<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Steve Trew - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by Steve Trew on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Trew's Olympic Watch: Let's dream a little...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3566.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[So now we actually know who&#039;s going to the Games for Great Britain in 45 days time. Helen Tucker&#039;s stunning victory at the World Championships may well have turned the wisdom of the cogniscenti on their heads and made for some rapid re-evaluations of individual athletes&#039; chances. But let&#039;s not start bigging up Helen and touting her as an Olympic medallist; that&#039;s purely unfair and puts unwanted pressure on her. Indeed, as Helen more than ably demonstrated at Worlds in Vancouver, on any given day in any given race ... anything can happen.

Let&#039;s also not put Helen down. The circumstances that led to her even being on the start line in Vancouver would put even my triathlon fictions to shame. She overcame amazing (not an exaggeration here) difficulties and setbacks to be even racing this season.

And now she&#039;s won Worlds; eat your heart out!

Helen and Hollie Avil make up our British women&#039;s team while Alistair Brownlee, Will Clarke and Tim Don (veteran status!?) take the three men&#039;s slots. Why two women yet three men? Well, Britain&#039;s world ranking wasn&#039;t quite good enough to be allocated three women&#039;s slots and much of the reason for Helen being at Worlds at all was to try to raise that ranking and help Liz Blatchford to get to Beijing. And it was so close, truly so close.

To put this into perspective, it should be said also that Australia. surely one of, if not the, powerhouse over the last 20 years, has only managed two slots for their men.


&quot;The old order changeth,
Yielding place to new, 
And God fulfils himself in many ways, 
Lest one custom should corrupt the World&quot;.


Something like that, anyway!

And if the World of triathlon is changing, surely that is more than ably demonstrated by the British contingent. Tim Don is going to his third Olympic Games! Who said triathlon was just a passing phase, that it wouldn&#039;t last. I certainly haven&#039;t done my research here, but the only other name that springs to mind to be on their third Games is 2000 winner Simon Whitfield. Who am I missing? Good man, Tim. No, better than that, fantastic, absolutely fantastic.


&quot;Age cannot wither (him),
Nor custom stale (his) infinite variety&quot;.
(Sorry for the change of sex, William Shakespeare)


And if Tim has achieved that mythical veteran status, (on your knees and genuflect you guys..) how do we place Alistair Brownlee at 20 years old and Hollie Avil at 18 years? I raved about Hollie in a previous article for this website, and nothing has happened to make me change my mind; youth, inexperience, lots to learn; all that. Oh yes, and her results on her World Cup starts? Oh yes, forgot about that...

As with Helen, let&#039;s not fall into the temptation of making Hollie an Olympic favourite; but also as with Helen, let&#039;s give her the respect she deserves because you know that the competing triathlon world certainly will.

Alistair Brownlee: he wins Worlds (second time actually) and then says, &quot;Oh, I did alright out there; it felt OK&quot;. I bet it did! Add an U23 Worlds to a previous junior title, stir in an Olympic slot, and I bet it felt OK.

Will Clarke, coming off of a Commonwealth Games already (as is Helen Tucker) and that multisport Games experience does give you an advantage. It&#039;s great being at a triathlon World or European Championships but when you see all the other sports around it creates a much bigger picture and puts a lot of things into perspective.

So... Tim Don, very much the &quot;old man&quot; of the team in his late twenties (I have tremendous memories of Tim as a junior athlete gradually working his way through the ranks before that memorable victory at Junior Worlds in Lausanne back in 1998 when Simon Lessing also won the senior version for Great Britain).

Helen and Will in the early twenties (and what a devastating impact Will has made in his three years racing as a senior, many athletes take those three years just to settle in at the new level), and Hollie and Alistair as youngsters! Britain must, surely must, be going in these Olympic Games with the youngest contingent of triathletes of any country? Prove me wrong someone!

Britain have had amazing success at World Championships over so many years in all categories, but we have not yet, at the two Olympic Games so far, had a major impact. Is Beijing going to be the one that breaks the mould?

Maybe, maybe, maybe... But we said we wouldn&#039;t apply the kiss of death to our athletes, so who is likely to feature?

If we look at how both senior races at Worlds developed both this and last year, it&#039;s obvious that the way the race (indeed, any race) pans out will have significant impact on who is likely to be in the frame. In the women&#039;s event both times there has been a break on the swim and the hammer going down at the start of the cycle section. This year Helen and Sarah Haskins were prepared to take the hurt and break and build on that; last year the strong American impact ensured that Emma Snowshill (AUS) was too far back off of the bike to be able to catch Vanessa Fernandes (POR) although she did take silver in front of Laura Bennett&#039;s bronze. (An apology here, I called the race saying that the American athletes worked as a team unit and kept the bike pace high so that Laura Bennett could sit at the back and save her legs for running... I was wrong! No teamwork there, just the way it panned out).

So, can we expect a swim and maybe a bike break at the Olympic Games? Hesitantly I say yes, and hesitantly I say it will create big advantages for our two athletes, Hollie and Helen with this scenario. Both can swim with the lead pack, both are prepared to work their butts off on a hard-working bike group, and both can run off a hard bike. The smart money will go on Snowshill and Fernandes of course, and maybe Bennett if it develops as our little fantasy wants it to; but we have seen how different the Olympics are. Indeed, we saw a most unusual finishing slot for Fernandes at this year&#039;s Worlds. And now Haskins has made the US team; potentially another good omen for Helen and Hollie.

