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		<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Interviews - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest interviews articles from Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Interview: Zara Hyde Peters]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3321.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It took a while to catch up with Zara Hyde Peters to talk about her new role as CEO of the British Triathlon Federation, since taking up the post just over two months ago she hasn&#039;t had a lot of spare time on her hands. Some might ask, how will she fit into triathlon coming from an athletic background? Of course, athletics is similar to triathlon, after all running is very much part of triathlon, but most runners seem to think triathletes are a little crazy to say the least. Well Zara may come from a career in athletics, but her personality certainly fits well in triathlon, when I asked her how her 25-mile time trial went on Monday (she is planning to take part in some duathlons) she replied, &quot;well it would have been OK if I hadn&#039;t done a 10k road race on Friday, a five-mile cross-country race on the Saturday and run a hard two-mile relay leg on the Sunday&quot;! From a sporting point of view she certainly fits the bill and there&#039;s no doubt that she&#039;s found another sport that she&#039;s very passionate about, as I found out.



AE When did you first come across triathlon and what were your first thoughts about the sport that has now become very much part of your career?

ZHP I first became aware of the sport when a couple of triathletes started running well in road races, I also remember watching a World Cup on the TV and seeing Simon Lessing win. The memory that most stands out though was when I was watching the triathlon at the Sydney Olympics on TV and I just thought what an incredible venue and city, but above all, it just seemed to have the most amazing atmosphere.

AE You spent seven years at UK athletics and played a major role in supporting both Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe at the Athens Olympics and you also went to the Commonwealth Games as a competitor yourself in the 10k. Looking over your sporting career so far, both personally and on a career level, you obviously have a huge passion for running, do you think you can turn the same passion you have for running into that level of passion for triathlon?

ZHP Well firstly, triathlon really is a performance orientated sport, which I really like. I&#039;m very motivated by performance sport and to be fair I even got passionate watching Manchester United beating Barcelona last night. I&#039;ll watch just about any high level sport, I&#039;m fascinated by it and I can get very excited about it, so actually, for me, triathlon is really interesting because it is so performance orientated. Even at age group level they are not taking this lightly, they&rsquo;re not just having a go, they&#039;re training hard and holding down full time jobs and lives; goodness knows how some of them do it.

I also think it&#039;s easy to get passionate about the individual athlete and that&#039;s really what it comes down to. When you think about working with British triathlon ultimately our shop window will be those individuals; like Will Clarke, Hollie Avil, Al Brownlee. At the moment  though, it&#039;s the Tim Don&#039;s. They are the people that really are the product of the sport that the sport should look up to. Will I have as much fun supporting them through an organization to reach their goals as I did with Kelly Holmes? Absolutely, it&#039;s just the same. So I guess in answer to your question, yes, I can be as passionate about triathlon as running.

AE Having spent seven years at UK athletics you obviously know Paula Radcliffe well. Considered by most as the greatest female runner Great Britain has ever seen, she is without a doubt hugely talented, but most would have to admit that her work ethic is second to none, how do you think her training regime compares to that of Great Britain&#039;s top triathletes?

ZHP It&#039;s probably a bit early for me to comment on this because I haven&rsquo;t spent a lot of time with the athletes, as yet. I&#039;ve seen one or two of the younger athletes and have been fortunate to spend some time and chat with Hollie. I&#039;m very impressed with her mental approach and I think she is probably as equally focused as Paula was at her age, but at that age, they can&#039;t quite be living the sport yet. For example; she&#039;s just returned home having achieved two remarkable podium finishes in only her first two ever World Cup races, but she&#039;s back to school on Monday and looking forward to it, she&#039;s got A levels soon and that&#039;s her main focus right now. Have I seen an example of athletes who could have the same work ethic as Paula? The answer is yes. Do I think we have someone who is already at the level where Paula is now? The answer is no, but I think we have people that have the potential to get where she is. Obviously it took her a number of years to get where she is and what&#039;s happening now is that sport is her life, so when she gets up in the morning everything she does that day is dictated by the impact it will have on her running, she wouldn&#039;t go shopping if it were detrimental to her running. It&#039;s a different mind set to a lot of athletes, but I do think we have athletes that the kind of potential to make that kind of commitment and the intellectual capacity to deal with the challenge of dedicating your whole life to sport.

AE So you&#039;re saying that the commitment needed to be a great athlete requires intellectual capacity as well as physical?

ZHP Well yes, it&#039;s actually very boring being that sport-focused and it is really hard work cutting yourself off from a lot of the norms of what your peers are doing, it takes a very tough and intelligent person to do that, but it&#039;s all part of a growing process, people have to grow into it. In general I&#039;ve been impressed with the intelligence triathletes use in their approach to what is a really challenging event. I think as an outsider of the sport I look at it as almost five events in one, you&#039;ve got a swim, a transition, a bike, etc. I&#039;m looking at transitions like a Formula One pit stop thinking they&#039;ve invested millions in just getting that bit right, they lose a second there and people&#039;s heads roll; the transition is an event in itself. If you start thinking about that technical aspect of the event you realise just what an intellectual challenge it is and how much the athlete needs to be able to think on their feet during the event.

AE Compared to running, there&#039;s a multitude of things that can go wrong, one small error and it could be game over?

ZHP Yes, from what I&#039;m learning you&#039;ve got to be prepared for a lot more eventualities. Before I came into sport I worked in the oil industry and when I was studying from for my MBA I did some research into how in the early 70s Shell revolutionised the oil industry when they introduced something called scenario planning, which at the time was considered very revolutionary in business management. The idea was that they locked a bunch of people in a room and thought about the most unlikely scenarios that could happen in their industry and what they would do in each incident. They thought of the most ridiculous things, such as what would happen if oil went from 100 dollars a barrel to five dollars a barrel, I mean things that you could never possibly envisage happening from where you were sitting. 

This approach is exactly the kind of approach needed for a sporting event, in particular the Olympics. You&#039;ve got one day, one chance to get it right. You can&#039;t have a good day the next day or the next week, so you have to plan for everything that could possibly happen on that day, even things you haven&#039;t even dreamt of yet. You just can&#039;t assume it will all go perfectly, because if you do, and it doesn&#039;t, and you haven&#039;t got a strategy to deal with it on the day, you could potentially be staring disaster in the face! That&#039;s why I think the Olympics in itself is quite a fascinating concept for a lot of sports people, because it is about being right on that day; you can&#039;t get that day to move for you, you have to be right on that day, at that time.

AE Interestingly you have taking a very similar career path to that of your predecessor, Norman Brook. Was this just purely coincidental?

ZHP In 2000 when Norman moved from UK Athletics to triathlon I took over from him as Technical Director for Endurance, which was his former position up until the Sydney Olympics. In 2003/4 I changed position to Head of Potential and was in charge of managing the whole World Class Potential Programme which was across all events. I still retained responsibility for Kelly and Paula though, as it was felt that it wasn&#039;t a great time to change their performance management line. After that I went on to the director role on the board looking after the whole athlete development pathway. I guess yes, you could say our paths did diverge in that respect, but this latest move following Norman again was purely coincidental.

