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		<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Long Distance - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest long distance articles from Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[K1 Tri Club's big salute]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3343.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Roy Brunning from Team Tri-UK and four members of the K1 Triathlon Club based in Cyprus are racing Ironman Lanzarote in two weeks time and also raising money for the BFBS BIG Salute, a charity that is supporting five different Forces charities. They have selected five Forces charities to be the beneficiaries of the BFBS Big Salute to show their respect, admiration and support for those who have served their country and been seriously injured or carry other less visible scars:

BLESMA, British Limbless Ex-Service Men&#039;s Association
Combat Stress
Headley Court
St Dunstan&#039;s
Veterans&#039; Aid


You can learn more or support the team at their Just Giving site or
 on Roy&#039;s blog]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Zoot sponsors Triangle]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3326.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[A global leader in triathlon and multisports, ZOOT sports, has teamed up with Triangle International, the world&rsquo;s largest international Ironman production company, to sponsor six Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races world wide. As the official partner for Ironman events organized by Triangle, ZOOT becomes the official apparel and footwear sponsor for these 6 premier events. For both ZOOT and Triangle, the collaboration of strong partners promises to guarantee powerful brand exposure on a global level.
 
&ldquo;ZOOT and Triangle both share a strong passion for sport and for the athletes that compete in sport, which promises to make this partnership successful in the future. Triangle is proud to present, for the first time, a global partner for all our Ironman-labeled events on two continents!&rdquo; declares Georg Hochegger, CEO of Triangle international.
 
ZOOT and Triangle international signed a three-year agreement for the Ironman events in Austria, France and South Africa, as well as for the Ironman 70.3 events held in Austria, Monaco and South Africa. All events will feature and sell ZOOT performance apparel and footwear, all race apparel merchandise items will be produced by ZOOT, and athletes, team directors, volunteers and staff will be proud to wear the most technical and innovative multisport apparel in the world.
 
&ldquo;We continue to listen to our athletes and make no compromises to deliver the most premium multisport product in the world.&rdquo; said ZOOT&rsquo;s CEO Brian Enge. &ldquo;We are proud to offer triathlon specific products from head to toe, and with this partnership we will be present at Ironman events from Vienna to Port Elizabeth, from Klagenfurt to the C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Azur and Monte Carlo.&rdquo; ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ironman NZ opens today]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3313.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[For all who are thinking of racing at IMNZ in March next year, entries opened today, May 7th, NZ time. Be among the  first 50 and be in the draw to win your entry fee back and get a free book commemorating the first 20 years. Entry fee goes up at the end of October.
Race is on  March 7th 2009 and is bound to be a corker as it&#039;s the 25th anniversary - the second oldest Ironman race in the world.
Check out our recent Epic Events feature on the race for more details on this classic.
Entries can be made via the event website www.ironman.co.nz]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[IMUK 2008 - new routes unveiled]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3287.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[By now you might have read some rumours about the changes to the Ironman UK bike and run courses... 

As with all good rumours there&#039;s some basis for them and Tri247 sat down with the event&#039;s organisers to talk through the changes, why they have happened and what they will mean for the 2008 edition of the race.

The simple, basic facts are that, owing to a mix of comments made by athletes, local circumstances outside of the organiser&#039;s control and an overwhelming desire to deliver the best race that they can, the run and bike courses have had to be changed for 2008. The trend in modern Ironman racing has been to move away from the single loop strategy where the athlete is out on their own for the maximum amount of time to a more spectator friendly and, in reality, an easier to manage situation where both bike and run are broken into multiple laps. Inevitably some of this is dictated by the roads that surround the venue and, in the UK at least, the ability of the organisers to get those closed down in part or whole for the race.

Ironman UK&#039;s organisers summarised, &amp;ldquo;We feel that the changes made will offer the athletes a whole new experience, but without removing the aspects of the race which has made it such a challenge. There will still be the mix of fast technical descents with slow grinding hills and some spectacular scenery - should you have the energy to look!&amp;rdquo;

Making these changes has taken time: there are many bodies involved that have to be part of the process and all have to agree - and that&#039;s before it goes back to the WTC for their blessing. It will mean that it is a different race to 2006 and 2007 but they, in turn, were different to 2005 where the bike course looped into Somerset. It certainly doesn&#039;t seem to be deterring the pro athletes; Bayliss, Neyedli and Comerford are confirmed and the organisers expect more pro athletes to confirm nearer race date as, five weeks out from Hawaii, it&amp;rsquo;s a great opportunity for those coveted Hawaii slots.