Haskins is a front-end triathlete, willing and able to push the swim and the bike, but significantly her running this year has come on more than a couple of notches. With Haskins in the field, it is likely to be an &quot;honest&quot; race. Athletes working from the start on all three disciplines and not relying on a big run after a pack swim and bike.

Strange things happen in the big races. How many people out there put money on Dan Unger to win Worlds in 2007? Maybe just a few based in Hamburg, almost certainly no-one else. And Gomez was the man who paid the price for that unbelievable surge of adrenalin that took Unger to a most unexpected (think &quot;Helen Tucker&quot; 2008 here) World title.

Not too many would have put money on Kate Allen running down Loretta Harrop in the 2004 Athens Games, but she did and she is now the reigning Olympic champion; and has qualified to defend that title in Beijing. Kate is originally from Geelong (my favourite city), just west of Melbourne and qualifies to represent Austria by marriage and residency. Kate came off a long distance triathlon background to take that Olympic title and is back for Beijing.

Will there be a swim break in the men&#039;s event? Or a bike break? Attempting to pre-guess race scenarios, particularly in the Olympic Games can, and will, make fools of us all. But, but, but, is there a likelihood of any men getting away? There&#039;s always that likelihood but in contrast to the women, to this observer, it seems unlikely that there are enough men swimmers willing and able to make that early break. Getting away on the bike has become increasingly unlikely in the men&#039;s races at ITU World Cup level. How many came off the bike together at this year&#039;s Worlds? Thirty? Forty? So maybe the run isn&#039;t exactly a lottery, but the chances of winning may be cut drastically if you aren&#039;t a proven runner. The British men had three in the top ten at last year&#039;s Worlds, and all three for the Games can certainly run well off of any bike discipline, easy or hard. They&#039;ve proved it and they&#039;ve done it.

But so can Gomez, so can Docherty, so can Whitfield (that WOULD be a fairy tale, wouldn&#039;t it? Win your second Olympic title eight years after the first... Did Ed Moses do it at 400m hurdles? My mind says yes, but my mind plays tricks with memories. Maybe I just wanted him to...]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The laws of Trew]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2229.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[One: This may not be the truth
There are tried and tested principles of training which have been applied to triathlon. However, everyone is an individual and any single particular method of training may not apply to you as an individual. Some people thrive on long, slow distance training; some cannot live without their daily fix of intervals or high quality work; some triathletes rarely need rest while others may find that every other day is sufficient for massive improvement. You are an individual and will have an unique way of training which is best for you alone. What have been set out are general principles; for you, they may not be the truth.

Two: Suck it and see
The law of suck it and see means exactly that. Be prepared to try out new methods of training and see if they work for you. Perhaps the way that you have been training - for all the principles that say that they should be correct - don&#039;t work for you. Be adventurous, don&#039;t get stuck in that rut of every week, every month, every year being the same. Try something new, suck it and see, you never know... ...you might just like it.

Three: The KISS principle
KISS stands for, &quot;Keep It Simple, Stupid&quot;! Sometimes we can get so bound up in any new-fanged theories of training that we lose sight of the basics; the harder you train, the better you get, (and that, of course, is an oversimplification). We read about this new method or that, we hear that the latest superstar swears by a certain regime or that so and so only trains at low intensity or the new kid on the block won&#039;t walk down the street without a heart rate monitor. Well, that&#039;s fine; we all want to be the best that we can be, but don&#039;t get so bound up in new developments that we lose sight of where we&#039;re going.

Four: The CASE principle
There are few secrets of training any more. CASE stands for, &quot;Compare, Adapt, Specify, Examine&quot;, or, if you&#039;re just a little cynical, &quot;Copy and Steal Everything&quot;! Look at other athletes&#039; methods or training and try them for yourselves; play around with the times, distances, rest intervals and targets. Adapt others&#039; schedules for they&#039;re as sure as anything going to do the same to you!

Five: Know yourself
This one might sound obvious, but it&#039;s all too easy to fool ourselves into believing that we&#039;re something that we&#039;re not. Know what you&#039;re good at, what you&#039;re bad at, what you like and dislike doing. Know your strengths and weaknesses. You don&#039;t want to look back at the end of a season or a the end of a career and think, &quot;if only...&quot;

Six: Train to your weaknesses, race to you strengths
This one&#039;s obvious as well, isn&#039;t it? But we all like doing what we&#039;re good at and dislike trying a discipline where the likely outcome is shouts of hilarity from those watching. To make a significant improvement in triathlon, it is necessary to work on the weak aspects which may prove to be hard going at first, and cut back on that superstrong discipline which was your background sport before you even knew that triathlon existed.

But then, when it comes to a race situation, the reverse scenario applies; work on your strengths and minimise your losses. If you can swim like Michael Phelps and take a three minute lead into the bike section, then you&#039;d be a mug not to do so...

Seven: Make haste slowly
Everyone wants to be good, and the improvements that we make when we start a new sport are often quite dramatic, improvements are usually measured in minutes or tens of minutes in an endurance sport rather than seconds. But then the rate of improvement slows down and the natural reaction is to train harder and longer to maintain that improvement rate. That way lies injury, don&#039;t be tempted. An increase in training, whether it be in time or intensity must be gradual and measured in months and years rather than days, look for gradual increases in training and commitment and you will improve and remain injury free.