AE Were you approached by the BTF to replace Norman?

ZHP No, when I heard that Norman was going to South Africa I contacted Sarah and asked her what the BTF was doing about replacing Norman. Partly because I was interested in triathlon and the opportunities it presented because I saw it as a challenging sport, and partly because I thought I&rsquo;d been in athletics for seven years and there&#039;s a danger that you can become stale. You start to become a little bit part of the system and I&#039;m not a big fan of people becoming part of the system. I thought it would be good for me to at least consider the opportunity. To be fair I don&#039;t think there was anything else that would have appealed to me in the same way. It would have to have been a sport that I felt really strongly about, and at a level of involvement where I could really influence change, and not many opportunities come along like that!

AE How instrumental do you think Norman was in moving the sport forward and what do you think is his greatest legacy to the sport?

ZHP Norman was an entrepreneur who had the vision to take the governing body organisation from a small house in Ashby to an established HQ in Loughborough alongside a well-resourced World Class programme operating in quality facilities.  He has overseen the modernisation of the sports structures and the introduction of commercial sponsorship to enable a high quality domestic events series that is now in its second year. The sport now has a good base on which to build for the future and to dream dreams; that is his legacy.

AE I imagine that after seven years of experience at UK Athletics, including playing a major role at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics, you must have quietly had your own agenda when you began your new career at the BTF?

ZHP I actually came in with a very open mind with a sense, probably from some early meetings that I&#039;d had with people, of the fact that there was a real appetite for moving on, building on what had already been achieved. There was also a real openness in the sport to ideas, which was a really nice environment to walk into. So no, the answer is that I didn&#039;t have my own agenda and the first couple of months in post were spent listening and taking things in.

AE Where do you see triathlon going and what are your future expectations of the sport? 

ZHP The sport is set to grow at all levels; our challenge working on behalf of the sport is to manage and foster that growth.  Moving from being the &#039;potential&#039; sport to a clearly performing sport is definitely an aspiration.  I would also hope to see a lot of discussion in the coming few months about the direction the sport is taking and how the objectives are best achieved.  This will all contribute to a clear vision for the sport in the next four to six years as we enjoy two home-based championships and the profile that goes with that.



Editor&#039;s note: Annie also asked Zara about her views on the ITU and other international aspects of the sport but, although Zara did answer those questions, the BTF has asked that we not include that part of the interview. In an election year for the ITU presidency, a role that GB may well have a significant interest in, it seems likely that there will be little in the way of comment until campaigning gets underway...
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Interview: Kate Allen]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3292.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The golden girl of triathlon and pre-race favorite of the Athen&#039;s Olympic triathlon, Loretta Harrop, looked like she had the gold medal sewn up. The multi World Cup winner, known as the one of the toughest competitors on the circuit, had come out of the swim in the lead pack and had dominated the bike. She looked like she was cruising to victory having broken all of her closest rivals, but Kate Allen from Austria, who was yet to win a World Cup, had other ideas. With only a few hundred meters to go, and within sight of the finishing line, she passed Harrop, and in doing so stunned the triathlon world by becoming the 2004 Olympic Champion. Annie Emmerson caught up with the reigning Olympic Champion following a serious bike crash which has potentially hindered her chances of defending her title.

 

AE You were, without a doubt, a surprise winner of the Athens Olympic triathlon. With a three minute lead off the bike few would have thought that you would go on to run Loretta Harrop (AUS) down in the home straight. Did you know or feel as if you were about to have the most devastating run leg that triathlon has ever seen?

KA I knew going into the race that I was in a great shape in biking and running. I ran as hard as I could and just tried to focus on the athlete that I could see in front of me. I had no idea what position I was in until 2km from the finish when I was told by my husband, Marcel, that gold was still possible. 

AE You won a silver medal at the European Championships four months before the Olympics, but did you have any idea that you were in the kind of shape to  make not just the podium, but win a gold medal in Athens? 

KA You dream about it and work for it, and I knew that if the dynamics of the race went my way, then I would have a chance to win gold, but I never thought the race would have run like it did.

AE It must have been an incredible moment, what were you thinking as you crossed the line knowing you had won won gold?

KA I kind of felt numb, you have so many mixed emotions, I was happy but exhausted at the same time. Everything I lived and worked for and the whole build up to this big aim all of a sudden made sense. What happened in this moment, took days and weeks to realise.

AE How did you feel about winning a gold medal for Austria and not that of the country of your birth place?

KA I was married and happily living in Austria for nine years. I started the sport in Austria, they supported me financially to do the sport and provided training facilities and structures. I went through the qualification process and got nominated, and that makes you very proud that your country stands behind you and believes in you.

AE Austria only won two gold medals in Athens, did you become an overnight national hero? 

KA Yes, people recognised me when I went shopping and you are no longer a private person. Before the Olympics I just had to deal with triathlon and all of a sudden my day was full with media appointments and events. It took me some time to adjust to that as well as maintaining my training. 

AE Before Athens your running was already very strong, what did you change in your training to make it the fastest running ever seen in triathlon? 

KA I had a very strong base in 2003 from the Ironman training that I did for Ironman Austria that year. I then put speed on top of that for the World Cups, and then after the World Championships in New Zealand I went back to running a lot of mileage for months. I did a lot of two and three hour runs with some specific, very short track sessions. I then did some running races early in the season and ran some fantastic times. 

AE Do you think you can return to the running form you had in Athens? 

KA Yes, I do, I  trained really well in Australia where I did some running races and was very happy with my shape. I am just disappointed that the training has been disrupted from the accident in New Zealand, it&acute;s not a perfect preparation.

AE Sadly you had a really bad crash in the World Cup in New Plymouth, your first race this season, tell us what happened?

KA Lisa Huetthaler crashed into my bike and I came down head first onto the road. I had 22 stitches in my face, lost three teeth, I tore a tendon in my thumb, bruised ribs and got terrible burns all over my body.

AE Do you think triathlon at  elite level has changed since Athens? 

KA Yes, you have to be a more complete triathlete now. All three disciplines have to be perfect, whereas in Athens you could still have a light weakness in one discipline. To win a medal in Beijing, you will have to be top in all disciplines.

AE How does a training week in the life of Kate Allen look?

KA I train 25 to 30 hours a week. Most importantly, I have to improve my swimming for the games in Beijing so I have been doing eight to nine swim sessions a week. I bike about ten hours and do six runs. To help my recovery I try to get at least three massages a week. 

AE On your website you mention Dr Pansold (Red Bull&#039;s leading sports training specialist) is your mentor, how influential was he in your 2004 result? 

KA I have worked with Dr Pansold since 2002 and he overlooks the structures and the physiology in my training. It&#039;s a good relationship and I get on very well with him. 

AE Being a professional triathlete has its pros and cons, but one thing for sure is that it&#039;s also very physically demanding, how do you stay motivated to keep training as hard as you do?

KA I always have big goals that I set myself, so normally I have one or two highlights a year that keep me focused.

AE How was your winter training, you said you&#039;ve been working on your weakest discipline, the swim, how&rsquo;s it going?

