Dunstan's UK Tour dates

I've added a permanent link to my online diary - look on the right...

Don't forget to check down to the bottom of this page for new photos.

OK - off to Saffron Walden, more later,

D

Cambridge Trial VIII's

I caught the Train in from St Albans with Dom and headed down to Putney to watch Cambridge University Boat Club's tideway race. The squad is preparing for the famous Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race that takes place at Easter. Trial VIII's give two matched crews a chance to race head to head over the Boat Race course from Putney to Mortlake. There is considerable media interest and pundits attempt to gain an early indicator of the form of the two squads.

The 'Tideway' is, as the name suggests, a tidal section of the Thames. the race is timed to coincide with the fast tide flowing in, and both crews will attempt to position themselves in the fastest moving piece of water or 'stream'. I was in a Launch with good friend and CUBC boatman Rob Baker and Legendary coach Donald Legget.

It was a drizzly, grey day which required several layers + waterproofs. The two crews were 'Goldie' and 'Fairbairn' after two influential figures from the rich history of Cambridge rowing. We followed 'Goldie' who got off to a good start but suffered at the hands of the harbour master who, for reasons unknown, decided to wash the race down. 'Fairbairn' contained Tasmanian President Tom Edwards and 2000 Olympic gold medallist Kieran West in the stroke seat. Fairbairn sat on a higher rating for the whole race and moved up to a length of clear water by the mile post. Goldie's rhythm improved visibly in the flatter water after Hammersmith and they managed to neutralise some of Fairbairn's advantage, but they were never a threat.

Chief Coach, Duncan Holland seemed pleased with the performance of the two crews and all returned to the King's School Boathouse in Putney for hot soup.

UK here I come!

On Monday I finished packing just in time and Claire gave me a lift to the airport :-) My flight was uneventful, although I met some cool people, including Molly, a triathlete from Wellington, NZ who was on her way to the UK with her sister Jessica to spend Christmas and NY with relatives.

The Cathay Pacific airbus from Sydney to Hong Kong was brand new and boasted laptop charging facilities (hooray!) and internet connection. The latter didn't work but is clearly the way of the future! At HK airport I connected to the wireless network and sent some quick emails. I also used Skpe Out to make a couple of calls to the UK from my iBook. Rather cool to be talking to Red in the UK for a cent per minute whilst wandering around the terminal. I only had to hang up as I got onto the plane. Tres cool Technology!!!

Landed at 0500 Tuesday morning and Dad picked me up from Heathrow and drove me home to Northampton :-) I haven't seen my dad since summer '03! I'm hoping to do some supply (casual) teaching for a couple of weeks in the New Year to help to fund the trip and I fired off my CV to 'Kingsthorpe Commuinty College' where I was a pupil from to 1988-1993. After lunch with my mum and a quick nap I headed down to London for a beer. The venue where we were meeting turned out not to exist anymore and I was unable to contact anyone to let them know plan B... BIG APOLOGIES to James and anyone else who couldn't find us. I was able to introduce two of my best mates Dom and Rob from the UK to Sydney training partners Charlotte and Kristian and Headed back to the Adair residence in St Albans where Dom lives with his wife Maria.

10th / 11th Canberra Weekend

Friday night was a late one at NumberWorks, finishing everything off for the end of term. I caught the late bus home and was forced to move to a higher seat when a fellow passenger evacuated his stomach. The bus driver kicked the offending passenger off at the next stop with 'All you had to do was ask and I'd have stopped the bus!" fair point...

Dan picked me + 2 bikes up in the morning for the drive down to Canberra. I stayed with Jaqui and Chris, two of Wendy's excellent friends. Chris led a group of us out for a tour on the mountain bikes, the highlight was a BMX track where I made and emergency landing and narrowly escaped a big stack after getting carried away on a big jump!

In the afternoon I registered, racked my bike and gave Ainsley & Richard a hand on the Inner City Cycles stand. That evening we were treated to a gourmet Pasta feast at the Pulkkinen residence. Wendy is part of a wonderful group of friends who were all involved in the 1/2 Ironman in capacities including hosts, photographer, support crew, relay team and full distance competitors. AJ, Dan, Kerry, Mark and Wendy completed the full event and all had really positive experiences that were enjoyed by the whole group. Notably Wendy and AJ both 'popped their 1/2 IM cherries' with big smiles and very respectable performances.

I had a good swim but took a wrong turn on the bike course. This was 100% my own fault, as I hadn't driven the course or checked the map, but certainly wasn't helped by the illogical signage and general confusion. I ended up riding with Aeromax team mate Chris Shaw and we were several km past the point of error by the time we realised we had missed 20km of the course!