Eight: Choose your parents wisely
The genetic inheritance that we have will govern our limits of attainment and improvement. It&#039;s not fair, but it&#039;s unfortunately true. If your mother was a World ten thousand metre record holder on the track and your father represented Russia in the Olympic Games 1500 metres freestyle swimming event, then you are quite likely to be presented with a rather special set of genes. Nature will have given you a head start, so don&#039;t waste it. And if you haven&#039;t been presented with  that advantage? Then welcome to the club! You&#039;re like the rest of us and will have to make the very best out of what Nature has presented you with and train sensibly and systematically to maximise your potential.

Nine: Don&#039;t set limits
Don&#039;t underestimate your potential to improve. It&#039;s all too easy to look at the established star in the next swimming lane to yours and think, &quot;I&#039;ll never be as good as them&quot;. Why not? It&#039;s difficult to envisage massive improvements, but it&#039;s easy to visualise an improvement of one second on a hundred metre swim or ten seconds on a 10 kilometre run... and then you make another ten second improvement and then another, and another. Before too long, that one second swim improvement has become five seconds, and that ten second run has become a minute. Look to the next level of attainment and in time you will progress to your dreams.

Ten: Don&#039;t believe everything you read
I think that whenever the sports magazines print an interview with the current superstar and they usually include that little boxed section which is headed up, &quot;A typical day&#039;s/week&#039;s training&quot;, that they should print a health warning by the side of it. They should also print another boxed section which starts, &quot;And this is what I was doing five years ago&quot;. You don&#039;t have to train like your hero to emulate your hero, train for yourself, not for anybody else.

Perhaps you should also remember that human nature plays a large part in the training schedules that go into magazines. When somebody is interviewed about their training, I&#039;m sure that the mindset goes something like this, &quot;They&#039;ll never believe that I train as little as I do; I know, I&#039;ll put down my best ever week of swimming, and of cycling, and of running&quot;. Think about it.

Eleven: Treat every minor injury as if it could become a major one 
By its very nature triathlon attracts people who like to train long and hard, the natural inclination when a small niggle appears is to swim/cycle/run through it. Don&#039;t be tempted. Untreated niggles can so easily progress to major niggles and then onto major injuries. By treating those minor inconveniences as if they have the potential to become a significant inhibiting factor, they are unlikely to progress too far along that downward path. Be cautious, be aware, don&#039;t ruin a season&#039;s hard work because you refused to back off.

Twelve: Enjoy
If you don&#039;t enjoy triathlon, don&#039;t do it. There&#039;s no world rule that says you have to like it or to do it. Triathlon is demanding in terms of time and commitment, some people simply do not have the time to do it. If you stop enjoying triathlon, stop doing triathlon.

Thirteen: Don&#039;t play the &#039;if&#039; game
You know the way this one goes? If only I could swim faster.... if only I didn&#039;t have to work so many hours... ...if only I could afford better equipment..... if only I could get invites to classier races..... if only I didn&#039;t get injured so much... ...if only I was lighter... ...or taller, or heavier, or smaller, or... Playing the &lsquo;if&#039; game leads to frustration and bitterness, it&#039;s also a good excuse for losers. If you don&#039;t like something, then do something about it. And if it&#039;s not in your power to do something about it, then get on and do something else rather than moaning.