KA I went to Australia in October and I have been working twice a day with my swim coach, John Beckworth. Having a 50 metre pool with a swimming coach on poolside every day was very important to me. I have also found a good rhythm with my running and biking.

AE Two weeks ago Vanessa Fernandes exposed her weakness to her rivals, albeit in horrendous conditions, but now we know she doesn&rsquo;t cope well with the cold. Of course, Beijing won&rsquo;t be cold and so she won&#039;t have to deal with the handicap she was dealt in Pontervedra, but still, we&rsquo;ve seen she is not totally invincible. All that said, along with her closest rival Emma Snowsill, they will be hard to beat; as reigning champion how do you see it?

KA They are definitely the two strongest and most outstanding athletes at the moment. Without a doubt, Vanessa and Emma are the favorites for gold.

AE What was your sporting back ground before triathlon?

KA I was a track runner from the age of five until 15. I also did gymnastics for some years as well as a lot of sport in school. 

AE Last year you were back and racing strongly at the standard distance (Kate won another silver at the European Championships and got a third place at the Manchester World Cup) but what else have you been up to for the last four years?

KA I did two years of Ironman racing, won Ironman Austria and placed fifth in Hawaii twice. In 2007 I returned to Olympic distance racing.

AE As reigning champion and Austria&rsquo;s leading female triathlete it seems unbelievable that you have not yet qualified for Beijing; what do you need to do to make sure you will be there to defend your title?

KA I have three races left to qualify for Beijing. These races are the European Championships, the World Cup in Madrid and the World Championships in Vancouver. At these three races we have to achieve an A and a B result, which is a top eight and a top 12 placing. 

AE How devastating would it be if you don&rsquo;t make the team, and do you have a contingency plan?

KA We were pretty sure I would be qualified after New Plymouth. I nominated this race as a qualification race and trained very hard for it, and tapered down as well. At the moment I am trying to get my health and training back to normal. I hope to qualify, but if I don&rsquo;t I will have done everything I possibly can. I would be terribly disappointed and I have not yet thought of a contingency plan.

AE You&rsquo;ve won Austria twice, and had three top tens in Hawaii, do you think you can win it and put yourself in the record books as being Olympic Champion and Ironman World Champion? 

KA I would love to win it and I would like to think I could. Maybe I will go back there, we&#039;ll see.

AE A different race and very different distances but, Chrissie&rsquo;s race in Hawaii was on par with your incredible result in Athens, what did you think of Chrissie&#039;s result?

KA I was incredibly impressed with her race. In my opinion it was one of the strongest performances ever seen on Big Island. She is a breath of fresh air in the Ironman scene. 

AE With an Olympic gold medal safely locked away in your cabinet, what more do you want to achieve in triathlon or any sport for that matter?

KA I would like to win a World Cup as well as a medal at the World Championships. 

AE What are your dreams for the future both in life and in sport?

KA I would like to start a family after my sports career, but continue to keep fit and have an input into triathlon in Austria. ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TCR Video: Mark Shaw]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3092.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Here&#039;s another of the second batch of TCR videos with Annie Emmerson interviewing Mark Shaw; biographer of Spencer Smith, event organiser and now running a training centre in France.

 ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Interview: Emma-Kate Lidbury]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3253.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Retired swimmer, Emma-Kate Lidbury, thought her competitive sports days were well and truly behind her; that was until her boss at the newspaper where she works as a journalist thought she&#039;d be a good contender for the Blenhiem triathlon. Three years later she was standing on the podium at the World Championships, with a Bronze medal around her neck. The up-and-coming Wiggle sponosored athlete talks to Annie Emmerson about how she caught the triathlon bug, her plans to improve on her Bronze medal and, amongst other things, the possiblity of doing an Ironman.

  

AE Before you became a triathlete you were a swimmer (not a bad one either!). Tell us a about your time as a swimmer and what strokes and distances did you swam?

EKL I took up competitive swimming aged 11 and to begin with it was just one of many sports and activities I was lucky enough to enjoy growing up with parents who were active and sporty themselves. However, it soon became apparent that I was more than your average club swimmer and I think my parents soon regretted it as it meant being at the pool for 5am most mornings before school.

I was predominantly a sprint freestyler, excelling at 50m and 100m freestyle at National level but also swimming medley, fly and breaststroke at regional level. I qualified for my first Nationals aged 12 and every year subsequently until aged 18, consistently finishing in the top 10 in my age group in the 50m and 100m free. Other career highlights included competing at the European and Olympic Trials, swimming for English Schools and winning a number of regional titles. I would never have entertained racing 1500m back then, which makes me laugh now. Although I didn&rsquo;t realise &ndash; or appreciate it &ndash; back then, spending my formative years training as a swimmer is paying dividends now. Not only do I have a great aerobic base, but I&rsquo;ve come into triathlon with a lot of experience of competing and all that it entails. 
 
AE That&#039;s impressive, so what made you catch the triathlon bug?

EKL Back in November 2004, I was just settling into a new job at a newspaper in Oxford when my editor mentioned the Blenheim Triathlon to me. He said the paper would be sponsoring the inaugural event &ndash; due to take place at Blenheim Palace in summer 2005 &ndash; and he was keen to have a &lsquo;face in the race&rsquo;. Given that the majority of my colleagues more than fitted the bill as stereotypical hacks (20 fags a day and almost as many coffees), I guess I probably looked like the only one who stood a chance of making it round the course and not collapsing. He knew I had a background in competitive swimming so told me &#039;one out of three ain&rsquo;t bad&#039; and that was that. I guess triathlon just landed in my inbox and was just another feature to write at the outset. I probably didn&rsquo;t realise it at the time, but it had been a few years since I had been involved with competitive sport and I was missing it. I&rsquo;d grown up very accustomed to the discipline of training and racing, so getting back into it wasn&rsquo;t too much of a culture shock.

AE How did that first race go?
 
EKL Despite the fact I only received my bike about two months before the race and it took me the best part of a month to get used to riding with clipless pedals, my first outing as a triathlete was a great success. I finished 13th in a 600-strong field  having done next to no proper training and I realised that with a little bit of hard work I could maybe achieve some good results. It took me weeks to come down from the finish line high after Blenheim yet by that time I&rsquo;d already signed up for another three races and had been talked into joining a club, Oxford Tri. There was also one other factor I hadn&rsquo;t taken into account: the tri bug. It had bitten me good and proper. I had no idea just how addictive triathlon would be&hellip;but it is fair to say my life has never been the same since. I don&rsquo;t know exactly what it is about the sport that I love, but it&rsquo;s definitely got me.

AE Since then you moved up the ranks quite quickly, tell us about some of your results since your first race in Blenhiem.

EKL In 2006 I was eighth at the ITU World Championships in the 25-29 age group. At the 2007 World Championships, I managed to turn my eighth place from the previous year into a Bronze medal, I was also the fastest British woman and had the seventh fastest time overall. In 2007 I was the overall winner of the Eton Triathlon, was the winner of the Michelob Ultra London Triathlon sub-2:30 race and also captained the Oxford Tri&#039;s women&#039;s team to a Bronze medal at the National Club Relay Championships.