Dunstan "That sucks. Were you racing for an Ironman slot?"
Shawey "Nah, I already qualified at Port Mac Half."
Dunstan "Well I can't be bothered to go back now, what say we head back to transition and do the run anyway?"

We rode into T2 in 5th place overall and for a while the crowd and announcer thought we were having the race of our lives and had made up 15+ minutes on the pros but our amusement soon gave the game away. We explained our circumstances to the TA officials, gave our recommendations for improvements to signage and were stripped of our timing chips before we were allowed to progress to the run.

Belinda won her age group by 22 minutes.

I'll put some more results here soon - has anyone compiled them yet?

Lots of blogging to catch up on!

The 3rd / 4th was a great weekend down in Melbourne visiting Belinda. On the Saturday we went down to the beach for a swim with Andy Sleaman's Tri-Bal squad and then headed over to 'Gwargy's' house for their christmas party. Sunday was a fine day and we rode down to Sandringham for the 'Protivity' sprint race. I had a great time racing and think I won my age group, although there were some pretty major issues with the timing / results! I caught up with Greer for a coffee in St Kilda and managed to catch up with Nathan, Su-z and newborn Keira in the evening.

Dunstan's UK Tour 2005-2006

Well I'm flying out on Monday the 12th, arriving in the UK on the 13th in time for a beer with Charlotte, Kristian, Dom and others! Can't wait to catch up with everyone over there, its been too long - not far off 3 years... Woah!

I've published my 'Tour Dates' Calendar here so that you can keep track of my movements.

Do have a look, and be sure to bookmark it as I will update it when I plan more details. I think its pretty cool! Note: the bit in italics at the top is where I will be spending each night ;-)

Just finishing everythin off here at work and Off to Canberra in the morning for MTBing and Half Ironman on Sunday, then back to Clovelly for farewell drinks on Sunday night. Pretty busy and lots still to do...

More soon,

D

Meanwhile...

Whilst Charlotte and the others were over in WA getting their final pre-race sleep I was at the Murrayfield Scottish Ball! A black tie affair with Haggis aplenty! I headed over from Bondi with JP (via an unmissable photo opportunity on the beach) and bumped into Anna wandering through Martin Place in her ball gown and looking rather fine. Roo had organised two tables of 20 great people and showed us why she is a Highland Dancing champion. Claire was diverted from a quiet night in after a last minute cancellation and turned up within 30 minutes looking stunning! Kenny showed us what to do with the Haggis, Jack and Alana told us of their recent engagement - CONGRATULATIONS! Emma suffered some impressive 'fling-bruising' on her upper arm, JP claimed that it was inflicted collectively. Doug Isles arrived after dinner but without his kilt and entertained us all with his infamous game of 'C or B'. Emma has published some great photos from the night, they are on her website which can be found here...

Sunday morning was a rather wet affair. What better way to recover than at an Ocean Swim, the 'Round the Island' in Coogee. I got there in the nick of time for the 1km warm up swim!

There are three things you need to know about the morning...

1. It started well but soon revealed itself to be cold, wet and windy.
2. We didn't make it around Wedding Cake Island - the organisers changed the course to keep us inside the Bay. Probably a wise move!
3. It was good to finish the swims feeling positive, with some great results from the crew:

In the 1km Ian won his age group with his usual laid-back & modest attitude and picked up a nice photo at the soggy presentation. Eva managed to overcome her fears of open water and finished 2nd in her age group. Anna completed her first ocean swim and coped really well with the challenging conditions, all smiles at the finish on around 3 hours of sleep. Nice work! Chad's teams (racing as 'Sea's the Limit') picked up 1st (Dash) and 3rd (Splash) for the 1km event and the Mermaids were 3rd overall in the 2.4km.













































... meanwhile Emma was standing on her head somewhere in Brookvale as part of her yoga competition! Perhaps not the best position to recover from a big night, but certainly a great look...

Those links again in case you missed them...
Emma's Photos are here
'Sea's the Limit' is Chad's swim club
Coogee Swim photos - I'm in at least 2 of them, can you spot me?
Coogee Swim results are here I'm still trying to work out why I didn't get a time for the 2.4km, I reckon it was about 24:45 which would have put me 18th in my age...

Its interesting to note how 90% of swimmers in the photos lift their heads right out of the water to breathe. I know its important to be able to see where you are going but doing it every breath is like driving with the handbrake on!

