Little downtime
So while Sean is still cranking for Anaconda Lorne (which I’m going along to too! Woo hoo!), there’s been a little downtime happening in the female zone of our house. Here’s a few pics of our anniversary weekend and dinner with some of our lovely friends (some of whom are also in the tri/adventure racing scene!).
Anniversary chocolate from Sean - he had our initials engraved into a yummy truffle so pretty til i ATE it!! Nom nom
Sean out front of Mammoth Cave, we saw a different side of down south while having a proper holiday down there (ie no bikes!)
Sean inside the cave (that Jurassic 5 t-shirt used to be mine but i gave it to Sean a month ago and he wears it all the time haha but for the record, i am the Jurassic 5 fan!)
Coffee love! Caffeine rush in Margaret River and I loved the cute love birds on the cup
Mmm heavenly nosh at Samudra - vegan food at its best, zucchini linguini although Sean had to get an almond croissant after haha
Sean at our anniversary lunch at Wise... hubba hubba
Smoothie at Samudra in Dunsborough, vegan mint ice cream with cacao powder sooo good
Dinner out at wagamamas w Sue, Sal, Jon, Stevo, Prawn and Rich. Fun times
Ok there’s a little social postie to keep the blog ticking over and a little somethin’ to look at to prove we’re still having fun!!
Only two weeks today and we fly out to Lorne hurrah! Have a great weekend y’all x
Filed under: Lisa's Corner | No Comments »
More pics
To complement Sean’s race report below, I’ve got a couple more pics from the day.
Sean, Cam, Karlos and Martin with Kimmy in the car
It was super exciting to watch Sean win his first anaconda WA and from start to finish at that. Nobody else had a look in! I didn’t see the start as I got roped in last minute to swim for a team, so i was waiting eagerly in transition to see Sean and to set off on the second leg, the swim. I knew there were some handy runners in teams and couldn’t believe it when i saw Sean run into transition first with another guy.
He looked pumped and fast, and the support for Sean was huge (it helped the other guy was from the East Coast and not as devastatingly handsome as my husband) and i got shivers. He set off into the water first athlete (I prayed for no sharks) for a whole minute before the first team swimmer set off to chase Sean down.
My team mate got there about 15 mins later and that was a loooong time for me to feel nervous so i nearly pushed a couple of guys over as i sprinted out of transition (outta my way!!! Sean is the nice guy in our relationship… no really, after you, no please I insist, you first). I felt great and strong in the water and quickly set about tracking down some other teams. Looking at the results I managed to pass 54 swimmers while a sneaky 2 passed me. Lots of boys there (including Karlos woohoo!) so i was stoked.
Once i finished my swim, i sprinted back to the transition area to see Sean come off the paddle leg. He was still winning! Considering this is his weakest leg, i was pretty excited at this point and it appeared Sean was too demonstrated by the wheelie he did past the crowd as he set off on the mountain bike stage.
Our team was also going well with Johnny passing another 29 teams and getting us into 5th place!
I raced back to the finish line on my mountain bike (no wheelies for me… i would if i could), wanting to see my husband celebrating his win. I waited there with a yallingup coffee company latte thinking about how sweet life is when in came Sean leaping over the finishing tape in just 4 hours and 8 minutes, 3 minutes clear of 2nd place. It was a buzz and I managed to holler him over to be the first person to hug him and congratulate him (too right, eh?!) before rushing back to transition to do the final team run with my team.
3km of hot, hot beach running awaited me and i nearly died trying to keep up with the boys. I was in a mixed team with 3 fit blokes and it was a pant fest for me to get back to the finish line after riding from home to the start, swimming my guts out and racing between transitions a million times. I nearly spewed near the finish and the only thing that kept me going was Blacky was chasing us down – we beat him by 3 seconds! And we managed to retain our 5th place which was a good result!
Oh and ahem, I beat Sean in the swim. By over a minute. Yes i was wearing a wetsuit and he wasn’t, but there was an 800m run included people. Victory dance!!
Congratulations on your win Sean, it was totally inspiring and I can’t wait to watch you in another smashfest in Lorne. And happy first anniversary (i wish it was this time last year!) I am a lucky lady.
Oh! And congrats to Kimmy who was the 9th female (wow!!) and Karlos who was 4th in the veteran male category and 14th male overall.
Kimmy getting psyched up for her 9th place in the boot of Cam's car
Happy weekend, any readers out there!
Filed under: Lisa's Corner | 3 Comments »
Anaconda Race Report
OK, things have been pretty hectic this week at work after missing Monday and to tell you the truth my mind hasn’t really been on the job. So i thought i better give you an update from the race or i will never do it.