AE Will your main focus be standard distance racing, or do you have plans to step up a distance?

EKL At the moment, yes, my focus is standard distance racing. The ITU Age Group Worlds in Vancouver is my &lsquo;A&rsquo; race of the season, but with it coming so early in the year I have decided to mix things up a bit and go longer in the latter half of the season. I&rsquo;ve recently entered my first 70.3 and will be racing at the Antwerp Ironman 70.3 in early August, which I&rsquo;m very much looking forward to.

AE Do you have any plans to do an Ironman?

EKL When I first became involved with triathlon and heard about Ironman I honestly thought the people who did it were mental, absolutely mental. I vowed I would never get involved in such a torturous and gruelling sport. However, as with most things tri-related, you get sucked in eventually, and I&rsquo;m starting to think more and more about going long. At a recent training camp in Lanzarote I rode the 112-mile Ironman bike course and loved it. I loved watching the miles clock up on the bike and felt stronger throughout the ride and thought afterwards, &ldquo;Hmmm... maybe I could do an Ironman&rdquo;. I&rsquo;ve not entered one, but I have a group of friends who are trying to convince me to do Lanzarote next year. We&rsquo;ll see! 
 
AE You&#039;re a very strong swimmer and had some fantastic results as an age group athlete, have you considered competing at elite level?

EKL I am planning to race some of the Corus Elite Series races this season to see how I fare against the elites. It will be interesting to see how close or far away I am. I think I would probably need to invest more time in my swimming to really be up in the front pack. Since becoming a triathlete, swimming is the sport which I have spent the least time on in a bid to continually improve my bike and running, but if I was to race elite full-time that would change.

AE You spent the winter training in Oz with some of the big names in triathlon, how did it go?

EKL I absolutely adored Australia, it was fantastic. It was the second time I&rsquo;d been there but my first visit was as a backpacker about seven years ago. I spent the majority of the time in Noosa, which is just a tri mecca, and hooked up with the tri club there and joined the local swim squad. The facilities were absolutely awesome, the weather was brilliant and the people were terrific. It isn&rsquo;t hard to see why the Aussies do so well at sport after spending a few months training with them. Joining the swim squad really kickstarted my swim training again and I was swimming with Belinda and Justin Granger, which was great. During one of the first sessions when the coach said: &ldquo;OK, EK, you can lead this lane&rdquo;, I thought &ldquo;Jeez, I&rsquo;m leading out the Grangers&rdquo;, but in actual fact it was brilliant training with them. Belinda is terrific fun and had plenty of tips for 70.3 and Ironman racing. It also wasn&rsquo;t uncommon to see Gordo Byrn, Grant Hackett and plenty of other big names, so leaving Noosa was extremely hard.

AE What are your strengths - apart from swimming?

EKL I&rsquo;m getting stronger and stronger on the bike and my run is improving all the time. In terms of personality, I think I&rsquo;m mentally quite tough and can push myself hard. As an ex-swimmer, I&rsquo;m used to putting in the hours and firmly believe you get out what you put in. I have a strong work ethic and want to be the best at whatever I do.

AE And your weaknesses?

EKL I think sometimes I can push myself too hard and, if I didn&rsquo;t have a coach or boyfriend telling me to rest sometimes, I could quite easily overtrain. 
 
AE How and when did you link up with your sponsor Wiggle?

EKL After the Worlds in Hamburg last year, a lot of my tri friends were telling me I should seek out some sponsorship deals, having finished as the top female British age grouper. I heard that Wiggle was about to get heavily involved in triathlon ahead of the 2008 season so was put in touch with them. The day before I flew to Australia in late October, Wiggle confirmed they would sponsor me in 2008, so I flew off one very happy girl. They have been brilliant and it&rsquo;s more than just a sponsorship deal. I&rsquo;ve got to know a few of the characters at Wiggle HQ and love the way they do things. I&rsquo;ve recently picked up my race bike for the season, the Focus Izalco Chrono, their top spec tri bike, and it is sublime. I&rsquo;ve also been fortunate to secure sponsorship from an accountancy firm in Swindon called Morris Owen and Savills (the estate agents) in Oxford.
 
AE If you had a choice to race in any triathlon around the world which one would it be?

EKL There are some terrific races in America which I&rsquo;d like to do such as the Escape from Alcatraz race in San Francisco and Wildflower. Then there&rsquo;s also Kona which I&rsquo;d love to qualify for one day. I guess it is THE race of all races. Having said that, being on the start line at the London 2012 Olympics would also be pretty special.

AE When you&#039;re not racing and training you work as a journalist, it sounds exciting, tell us more. 
 
EKL For the past four years I&rsquo;ve worked as a news reporter for the Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times, covering stories as varied as murder trials through to spending a week with troops in Basra, Iraq. Until triathlon came along, journalism was most definitely my passion and if I hadn&rsquo;t caught the tri bug in the way I have, I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;d be working around the clock in Fleet Street right now. Instead, I&rsquo;ve branched out into writing for triathlon magazines and regularly contribute to 220, combining my two passions in life.
 
AE How many hours a week to you train?

EKL In an average week I wouldn&rsquo;t do more than 15 hours and every fourth week I have a reduced volume week. My coach, Pete Dowling, sets me a programme each week based on what I have going on, how hectic work is, and what time of the season it is.
 
AE That&#039;s a fair amount of training, how do you manage to combine training with work?

EKL I&rsquo;ve always been a well-organised person so I think you become used to managing your time well. I now only work at the paper two days a week and do more work from home which is great for training. I tend to swim first thing in the morning and run at lunchtime if I&rsquo;m at work or do a bike or gym session in the evening. 
  
AE What are your aims for 2008 and beyond?

EKL This year I would like to improve on my result from last year&rsquo;s Worlds in Hamburg and also race well on the domestic scene. I&rsquo;d also like to make a strong step-up to 70.3 racing. As for beyond 2008, I guess I&rsquo;ll have to see how this season goes before making any decisions.
 
AE If you weren&#039;t doing triathlon which other sport would you choose?

EKL I took part in pretty much every sport imaginable as a kid before swimming took over, but my first loves were probably basketball and volleyball, although it would have been great to have been a top-flight tennis player.

AE What&#039;s your best moment in triathlon so far?

EKL My best and worst moment probably came within moments of each other at Hamburg last year. With about 2k to go I knew I was in gold medal winning position, but a few strides later I was overtaken and had nothing left to go with the girl who went on to win it. I was holding on and holding on, running to the line for silver when, with about two metres to go, an Aussie girl pipped me to the finish line and I had to settle for bronze. To begin with I was gutted but then had to remind myself that I&rsquo;d still won a medal at the Worlds, which two years ago I would have thought crazy. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever forget that last 2k: the crowds were amazing, I was in more physical pain than ever before, but I knew I was moments from finishing a great race and a medal would be mine, regardless of its colour.
 
AE And lastly, who&#039;s your sporting hero?