Fourteen: There is life outside
Triathlon is a part of life, not life itself (although there are times when it might appear so!) The number of people who are full time professionals or who make a substantial income from triathlon are so few as to be minuscule when compared to the huge numbers who take part as age-groupers and hold down full time jobs, have families and take part in the whole realm of life enhancing activities that exist in everyday life. Never let triathlon become so important that you lose sight of reality. There is life outside triathlon, there is life after triathlon.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Making a difference]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1978.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[More than a few things have happened since I last added to my blog; in no particular order, I&amp;rsquo;ve been to Melbourne and back, given a presentation in Paris in my real professional job, and did the PA and finish line commentary at the London Marathon.
Yes, I know, it&amp;rsquo;s a tough life&amp;hellip; I say this not to impress you &amp;ndash; how could I do that to all the toughened triathletes out there - but rather to say how I was impressed by some things that I saw, some people I spoke to, and some thoughts that I had (and even that sounds too flash, being impressed with my own thoughts&amp;hellip;).
I went to Oz with Veronica my wife, and my two kids who are aged 11 and 13 years old. Now, sitting in the old 747 for 24 hours can be a little claustrophobic so we pre-booked the seats at the back, you know where the outside row goes down from three abreast to just two? That&amp;rsquo;s the ones! A tiny bit more leg room and separate the kids to stop them niggling with each other. And it pretty much worked; peace and calm in the Trew household.
So what do you do on long-haul flights? Kids drink too much Cola, grown-ups (just squeeze into that category now) drink too much wine and we all watch movies. Which is a roundabout way of getting to the first point. I watched a film called Freedom Writers. It&amp;rsquo;s almost the old clich&amp;eacute; of a gifted, young, enthusiastic teacher making a difference to the kids he/she teaches. Been there, done that, seen it all before. I used to be a teacher, nineteen years altogether; inner City, tough kids.
So I was killing time, drinking my wine, ready to drift off to sleep.
Except, except, except, it got to me. The film really got to me. First, because it was true. Second, because she, the teacher, did make a difference. 
One of the central themes was not talking or looking down on kids who were perceived to be of low ability because of they way they looked, spoke, acted. The teacher treated them as responsible, intelligent human beings &amp;ndash;lots of confrontations along the way, of course!- and introduced them to literature in its original form rather than the &amp;ldquo;dumbed down&amp;rdquo; cartoon version. And, of course, the kids responded. The story of Ann Frank was the metaphor which symbolized change for the pupils and the inspiration of the writer to get many of them to College.
OK, a good -I&amp;rsquo;d say great- film, but then who am I?
It got me thinking about another film that I adore, Coach Carter. It tells the story of Ken Carter, an inspirational basketball coach who returns to his old high school and insists on standards of excellence in his athletes and players as well as supreme fitness to play the game of basketball. So, I&amp;rsquo;m a coach and I identified with Ken Carter.
So is that what it&amp;rsquo;s all about? Coaching and teaching? Making a difference? I guess in a lot of ways, yes it is. To make a difference to people&amp;rsquo;s lives, to inspire them, to lift them up, to make them believe in themselves. 
To make a difference; not a bad old epitaph, eh?
And so to the London marathon&amp;hellip; My brief is to be at the secondary finish line, after runners have collected their baggage that has been transported/trucked up from the start; and then to talk, interview, chat to them about their race. Was it good? Did you run for charity? How much did you raise? All that sort of stuff. It&amp;rsquo;s great fun, I meet a lot of old friends, old athletes, and hear some fantastic stories. I worked with a guy named Dave Thomas this year and we enjoyed the day. We look for the guys dressed in drag, the rhinos, the Elvis impersonators, you know the sort of stuff.
So this guy came up to us, &amp;ldquo;You should talk to the guy in the blue shorts and vest&amp;rdquo;.
&amp;ldquo;OK, why?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;He&amp;rsquo;s done so many marathons&amp;rdquo;.
&amp;ldquo;How many?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Loads, hundreds!&amp;rdquo;
Yeah, right&amp;hellip;
So&amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;Hi Jeff, someone told me that you&amp;rsquo;ve run a lot of marathons?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Well, yeah, a few&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;How many exactly?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Today was the seventy second&amp;rdquo;
Oh my God! How can you run 72 marathons!? We introduced Jeff to the crowds, he was a little embarrassed, but a good job done.
&amp;ldquo;Excuse me?&amp;rdquo; A big guy is standing there, wearing kit in the colour of the flag, &amp;ldquo;Heard you talking to that guy&amp;hellip; It was my one hundred and seventeenth marathon today&amp;rdquo;
Now this is getting silly, 117 marathons. So we talked, we laughed and he went off to rapturous applause. I started talking to the crowd about the Comrades marathon, you know the one, Durban to Pietermaritzburg , around 56 miles uphill and then every other year, you run down from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The runner I&amp;rsquo;d just interviewed turned around, &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve done Comrades twenty two times&amp;rdquo;, he said, &amp;ldquo;but I only count it as one marathon!&amp;rdquo;
Suitably chastened and humbled, Dave and I turned back to face the incoming finishers. An older guy was standing right by the bag check, pretty old&amp;hellip; Even older than I am, so that&amp;rsquo;s saying something.
&amp;ldquo;Excuse me, I just heard you talking to that guy from South Africa; hundred and seventeen marathons, that&amp;rsquo;s good&amp;rdquo;. We made the expected noises&amp;hellip;
&amp;ldquo;Well, I&amp;rsquo;ve just finished this one as well&amp;rdquo;, our hands went to out to shake, &amp;ldquo;Congratulations, that&amp;rsquo;s a real achievement&amp;rdquo;,
&amp;ldquo;Yeah, well, it was actually my three hundredth marathon.&amp;rdquo;
Now it was getting silly; three hundred!
&amp;ldquo;And what&amp;rsquo;s your best and worst times?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Just under three hours the best, six twenty two the slowest but it was a cross-country marathon&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Six twenty two, when was that?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Oh, last weekend&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo;
&amp;quot;And when&amp;rsquo;s your next one?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Um, next weekend, Stratford on Avon.&amp;rdquo;
And that was it, pretty much; from seventy two to a hundred and seventeen to three hundred. Athletes are funny old people aren&amp;rsquo;t they? But you know what, athletes and coaches alike, we can make a difference. 
I&amp;rsquo;ll say it again, not a bad epitaph to have.
&amp;ldquo;People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did. 
But people will never forget how you made them feel&amp;rdquo;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[It’s all in the communication]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1705.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I&amp;rsquo;ve been coaching now for around forty years &amp;ndash; oh my god! That long! Triathlon coaching for around 20, maybe a couple more. And to me, when you coach to certain level, coaching is all about communication. If we assume knowledge, then how we put it across to athletes is the bit that matters. I hope this doesn&amp;rsquo;t sound too strange, but in many ways teaching and coaching, writing, and commentating are actually quite similar. You&amp;rsquo;re on a stage and people are expecting you to deliver, they want something from you. 

It really is all about communication skills. Which is really a quite convoluted method of introducing what I wanted to chat about this time; people who&amp;rsquo;ve made an impression on me, not necessarily by what they&amp;rsquo;ve done, but how they&amp;rsquo;ve talked and communicated

