Updates updates updates

Fiona, 10 days later than planned gave birth to a baby boy. Rory weighed in at 8.9 and is already on the waiting list for Driven To Tri domination. Fiona swam 1.7k 2 days before the birth and is raring to get back in the water now.

At the Europeans Daz won her age group Nicola T finished 3rd along with Vicky, Tracey finished 5th in her Age group whilst Bill also had a good race.

Jack’s threesome.....We’ve been a bit worried about Jack recently with his wedding planned, stag do consigned to the history books and ‘THE’ curfew! Concern rose to such levels that the French trip has been put on hold and Harry will be returning to deliver his Best Man’s speech at the wedding. In the meantime, the D2T team took care of him at the Summer Sizzler triathlon in Poole. The boys took all three slots on the podium. Marcus, the least experience of the three on top; Jack in the middle and Steve bringing up the rear. We’ll censor and then publish the pictures!

Over in Ireland Dave took care of business, knocking 16 minutes off his time from last year at the Hell of the West triathlon and moving up nearly 100 places in the overall rankings. Jane also had a good nearly breaking the 3 hour mark.

Soon to be D2T athlete (if Rory doesn’t snap up his place) Javier had a good race at Cowman but is looking forward to going much faster later in the season. Nathan didn’t have the same success, being forced to pull out on the run but we’re sure he’ll come back stronger for Antwerp

Ryan has been up holding the Driven To Tri off road reputation whilst Jim has been off with a sick note and Julie’s been concentrating on tarmac. Ryan had a solid race at xterra Czech before winning the Afan off road tri by 5 minutes with a 6 minute improvement on last years result.

The Ian and Di head to head battle rages on. Di was first up this time with the women’s only race at Eton over ¾ Olympic distance. Despite bonking on the run Ian couldn’t match her time over the same course a week later. Di maintains her unbeaten record going 3 nil up. Not to be outdone by her parents Emily took part in the scootathon finishing 3rd in her age group and securing the best result by an under 10 for driven to tri this year. Watch out Emily, Rory will be practicing his scooting shortly!

Also at Eton Nathan put his demons to bed from the week before with a solid result.

At Bournemouth Nicola M finished 2nd after flying in from altitude for the race…very pro! Emma proved she’s the pocket rocket on the bike at least with the second fastest ride of the day despite “nearly being drowned” in the swim; we just need to put her good swim days and good bike days together now. Steve had a solid race and an awesome bike split, Marcus continued his domination of the boys and jack was too busy being nervous about his wedding.

Back in Ireland Jane, Joyce and Dave have been proving they can do more racing than we can do blog updating. They towed the line at Loch Ine. Joyce finished second 2nd, Dave took 4 minutes off his time from last year and Jane got around on a tough day.

At Portland’s race to the Bill Becky was 3rd with the fastest run split for the girls, South West academy athlete Niall managed to finish second overall.

Other results: Jill took 1st at the Property triathlon whilst Rhys finished his build up to the national sprint champs on Saturday with a win at his local race.

Phew thats me done, hopefully more wins to report after the weekend, ideally i'll be telling you how Pete and I nailed the french grand Prix.

Two Mad Men and Me!

I am staying in a flat in the South of France with two completely mental blokes; one of which is obsessed with stoats and badgers, the other who keeps trying to feed me snails!
Harry seems to be obsessed with hats, and insists that his hat game is strong! He has so many with him and still can never find the one he wants. So this morning he had to settle for his pink headband, which he pulled his hair out of and made a very good impression of a pineapple!
Along with the vast number of hats that these two have there is also a huge collection of Brooks trainers, all of which apparently we are taking up a mountain for a pick nick/ party tomorrow!
Between our training sessions which involve sparring on poolside, jumping through raging torrents and dodging the red squirrels, there is time for filthy cake, coca cola and gout!
The cooking of evening meals is on a rota, there have been some cooking sensations! And there is always a filthy pudding to end the meal. But as there are 3 of us, and things are sold in packs of 4, there have been a fair few domestics between Pete and Harry over the last pudding. I steer well clear of it, and just sit watching them in their domestic, it is rather entertaining.
These two weeks have been very good, extremely hard work. But it has taught me a lot. Like how I need to (and can) stick to the wheel in front and cover the gaps. See Harry I have been paying attention. But I have also been taught some other important things, such as the importance of having a good hat game, that there is no end to the different forms of slop that can be made (things added to pasta), that runs can be made much more entertaining when there is a roundabout with metal dears in the middle for Harry to sit on, or a gate for everyone to flip over; though with me having rather short legs I got stuck!
The most important thing I have learned on this trip is that to be a tri-athlete you need to be completely mental! I thought I had a fair few screws loose before I came here, but two weeks with these two has shown me I still have most of my marbles, for now!

Editors Note: A second place at Bournemouth less than 24 hours after getting back from camp suggests Nicola did learn a little more than just the importance of a good hat game!

Ironman Switzerland Results in!

Jackie Davies -- 23rd in womens 40-44 category ion 12:34:59. 3.8km swim in 1:09:12, 180k bike in 6:11:08 and 42km run in 5:07:53. Great result!

No direct news from the girl herself, presume she is out teaching the Swiss how to party.

Chocolate milk and compression clothing!!

Well done Jackie -- we look forward to your story!

Jim and the team.

Jackie Davies at Ironman Switzerland

Hi Fellow World Dominators!

If you're really bored and it's raining on Sunday you could always track my progress in Zurich at Ironman Switzerland! Click on the first link below and look for the link to the Athlete Tracker. If that doesn't work, try the second link below. My race number is 1322.

We start, subject to weather, at 7am - Swiss time - see below for my projected times (fingers crossed)

0700 Swim start

0810 Transition 1

0815 Bike

1430 Transition 2

1435 Run

1915 Finish

1930 Jacuzzi!

2200 Sleep

http://ironman.com/news

http://ironman.com/ironmanlive/racedaycoverage/livetrackinginfo

Otherwise, I shall regale you of my exploits in my next missive when I'm back!

Love

Jack xx

Bronze at ETU's for Vicki Wade!

Vicki went to Holland last weekend.

The race was pretty hard .. nosebleed from a kick in the swim, hillier bike than Holland usually offers and a tummy issue that made the run a challenge.

But Vicki is a true Driven To Tri athlete .. well 'ard .. she raced through well to grab the Bronze medal in the Womens 40-44 category.

Well done Vicki .. you are well on track for the Worlds in Australia. :-)