EKL One of my earliest sporting memories is of Adrian Moorhouse winning the 100m breaststroke at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 (I was eight years old). I can distinctly remember watching him closing down the gap on the leading swimmers and snatching victory by one one hundredth of a second. The photo of him - arms stretched up to the sky, fists clenched, eyes closed, grinning - as he realises he has won Olympic gold is one of my all-time favourite images and is ingrained in my mind. To me, his face says it all in that picture: if you work hard, you will eventually reap your rewards. A few years later as a teenager, I was invited to take part in a British Swimming development training camp and Mr Moorhouse was there and I can remember being incredibly nervous. I still think he&rsquo;s a legend, 20 years on! ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Whatever happened to: Sian Brice]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3216.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last month in our new series, &#039;Whatever happened to...&#039;, Mike Trees spoke to the extrovert and very colourful triathlete Tracy Harris. This month Annie Emmerson caught up with her old team mate and good friend, former Olympian and European bronze medallist Sian Brice.



AE Firstly, and obviously the most important question of the interview, the team at Tri247 (funnily enough they&#039;re all guys) asked, &#039;Since retiring from triathlon you&#039;ve had two boys, do you consider yourself a yummy mummy?&#039;
 
SB No, I don&#039;t think so. I think yummy mummys are overly concerned about their family&#039;s image, and that&#039;s not me.

AE Moving on to the serious stuff, you had a short but very successful career as a professional triathlete (1997-2000) but before that you were involved in lots of other sports, tell us about your sporting background. 
 
SB As a kid I did lots of sports (basketball, gymnastics, hockey, netball, trampolining, badminton) but swimming (competitive from aged ten) and then later on running (from aged 13) were my first serious ones. I reached national standard at swimming at 13 and then English Schools track at 17. I first competed for GB Juniors internationally at track and cross-country. At Oxford University I carried on running and swimming and won Team Bronze for GB at the World Students Cross-Country. After my degree I did a track scholarship at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide Roll!) but was injured for the track season so decided to come home to the UK and get a job and a career, starting work as a trainee accountant in London.

AE So how did you get into triathlon?
 
SB Living in Blackheath I, quite by chance, met a fantastic couple, Vern and Jean Thomas, who introduced me to the Greenwich Tritons. Vern then encouraged and inspired me every step of the way to do my first standard distance triathlon in 1993 at Swindon. 

AE Tell us about your first triathlon?

 SB It was Swindon in 1993, I was eighth overall and second in my age group behind Loretta Sollars. It was a scary experience ... dark cold water and first time in clip on shoes, cramp in the car on the way home, but I was hooked.

 AE You raced all over the world, Which was your favorite race?
 
SB Seb Coe winning the LA Olympic 1500m ... Oh sorry did you mean triathlon? That must be Noosa, what a great place to have a race, if a little hot. Great to unwind afterwards in the beach and in the cafes.

AE You burst onto the international scene in 1997 when you won the European Cup final in Alanya (I think I gave you a good kicking there, she laughs ... yes, you did!) few people knew about you then, did you have any idea that you would get such fantastic results, at international level, so early on in your career?
 
SB At Alanya I became great friends with my room mate and realised that elite triathletes were not all one-dimensional, self-obsessed cardboard cutouts with no real life, we had a laugh and out of the blue I won the race. I had no idea or expectation going into Alanya but I had always been competitive and trained hard. Although naive technically, I got away with it on the day. It did give me a real boost and confidence in future races. 

AE How important was it to have a good coach at your side?
 
SB Invaluable. Steve (Trew) engineered my breakthrough to world class with some great work converting my track speed into triathlon 10km running and pushing me out of my comfort zone on the bike and in the pool. Looking back some of the sessions we did were extremely special and some of my best triathlon memories. I think it is so important to continually take advice from someone you trust. It&#039;s all about building a long term relationship with someone who knows you inside out and can therefore get the most out of you, and still be a good friend.
 
AE What was the high point in your triathlon career?
 
SB In 1999 I was sixth in the World Champs at Montreal behind five Aussies. It was an incredible high as the couple of years leading up to 2000 were extremely competitive as there were some very talented and fit athletes preparing themselves for the Olympics in that race. I should also mention my husband Paddy, who competed in the age group race and then kept me awake the night before my race after drinking too much beer...!

AE Following on from a fantastic 1999 you arrived at the Sydney Olympics as one of the top European favourites, but a bike crash saw your Olympic dream come to an abrupt end. For those of us watching at home it was incredibly sad to see. Bike crashes happen all the time in races, but for this to happen at the Olympics it must have been very tough to deal with?
 
SB At the time it was tough as I had only come off my bike once before in a race and even then I had got up and managed to finish. I had gone through a race plan for every scenario except coming off my bike and was stunned. But shit happens and life goes on.

AE Since retiring from triathlon you&#039;ve stayed involved in the sport, albeit behind the scenes, tell us about your work at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
 
SB I was involved and really enjoyed helping with the live commentary at the event. I was really impressed with the set-up and the organisation, it was a great race.

AE Few people will know this, but rather impressively, you played a part in the successful 2012 Olympic bid.

SB Yes, I presented the London 2012 bid to the IOC Evaluation Committee in Hyde Park, it was one of my most nerve wracking moments ever.
  
AE How do you think the sport had changed since your retired.
 
SB I think pre-Sydney and the first ever Olympic triathlon was very special. At almost every race on the circuit you had most of the top 20 in the world. It seems that now there are too many races and the quality of the fields vary which detracts from the sport.
 
AE If you could change anything about the sport, what would you change?

SB To be honest I never had much time for politics in sport. There are a lot of great people involved in triathlon who contribute at every level. However, sometimes I think that those at the top become a little divorced from what the sport of triathlon is really all about. It&#039;s eight years now since I competed so it&#039;s really not for me to say what could be changed. 
 
AE There&#039;s a fair amount of discussion about how young, up and coming sports stars are overly funded and looked after, what are your thoughts on this?

SB All funded athletes should be more accountable centrally to a Head Coach; all the GB track cyclists have to be based at Manchester and attend all team camps. Their results speak for themselves (nine golds at the recent World Track Champs). A more controlled environment would make younger athletes tougher psychologically, help push each other and alert coaches to problems such as diet, injuries and weaknesses.

AE What makes a great triathlete?

SB Age group: Good time management, effective training (quality over quantity), learning how to train out of your comfort zone, working on weaknesses, not training to your strengths.
 
Professional: Talent at swimming and running (obviously!), mentally tough and holding it together at big events, willing to absorb advice; ie not be arrogant and think you know everything, see the big picture at World level, be truly professional.

AE Who is your sporting hero?

SB Brought up in the 80s so Seb Coe, Steve Ovett and Daley Thompson, Vernon Thomas, hard as nails, Michael Jordan. In triathlon, Michellie Jones the best woman all-rounder and after the positive test for Brigitte McMahon, the real Gold Medal winner at Sydney. Always should have been, what a great story for the first Olympic triathlon in Australia!

AE What have you been up to since retiring from triathlon?

SB Kids and family life along with sport and friends. In terms of triathlon I have coached with Steve Trew at camps in the UK and Bermuda, Richard Hobson in Lanzarote, done the odd bit of commentating and was involved in the panel review of the 2004 Olympics.

AE What plans do you have for the future and as a former Olympian would you like to play a role in London 2012?