"Ideal Body Shape" by Grace McCLure

Click here to read an interesting article by Grace McClure
(scroll down)
Her modelling website can be found here

Grace is an interesting combination of: IronMan Triathlete, Model and Single Mother. This gives her a pretty unique perspective on several worlds!

Grace has experienced pressure to conform to a body shape that is expected of her as a model and this is now at odds with her desire to pursue her ambitions as a triathlete. Recently she has been turned down by a bikini swimwear calendar on the grounds of being too athletic!

The irony of that is certainly not lost on me...


Grace seems to have rejected the notion of having a 'perfect figure' in favor of living and training as she wants to, citing her happiness and health as higher priorities. She quotes a survey which claims that 74% of Australian women are unhappy with their bodies. I think Grace would like to challenge some of society's firmly held notions from within the modeling industry. I have never met her, but I can imagine that this takes a certain amount of determination and courage.

As for my opinion...?

I think that athletic girls can be very attractive and I think that beauty resides in the heart and mind as well as the body. When a person is living strong mentally, physically AND emotionally then they are are truly alive they radiate life energy. To my mind the 26% are the truly attractive ones ;-)

So what do YOU THE READER think?

Would you like to see models that are more representative of the general population?

GIRLS Are you happy with your body the way it is? Do you feel that there is pressure to conform to an 'ideal' body shape?

GUYS Do you like athletic girls?

Bussleton Ironman - Sunday 27th November

It sounds as though this event was an epic. It was a stormy weekend across much of Australia and Western Australia seemed to get more than its share! Race start was postponed for an hour to give the weather a chance to die down. By all accounts the swim was still pretty rough, times seemed about 5 minutes slower than usual. The bike was really windy too - "...hardest conditions I have ever raced or trained in..." (Dingo).

It sounds as though people were happy to get to the run leg and none more than fellow Inner City Cycles athlete Charlotte Paul, who had the race of her life to finish 2nd Pro Female and 39th overall in 9:47 with a blistering 3:10 run split that decimated most of the pro women. Angela Milne, however, was never headed, despite a drafting penalty, and finished 16 minutes ahead to claim the only available Pro Women's Hawaii spot. Charlotte has certainly proven that she is capable of racing with the best in Hawaii.

Other notable results were John Mergler, fresh from his 2nd place in Kona, who won 40-44 by a country mile in 9:34; Tony 'Dingo' McClement, who finished 4th in his last year of 25-29 with a time of 9:50, narrowly missing out on a Hawaii slot in the process; and Jarrod Hudson who was 9th in 30-34 with a 10:12.

Mitch Anderson took out his first Ironman title in 8:27, racing cleverly and patiently for the whole day. Luke McKenzie led for much of the race, tried to break Mitch Anderson on the run and succeeded only in breaking himself, ending up withdrawing, his 2nd DNF out of 3 IM starts. Surely the race goal for this young talent must be to FINISH his next race, regardless of placing!

McKenzie wasn't alone, as 13% of the field failed to complete the race, most of them falling victim to the extreme swim conditions. It is an achievement to complete any Ironman race, but it seems that Bussleton '05 will go down in history as an epic test, with those that rose to the challenge achieving success.

The official race report can be found here

PS - OOOH I nearly forgot to mention, Charlotte's husband Kristian is the official cover boy for IMWA! Can't wait to get my signed copy of the poster ;-)

Training Ride

We rode up to Hornsby and out on the old highway, got a bit wet, used makeshift bin-liner waterproofs to keep warm, ate pie at 'Pie in the Sky', flew home and dried out on the Harbour Bridge. Group riding skills were excellent in the heavy traffic on the way back down the Pacific Highway and spirits were mostly high in some appalling conditions. Nice work Adrian, Chris, Lynsey & Roo!

I'll be donating $60 from the ride to the Amy Gillett Safe Cycling Foundation. Amy Gillet was a member of the Australian cycling team who died when they were struck by a car in Germany in July. Cycling safety is an issue close to my heart and I feel that this is a very worthwhile and relevant cause. Click here to find out more...

Leave me a message or send me an email if you would like to know about the next session in the New Year

Paul Mac and The Presets...

... played at the metro last night. I was there with my housemate Cath.

The Preset were brilliant. They really didn't five a s**t, just as you'd expect from a pair of rock stars!

Paul Mac's 'Panic Room' was good, but not quite as good as I'd hoped. it was really hard to understand what he was saying between songs, he seemed a bit weary and I don't think he was really connecting with the audience. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a huge talent, just he seemed to be a bit lacking a bit of Mojo... Abby Dobbs had a strong presence on vocals. Dreamy and sexy. GRRR!

