ok, lets do this. I have started to write so many times, but always struggled to find the flow, and now I’ve got so far behind, my excuse is that I don’t know where to begin. Therefore, to cut through the crap, I am simply going to begin right here and see where it goes. My apologies for whatever mess follows, there will be no funny opening lines, no deep meaning and no real sense, but I need to start somewhere and hopefully if I kick off the writing now, will eventually get back to some sort of order.

It has been months since I’ve written my blog, last time I uploaded was just after my first race of the season in June last year. Lots has happened since then, I’ve just been too lazy to write. Well no, that’s not true exactly, laziness is certainly a big factor but also the fact that the race plans kept changing, and also the highs of qualifying versus the lows of my first DNFs meant feelings were all over the place.

I may try to actually get around to writing race reports for last year but until then a brief synopsis

1. in June I raced HIM Japan 70.3, and somehow snagged a spot for the Half Ironman World championships in Lahti in August. That was detailed in my last blog post
2. in July I went to Spain and competed in IM Vitoria, and despite my worst ever full distance result, picked up a roll down spot to the Ironman World Championship in Nice. The World Championship had always been held in Kona, but due to the massive increase in qualifiers, the powers that be decided to split the men and women’s race, with men in Nice, and women in Kona (alternating over the next 4 years). Unfortunately the pull of World Championship in Nice was nowhere near the legendary pull of Kona, and many athletes weren’t interested to attend. Thus I snagged a roll down spot.
3. This meant I had to make a decision, as it was too tough to go to Lahti 70.3 WC in August and few weeks later head to Nice for the full. I decided to forgo the 70.3 and go for glory in Nice instead…
4. Despite hopes and (some) hard training, Nice ended in a DNF. As I mentioned earlier I will try to get a race report done, however basically I came in at the end of the bike leg thinking I had missed the cut off, and even though I was told I was just inside the required time, my head had gone and I declined to go on to the run. While that seemed the right decision at the time (especially as it was questionable if I could finish the run within cut off), a few days later and I was furious at myself for giving up, getting my first DNF, and losing what was probabley my only chance of receiving an Ironman World Championships medal, and all the kudos that goes with it

My rather lonely bag at T1 – Ironman World Championsho in Nice

The upshot of all this was first going deep in to negativity. I had basically shown that I wasn’t good enough and I felt I proved everyone right who had said that the roll down should not go to people like me. Even though I maybe slow I had never failed  at a race before. Even though I maybe somewhat unconventional and appear socially inept at times, generally in my life I have never side stepped a challenge and always managed to finish whatever I have set myself, but this time, when on the biggest stage, I had timidly given up.

Meh, I wallowed in self pity and self loathing. But that gets boring after a while, so I decided to pick myself up, put a plan together and start again! Although that plan didn’t go exactly to plan – my week swim training camp at Club La Santa in December was interrupted when I was hit on the second day with norovirus, meaning I only actually managed a total of 5 training sessions all week. Then I came down with Covid (or something similar to Covid, I never checked) over new year holiday week, which knocked me out for the following week too. Finally I discovered I had dislocated my shoulder and I needed to work around the physio and rehab that goes with that.

However, I am now back in Japan and training is going pretty well (cross fingers, touch wood, chase a black cat under a ladder with a four leaf clover). I joined the (ridiculously) early Monday morning swim squad, which I surprisingly really enjoy, and means my week kicks off with a real bang. My running has started to return to what it was pre Achilles injury in 2019 (although still a long way to go), and I just came back from a fast and hard outdoor training ride that seems to indicate some improvements on my bike too.

So, there we go. I have written my first blog in almost a year, I caught up with what’s happening, and now I can start writing regularly, and in real time. I bet you’re all excited about that aint ya?

PS – big kudos to my fellow blogger Padraig, https://theohtawaramarathonproject.wordpress.com/, who just uploaded 3 race reports at once which gave me the nudge to sit down and write this.