SB My youngest boy starts school in September and there are a lot of projects I have put on hold until then. I would like to get back into work and be involved either in London 2012 or in local coaching for kids at primary school.
 
 AE Did I hear someone mention you wanted to do an Ironman when you hit forty?

SB If my body holds together I&#039;d like to have a go at Ironman - to finish rather than to win a medal ... and of course provided my husband is willing to put up with the long hours of training while he slaves away at his desk earning enough money to keep shoes on the feet of his children and weak lattes in the hands of his soon to be 40 year-old wife.



...Something tells me Sian might not be after a medal, but I certainly wouldn&#039;t put it past her, and I&#039;m quite sure Paddy will oblige. Perhaps we could call it &#039;pay back&#039; for his late night partying antics at the 1999 Montreal World Championships? Knowing the lovely Sian though, I&#039;m quite sure she forgave him a long-time ago.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Leanda Cave interview]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3182.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&#039;s quite astonishing that Leanda Cave only turned 30 in March this year, it feels as if she&#039;s been in the sport forever, her achievements certainly suggest that she has. With a Commonwealth Games medal and World titles to her name, Leanda is one of Great Britain&#039;s most successful female athletes. Over the last couple of years, Leanda has made quite a few changes to her life, she&#039;s now living in the States and is embarking on a new career as an Ironman athlete. Annie Emmerson caught up with her to find out more.

 
 
AE There&#039;s been a fair few changes since we last caught up with you, you&#039;ve moved up to Ironman distance, and you&#039;ve also moved from your base in Swansea to San Francisco, that&#039;s quite a change from the Welsh Valleys? 

LC I still have my property in Swansea as there is always a little piece of me that still wants to be there. Swansea was a city that I fell in love with for many reasons, so one day I may be back.  I moved to San Francisco with Torsten, my long-term boyfriend (and now coach); he moved here almost three years ago for a coaching opportunity. I had been here prior to Torsten coming over and thought what an amazing place it is to live, so when I had the chance to come over, I did. I&#039;m still waiting on a visa, but I think I will be here for quite a while.
 
AE You spent quite a few years racing short course triathlons, what made you make the change to Ironman and 70.3?

LC It was more luck than a decisive moment. I have always done the half Ironman distance, and without trying for it, I qualified for the first ever 70.3 World Championship event in Clearwater, Florida, in 2006. That year was one of the only years they have allowed pros to qualify for the Ironman World Championships over the 70.3 distance, so I jumped at the opportunity. Best thing I have ever done. I was no longer on World Class funding, so it was an easy decision to start doing Ironman. It has always attracted me.

AE How has your training changed since you moved up a gear?

LC I would say I have moved down a gear in terms of how hard I train. I miss the red lining every training session. However, I love being out for six hours on training rides. I&#039;m getting to love longer runs. Two hour runs 18 months ago would have killed me, and just the thought was almost impossible, but now a three hour run is what I am doing!

AE Looking back over your career you are, without a doubt, one of Great Britain&#039;s most successful female triathletes. You won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, last year you were crowned World Long Course Triathlon Champion,  but you&#039;re most prestigious award has to be the 2002 ITU World Championships in Cancun, doesn&#039;t it?

LC I would have said yes at the beginning of last year, but then I hadn&#039;t experienced the Ironman in Kona. Now I feel that my achievements will never be complete until I win the Ironman World Championships.

AE Winning a World Championship title is something most athletes can only ever dream of and you&#039;ve won two, what does it feel like crossing the line knowing you&#039;re about to become a World Champion?

LC It&#039;s always a bit surreal because at the time, you&#039;re not thinking that you are winning a World Championship event, you&#039;re just winning a race. To win a race is hard enough these days, but to do it in a World Championship is totally mind blowing.

AE Is it true that when you won your first title in Cancun, your then coach, Chris Jones, thought you had finished second and didn&#039;t realise until sometime after the race - because of all the mayhem, crowds etc - that you&#039;d actually caught Barb Linquist on the home straight?

LC From any angle, Barb had it in the bag, including mine!  The crowds were so big, and they were shouting to me that she is not far ahead. But I couldn&#039;t see her, so I just kept up the strong pace that I had going from the start of the run. Finally, with about 200m to go, there she was, and I found another gear and passed her with the finish line in sight, so it was no wonder that Chris had no idea as he was at the other end of the run course. But he was over the moon, even when he thought I had finished second!

AE After winning the World Championships in 2002  you had some injury problems, this obviously caused you to under perform  and eventually led to you losing your funding, do you feel that British Triathlon could have helped you more and that maybe you were let down by the system?

LC Yes, absolutely, but there are many holes in the system. There are no athletes making crucial decisions, only a group of people who think they know best. I had many times of financial stress, especially at the end of the season waiting for the big decision  to find out whether I was on funding or not. From speaking with other athletes, they have similar circumstances. You can&#039;t perform at your best if you are always stressed. It was almost a relief to be taken off.
 
AE Do you think the changes that have been made to the funding are good or bad?

LC The changes, in my opinion, are not good. There is way too much support for the youth and potential athletes. Yet, the seniors, who have made the sport their career choice, are left without a secure source of income.
 
AE You&#039;ve experienced both sides of the coin, in the early days when you were racing you were very much self-funded, you then experienced life as a lottery funded athlete, in your opinion, do you think that for some of the athletes funding has a negative effect rather than a positive?

LC I learned to take risks and fight. I had no cushion to fall on when things didn&#039;t go my way, which made me fight even more. Unfortunately, the cushion is too big for the up and coming athletes. Life is very cushy and there is too much praise for some rather insignificant achievements. However, I do see some great things coming from some of the up and coming male athletes.  There is no showing off. They just work hard and get the job done.

AE Do you think short course racing has changed in the last couple of years and, if so, how has it changed?

LC From my last experiences in World Cup racing I found that it is, more than ever, a running race! The swim is important, but only to get in &#039;the pack&#039;. After that, the bike leg is pretty much a 40km scenic stepping stone to get to the run. I have started to see less and less effort on the bike from the girls who can run. In fact, the last few World Cups I did, Emma and Vanessa never came to the lead of the bike at all. That is not to say that they can&#039;t ride, but they know they are running to win.
 
AE What are your plans for 2008?

LC The Ford Ironman World Championships is my big key race for the year. I&#039;m doing the &#039;Quelle Roth Challenge&#039; to learn more about myself racing the Ironman distance. In between I will be defending my title at Escape from Alcatraz, as well as continuing with the odd 70.3 event (including the UK 70.3). I would also like to finish higher on the podium at the 70.3 Worlds after my bronze medal  last year.
 
 
AE And beyond 2008?

LC More Ironman and more 70.3. I absolutely love this sport and all its distances, however, Ironman has brought the life back into my sport for me.
 
AE You had a great race in Kona (maybe a little over-shadowed by Chrissie&#039;s surprising, but outstanding victory) where you finished eighth, were you happy with your result?

LC I didn&#039;t have a great day in Kona. In fact, I felt bloody awful, so I considered eighth a strong performance, but nowhere near what I am capable of. And hats off to Chrissie, an amazing person and athlete. I have a lot of respect and admiration for what she has achieved in life, and in this sport.
 