The bike course
The new bike course is more compact that last year&#039;s, the section of the A37 to Dorchester has been removed (which includes the section on the bike path) and now turns off the A352 at the point where the old half-Ironman course used to. The changes have meant that climbing has increased slightly overall to 2,360 metres, which is approx 10% more than the 2006/2007 course. The new course incorporates more villages and is more picturesque, which will hopefully generate more spectators along the route. There are now seven, rather than five, pubs on the route and one of the landlords is racing (!) which should greatly assist with generating local spectator numbers. One of the pubs is even offering to host a permanent aid-station for people training on the course before the race, we&#039;ll get you more details on that when they get firmed up but just having somewhere friendly to fill bottles will be a major help.

The new course has been measured (and continues to be measured) by onboard GPS, manual GPS and mapping software, and it comes out at approximately 113.6 miles.

You can get a PDF document detailing the whole route, turn by turn, here.

The run course
As we said earlier, at least a portion of the reason for the run route changes has come from the  feedback forms; IMUK get  between 30% and 60% response to these after an event. The single most consistent comment was,  &amp;quot; why run on dual carriageway?&amp;quot; with around two thirds of respondents making this point. And, as a result... 

There&#039;s NO A30 section in the 2008 race plan. You&#039;ll run three loops, with each loop returning to the Castle which should make it very spectator friendly. While those spectators who choose to remain at the Castle will obviously benefit, those who are prepared to walk out onto the course will find that the  most direct route to the turnaround from the Castle is only about one mile away. So, you could view at the Castle, and then walk out to the turn while your athlete is running and view again.

Two slightly ironic points to note are that although the majority of the age groupers didn&#039;t like the &#039;Energy Lab&#039; feel of the A30 loop, many of the pro athletes said they did and, for anyone thinking that these changes have been made to make things easier on the organisers and crew, the logistics of controlling a shorter, more complex route mean that just as many volunteers and crew will be needed - it&#039;s easy to marshal a straight bit of A road... 

The run route has been measured twice already and will be re-measured again - it&#039;s currently between 19 and 23 yards short of the full marathon distance. You can be sure that on race day it will be nailed to full distance! 

The swim
No, the swim isn&#039;t changing! It&#039;s still a single start for all 1,500 athletes and, for those who doubt the accuracy, it is measured five times during race week to make sure it&#039;s as near spot on as it is possible to get.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: How Triathlon Ruined My Life]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3170.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[John Levison has had his head in a book again. Here are his thoughts on his latest read.



Having recently reviewed another real-life triathlon story, I was fortunate to bump into Darren Roberts, author of How Triathlon Ruined My Life at this year&rsquo;s TCR Show. He enthusiastically offered me a copy of his book to review. We&rsquo;ve mentioned the book before on the site, but, to date, none of the team had read it. So, how was it?

Now, Darren describes himself as &ldquo;fat, bald and ugly&rdquo;, and his book as &ldquo;55,000 words of illiterate drivel&rdquo;, so probably fair to say he doesn&rsquo;t take himself or his literary prowess too seriously! While I&rsquo;m not going to comment on the former, I can confidently say I didn&rsquo;t find the book drivel at all &ndash; it&rsquo;s a cracking read, laugh-out-loud funny at times, which gave rise to a few strange looks as I chuckled to myself on the Tube going to work.

The book is a story; no, it&rsquo;s Darren&rsquo;s story, of going from scratch, to finishing an Ironman in six months, with all the impacts that has on home, work, life and family. This wasn&rsquo;t the initial plan, which involved a more pragmatic/balanced approach to building up to an Ironman event over 18 months. However, as is often the case, life events, in this case the birth of a child and the death of a young colleague, changed that plan and Ironman became &ldquo;something  I had to do, not talk about&rdquo;. So plans for a half-Ironman in 2006, then a full Ironman in 2007 became &ldquo;just do the full Charlie and stop messing about!  So I did&rdquo;.

Fair to say that Darren didn&rsquo;t arrive in triathlon from a couch potato background, having spent nine years in the forces; the Parachute Squadron of the RAF Regiment, no less. He also works in the sports industry in strength and conditioning with Red Bull, Reading Football Club and a number of professional athletes such as Paul Casey and Lee McConnell. All that said 100kgs of muscle, the ability to bench press small houses combined with an aerobic exercise regime of &ldquo;breathing in and out&rdquo; possibly wasn&rsquo;t the best start point for a potential Ironman.

What I like about the book is its honesty &ndash; it&rsquo;s 100% Darren. I met him for barely two minutes, but imagine that I&rsquo;ve got a pretty good insight into him as a person simply by reading his book. Nothing feels contrived, or put in because it will read well. It&rsquo;s just the good, the bad and the ugly of preparing to spend the best part of 13 hours swimming, biking and running to get that Ironman finish. It&rsquo;s also very observant &ndash; his description of the typical pre-race portaloo is a classic, as are the characterisations of typical triathlete stereotypes: &#039;alpha-male&#039;, &#039;swim nemesis&#039; and &#039;other triathlete&#039;...