Memories
I have some amazing memories of the characters and occasions over the years: Spencer (Smith) winning in Manchester was fantastic; Spencer&amp;rsquo;s raw power on the bike set him apart there, and then when he repeated the  victory down in Wellington the following year, after a disappointing race year&amp;hellip; maybe even better.
But before all that, there was that first impression that Spencer made on me. It was a race in Portsmouth on September 1st 1991 and the night before Great Britain had won the men&amp;rsquo;s 4 x 400 metres relay in the World Athletic Championships. It was around the time of Todd Bennett, Kris Akabusi and Roger Black, all South Coast boys in the 4 x 400m squad, so the general buzz around the triathlon that morning was fantastic.
And Spencer, well he was 18 years old and he looked the part. The race was to be a big learning experience for him, competing against the best in Europe (and I recollect that Mike Pigg was over from the USA as well, complete with those Pigg Power wheels!) Even then, the colour pink was predominant on Spencer&amp;rsquo;s race wear, Tinley brand I recall. Except that Spencer didn&amp;rsquo;t follow the planned script. By the time the athletes were into the final 5k, there were just two left in contention, the young Spencer Smith and the experienced Belgian, Didier Volckaert. And Spencer outsprinted the more experienced athlete. It was this race that for me, rather than any of the higher profile ones, signaled Spencer&amp;rsquo;s coming of age and of what we could expect for the future.
So, to the presentations. I was standing with John Williams, late of both Triathlete and 220 magazines, at the back of the stage. Spencer came up to accept his award and was invited to say a few words. And that, as they say, was that. How can you expect an 18 year old to speak, unrehearsed, to a couple of thousand people. But he did, and he was fantastic. First he did what we all expected, thanked the organizers, thanked his competitors, thanked all the spectators for their support. And then he continued, &amp;ldquo;And there&amp;rsquo;s one more person I&amp;rsquo;d like to thank&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &amp;ndash; we all waited &amp;ndash; &amp;ldquo;&amp;hellip;I&amp;rsquo;d like to thank my dad. Without my dad, I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be here; without my dad, I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be at the training sessions; without my dad, I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be at the races; without my dad&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; I caught John Williams&amp;rsquo; eye, we both looked away because we knew that if we kept eye contact, we&amp;rsquo;d start crying. How Spencer could have the emotional maturity at 18 years old to talk like that, to publicly thank his dad when most 18 year olds would have mumbled platitudes and taken the applause, I really don&amp;rsquo;t know. He was magnificent.
Fast forward to 1994 and the World Champs in Wellington, New Zealand. I was working for TV for the first time in 1994 and having the opportunity to do the commentary on Spencer&amp;rsquo;s victory &amp;ndash;and indeed, Emma Carney who had come out of nowhere, really made me realize how privileged I was.
A couple of days before the race, there was the traditional GB team age groupers meal. That morning Spencer quietly came over and asked if he could say a few words to the team.
No answer to that one, is there!?
Again, he was superb. First he congratulated everyone on making the GB team &amp;ndash; the best in the World, he said. (And how does that make you feel, coming from the current World Champion?) Then he talked about the race, what the athletes could expect. Then he talked about how everyone might be feeling, particularly if it was their first Worlds. He talked about the worries and the fears, the self-doubts that might appear, how to deal with them; that he felt exactly the same and that there was nothing to worry about from being scared. He talked about how to turn it to advantage. And every athlete left that evening thinking that, yes, they would give everything in the race, that, yes, GB was indeed to best team in the World, and that, yes, wasn&amp;rsquo;t it good to have Spencer Smith, current World Champion, as your very own team-mate.
&amp;nbsp;You can&amp;rsquo;t mention Spencer without mentioning the big man, dad Bill. A character without equal, so many stories; Bill got himself into all sorts of trouble at Bath in 1995 when Spencer was dueling with Simon (Lessing). There were one or two, erh, how shall I put this? &amp;lsquo;unfortunate words&amp;rsquo; directed at Simon that unfortunately got broadcast on television. When I caught up with Bill some time later in Cancun, his response was, &amp;ldquo;Steve, I hold my hands up, I was wrong&amp;hellip; but he&amp;rsquo;s my boy!&amp;rdquo; And then he bought me a drink. Or two&amp;hellip; or was it three?
My happy/sad memory of Bill is from European Champs in Finland in &amp;rsquo;97 (and what an awesome race Spencer had against Stephan Vuockovic there!) You may have gathered that Bill liked a drink&amp;hellip; but rarely suffered any aftermath from it; but in Finland, he was complaining of headaches in the mornings. As you can imagine, there as a total lack of sympathy towards him, but of course, this was the first signs of the illness which took him. We miss you, Bill.
I met Dave Scott in Cambridge, Sarah Springman had managed to persuade him to come over; it was almost like the second coming. You have to remember Dave&amp;rsquo;s total domination of Hawaii in those days. Dave has that amazing ability to remember people&amp;rsquo;s names; great communicator, see. His weekend training camp, lectures and stories was simply inspirational. Legend personified. 