AE You were a great short course athlete, do you regret not making the Olympics?

LC I&#039;m not counting out London! But so far, no regrets.
 
AE So you have plans to return to the shorter distance?

LC I&#039;m keen to try for London, if, my financial circumstances are in place and I don&#039;t need to rely on the funding system. I&#039;m old enough and wise enough to do without all that hand-holding stuff!
 
AE What is your best memory in all the years you&#039;ve been racing?
  
LC The feeling I had after winning silver in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. It was the first time that I had everyone important to me, there watching. I cried for days!
 
AE What are your Olympic predictions?

LC I don&#039;t think anyone will beat Emma Snowsill, then Fernandez. So anyone else going will be racing for third. The men&#039;s field is pretty wide open; however, Gomez gets my bet.
 
AE Who do you most admire as a sports person?

LC Paula Radcliffe, the quiet, humble achiever.  
 
AE What would you still most like to achieve in your sport?

LC It&#039;s quite simple, win the Ironman World Championships.
 
AE And finally tell us about war on ALS - the charity you&#039;ve been supporting

LC I&#039;m glad you asked me about that.  It is such a fast and destructive disease that hardly anyone knows about. ALS is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It is a progressive degenerative disease that attacks the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. In turn it effects the movement of voluntary muscles and the signals to move them. The muscles begin to waste away as the brain&#039;s ability to move them diminishes. ALS in unpreventable, untreatable, and incurable. It attacks healthy adults randomly and spontaneously, and once diagnosed, the victim has two to five years of life expectancy. The guy I knew briefly, John Blaise (the founder of the Blazemand Foundation) died within six months of completing the 2006  Ironman World Championships, so to raise money for this charity, I will be auctioning some of my artwork later in the year (for more info go to: www.waronals.com).



To keep up to date with Leanda&#039;s news and results go to: www.leandacave.com]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TCR Video: Richard Jones]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3086.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Here&#039;s another of the second batch of TCR videos with Annie Emmerson interviewing Richard Jones, ex-GB elite athlete and now running TheTriLife training facility.

 ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TCR Video: Richard Stannard]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3103.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Here&#039;s another of the second batch of TCR videos with Annie Emmerson interviewing Richard Stannard about his Olympic prospects, open water swimming and his new NameOnKit venture.

 ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[TCR Video: Jonny Pryke]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3084.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[We just discovered another batch of video that we shot at the TCR Show back in February. Here&#039;s the first of them with Annie Emmerson interviewing Jonny Pryke, an under-23 elite athlete sponsored by Spiuk.

 ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Whatever happened to: Tracy Harris]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3071.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[If you are struggling to find some motivation for your training then our new occasional series of interviews and retrospectives may well provide some inspiration. We start with Mike Trees&#039;s interview of that 1980&#039;s extrovert, Tracy Harris.



Back in the 1980s when triathlon was just starting out, the roster of fame included such names as Glen Cook, Richard Hobson, Robin Brew and Bernie Shrosbree, Rick Kiddle and Tracy Harris. At that time Tracy was a regular winner of BTA National Series triathlons, a member the British elite triathlon team, and also famous for being on ITV&#039;s Gladiators. It wasn&rsquo;t just his performances that gained him the attention; he was equally famous for his long blonde hair and pink tri kit.

I had been wondering for some time what had happened to Tracy Harris, and by chance I bumped into him a few weeks ago. His story is both interesting and motivational. Tracy has just turned 45, and looks just as fit today as he did 20 years ago, however his long blond trade mark hair has gone for good... but it seems his outrageously loud race wear is here to stay!

MT Tracy when did you start triathlon?

TH My first race was the Fosters Quadrathon in 1984. It boasted to be &lsquo;the World&#039;s toughest race&rsquo; (a two-mile swim / 50km speed walk / 100-mile cycle / 26.2 mile run). The race started in Brighton at 5pm and finished in Gravesend the next day. Being a strong swimmer I came out of the water second, and promptly overtook a very stocky channel swimmer chap who couldn&rsquo;t speed walk very fast and, to my surprise, I lead the race for six hours. It then went horribly wrong and I bonked at the end of the bike. I staggered in seventh overall in 18 hours. Out of 115 starters, less than 40 finished.

I did a few triathlons in 1985 but was rubbish at them. I felt like the world and his dog were overtaking me on the bike and run. So I gave up for a few years.

MT What made you take up the sport again?

TH Well, as I said, I did a few tris but wasn&rsquo;t even good enough to be a mid packer. It wasn&rsquo;t until my father died of lung cancer in 1986 that I decided to get back to them. I remember when I crossed the finish line in the quadrathon, he was so proud. Tears were in his eyes. He gave me the biggest hug ever. He had to stop the organisers pulling me out of the race with a few miles to go as I was in such a bad way. He believed in me.

I wanted to see just how fast I could go in triathlon... for my dad. I trained and trained so hard at cycling and running. It took me two years to get to a decent standard and at the end of 1988 I was invited onto the National Squad. This was a surprise as all I was going to do was to try and accomplish a solo London &ndash; Paris triathlon crossing. My focus changed and I concentrated on what was then called short course (standard distance)

MT You had an image for being flamboyant back then, pinks and yellows. What sort of colours did you race in?

I had a friend who used to make really bright coloured gear out of lycra for hang glider pilots.
Everyone in the late 80s seemed to wear black and grey, so I though it would be original to wear &#039;dayglo&#039; colours. Yeah, my favourite was a tight little pink two-piece! Being called Tracy and with long blond hair down to my shoulders, it was no surprise to turn up for one of my first triathlons to find myself in the women&rsquo;s race. Although they sussed it and moved me to the men&rsquo;s, I protested, as I thought may have a chance of winning against the ladies ... then again Springers (Sarah Springman) would probably have shown me up!

MT Will you be just as loud this time round or have the colours been toned down?

TH Hey, having been out of the tri scene for 15 years or so, I didn&rsquo;t expect to come back to see that the kit has virtually reverted back to the old, somewhat reserved (I really mean boring) colours. Well, OK, no dayglo!! Not only that, what is it with running shorts? I remember being able to buy shorts that were only slightly bigger than Speedos. Now you can&rsquo;t buy a pair without looking like a surfer dude or something out of &#039;It ain&#039;t half hot, mum&#039;. Not tried a pair on. Quite frankly, I am bit scared of getting knee rash! So, yeah. I most definitely will race in well cut and very bright gear.

MT Tracy, fashion has moved on and most triathletes like to cover up, so it will be great to see you back on the scene with some vibrant colours it will turn a few heads. [Ed: we&#039;re sure that Mike&#039;s 2XU operation will oblige with some truly shocking kit...]








MT Just for the record, I need to convince those readers that you were not all show, what were some of your better performances?

TH I once ate 20 custard-filled American donuts in 15 minutes in an eating competition.

MT Did you actually do anything in triathlon?

TH Oh, you meant triathlon performances. Well, in 1989, I got into the elite GB team for the European Championships but promptly crashed whilst descending a mountain.

