability in an often unfamiliar and nerve-wracking environment. 

Here is a short piece that I provided for my Team sponsors Active Instinct on the topic in the form of a race week diary leading into Ironman UK 2013

post DE/pre UK: 2 Ironman, 4 weeks

what to do with 4 weeks between Ironman races?

read the blog that i contributed for Tri247.com   here

i'd like to retract my comment about being "unsupported out there" - the support that I had, both personal and general, was AMAZING!!
thanks so much Bolton, Emma & Ali and others who happened to be there either racing or spectating.

Ironman Germany Race report

I was really lucky with my home-stay allocation, and stayed in a really nice part of the city with a wonderful woman and her daughter who did everything possible to provide the perfect environment for my final  race preparations. As a result I felt unusually relaxed in the days before this race, despite knowing that my placing here in this European Championships would determine my chances of achieving this year’s ambition to qualify for Hawaii. 

Nonetheless, I slept little on the eve of the race, and was wide awake before my alarm was due to go off (this was fortunate for me, since I’d neglected to adjust the time on my ‘phone and would have been an hour late otherwise). The race in Frankfurt has a “split transition”  - meaning that the location of the swim and T1 is some 20km south of the city in a local bathing lake. This adds up to an hour of travel to the start in the morning, and is the one aspect of this fantastic event that I’d wish were different. It makes it more difficult for spectators to watch the spectacle that is the swim start and adds further complication, and time, to the logistics of checking in the bike and equipment on the day before the race, which is far from ideal. That said – the race organisors provided frequent shuttle bus services for athletes and competitors, and it judging by the size of the crowds of support around the lake on race morning, it did not deter too many from making the early morning effort!

I arrived at the start site early as usual, prepared my bike (pump tires, set shoes on pedals, load nutrition, check the brakes weren’t rubbing etc) and then found somewhere to sit and listen to music and watch the scenes of two thousand, five hundred athletes making their preparations. I greeted and wished good luck to a few friends and acquaintances and got in line for one final trip to the porta-loo.  The queues by now were long, and after a 15 minutes stand, I’m having to run to the start (as usual). I seem to have an ability to be rushing at the last second, no matter how much time I have to start with!

It was a deep water start, and there was some confusion amongst the Professional starters as to where exactly the start-line was. It took a while for the water safety patrol to explain that we were already about 500m into the course and persuade the eager athletes to retreat! As the German national anthem played, our group was slowly drifting forwards once more, and we were already virtually swimming when the cannon fired. We were ready!

300 of the fastest amateurs are allowed to start with the professionals, whilst the greater majority of the competitors wait a further 15 minutes for the mass start. With over 100 Pros plus the 300 faster age-groupers, this provided an excellent situation for me – not so many people that it is very rough, but plenty of bodies in the water to assist my swim pacing, sighting and drafting. As a result I completed the 3.8km lake swim, a “figure –of – eight” course with a “land buoy” after 2.1k, in 56 minutes which is a new record for me. (I should, of course, credit my new Huub wetsuit also!)

The run from the lake to transition was a cruelly steep climb up a 200m bank of sand ; certainly a wake-up call for the legs!  Here there is no assistance from volunteers in the transition tents, but there’s not so much to do here when racing in such fine weather : whip the suit off, glasses and helmet on and un to the bike. I’d been swimming in sight of several other pros, hard to tell if male or female (we all had the same yellow caps), which always motivates me to get on my bike fast and pedal it hard!

The 182km bike course starts with a flat 25km on the highway, which has been closed for the event, from the location of the lake to the city centre. The surface is good and this section is a good opportunity to get into a cycling rhythm. I was feeling very good and my Powertap was showing some rather high figures. I suspected that actually there was an error in the offset, actually, but it’s not something that I was able to easily fix whilst riding at such intensity. I do not rely on Power data during the race - it is there as a reference for me and for analysis after the event – but made some calculations as to what I felt the offset could be to ensure that I maintained the same level of output through the next five hours. I was pleased that there were several women on the start list that I have had close finishes to in Ironman races over the season, and that I might be able to use as a gauge of my progress. In particular were Nina and Monique who had pushed me in the last lap of the bike in South Africa and then beaten me on the marathon – which I felt was due to my own poor performance on that occasion. Also Kristin Lie, who had made me fight very, very hard to hold off in the marathon at Wales after she had suffered some very bad luck on the bike course (I’ll mention her again later!).