As is Greg Welch. Greg has this amazing ability to see humour in absolutely everything. I recall him telling me about his open heart surgery and laughing so much he was crying, Greg also does a fair imitation of an &amp;lsquo;on fire Mexican hat dance&amp;rsquo;. I had great fun working on race commentary with Greg at two World Championships, he is able to bring such an insight into how the race is developing.
There are legends, and there are legends, and then there is Patrick Barnes. The bike named &amp;lsquo;Beelzebub&amp;rsquo; with the shopping basket, the race in Perth where he shared the finish with Emma Carney&amp;hellip; Another quick story about Patrick&amp;hellip; I was present at a weekend training camp for newcomers to the sport, many years back now, and one of the coaches was talking about focusing on effort, and never backing off when racing. The coach said that when she raced she had the word &amp;lsquo;GUTS&amp;rsquo; printed on a small piece of paper and taped to her handlebars to remind her to keep pushing all the time; a tentative hand rose from a seat near the back and when acknowledged, Patrick stood up and said that he had the word &amp;lsquo;CAT&amp;rsquo; taped to his handlebars&amp;hellip;.. &amp;#8220;Why?&amp;#8221; he was asked.
&amp;ldquo;To remind me to get some food for the cat after the race&amp;rdquo;. Collapse of group into hysterical laughter and somewhat humbled group speaker!
And now I want to talk about one of my heroes. When you get older, OK then, OLD! You&amp;rsquo;re not supposed to have heroes who are younger than you. But sometimes, you just can&amp;rsquo;t help it. So let me tell you about my hero Paula Craig. (Oops, Paula Craig MBE of course!)
Paula Craig is awesome! I&#039;m told off a bit about using that particular word on some of the race commentaries but certainly for Paula, the word is absolutely correct. Paula&amp;rsquo;s story is well known to the triathlon community; she was hit and paralysed almost six years ago while out bike training. On the 27th May 2001 she was hit in the back by an 84 year old&amp;nbsp;car driver.She knew immediately that she was paralysed. She also had, apart from the spinal injuries, broken her wrist, shoulder blade, a rib, torn the tricep away from her arm and she&#039;d also broken her leg -- but didn&#039;t realise that one straight away!
Paula ism&amp;rsquo;t shy&amp;hellip; She has had the guts to talk about her accident and her injuries and how she deals with life. And, you know what, she deals with life very well. Paula has been a great friend and she&amp;rsquo;s been willing to come down to some of our training camps and just talk to athletes. I hesitate to say that it&amp;rsquo;s a motivational talk, because it&amp;rsquo;s so much more than that, so, so much more.
Paula talks about the twenty one weeks in hospital, but then straight back to training. Very different now, training in a wheelchair. She attended a goal setting meeting with the doctors, physics and health workers at the hospital and was asked her immediate goal, &amp;quot;I&#039;m going to do the London Marathon&amp;quot;, she replied.
There was a stunned silence... then, &amp;quot;We were thinking about maybe setting the goal of putting your own socks on...&amp;quot; came the reply. But of course, she did do the marathon, and the World Champs triathlon and... and... and..... just about everything that she set herself.
No, wrong. Not just about everything, absolutely everything
She did the swim training session with us, of course. Despite just having had yet another operation to free the muscles in her legs.
Paula is a truly astonishing person, a truly astonishing athlete. Her hour plus talk was filled with jokes, with laughter, what it most definitely wasn&#039;t filled with was any vestige of self-pity, not one tiny piece.
She talked about doing Pembroke; the guys out there who&#039;ve done it know about the hills on the bike. Now imagine doing those hills in a wheelchair. Imagine doing transitions where you&amp;rsquo;ve got to transfer from one racing (bike) chair to another racing (run) chair. Imagine getting out of the water and hoping that someone&amp;rsquo;s going to be there to pull you out. Imagine hearing when you&amp;rsquo;re in the water &amp;quot;The start&amp;rsquo;s going to be delayed for 10 minutes, sorry about that!&amp;quot; and knowing that you&amp;rsquo;ve got to stay in that cold water and just suffer it because there isn&amp;rsquo;t enough time to get you out and get you back in again.
She told us about the operations, and she laughed while she told us, and she made us laugh with her.
She told us, and I quote, &amp;quot;I am so lucky&amp;quot;. She said to us, &amp;quot;It happens, you may as well get on with it&amp;quot;. She told us about trying for Athens on the marathon. The Paralympic Association had set a target standard of 2 hours 15 minutes, Paula had done 2 hours 6 minutes... But the British paras had set a target standard of 1 hour 54 minutes.
Paula told us about getting up for her 1st training session of the day at 5.15am, rollers in the garage of course, she told us about training again after work... oh yeah, Paula has a full time job, detective inspector in the Met Police on the murder squad...
She told us everything, she answered all the questions. All the personal, intrusive questions. And she kept smiling and laughing and talking.
I said the word was &amp;quot;awesome&amp;quot;. Paula is, she really is awesome. We felt humble, we felt very lucky to have been able to listen to her, we felt very lucky to be able to get up out of our chairs afterwards and walk over to talk to her. We felt very, very humbled. Paula Craig is an absolute inspiration.
Paula came and gave a talk to all the kids in my son&amp;rsquo;s primary school, Walker School in Enfield. And she answered all those intrusive questions that kids ask, all those embarrassing questions when you cringe. And then Paula let them have a go in her race chair, one by one scooting around the school hall.
I just wanted to share with you guys out there how lucky we are. And I wanted to let you know how fantastic Paula Craig is. 