The Presets are here
Paul Mac's website is awesome - you can listen to the whole album, the first track is pumping!

TI Workshop and Cockatoo Island Swim

Last weekend was the TI workshop and the Dawny-Cockatoo Swim on the Sunday morning.

My friend Belinda came up from Melbourne for the weekend and 'did the double' - click here to read her race report from the ocean swim. My housemate Josh also swam, completing his first ocean swim without any difficulty. Official photo report is here. Results will be here once they are posted.

The TI workshop was one of our best ever. I was lucky enough to be working with Kim Gould and all of the participants picked up the new ideas really well.

All in all a great weekend!

... something to inspire ...

There is something about an extreme challenge that can lift the human spirit and gives a person the opportunity to face their doubts and fears head on and to grow bigger and stronger. Physical challenges and in particular sporting events are an opportunity to test oneself and often to compare achievement to others'. I have been fortunate enough to experience some amazing 'growth moments' in my life, all of them connected with my heart and many of them through sport.

Many people face challenges in their life that are part of the daily fabric of their lives. Some of the life challenges that people face are things that I find hard to comprehend, as I don't have any direct experience of hardship. All of my challenges so far are out of choice. I hope that some of my personal challenges in the future will involve helping others who have less choices.

Two guys I know from my rowing days at university are attempting an extreme physical challenge that few have completed. Dan and Rich are competing in the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. In just over 13 days (Sunday 27th) they will set off in a 24ft craft 'Atlantic Prince' from the Canary Islands and will, along with 25 other teams, attempt to complete the 2,550 nautical miles across the Atlantic to Antigua in the West Indies.

They are aiming to win the pairs event and also to break the record, which stands at just over 40 days, and are hoping to raise £50,000 for Cancer Research UK and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As part of their preparation, these guys broke the world record for one million metres on a rowing machine - a shade over 3 days! If you are anything like me, you will enjoy reading about their adventures to date and following their progress online at www.atlanticprince.com. If you want to support the guys and have the chance to win £1000 you can enter a competion to guess their finishing time.

Rich and Dan, here's wishing you the adventure of a lifetime and hoping that you achieve your 3 goals!

India's marathon boy, aged three

What do you think about this?

Its an article about a kid who runs marathons in India - AGED THREE!

Click the title to check it out...

What do you think? This is something you are bound to have an opinion on so go ahead and share it by leaving a comment!

Wow - what a weekend!

It was a good one so I thought I'd share...

On Friday night Cath and I left the clues for the treasure hunt. This involved a bit of crafty stencil work and some exploration of the more 'interesting' parts of our 5-floor warehouse complex.

On Saturday morning Rod took me to the St George Rowing Club. I used to do a lot of rowing between 1995 and 1999 before I started triathlon but I don't think I've been in a boat since then! The first outing was a time trial so I decided to go for a light paddle insted to get used to being in a boat again. Rod showed me the map of the waterways, coach Ron allocated my scull and off I went. Great to be back on the water and to my relief it all came back to me pretty quickly, although my balance was somewhat suspect! Second outing was a quad with Rod, Daniels and Andrew. It was great to be back in a crew boat, it felt great for a scratch crew and we even managed some cheeky starts which left me grinning broadly!

Our Hawaiian party kicked off with the treasure hunt. Teams had to answer 10 questions about the housemates by discovering clues around the building. The winning team of Andrew, Dan, Dan, Emma and Leilani scored 23.5 out of 30. Awesome! The questions are here (click link and scroll down) in case you missed out ;-)

Josh opened up a classy cocktail bar in his room and we served up Water Melon Martinis, Thailand Iced Teas, Lychee Lime Caprioscas and Tequila Mockingbirds until we ran out of ingredients. Lani's home made pesto and humus dips were a big hit too. Thanks to everyone who helped to pump up the pool. It was officially 'opened' and the party moved into phase 3...

Well I'm out of time so if you want to know the rest you'll need to find someone who was here. In the meantime click here to check out the rest of Emma's outstanding photos.

PS The award for the best outfit has to go to Wendy for her outstanding coconut bra which she was kind enough to share upon leaving! It was actually rather comfortable - I'm sure that Piers can confirm...

Letter to my coach - Grant Giles (Aeromax)

I'd like to say thanks for getting me to the start. Your progs were excellent with lots of emphasis on quality, but helping me through some of my darker times was what made the biggest difference and meant the most to me...I had a really good race - I went in 70% looking to enjoy the experience and 30% hoping for a good result.
I used to be the other way around but Yeppoon taught me an important lesson there...

