More of Sardinia.

Here are some more pictures from Sardinia Triathlon Camp 2010.

OMG here starts the eating festival.

Luckily we spent most days riding the most magnificant coastline.

I am not sure what I am going on about here but let me give you the tip... I am not giving directions.

Memphis hard at work.

The roads are perfect and so smooth.

The view was rubbish....not!

Are you having fun yet Jimmy :)

The boys on the track.

The other butt belongs to Marcello ... his english was awesome! We talked the whole climb.

This is where the swim sessions were held.

Clearly the water is perfect.

Transitions practice.

I love you Daniele Demartis.... Sardinia really is the most amazing place in all the Mediterranean.

Training in Sardinia

Looking over the square at night in the old Town of Caligari.

Double Daniele!!!

Vanessa, Luke, Elisa and Carlo at a traditional Sardinian dinner.

Titsiano raced his first olympic race and was awesome.

Luca you are a super star.

Four of my favorites. Carlo (the Tim O'Donell look alike), Marchello, Manu and Fabio.

Jimmy wins again!

The ladies I met before the race :)

Luke , Dani and Alessandro. Alessandro is pulling his model pose.

Holy Brown Cow thats a big bottle he has there.

Elisa, Vanessa and I at the after party.

That is not my Mojito I swear.

I love you guys and can't wait to come back next year!

Happy campers!

Luca spoilt everyone with bubbles.

Wow what a great week in Sardinia.

Luke and I got invited to Sardinia for a training camp with the Triathlonpoint.com team about 6 months ago. We gladly accepted the offer after googling Sardinia and discovering that we had in fact been invited to paradise. The camp was a week long with an olympic distance race at the end of the weekend. Daniele Demartis and his beautiful girl Elisa picked us up in Cagliari. They were so cute as they were shy about their ability to speak english. I of course busted out with all my italian, all 15 words. After loads of smiles and help from Vanessa the official translator we headed off to Villasimus.

Villasimus is a beautiful seaside town. Tiny really but amazing. We spent the next 5 days swimming, riding, running and talking with 15 of the best Italian's you could ever meet. I fell in love with this group and had one of the most rewarding times in all my triathlon adventures.

Daniele did an amazing job of organizing the camp with his partner Guiseppie. We laughed a lot and taught the team a few things along the way.

At night Luke and I headed out to explore our village. We enjoyed the local wine and food (perhaps a bit too much but hey you only live once) in the town square and practiced the language. I am truly in love with all things Italian and I have posted a few snaps for you to look at. I only hope that you all get the vibe.

We were nothing short of spoilt rotten by Dani and Elisa and we had a blast with them both. Along with Vanessa we became a little family for a week. Every time we headed out somewhere we took along 1 or 2 of the camp members for a bit of one on one. The boys (= my friend Maire who came to camp from Germany) were the best and I can not believe how good a time we had in spite of the broken english/italian.

Saturday came so quickly and we found out at the last minute that I was not allowed to race on my TT bike. Oh well I had to become the head cheer leader and commentator in english. Watching the boys race their hearts out and cross the line with huge smiles made my year. I will never forget how much fun 15 men can have in lycra. Racing for the love of it is alive and well in Italy.

Of course this was to be our last night and so we all headed out for some drinks together.

Thank you so so much Dani, Elisa , Guiseppie, Vanessa for arranging a fantastic camp.

A special shout out to my friends for life Alessandro, Maire, Marcello, Fabio, Luca, Mimo, Manu, Titsiano, Carlo (charles), Max, Massimo, Carlo, Sam and Gabriel. May we meet again soon.

Stay tuned

Memphis x

This is the only race photo so far.

I love the twins , Justin and Jason.

Hillary and Maiki waiting for the awards. No wine yet.
The top 10 girls minus the winner ... she had to go home early boo.
Top 10 men, please note the extra hansome guy in the middle.
Jimmy is a 5 time IM Champ.

The after party dinner started with a meat extraveganza.
I found some lovely young Brazillian girls to hang out with Joe. He got nowhere.
Now this is what I call a race director. Carlos the Great!
Rodrigo and I danced all night and then climbed to the "Christo" together in Rio.
Ladies who dance.

Carlos I love you and I can't wait to get back next year.
A vista in Rio.
Amazing views.
The party is this way.

Sand castles are HUGE in Rio.
"CAT" dry food only.
More meat on a stick.
I love Fernanda, she is the world's greatest host. We can never thank her enough.
A Favela.

In here we ate, we drank and we danced the Samba.
23 times Hawaii Fernanda.
The love birds. Hurry up and hit that s*@t.
The Christo, getting a face lift.

Don't look down Memphis!

IM Brasil

WOW what an amazing event.

First I should mention a MASSIVE thank you goes to Kenny Glah and his Endurance Sports Travel. Kenny had us completely taken care of from the second we landed. Now normally I love the travel and adventure that a new country brings however in all honesty Floripa would have been a struggle with the language issues. Taking into account the logistical worries of transporting the both of us and our stuff I am not sure I would have managed. Yes even I might have had a hard time as nearly NO english is available. In saying this Ken has put together the most amazing tour with literally hundreds of competitors traveling with Endurance. This tour experience was nothing short of FANTASTIC. Everything was organized and well planned out. From the transport and hotels to the after party Ken and his team were unbelievable.

Now onto the race report. I will keep it short and too the point. Good swim, 2 loops in a nice timely fashion = happy girl. Great bike also 2 laps. Super comfortable and no drafting issues as the course was very well thought out and extremely well marshaled. I was passing heaps of men on the second lap as the Brazilians had a tendency to go way to hard on the first lap. I loved this bike course. Rolling and fast but honest. Now for the run. First 9 kms perfect. On pace feeling AWESOME. Then the hill. I should mention the incredible wall of a hill that was presented to us can not be underestimated. It is EPIC but quite short really. Not too much trouble going up it. After the 1 km hilly section it is flat again and I was slowing a fraction but nothing to panic about. 5 or so kms on the top flat out and back section went without event. The back down the wall of death. Heck I feel as though this may have been my undoing. Well maybe a bit on the previous out and back but I will never know.

As I ran down the hills and back to the flat I actually felt ok but as soon as it leveled out I fell in a screaming heap. Not straight away but over the next 3 kms I was in a daze. Perhaps not enough food, perhaps I cooked myself on the bike a bit (I dont think so ) or perhaps I just ran too much on the tready in my build and my legs suffered. By km 18 I was cramping in my hips and hating my life. I struggled on for the next 15 km. At km 36 I kind of came out of it and ran a little better but not great to the finish line. I finished in a very respectable time but I was very unhappy with my run.

I will live to fight another day. It is coming together but sadly slower than one wishes. I will not give up. I love the fight and feel as though things are moving forward. My coach is amazing and she and I have come along way in this last year. For this I thank her. Thanks babes!!!

On a much more positive note Lukey CRUSHED them. From start to finish he had a perfect race. Amazing. I can not say enough of how amazing he was. I was so proud to hear he lead off the bike and won in a course record time. Also Miss Hillary completed the double, Lanzarote and Brasil. The poor girl had a sprint finish with Donna.... this could only be described as a nightmare when doing an Ironman. She finished in 4th and should be super proud of her amazing achievements over the last 2weeks. She is super hardcore.

I will post pics later as I am starving and must go eat. Also a post race party recap :)

Stay tuned

Memphis x