And now the philosophy bit&amp;hellip;
Was it Theroux who said, &amp;ldquo;Most men live lives of quiet desperation&amp;rdquo;? I believe that you choose your life and your lifestyle; there are always reasons NOT to do what you want, always reasons why you can&amp;rsquo;t leave your steady income, steady job, why you can&amp;rsquo;t take a chance. But, and it&amp;rsquo;s a big but, if you really want to do, then there are a million reasons why you should take your chances. ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[So… Those early races…]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1606.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I raced the London to Paris triathlon relay in 1984 (and now look at what
Eddie Ette, Andy Mouncey and Ivan Newman have done -- the whole deal by themselves!). We had teams of four and had to split it into a 100 miles run from London to Dover on day one, swimming the Channel&amp;rsquo;s 20 odd miles on day two, and then cycling the 200 miles from the French coast into Paris on day three. I slept a lot the next week&amp;hellip;
Actually, we were not very well prepared at all, although we thought that we
were, and it was a huge learning experience coupled with a pretty poor performance
as a team but I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have missed it for the world. On the triathlon
circuit in Great Britain, there weren&amp;rsquo;t too many events, and we used to
see the same athletes at most of the races; it was a good atmosphere, almost
a club type scene.
Training camps and one of the immortals
I went on what I&amp;rsquo;m pretty sure was the first British warm weather training
camp in 1984, it was in Ibiza at Easter time, and I met the infamous Mark Kleanthous. Now, Mark has done more in endurance events and triathlon than anyone I know; Ironman, double Ironman, 100 mile road running races, piece of cake; all grist to the mill! Back to Ibiza, all this was very much pre-wetsuit times, and a lot
of the swimming training was getting used to dealing with the cold. Roger Parsons
from the LDSA was swim coach and he had this rule of; &amp;ldquo;if you feel yourself getting cramp, or you&amp;rsquo;re in difficulties, put your hand up and shout out, and we&amp;rsquo;ll get a boat to you&amp;rdquo;. Very straightforward and safe, or so I thought&amp;hellip; We were swimming late afternoon, water temperature was SO cold (about 55&amp;deg;F) and Mark got cramp. As per instructions, up went one arm and out came a shout&amp;hellip; So far, so good&amp;hellip;.. But then Mark got cramp in the other leg as well. Being a logical chap, the thought process went something like, &amp;ldquo;one leg cramp, one arm up; therefore, two legs cramp, two arms up&amp;rdquo;; so up went the other arm, Mark exits stage beneath, under the water! 
Actually, there&amp;rsquo;s so much more about Mark Kleanthous, so much more! He was one of the original nut-case trainers; sleep, eat and train, that&amp;rsquo;s all, that was life!
Mark used to live over in Dagenham, East London. He&amp;rsquo;d cycle into work
and, being Mark, would race all the way. One of the old red buses from Dagenham
into Central London was called the &amp;ldquo;Dagenham Flyer&amp;rdquo;, it came right
down the old  A13 main road and Mark, being Mark, would take this as his personal
challenge to beat it into work. The bus would get ahead, but as it had to stop
for traffic lights or heavy traffic, Mark would sneak up on it; honours were
about even.
And then&amp;hellip; and then&amp;hellip;&amp;hellip; It was a Christmas Eve back in the
early eighties. Train on Christmas Eve? Of course, what else is there to do?
So Mark was flying though, last chance to beat the bus into work. Mark pulled
up to the traffic lights, almost into town and ready to challenge the bus over
the final five miles.
The bus pulled dangerously close to him, preventing him from getting away &amp;ndash;we&amp;rsquo;ve all been there, right? Some annoyed motorist who can&amp;rsquo;t take the pressure of being beaten by a mere cyclist&amp;hellip; Now it was Mark&amp;rsquo;s turn. The safety door on the bus opened; out got seven passengers, from behind a back was pulled out a red cycle jersey, emblazoned on the back were the words, &amp;ldquo;THE DAGENHAM FLYER&amp;rdquo;!
The same (pretty much the same) passengers every day had become fascinated
by this strange apparition who raced them in every day and had decided on an
early Christmas present, much respect earned!
Mark has never NOT finished a race; but he&amp;rsquo;s come close on more than
a couple of occasions. The Blaenavon triathlon, hilly and tough; Mark crashed
quite badly coming into the cycle to run transition,  in fact badly enough to
be taken to hospital, blood spurting from numerous wounds. The proud record was
gone; a race unfinished.
And then, and then&amp;hellip; The final stragglers were dragging themselves
into the finish, almost over, the race organizers rubbing their hands, tired
but happy, ready now to go home.
An ambulance moves up the road, back to race site, it stops and the rear doors
are flung open and a racing wraith &amp;ndash; who else but the legend Kleanthous? &amp;ndash; leaps from the vehicle, running shoes are forced on and he&#039;s out onto the final discipline!
And then there was Nice, a Mecca for triathlon. That particular year there
were jellyfish &amp;ndash; lots of them. It happens, you get on with it and hope
you don&amp;rsquo;t suffer too badly. Except for Mark, naturally. One jellyfish lodged
itself right on the neck of Mark&amp;rsquo;s wetsuit and he swam the entire four
kilometres with an aqua passenger to cope with; &amp;ldquo;couldn&amp;rsquo;t brush it
off, would have slowed me down!&amp;rdquo; Tough things happen&amp;hellip;
So, Mark runs into transition, knowing now that the worst was over and he
could get on with his two better disciplines&amp;hellip; &amp;hellip;to find that the seat pin bolt has snapped! This really was it, surely over now? Naaah! This is Mark Kleanthous we&amp;rsquo;re talking about; into town, find the local friendly bike shop owner, get the seat bolt, back into transition, fix it and then get on with the ride. Nice one Mark, if you&amp;rsquo;re reading this anywhere, love to hear from you again.
Next time, more stories of Mark and others and, maybe, some of the best pre-
and post-race speeches I&amp;rsquo;ve been privileged to listen to.
Thanks for listening.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Defining moments]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1558.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&amp;rsquo;s now my 25th year in triathlon; how about that then? First race, the Big K in Liverpool on the 18th September 1983. That was when it all started for me. Changed my life, actually. And, although that might sound more than a little trite, it&amp;rsquo;s true nevertheless. Triathlon&amp;rsquo;s taken me all over the World as an athlete, coach, team manager, race announcer and PA and TV commentator. Amazing places, &amp;ldquo;interesting&amp;rdquo; times. Fantastic people.

