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!

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Hi everyone,

Over the weekend I competed in the 2011 Australian Open Water Championships, where I made my first Australian senior World Championship team.

Before I go into the race debriefing, I would just like to thank everyone for their messages and emails. I really appreciate all your support over the last year. I would like to thank my parents for helping me get to this point. They are unbelievably generous people who have sacrificed so much for my career; I would not even be able to continue swimming without their ongoing support. My coach Harley Connolly. My Sponsors: Balance Sports Nutrition and Genesis Fitness Club. My training partners: Trent Grimsey, Michael Shiel and Tash Harrison. And everyone else who has helped me along the way including: Warren McGregor, Malcolm French, Wayne Cooley, and Cameron Watt.
 
The 10km was not such a good result for me. I unfortunately got boxed into the back half of the front pack which was left behind after the 5.5km mark. After managing to force my way out, put in a solid 1km and caught back up to Ky, Browney and Rhys Mainstone. Little did I know Trent was 40-50 metres ahead of us with 1500metres to go (breaking away before I caught the chasing pack). When the pace picked up with 1km to go, I just couldn't handle the pace and had to settle for 8th position. No excuses though, lots of lessons learnt for next time. It is a little depressing not to be representing Australia for open water swimming at the Olympics. But in the grand scheme of things it's only an event, not the end of the world. Still very grateful to even be representing Australia in Shanghai, China.
 
I am extremely happy to have won the 5km event, and am actually looking forward to the pool nationals in three weeks time. My training is on track for a huge personal best in the 1500, and would love to add the event to my racing schedule in Shanghai.

Below is a story from the Australia Swimming website on my 5km victory.
http://www.swimming.org.au/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsItem&NewsID=17890

Stay well,
Codie.



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Hello all and welcome to my blog for another week.

A lot has happen since last time so will try my best at covering everything, including the Australian Distance Camp on the Gold Coast; Bondi to Bronte ocean swim; and The King of the Sea, in Brazil.

I left Brisbane on the 7th of December and after 5 flights and 22 hours in the air I arrived in Brazil early Thursday morning. As tired as I was at 1am in the morning, driving through the streets of Rio de Janeiro towards the hotel, I was instantly taken back by its beauty. Not just the women, but its landscape, the buildings, mountains and beaches... breathe taking. That morning I managed to sneak in a 2 hour nap, before rising for the early morning press conferences and photo shoots. This trip was full of new experiences for me, never has there been this much of a hype-up leading into the race. Live coverage of the race would be streamed around the nation on Globo TV, and the media were eating it up. "Will Codie Grimsey, brother of the 2009 winner Trent - be able to keep the title in the family name? Or will 2009 Runner Up, Chad Ho snatch the win this time around... Five of the best from around the world will face five of the best Brazilians, Who will surface as King of the Sea.'

The Start list was full of very intimidating and experienced athletes. Including three Olympians in Chad Ho, Allan Do Carmo and Arseniy Larvrentyev, a World champion in Alex Meyer and other world class athletes such as Alexander Studzinski and Samuel Menegon. Friday morning we raced the King of the Sea Sprint Challenge (the lead-up race), which would determine the starting positions for the King of the Sea main race the next day. It would also determine the order in which we take our feeds as we ran up the beach, and this was our real incentive for winning - along with the cash prizes, I guess... Leading from start to finish in this 700 metre dash I managed to lunge across the finish line and win by a fingernail's length over Brazilian’s Samuel Menegon, with Alex Meyer coming in a close third.

Sunday I took out the King of the Sea's main race in a very fast pace, stretching the field up over a distance of about 50metres, at one stage I even had a 20metre lead. Unfortunately the pack caught me by the 3rd lap, and I finished the race 7th. Big congratulations to the winner Alexander Studzinski of Germany, he raced smart and was the better man on the day.

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down into the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even." - Muhammad Ali.

One week prior to leaving for Brazil I was invited down to the Gold Coast, to train under Australia's most recognised distance coach, Dennis Cottrell. It was the annual Australian Distance Camp, which attracted the best middle distance, distance and open water swimmers from around Australia. I took many great experiences from this week, not only is it good for comparing yourself with other competitors, but it can also can give you that little bit more motivation to train even harder when you get back home. It is easy to see why Dennis has had so much success in swimming over the past 30 years, he's enthusiasm to train was contagious, his ability to recall and retell sets and splits from past years, inspiring; and the knowledge he possessed of swimming and stroke improvement, are unlike any coach I've seen before.