So, from me it&rsquo;s a clear recommendation. If you are a triathlon fan, and like the sound of an honest, easy reading and funny book, this is for you.

Any profits from the sale of the book are donated to the Chris Jones Riders Fund, Chris was a 14-year old motor bike racer who died in a racing accident in 2005, whom Darren worked with as part of the Red Bull team. The fund was set up in Chris&#039; memory to raise money within the motorcycle industry to provide vital medical equipment to help the future of British Racing. Chris&rsquo; death was one of the primary inspirations for Darren to do the Ironman.



How Triathlon Ruined My Life  is published by Upfront Publishing (2007) and lists at &pound;9.49 currently. You can buy it through Amazon and all good booksellers.



]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Quelle Challenge goes Spanish]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3252.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[After the two successful &#039;spin-offs&#039; of the Quelle Challenge Roth in Wanaka, New Zealand and Niederbronn Les Bains, France (where the premiere of the new half-distance competition will take place on May 25th) TEAMChallenge has now granted two further licences for events in Spain. On May 10th, 2009 the Evolution Challenge Costa Barcelona Maresme, a half ironman-distance triathlon, will take place for the first time in the Barcelona region at the beautiful Costa del Maresme. On October 4th, 2009 there will be a full ironman-distance triathlon on the same race course, the Challenge Costa Barcelona Maresme.

The 50km race course is located on the Spanish Mediterranean coast to the south of the Costa Brava near Barcelona. For both competitions, the start and finish will be at the seaside resort Calella de Mar, one of the main tourist locations of the region. The two transition areas will also be located there. The race course of the half-distance race in May (1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run) will be identical to the course of the classic long-distance competition in October, but the athletes will have to do two laps of each discipline in the long-distance race. The fast bike course leads along the four-lane coast road, which has a good asphalt surface and which will be completely closed for traffic. The course includes several little climbs, but there are no big hills. The run course leads from Calella de Mar to Malgrat de Mar and back along a nice and well-frequented beach-front promenade and mainly consists of soft ground and only little asphalt.

The location of the new event will certainly be very attractive for the athletes. Although Spain is one of the world&rsquo;s most important triathlon nations, there has not been any triathlon competition at all in mainland Spain so far. The new event will be a welcome new destination not only for Spanish athletes, but also for those from south-western France. Challenge organizer, Felix Walchsh&ouml;fer, has chosen the dates for the new competitions very carefully: &ldquo;The date of the half-distance race on May 10th will ensure steady weather conditions in the Mediterranean, and is absolutely perfect for a preparation race for the Quelle Challenge Roth. The date of the long-distance competition in October is the latest date of all European long course triathlon events. With water temperatures of 22&deg;C and air temperatures of 28&deg;C we will have ideal race conditions, and there is no other big triathlon event at this time of year. So we target all athletes who want to do two long-distance races per year in Europe, and all athletes who missed their Hawaii qualification and want to do another competition before winter&rdquo;.

TEAMChallenge has taken its time before granting the licences. Almost three years have passed since negotiations started. Felix Walchsh&ouml;fer is, &ldquo;not only satisfied with the results, but really happy&rdquo;. The sports marketing company Evolution headed by Jordi Gonzales, Roberto Mond&eacute;jar and Eduardo No acts as the local organizer of the new competitions. Gonzales has been related to the Roth triathlon for a long time. The former technical manager of the Ironman Lanzarote has been co-operating with TEAMChallenge for several years now and has acted as their agent in the Spanish, Portuguese, Central and South American market. Felix Walchsh&ouml;fer also considers the location to be very convenient. The region is well-developed and very attractive for tourists, the local partners are co-operative and enthusiastic about triathlon, and the location can be easily reached via the Barcelona and Girona airports &ndash; excellent conditions for a successful establishment of the two new competitions on the market.

Jordi Gonzales expects around 1,500 starters at the premiere of the half-distance race and 2,000 participants in the big race in October. The application lists for both events will be opened on May 15th, 2008. The prices are quite moderate, the start fee of the half-distance competition will be EUR 120 for applications received by September 30th, 2008. The fee for the long-distance race will be EUR 300 (also for applications received by September 30th, 2008). In view of the enormous number of interested athletes, the two competitions will probably be booked up within a short time.

Further information and application (from May 15th, 2008) see their new website: www.challenge-spain.com]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lanzarote captures Puma]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3229.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The Lanzarote Ironman has captured Puma as a sponsor for 2008 with the running specialist taking &#039;ownership&#039; of the run course and sponsoring three age group athletes as well. The three athletes, randomly chosen from the list of independent athletes (not club related), have received a selection of kit and shoes from Puma, both for training and racing on May 24th.