And it has been a fantastic trip!

And the triathlon world has changed &ndash; just a little - since those days. My first race was 1,000 metres in an indoor pool, cycle 20 miles and then run 6 miles. So at least the run has stayed fairly constant! It was on the run in this first event that I learned the absolute truth of your legs feeling like anything but belonging to you when you tried to run off the bike, but I also discovered the euphoria of finishing the run, however bad you felt at the start, and also that, yes, it did get a little easier.

And then it was a few years of racing anywhere, any distance, any conditions, just because there weren&amp;rsquo;t that many events around and if you wanted, needed, to race, then you travelled to wherever they were. The Scarborough race was perhaps the coldest I ever did; the old clich&amp;eacute; about water not really being cold unless it&amp;rsquo;s solid comes to mind... The London to Paris team event was also awesome! You learn about yourself and your team-mates when you&amp;rsquo;re cramped in a van or on a small (very!) cross channel boat and things aren&amp;rsquo;t going well for you. There&amp;rsquo;s another clich&amp;eacute; about &amp;ldquo;sport building character&amp;rdquo; (or as some people prefer, &amp;ldquo;sport revealing character&amp;rdquo;) and I guess that both are true. I raced the first ever London triathlon in 1984; not too far away from where the current event is held. Listened to the stories about the dead rats in the water, and also the &amp;ldquo;and watch out for the bodies&amp;rdquo; stories from the local dockers... ...they were joking, weren&amp;rsquo;t they?

My last real year was in 1992. My final two events; the World Champs in Canada, and then two weeks later, the Malta Olympic distance International. Not too bad a way to go out. Why stop? Usual story, too many injuries, knees too crocked from all those miles from a previous existence of running. It catches up, more so then than now I guess, we&amp;rsquo;re perhaps a little bit more educated now about taking precautions and being aware of potential injuries. I still kept on racing but mostly sprint distance rather than Olympic and the odd half-Ironman, and usually when I was away coaching on warm weather camps (none of that silly cold water and struggling in and out of wetsuits!)

I only raced in three World Champs, my best result was in my first, first World Champs ever in Avignon, France in 1989; fabulous event! Finished in 10th place which is about a hundred times more satisfying than finishing 11th. Straight after the event, I discovered the biggest bubble on my tyre that I&amp;rsquo;d ever seen. (It may have had something to do with me inflating the tyre to 150psi, well, I wanted to give myself a chance and needed them hard. The tyre blew as I collected my equipment and  walked out of transition. The difference between a good result and a DNF was never closer. Mark Allen (USA) won the elite race in front of Glenn Cook while Erin Baker (NZ) dominated the womens race.

The highs and the lows
It took eleven long years after that first Worlds for triathlon to become an Olympic sport. I think it had to be fate that the Olympic debut was in Sydney, Australia, at the very minimum the spiritual home of triathlon. One of the greatest &ndash; and also the saddest - experiences in my (triathlon) life. The great side was sitting in the commentary box with some fantastic Aussie commentators, knowing that the triathlon world was watching this race. And the sad part? Seeing Sian Brice, whom I was coaching, crash out on the cycle section and being prevented by the medics from getting back on her bike. All those years of training and yet... ...and yet, Sian had been there. An Olympian, the first ever Olympic triathlon. Was it worth it? Worth all the heartache. Of course, a million times over.

And then, only a few years after, we reflect. The women&amp;rsquo;s winner of that fabulous Olympics later testing positive for an illegal substance. That&amp;rsquo;s not sport, that&amp;rsquo;s just dirty. But the men&amp;rsquo;s winer, Simon Whitfield of Canada, largely unsung before the event, proving it was most certainly not a fluke by taking the Commonwealth title just two years later in Manchester.

And then the Commonwealths in Manchester, another Olympics and Commonwealths in Athens and Melbourne, and then onto Beijing and, of course, 2012 in London. Sadly we miss out on the next Commonwealths in India in 2010, a great shame.

What&#039;s my brief?
I have an open brief on this so I get to reminisce and run through all the nice things, some of the not so nice things. I also get to tell you about the athletes, coaches, team managers, all those lovely people involved in triathlon that I&amp;rsquo;ve met along the way. But for this first article, let me start by talking about some who are involved with this project. Keep sweating guys, the rest of you later...

The main man, Henry Budgett, came along to a training weekend I was running with Pete Metalli of Banana Leisure fame some time in the early 90s and we met up there. Henry then gave me a really hard time at a BTA AGM when I didn&amp;rsquo;t have the right answers for him on some questions about Coach Education; quite right too!

I also met that lovely man, John Levison, on a training weekend. He was a young Loughboro student and he then joined us on our warm weather camp in Malta; late eighties or maybe early nineties. John had entered the Gozo to Malta race that takes in an eight mile run from the West to the East coast of Gozo, then (and this is the tough bit) a three mile swim across the Comino channel before a final 25 mile bike section from Circewwa on the North coast down to Birzubuggia in the South of Malta. We also had Matt on the camp also entered in the Gozo to Malta race. My lasting impression of this is of sitting on the Malta to Gozo ferry going over early morning to the race start with Matt eating a greasy hamburger and John turning decidedly green watching him and anticipating the swim. John then parted company with the little he had been able to eat for breakfast, but had a great race and finished the event.

John&amp;rsquo;s had a tough old time recently, dealing with cancer is one of those things that we pray never touches us. But John dealt with it; much respect. More of John, and others, next time.]]></description></item></channel></rss>