Swim was fine but nothing special. Bike was mostly good - all of the strength work must have paid off! I was expecting lots of people to ride hard at the start and then blow up on the way home. Riding out to Hawi felt easy but I think I drank too much water for first part of ride. Stomach bloated and the gels weren't going in. On the way back I had some low energy patches so I was the one struggling and getting passed! Strangely enough, most people out there were decent riders. Mental note to self - don't underestimate the other competitors when you are at the World IM champs! Hit the cola at 130km which was good but energy was flicking on and off all the way back, like a car with dodgy carburettor! Last 20k of the ride I gave my stomach a chance to empty and came into town strong.

Took my time in transition, walked into easy jog pace. Felt great for Ali'i drive section of run - form was good and I felt like I had the Ace of Spades up my sleeve. Out to energy lab still felt great but the Ace wasn't there anymore, although I hadn't used it! Lost my form coming back from EL, It turned into a muscular effort but I knew I was on the way home :-) Run nutrition worked well. No flat patch like at Forster 04/05. Last 2km were a HUGE BUZZ. Feeding off the energy of the crowd and just soaking up the finish chute.

Was doing my own thing all day, didn't really race anyone apart from a couple of dudes I overtook in the last 100m. Lots of nice shade along Ali'i and the hat flap worked a treat. Supporters were great. I'm voting for the bikini as the best invention of the century - why do you think I was smiling so much? The event was so much bigger than its competitors and I feel lucky to have been able to be a part of it in 2005.

Not sure what now, I'm really enjoying training 'cause I feel like it at the moment. Looking forward to doing some work on core / technique / flexibility without the pressure of a big race coming up, quite keen on Canberra 1/2.

Exploring the Big Island

Well the post ironman celebration dust has finally begun to settle.
I'll be posting my race report and more photos soon :-)

Yesterday was a bit of a washout. Good to take some time out though +
hung out with Renaud and his cool parents in the evening. Watched the
sunset and fell asleep to the sound of the waves breaking! from the
balcony.

This morning I completed my 3rd checkout in 4 days and then went to
visit this amazingly cool Waldorf elementary (K-8) school. Spent this
morning observing / participating in lessons - I practised walking
along a telegraph pole with a stick balanced on my head and my eyes
closed, in geography I learned about the Hawaiian island chain (did
you know there is a new one forming to the SE of the Big Island?) and
then helped out with some gardening, followed by a pumpkin hunting
session in Spanish. The kids fed me thimble-berries, I helped them to
reach some guavas that were out of reach and we checked a den in the
middle of some giant bamboos! I bought a school T-shirt and the kids
personalised it for me with some funky dolphins, turtles and a
volcano. All in all a very stimulating experience.

Hitched out of town with some interesting characters - a chilled
dude, a vietnam veteran and a local climate expert. We just drove
past South Point and crossed a stark N-S line onto the east side of
the island. It goes from bleak broken lava to lush green over a
couple of metres. A bit drizzly now. I'm now in Naalehu. Population
of 800, 9 churches, 0 pubs and 1 very cool cafe with wireless
internet where I'm sitting now - the old theatre. Also famous for a
tree that Mark Twain planted

9:33:15 – Happier than Larry!

1:03 swim, 5:03 bike, 3:20 run

Well I’ve finished and it was an amazing day. Certainly one of the best in my life so far! Completing an Ironman takes a while, and every day has its highs and lows.


My main aim for the day was to enjoy the race and soak up as much of the experience as possible. I also wanted to 'push my envelope' by having the race of my life. I had no specific target time in mind, although 10 hours was always a subconcious barrier. All of these things I achieved. The ride was fast due to the smooth surface and kind conditions. The marathon was a PB and the first part of my run felt amazing!

Some of my highlights were:
• Seeing some of the disabled athletes being carried into the water for the swim start, let me tell you, that IS inspiring
• Treading water watching the pro start, pier packed full of people, helicopters overhead.
• Finishing the swim
• The first 80km of the bike leg – sitting of an average of 38kph!
• Working with Phil on the bike at the start of the climb to Hawi (“har-v”)
• Getting back to civilisation on the bike!
• The first 30km of the run. It felt effortless – F-A-S-T.

• Seeing Mel out at the energy lab.
• Getting water, ice and coke from some of the kids on the aid stations. These kids rock!
• The final 2 km, down Alii Drive and into the finish chute, feeding off the emotion.

Thank you to everyone for the awesome messages you have been sending to me. I've had so much support throught cyberspace and it gives me a really strong anchor!