The three lucky athletes, Carlos, Mark Anthony and Mois&eacute;s, should be easy to spot on race day as they make their way along the seafront in Puerto del Carmen!
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bayliss...in his words]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3210.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[After the excitement of Port Elizabeth last weekend, and his first ever Ironman victory, Stephen Bayliss has managed to find a few minutes to comment on his race.

Check out his blog on the teamTBB website
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[IMSA pro race report]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3202.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Nick Saunders, Tri247&#039;s roving long-distance pro athlete, was out in Port Elizabeth for the Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa and sent us this report on a race where the Brits dominated.



Another Ironman completed. Firstly, big congratulations to Stephen and Bella. It&#039;s great that Stephen won his first Ironman convincingly, and up against some solid competition. He sure did earn his stripes. As for Bella, she earned her General&#039;s stars. What a gutsy win. I think she had to sprint for the first time in her life and what a time to have to do it, at the end of an Ironman!! I have been staying with them while I have been in Port Elizabeth and I have got a good insight into how their races went. Stephen executed his race well, he hung back a bit on the bike as he went too hard on the first lap trying to hang in with the leaders and this clearly paid off as he was able to run well under three hours (2:51) on the marathon, the only pro to go that fast. Bella lost close to a quarter of an hour on the bike due to a puncture and her gas canister not working forcing her to wait for one. In the end, a good day for them - to say the least.
 
My day? I can&#039;t complain about my result. There were some good athletes lined up to race so to make it into the top ten was going to be hard. My swim went to plan, I was in the chasing pack which included Raynard Tissink. I tried cycling with Stephan Liebetrau and Peter Schoissengeier (try and spell that when you&#039;ve had a few) but after a lap I found the pace a bit fast for me so eased off and came in off the bike in 4:40 and in 11th position. I was very happy with my Planet X Stealth, it&#039;s the most comfortable I have felt on a bike and going into the run, I normally get bad back pain at that stage.

The marathon was survival for me, I knew from the start it was going to be tough. Normally I feel smooth at the beginning but I just concentrated on getting through each kilometer and was fortunate enough to pass a few of the other pros and work my way into sixth place with 10km to go. The last 10km were torture, I was cramping in my hamstrings and every step forward was a triumph in itself. When I ran into the finishers chute I was surprised to see that the time was 8:42. It felt longer! My marathon time was 3:07 - I have been working on getting under three hours, you just can&#039;t get a top three place in an Ironman unless you do.

I had a few speed bumps in my lead up to this race, but I am sure most of the field did. I&#039;ve yet to have a perfect preparation, or even near perfect. This definitely slowed me on the run. In the game of Ironman one really has to get the training right and keep the consistency going. It is so easy to over train and I think I may have done this and the result was a virus that put me out for a while leading up to the race. I have learnt a lot during this phase of training and will take the lessons into my prep for IM Switzerland in July. I did not qualify for Kona so the pressure is on!

About IM South Africa? What a race!! The organisation is second to none. I had homestay which was awesome, my hosts were very generous. The course is a two-lap swim, you exit onto the beach and re-enter after the first lap, a three-lap 60km bike loop which passes through transition three times and this spurs you on as the crowds are great, and the run is a three-lap 14km loop which passes through transition seven times and again the streets are lined with people for about 10km of the run course.

The awards were great fun, Stephen Bayliss was a classic! He had a few beers and I think out-danced most people and became another person I have never seen before and for once the food was good. So if any of you fancy a great trip to Africa I recommend the race; the weather was fantastic, the wind can blow - but it blows in Hawaii so it is good practice. It&#039;s back to Jersey for me now and the next race is the UK 70.3 and then IM Switzerland. Happy training.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Infinit does Ironman ]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3200.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[To be honest we&#039;ve known about this for a while but were sworn to secrecy until a formal announcement could be made. Trouble is, looks like the Americans weren&#039;t - the story came out on a US website yesterday during an interview with Michael Folan, the company&#039;s owner...

Infinit Nutrition, providers of the &#039;create your own mix&#039; nutrition system, have pulled off a remarkable deal with Triangle for all their European Ironman and 70.3 races. They will be providing the energy drinks for both the bike and the run at the Monaco 70.3 this year and then all of their races including Ironman South Africa, Ironman France and Ironman Austria from 2009. When we heard the news we jokingly asked Michael Hanreck, the man behind Infinit over here, if that means that you can specify your own personal mix for both the bike and the run... We won&#039;t repeat the answer he gave but, if their standard mixes are good enough for Mark Allen Coaching and Joe Friel then they are definitely good enough for us.

Expect a proper announcement in a few days with details of what the mixes will actually be and we&#039;re sure that Michael will be coming up with some deals for people taking part in the races so they can try them product out in advance. Check out the website: www.infinitnutrition.eu]]></description></item></channel></rss>