 Despite featuring 4 climbs in each of two laps, this tends to be a fast course – and there are several reasons for this. All of the climbs are short and steep, but offer long and open descents. Other than these hills, the terrain is generally open and rolling which makes it ideal for the use of disc wheels and every other aerodynamic advantage money can buy. It’s well suited for big powerful riders (which Germany is famed for) and attracts those who excel on the bike and in this terrain; thus it’s somewhat self-fulfilling. Another factor is the great road surfaces and the complete closure of the roads on the route enabling cyclist to take a wide line around corners in safety.  With one notable  exception! “The Hell” is a cobbled section of hill through the town of Hochstade – it’s really hard to ride, but also great fun – I find it difficult not to laugh as we rattle over this short section which is well populated with spectators, of course. It’s important to get into a low gear near the start of this section as it gets steeper and steeper and you cannot let go of the bars to shift with everything rattling around like that!

I felt that I was riding well, and enjoying my first race on the Specialized Shiv that The Sketchers-ActiveInstinct Performance Team has issued me with, though I do perform significantly better on hills than on a very flat course. The conditions were beautifully warm at that time of day, perhaps too warm for some already, but rather windy. There are also many sharp bends through the villages, which I found difficult at speed and noticed that I tended to loose ground on the riders that I could see around me when it came to negotiating these sections. Whether this is that I am still getting used to how the new bike handles, a skill that I am lacking in or just a matter of nerve, I’m not sure- either way, it can only be improved with more practice. Mind you – I did see several guys with torn clothes (including one guy who’d unfortunately ripped the arse right out of his shorts!) and bloody limbs as I rode, so a little caution was justified! 

There was a small amount of to-and-fro with some of the other pro women that I mentioned earlier, but not a great deal. At random locations along the route, my sister and her boyfriend Andy would appear, evidently they were running between points on the course to surprise and give me a huge cheer! As always my legs and neck were feeling more and more painful as the ride went on, but I’d judged my nutrition and liquid intake well and was able to maintain a relatively steady power through the ride, feeling strong throughout. None-the-less, I could tell that I would not be finishing the bike spit faster than I had ridden in 2008, which was a little disappointing considering how much stronger I am not generally on the bike – possibly attributable to the windy conditions (I don’t remember how it was in 2008), slight variation in the route, or the motivation that being in direct contention for the age –group title had provided me with on that occasion.

The bike to run transition was in a different location, near the finish and due to the pre race logistics, we’d not seen the area before. The dismount line caught me by surprise and I was lucky to get my feet out of my shoes and stop the bike in time! I was sure glad to get off it :o)  I knew that there was not much separation between myself and Nina and Kristin at the end of the bike split, but had confidence in my recent run training to post a much improved marathon performance than I have executed in my last few races, and really this was to be my motivation for the whole event.  I knew that I was currently in around 20^th position, and my goal for his race was to a top 10 finish. It was a very hot day, and after a hard bike ride, anything could happen out there. In the next 3 hours things could chance a lot, and I could not afford any doubt that I’d make steady progress with a well-executed run.

The marathon course is, for me, always both the best and the worst part of the day. Of course, starting the 42km foot race in the heat of the, with 185km of racing and a massive calorie deficit already behind you, is really the last thing that you want to do and is always painful - but it also signifies the final challenge of the Ironman, and it is the portion of the race where the athletes receive the most support. In Frankfurt this is particularly so since the whole city, plus the thousands of visitors that accompany the athletes, are out in force to encourage us every step of each of the 4 laps of 10.5km alongside the river Maine.

 I felt great on lap one and had to make an effort to control my pace after the first km. I passed two other Fpros quickly, one of them I recognized as Kirstin, and she was walking; she was in for a hard afternoon. I knew that, as always, things would get tough for me too pretty soon, so I focused on relaxing and not pushing the pace, and to wait and see who else was up the road.  It was getting very hot – and  I could see that this was taking it’s toll on many of the people who were already out on the course when I joined. I wasn’t particularly feeling the heat, and it was tempting to run through the aid stations on my first lap rather than slow to pick up drinks, but I didn’t want to have to deal with the consequences later in the race, so I took drinks at each alternate one. Sure enough the leg ache starts to set in after only 12km or so and after that I start to break the race down into mile-stones: 1/3^rd done (14km) half-way, 3rds, penultimate lap etc. In Ironman the second half of the marathon usually comes down to a mental battle to just get through it, and to that damn line. I had many bad and good patches, my overall pace had dropped and I could tell that I was not going to make my target time, so I focused on staying ahead of those behind and trying to reel in anyone ahead who might be in a similar situation!

