2011 USA Tour 14/10/2011
 
Hi Everyone,


Apologies for the lack of updated blogs.  I've been pretty busy since Worlds with a USA tour, as well as relocating down to Melbourne. First things first, thank you for all those emails and text messages of support - means a lot to me. I was reasonably happy with how I went in the 5km at Worlds, managed to position myself well throughout the race, finishing 24th overall - only 19seconds behind winner Thomas Lurz. Was such a great experience and a fun team, I am looking forward to 2013 and beyond so I can pursue open water some more.

In the mean time, I will be focusing all my energy on the 2012 Olympic 1500m selection event. With a time of 15.32, I figure I need to knock at least 20seconds off my best to be competitive come trials next march. It is because of my desire to match it with the pool's best that I decided to change clubs and coaches. Sometimes change is good, it has re-ignited my love for the sport and I am now more motivated than ever before!

As mentioned earlier I have recently returned from my 2011 USA tour. It was quite an experience. Completed my first 20km ocean marathon in LA stretching all the way from Manhattan Beach to Venice Beach. Upon completing this four and a half hour journey we were greeted at Venice by a 'women's equality... nudist protest' haha. LA is nice! We were also given an exclusive tour of Sony Pictures Productions by good friend Alex Kostich. As well as visiting the famous six flags rollercoaster theme park, congratulations are in order for my brother, Trent who conquered some of the scariest rides there, he’s come a long way from getting queasy giving blood.

From LA, my brother and I went on to Hawaii, where we competed for team Tattersall’s in this year's Maui Channel Relay. Congratulations to Peter Theil and Team Tatts, for their 5th consecutive win in the event. It was nice to finally get some closure on 'who had the better team' after the controversy that was remembered at last year's event. Winning by a gap of 3minutes - that's approximately 300metres or 328yards if you’re an American. Team Tatts continued their winning streak with 5 of the 6 team members finishing in the top 5 at this year's Waikiki Rough Water event.

Trent and I concluded our tour in San Francisco, where we had the opportunity to train alongside one of Australia's best middle distance and distance freestylers leading in to the prestigious Tiburon Mile. It was great getting to pick Ryan Napolean's brain and get some technical tips ahead of next year’s pool trials. Great swimmer, better guy (you can follow him @ http://saidnapoleon.blogspot.com/).

Tiburon was a pretty awesome experience, we managed to fit a lot into the space of just two weeks: Thanksgiving dinner in September with the lovely Patricia McDowell and her daughter Callan, comedy stand-up show/American history lesson, Karaoke in our 'Budgy Smugglers'... and then there were a few experiences that we would rather have forgotten (but instead I'll just write about it on the world wide web): stalled a Porsche in the driveway of In and Out Burger, abused by Giants fans for wearing a Dodgers’ hat to a game they call 'baseball', rash off an unidentifiable team mate who had contracted some type of allergic reaction to the emergency........ Naturopath! We later found out that this was Ryan, haha. 

I prepared as best I could for the mile in below 14 degree Celsius waters... but in the open water anything can happen (often why I love it) but not today haha. Kane Radford of New Zealand managed to get one up on me again! With only three seconds separating first and second - $10,000 and nothing. It certainly is one of those races where if you not first..... you’re last  :(  haha.

Melbourne is going well - change is hard but not many opportunities like this come along very often, so I intend on grabbing it with both hands  :)

Bring on 2012!

 


Comments

Lucas
14/10/2011 3:45am

sounds like ur doing well big dog..cant wait for noosa!

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Danielle
14/10/2011 3:59am

Thick, solid, tight. Thanks for the motivation

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