There has been a lot of talk this year about whether or not the Augusta course would be better or worse than Dunsborough. One thing i can say about Rapid Ascent is that they can certainly pick a good course as both Dunsborough and Augusta are brilliant. John Jacoby and Sam Maffet are experienced adventure racers themselves and they know what works. For those that didn’t do Augusta this year, it is still a challenging course but much faster overall as there are less technical sections on both the run and mountain bike legs. The paddle was also very calm but has the potential to be quite rough.
The most spectacular part of the race was the start as 600 people descended a giant granite rock before having to squeeze through a 10m wide passage within 50m of the start line. I knew i had to get away fast to avoid any carnage and that is exactly what i did. Having the chopper circle overhead just heightened the nerves but created an amazing atmosphere for the race.
After a few hundred metres of rock hopping and some careful navigation choices i managed to establish a slight lead and get settled into the rest of the run. After 2kms or so i was joined by another individual Kris Plain who i ran with for the remainder of the run. I was surprised not to see more of the states top runners pushing the pace up the front but i figured the rock hoping and beach running was taking it’s toll and playing to our advantage. I felt as though i was running well and choosing the correct route until about 4kms into the run where i went the wrong way and ended up down at the waters edge with nowhere to go. At that point i was feeling extremely hot and just wanted to hit the water so i jumped in for a swim rather than turn around and go back. Kris did the same and by the time we jumped out we had lost some ground but it wasn’t too bad in the end. The remainder of the run went quite well and Kris even tried to start a conversation telling me how he couldn’t swim very well and was there any other local competition to watch out for.
We hit transition 1 together and I chose to go without the wetsuit, automatically saving me 2-3mins by not having to squeeze into it. This was fine for the first kilometre but the second half of the swim i was really starting to regret it as my body was getting very cold. I was passed by 3 team competitors during the swim who were all flying so i just continued on trying to keep warm. Thankfully the swim ended just in time and i was so relieved to be getting out of the water.
Onto the paddle and my goal was to lose as little time as possible to the other individuals. I felt OK for the first half and was quite pleased when i reached the turn-around to see that the others were still a few minutes behind. The final 3kms were a stuggle and i really started to fade but thankfully no individuals caught me which left me in an unfamiliar situation going into the final bike leg.
The crowd at the mountain bike transition was unbelievable and gave a huge cheer as i headed out. With the adrenalin rushing i couldn’t resist popping a wheelie out of transition before settling in for the rest of the ride. 1km out of transition, after turning into the first dirt road i was joined by fellow SRG rider Andrew Dawson and i was thankful to have someone to ride with. It was here that we came across a giant snake across the path who thankfully moved out of the way to let us through. I hit a good rythm up the first climb but turned around to see that Andy was no longer there. Unfortunately it was going to be a solo ride and the remainder was quite uneventful. With about 5kms to go i started to fade badly due to poor nutrition but managed to squeeze down my last gel and make it to the finish.
The final run along the beach was a bit deserted until the colourpatch cafe where the sound of Simon Beaumont’s commentary and the crowd started to amp up. Crossing the line in first was an amazing feeling and one i will never forget. Rapid Ascent put on another world class event and i look forward to continuing on with the series over in Lorne in 3 weeks. To read Rapid Ascent’s race report check out; http://www.rapidascent.com.au/asp/NewsInDetail.aspx?e=6&n=964
The next 3 weeks i will be focusing on the paddling and hopefully get to Lorne in even better shape. There will be a few locals who will know the course and Richard Usher might even make a guest appearance. Good luck to all those doing Ironman Busselton, i know where i would much rather be 
Seano
Filed under: Sean's Diary | 3 Comments »
Happy snaps… the camera lies!
My lovely brother-in-law Eugene and his equally lovely girlfriend Abby sent us some pics so we could show the pain! But somehow we looked really happy in all of them – what? Haha I’m sure Sean was grinning from ear to ear but i remember a lot more grimaces. Glad to look back and think of the good times, passing the Team O’Neill bunch was definitely a race highlight. So enjoy a few pics of the O’Neills working it!!
Sean:
Sean at turnaround ready to greet his fan club Team O'Neill!
Love those Dexion stickers – yay Brucie!
Sean pumped up on the bike (the only section with a tailwind whoooo!)
Heading out onto the run, looking strong
Running past the yellow t-shirt club was awesome
My stepdad Paulie on the video - nice t-shirt!
Big smile, gotta be the last lap
Moi!
Likey me some tailwind and shout outs from friends along this straight weeee
I love my family so much, only reason i'm smiling to reassure them I'm not dying
I look happy here... but look closer and i'm gritting my teeth haha
What a day.
I will be on photo duty next weekend so hopefully we get some great snaps of Sean, Kim, Karlos and others doing Anaconda for y’all to feast your eyes on!
Hope you’re all enjoying a little break and for those plugging on for ironman and doing nutso big sessions (Corin!), good luck!!
xoxo
Filed under: Lisa's Corner | 2 Comments »