Immediately Following this camp I flew down to Sydney and competed in the famous Bondi to Bronte Ocean Swim. It was a hot, summer day, and yet the water temperature remained under 17.5 degrees. This Allowed competitors to take advantage of the under 18 degree wetsuit rule, and yet strangely enough few competitors did. But I would not take any risks in losing; if any of my competitors wore a wetsuit - I would not allow them to have an advantage over me. It was a controversial win because of the wetsuits, but it didn't bother me at all.

Next week I will be traveling up to Noosa with my coach, Harley and a few training partners to train with my old coach, John Rodgers for a week. I have not seen him since he departed for Canada over a year ago, so I am very excited to see him again.


Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
Codie.

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Hi All, and Welcome to my blog for another week...

Over the weekend I competed in New Zealand's largest participated ocean swim, the 'State Harbour Crossing', a 2.8km ocean swim starting at Quinton Park, Bayswater and finishing on the northern side of Te Wero Island, Viaduct Harbour. It was miserable, windy, overcast weather; but this would not dampen my day. The water's temperature was around 20 degrees, and it was my debut wetsuit race. The tension was high at the start line with the likes of Kane Radford; king of this course having won 3 of the last 4 years here; Philp Ryan, good friend and long time rival of mine having raced him at the 2010 Open Water trials and Oceania Championships - only to be beaten by him just last month in the Dubai World Cup. This race also featured New Zealand stars Steven Kent, Matthew Stanley, aswell as the defending champion Bryn Murphy.

The Startline was roughly 60 metres wide and it was interesting to see just how the other competitors would position themselves on the line. Tactics had began before the race had even started. Steven Kent (brother of Dean Kent) took the straight line option and positioned himself as far right to the startline as possible. Kane Radford, took the opposite approach and positioned himself far left on the line, where it looked to me as though he would have had to swim at least ten to twenty metres further, in order to get back on course. Did he know something that the rest of us didn't? Is there a current? Asking myself these questions, as I treaded water between the two favorites, contemplating which one to follow the start hooter sounded... and I was off to a flying start.

By the 400 metre mark all the elite field had come together, but the geological ordering of us had not changed. The pace felt quite easy for the first 1000 metres, and we were all very close, when suddenly Steven split - redirecting himself into a far right line, taking majority of the field with him. Kane, Philp and I stayed straight, before they both split and took a slightly left route. Not wanting to commit, I kept stright... and won in a time of 33minutes and 15seconds, just 20 seconds in front of 2nd place, Bryn Murphy, followed by Matthew Stanley, Philp Ryan, and Kane.

This was the first time I had ever raced in New Zealand, and I must say I was very impressed. Not just with the depth and quality of competition, but I can honestly say this was one of the most efficiently organised races I have competed in. Registration was done a day prior to the race, to avoid any last minute frustrations. Scott Rice, the race director and State Insurance the major sponsor of the event, deserve a pat on the back. Every precaution was taken to make sure saftey was their number one priority. And it was fantastic to see the great number of Saftey Crafts out on the water, especially following the tradgic loss of Fran Crippen in Dubai last month.

It's good to be back in Brisbane, preparing for the Australian distance training camp, held at Maimi next week. Followed by the Bondi to Bronte Ocean Swim on Sunday.

Stay tuned for updates,

Codie Grimsey.
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Hi All and welcome to my first blog,

Over the weekend I competed in a Queensland Qualifying meet, at Chandler Aquatic Centre. Managing to knock off 2 seconds in my 200 metre time, and swimming a 15.45 in the 1500 metres, just six seconds above my best. It looked to be quite a tough feild with the likes of Trent Grimsey (older brother), Matt Terry, David Browne, Michael Shiel and Joshua Richardson, but approching the 400metre mark, it proved to be a two horse race, Terry took an early lead, before I came back at him with 500 metres to swim managing to snatch the win. Considering the heavy work load I have been in leading into this meet, I would have been over the moon with anything below 16minutes.

Its now Tuesday, and I am back into the swing of things, preparing to leave for Auckland on Friday, for the Harbour Crossing race; New Zealand's largest participated ocean swim. I am really looking forward to racing there, as this particular swim is reknowned for attracting New Zealand's best.

Stay tuned for updates,

Codie.
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