My sister and Andy were now positioned on the run course, and had found a location where they could see me as I passed on my way to the most eastern turn-around, and then again about 3km later to relay the information.  I find this incredibly motivating – whether I am in pursuit or being chased and in this case it was a re-enactment of ironman Wales 2012 with Kirstin closing in on me through the first half of the run, but receding further and further behind in the later stages. It was very nice to see other familiar faces out on the course – my home-stay family and their friends, Linda from Easy Bike Transport who carried my bike for me and has been with us on camp, and even the taxi driver who picked me up from the airport!

The last lap was a real struggle – but it was also the last lap!  I only had to endure another 50minutes of this. I started to walk through aid stations – and it was in the last 4km when, doing this allowed one of my competitors to pass me! She was running well and slipped through Lotte and Andy’s radar (by this time in the afternoon, the run course was well populated with people on different laps, making it harder to spot people).  This gave me the motivation to chase hard for the last section, but I was only able to make ground back up on her very gradually, and was still 25 seconds off at the finish line.  This was a disappointment to me of course but it was also a stark lesson; don’t loiter at aid stations!!

I crossed the line in 9hours 50, and in 15^th place.  I had very clear goals for this race, which were to beat my previous best time here and also to rank in the top 10. As the race approached and the starting list grew, the latter became a far more challenging target – but I did believe that on my best day, with full focus it would be possible.  I’m sad that I missed out on achieving the time target by a narrow margin (by 10 minutes - in talking to other athletes, of all standards, the consensus was that it had been a particularly hard day due to conditions. But, isn’t it always?) and a final ranking of 15^th means it’s unlikely that I have a chance to go to Kona this year. But, there are aspects of my performance that I am pleased with, as well as areas that I can see I must do more work. I really enjoyed the course , the race experience that such a Championship event in this wonderful city provides, and the opportunity to compete in a high class field.

In a strangely sadistic way, I’m looking forward to getting back to training and my next racing opportunity in Ironman UK!

King of The Mountains

i've just returned from a month in the Pyrenees, staying with good friends Ian and Julie  at Pyrenees Multisport ...to practice riding up mountains in preparation for the first ever staging of an EverydayTraining camp in the region.
 I have been blogging daily from camp  -here - so you can read what a great time we all had. We had a little bad luck with the weather, though to be fair most of this hit in the week prior to the camp, the knock-on effect was that the lake water temperature was unbearably cold for some, and the pass over the Tourmalet was not yet clear of snow for us to ride through. There's not a lot that we could have done about either of those things - perhaps arrange some pool swimming? - and so in all we view this camp as a great success. It was certainly a bike -oriented camp, with a LOT of riding hours leaving us a lot less time for running or swimming ...i think that with the bike volume that we were doing, a reduced amount of running was sensible .That said, some of the guys DID opt to cut some of their rides short in order to get some longer runs done. We were able to accommodate those variations quite happily - those guys did not "complete" our camp schedule, but made the right training choices for their own needs with respect to upcoming race preparation. "Camp completion" is something that we make a bit more of a thing of on our Endurance camps in Lanzarote ...and we view it as a way to keep the handicapping system that we use for the KOM competition honest....but for a camp in June for Triathletes, we have to appreciate that  there will be guys with different objectives. That said, the KOM races did get every one motivated, and by the end of the week, people were taking it proper seriously!  My self included- having lead it from day 2 ( Steven won day 1, which was awarded on scratch, by being the fastest up the Aspin) and missed out in the finale by a handful of seconds. The points score for each placing increased daily - a reflection of the increasing difficulty in beating an ever more accurate handicap. The final 1km of those latter climbs were very intense with some close finishes. Each rider had to start out slowest first with each at calculated time intervals after. Sometimes that interval seemed impossibly long ...and each of us had to start knowing that they'd not see the guys ahead until those last few hundred meters - and even then only if they had started out sufficiently hard. It was a real mental battle, but having a Powertap sure helps with this!

The final climb in the competition was the Col des Ares - 6.7km long climb up a 700m ( ish) col very close to Pyrenees Multisport base. All of the cycling camps that they host there finish with this known time trial, with the top 10 fastest times proudly on display in their communal dining room, and also on their website . The fastest lady rider also makes it onto the board...and having timed myself riding it "very hard" on a group ride in my first week out there, and fallen almost a minute short...it became a bit of a mission for me! It may seem a bit of a trivial goal for a Pro athlete to have set herself, and yes, I do know a whole peleton of other pro triathletes who could rock up and wipe me right off that board instantly, but it motivated me to do some hard workouts on rainy days and there's nothing wrong with that.  Each week of my 4-week stay I made a point of ending one of my rides with a timed effort up this hill...and managed to know handfuls of seconds off each time. So, on the final day of our camp I had two objectives 1) to catch Paul, who'd set off 1:20 before me, to win the KOM comp and 2) to post a new best female time on the TT.  I was sufficiently please with myself for achieving the latter,  despite failing by 18 seconds to catch Paul.