MT Now, that&rsquo;s funny as I went to the Europeans on the Elite team that year and also crashed on the same steep downhill.

TH I was as pretty high up in the field until the crash, which spoilt it a bit but I did get a really fast ride in the ambulance.

MT So what went well?

TH I finished third overall in the 1989 BTA series and won three of the series races. I was pretty pleased to run a 2:30 marathon weighing in at a rather sturdy 13st 5lbs. Also, I ran the London to Brighton in 6 hrs 30 mins. (54 miles) and at the age of 38 I ran a PB of 31:25 in the Brighton 10k.

MT Good running times, for a swimmer. You worked hard at the triathlon but most people remember you for getting triathlon famous was when you went on the Gladiators. What was that like?

TH My girlfriend at the time had secretly filled out an application form and sent it in. Surprisingly I got a try out. That day I had to drive to Gloucester, do the National Duathlon Championships, then drive to London and do the fitness test and show interview. Before the British TV version came out, we used to come home late on a Saturday night after a few beers, get a take-away and watch the American Gladiators. Being rather drunk I think I remember making comments about how rubbish it looked and, of course, how I could do so much better. You know how it is, man + beer + testosterone = leery statements! I guess I didn&rsquo;t learn from the quadrathon episode!

MT It seems that beer is at the root of your sport.

TH Yeah, I do like a few jars. I must say though, it was good fun. Another thing that amazed me is that it is crazy how people recognise you from just a one hour TV show. After the series had been screened I remember walking through London and some builder on a scaffold tower shouted &quot;Gladiators&quot;. I looked up at him and he had his thumb up and continued to shout, &quot;Never mind Trace, you nearly had him&quot;. (Yeah, I lost by the way!) Four years later as I was dozing on a beach lounger in Antigua, three kids came up to ask for my autograph. They even remembered my name ... and I was going bald by then!!

MT  You added such colour to the sport, but why did you stop triathlon?

TH In 1993 I made a schoolboy error. My running club, Brighton and Hove AC, had entered a team into the Poole marathon. We had a good chance of winning. There were only three of us with three to count. The day before the race I got a real bad sore throat, but I didn&rsquo;t want to let my buddies down so I decided to run. At mile eight my throat closed up and I nearly passed out. A blood test a week later revealed Glandular Fever. I was forced to stop training for two years. Game over at the top end of the sport. However during this time, I fell in love with an incredible girl called Viv and just wanted to settle down, buy a house and get a dog or two, you know!

MT What did you do until now? I have heard that you have been through a very tough and emotional time and this was your motivation for staring up again

TH Well, Viv and I bought a little cottage in Rottingdean, overlooking the sea. It needed lots of work. Viv had fallen in love with it and I was very keen on the DIY front. We also got a little puppy, a Clumber Spaniel called Dudley, then an Italian Spinone called Dave, and then a Pyrenean Mountain dog called Dillan. They were our kids, as Viv suffered from Cystic Fibrosis childbirth would have been very dangerous. Every time she got broody, we got another dog. Viv was 26 and had kept herself very fit and religiously performed her gruelling physiotherapy routine everyday. This involved hitting her chest so that she was able to cough up the fluids that would not drain naturally from her lungs. This would take a couple of hours everyday. (CF is terrible illness that gradually stops the lungs from working as each infection renders that part of the lung dysfunctional). Between helping Viv with her physio, walking the dogs, re-building the house and working, it didn&rsquo;t leave much time for any thing else.

When Viv turned 32 her lungs were very bad. The physio routine was taking up to six hours a day as her lungs were so damaged. A lung transplant was our only hope. After waiting for two years Viv received her crucial transplant. Tragically, she died a week later in intensive care. We had been engaged for just over eight years.

MT I am sorry, I can only imagine how painful that must be, but that wasn&rsquo;t all was it?

TH I spent the following four years just trying to get by. A year before losing Viv, whilst cycling to work, a car rammed into me. I was told that the injuries were so severe, I&rsquo;d never train again. We had also lost both Dillan and Dudley (two of our dogs) but Dave was still going strong and helped me pull through this very dark time.








MT Can you let us know why you have started up again and what you want to achieve this time round?

TH I was determined to try to get back to some kind of training and spent years concentrating on inner core strength and stability. Eventually it paid off and I was able to cycle a bit. Then jog, then swim. I completed a couple of races in 2006 but still suffered some pain. I took another year out and focussed again on re-hab. Sadly, Dave the dog had to be put down in November 07. This again has left a huge void. I found that hard exercise was a way to release the feelings that I felt due to the loss. In doing so, I realised that I could once again train flat out without pain, which has resulted in  me becoming fairly fit. I looked at my times and compared them to the age group world champs for both triathlon and duathlon. They are pretty close so I thought it would be good to have a go at both.

MT As well as your personal goals you are also doing this for others, aren&rsquo;t you?

TH I also have set a goal to obtain as much awareness as I can for organ transplant. If you read this, and want to register online to be a donor so that you do not have to carry a card, log onto www.uktransplant.org.uk or telephone the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400). I also intend to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and Cancer Research.

I am not sure how I am going to approach all of this yet. I am currently speaking to a TV production company who are interested in making a documentary about my life with Viv, the accident, how I recovered against the odds, coping with the bereavement, and the goal to become a World age group champion and how I am going about it. This would certainly be a great vehicle for awareness. It would definitely gain maximum impact if I could win a world title. This is my motivation, the thought that gets me out of bed at 5am every day to do the hurt thing.

MT Are you getting any help now?

TH Being out of triathlon and generally all sports for so long and having my main focus on looking after Viv, it has left me without many sporting friends. Most of my old training partners have retired. I met a great chap called Tony who was managing the Esporta Health and Racquets Club in Brighton. Tony wanted to start an Esporta triathlon club so I gave him a hand. We have only just registered and have around 40 members so far. 2XU are supplying our kit and I am pleased to see that there is a nice little pink and white two piece. (Yeah OK, it&#039;s womens, but hey ho, if it fits why not, eh?)

It has been great to meet motivated people who are as excited about triathlon as I was when I got hooked all those years ago. I get a real sense of satisfaction in trying to help them develop their skills. I have also got myself back onto the track with Brighton &amp;amp; Hove AC and am trying really hard to mix it with the fast boys. It&#039;s all coming together and I ran a PB for a half marathon last week (only 72 mins but it is pre-season and not bad at 45!).

My buddy Martin, who has The Bike Store in Worthing has sorted me out with a fantastic new carbon time trial machine. So vastly different to the dayglo low profile that I rode in 89. Yeah, the most enjoyable thing of all is to meet new people who are so keen. It really motivates me. A very good mate and generally fantastic bloke once told me, &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t have too many friends&rdquo;.

MT I will second that, it is all my friends in the sport that keep me going. Thank you for your time.

TH Thank you for helping me publicise my charities. If you read this and want to say hello at the races, please do, it&rsquo;s good to talk!



If you would like to donate to Tracy&#039;s cause please visit www.justgiving.com/traceharris (Tracy said that the more money raised, the brighter the pink kit will become ... and possibly smaller!)]]></description></item></channel></rss>