One last race......Ironman Barcelona

This is one of my favourite Ironman images. Mark Allen and Dave Scott 1992 running head to head for most of the marathon before Allen surged to take the win recording 2.41 marathon in the process!



This is Sian Welch & Wendy Ingraham crawling to the finish line in 1997 after racing hard all day, both ran out of fuel meters from the line, but it true Iron spirit, when they could no longer stand, crawled across the line!!


Me 10years ago almost to the day, finishing my first Ironman. Let hope Sunday go's smoothly and i can cross that line feeling happy with how things went...............

Across Scotland the hard way,,,,,,,,,,,,

After every race, one of the first things I like to do is look at, A; what went well, then B; what didn't go so well, and C; where I can improve for next time, irrespective of my result?.......

Well, short of beating my quads with a baseball bat every night before I go to bed, I don't think there is much more I could have done to prepare me for the pain endured in order to finish the Nokia Coast 2 Coast.

Here's a look at how the race went down:

I'd spent a lot of time preparing for this event, and the image of the finish line sat at the front of my mind all week. Was it going to be my day, and would I be the first to cross it?...




Once we had packed the van up with bikes, kit, food and bedding, it was time for Suze and I to hit the road in our shiny Buff / sueMe team van








Not before picking up a little fuel on the way, in fact this was the first of many stops during our mammoth 1200+ mile road trip, without Buffs' help I just wouldn't have got there




After arriving safely and in comfort, we were up at 5.30am for an early breakfast before the 7am start. (Suze must really love me to go through all that)




Once the gun went off, I stuck to my game plan for about 30 seconds, then reverted to a more typical Macca one of "if in doubt, go flat out!"




Feeling good at 7 miles just before the first transition. Suze let me know I'd got 45 seconds on 2nd place





At the 20mile mark, my lead was up to 3 minutes and I was feeling pretty strong, despite my hands being too cold to change gear!





The first paddle was a super quick affair and at the start of the off road bike I was 7 minutes clear. At that point I decided to ride safely over the rough stuff and not risk any crashes or flats, today was all about "first finishing", then "finishing in first"


Into the final big transition and Suze said I "looked good and had 10 minutes at least". I felt smashed and told her she could ebay my bike! As quickly as I could manage, I got my gear together for the final 14m run across the mountains.


The mountain run took me an hour longer than I'd estimated, and by the end I wasn't in such a positive state, drinking from streams and puddles to manage to press on over the final pass, and down to the last kayak stage






After 8hrs 55minutes and 45long seconds, I crossed the line first in the one day race, a tired and emotional man





Once warmed up and with a little food inside me, I went to receive my prizes, and the rather nice nick-name from the race organisor "the human rocket!"




Winning the Nokia coast2coast has finally put me back where I want to be, a happy and successfull athelete, with great support from sponsors, and a partner in every sense of the word. Without either I simply couldn't have done it. I guess the only question now is. . .

. . . can I go "sub9" in 2 weeks time?

A full report will follow, but for now:

Yesterday,I finally managed a result worthy of my efforts over the last 12 months. Its been a tough year and Winning the Nokia coast2coast was a very special day. With just under 9hrs of hard racing in my body and 1200miles of road tripping, you are going to have to wait a couple of days for a full report.

Macca out

Northern Exposure...............

Massive thanks to Buff/SueMe for not only getting me into the race this weekend but now also, for lending me some super fly looking wheels to go there in......

With such great back up and support from Buff and SueMe throughout whats been a year of ups and downs, im really looking forward to the Nokia coast2coast race this Sunday and a chance to fly the flag and bring one home for the team.

This multi stage race across Scotland takes place over a 109 mile course from Nairn to Glencoe and has to be completed within a 13 hour cut off period.
Starting at 7am with a 7mile trail run, followed directly with a tough 48mile road cycle, by the time I hit the kayak I may be glad to give my legs a short break. Once off the water its back on the bike for more roads, plus 16miles of off road cycling. (lets hope my choice of knobbly tyres on the road bike is a good one and i don't find myself doing to much carrying!) After that its onto possibly the hardest part of the course, the 14mile run from Fort William over Ben Nevis and onto Glencoe, where a short kayak should have me over the finish line in around 9hrs and somewhere near the front of the field....

I-am-man (not ironman)

This picture sums it up really:

Ironman training is sometimes harder than the race itself, as the old tri saying go's- Train hard race easy! (not sure about easy, but I'm 50% there)