By that point in the week, it's been 7 consectative days which started at 6:20am getting up to start the and  briefing for the following day over dinner before heading upstairs to work on the blog, publicity, photos and urgent emails until midnight. I'm quite accustomed to early starts, and long training days, but those late nights really dug into me and so by day 6 I was feeling pretty run down with that tell tale sore throat . I knew that the minute we waved goodbye to our campers, it'd hit me ...and so it has. Fortunately I had scheduled a few days off training in order to recover and get fresh for Wimbleball. I had not planned on being ill for 4 days with a chest infection, but it has forced my to really rest up this week, in the hope that my lungs will be better by the weekend. Fingers crossed.

ironman south africa & other related things

It's been toooo long since i've updated this Blog,  I know!!
However, my latest ironman  race report can be found on my website

The plan for this season is to try really, really hard and qualify for Kona this year. The new Kona Points Ranking system that WTC have introduced for professionals racing Ironman has changed the way that the qualification process works for the elites in our sport; it's more significant for some, than others.

To be fair, the previous system made it really too easy for professionals (especially the women, due to the relatively low number of pro females on the circuit at the time) to get to the World Champs - the proof of that being that a 3rd place at IM UK - a great event, but a late season race who's low prize fund attracts few "top tier"athletes - earned me a slot in 2010. So, aside from criticisms of the new system "forcing" athletes to race more, and specifically to race more M-dot events, the ranking system is unlikely to effect those top tier athletes likelihood of qualifying....but makes it a whole lot harder for those of us found hovering on the edge of the podium. If I have to race 5 ironman in a year, as my history shows that's no big deal to me - I love racing, travelling and all that goes with it - but to earn sufficient points for a shot at a race on the Big Island I have to have 5 good days to clock up enough points to make the top 35. I also have to pick my races - and in previous 2 years of this new system, I took little notice of this and raced the races that I like to race and could get to easily and cheaply. Just so happens that those such races carry very low KPR tariff - to the extent that a WIN at UK, Lanza or Wales does less for one's ranking than a 7th place finish at one of the bigger races (in Europe or US).

 Lets' assume that it's a deliberate move toward creating a set of  "non qualification" events  and "tiers" within the pro field....it works. Though I feel it harms these races if they cannot attract the attention of the Kona-focused Ironman community it terms of sponsorship and support. Ironman South Africa was a great example of how fantastic an event can be with solid backing from the local borough and corporate sponsorship. Ironman UK sadly is an example on the other end of the spectrum: the UK events team are top notch, but just don't seem to have the level of support they need.

I certainly wont assume to know all the details and considerations involved in the system, so I'll reel myself in from that tangent.....and get back to how it's relevant to my season's race plans.

Ironman Wales ( last September) was a good race for me and was one of the first opportunities for Pros to earn points towards the 2103 World Champs. Unfortunately, despite being a low tariff race my podium finish earned me a reasonable number of KPR points and a good boost of confidence to take to Ironman WA.
Ironman Western Australia carries twice the number of points as Wales, and with a 6-weeks camp in Perth prior to the race I had great preparation in the run up. Things went a bit pear-shaped in the last 10 days before the race, screwing up my "taper" and that combined with maybe a bit too much load in general through the year resulted in an on-course burn out. Still - I finished and actually collected more points than I had at Wales.

I took winter off to fully recover and get over 2012...before begging preparations for Ironman SA in April. As a P2000 event, like Bussleton, this was another chance to score some good points. Training has been going well since picking it back up in 2013, and I was optimistic about this one. As you'll read in the race report - it was another disappointing finish  -10th place! - thus my plane ticket comes out of savings,  and I earn fewer points than i would have liked. Still more than Wales though!

So, 3 races down and 2 left. A look at the ranking table today shows i'm still in the game - but very much border line. Which of course I realised from the start. Ironman Frankfurt in July is a p4000 race  -that means it carries double the points of WA or SA and 4 times that of Wales! So a good race there should seal it for me...and i have some exciting plans for a few tweaks to my training, which starts from monday! My family are booking accomodation in Kona, so the pressure really is ON ;o)

Everyday Training Camp in Lanzarote

I am currently out in Lanzarote for the 3rd year of our EverydayTraining Endurance Camp.
you can read daily blogs from camp here:

http://www.joannacarritt.co.uk/everydaytraining/blog/Entries/2013/3/11_EDT_Camp_Lanzarote__DAY_2.html