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| thanks go to yahoo for sponsoring this page |
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| run down. . . |
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| tour 2004 continued |
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| a full car again and lots of active o2 from the nuns in bergen! |
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| and still 2004 goes on......lots more pics and action below, well coming soon. the grossglockner berglauf (below) finishes below the highest mountain in austria and the last kilometre climbs from the glacier up to this look out area |
| heligenblut and the grossglockner is up on the left. 800 runners finished this grand prix berglauf. above is the tough last climb for the athletes. |
| athens, august 2004 hot weather training in the north of italy, bergamo, to get me a bit used to the heat expected from athens and then easing back the training to get ready for the marathon. running from marathanos to athens and finishing in the olympic stadium from the 1896 games is a special piece of tradition. we run the same route that phidipides took when he brought the message of a greek victory to athens. i am hoping that history won't repeat itself, since he died from exhaustion on delivering his message! had my last effort in susa feeling pretty comfortable with a new race record but the weather wasn�t as warm for the race as it is normally and everyone ran a couple of minutes quicker on average. still now i feel pretty good about the marathon and despite all the raised eyebrows over racing a mountain event the week before, as well as my very unusual training methods this year, i have confidence in my own decisions and to hell with what others think. it is so important to be comfortable with yourself and not let yourself be led by those who think they know better. Sure, listen to advice but use it to inform your decision rather than make it. well thats me finished with the soap box, on to the race...... |
| only a short hop into athens from milano and callum dropped me off before heading back to meet the nz team arriving for the world mtns in sauze d�ulx in my feisty rover 25. quickly settling into village life and its truly a great team with tremendous results for the tri boys and sarah, ben etc. air con was difficult to adjust to and sure enough the sore throat developed soon after i arrived. you walk over to the food hall in 35 degrees with your icebreaker thermal top since once inside this huge tent it is like walking into a fridge. esp once u r well acclimated to the hot weather. track and field was fantastic, great atmosphere, visited mtn biking, acropolis and just stayed relaxed till our race which as is normal was the last event on the last day of what was a really nice games. security tho ever present was not overly officious and transport was well handled by using olympic only vehicle lanes (offending locals are suspended from driving for 2 years if they are caught). its not easy being the last but generally the support from the others has been great, even with a team party outside our window the night before our race. when u have been in the game as long as i have u dont let anything stress u out. |
| running from marathon to athens, well it was a nice feeling to be a part of history, knowing and feeling what poor old phidipides went thru to take the news of victory over the persians to athens. i often wondered what time of year he did it because it was as hot as hell for us but the sinking sun made the second half reletively ok. race wise it was easy to run with the early pace and the hills came from 6km to 32k. many rollers and then a 7k slog up to 32k. the only real bad patch for me were stomach cramps at 22km where i lost a lot of ground and just had to try to relax and get thru it. by 24k i was back on track and finished the last 15km taking about 20 places and very strongly. a highlight was overtaking the very dodgy julio rey of spain. nice also to come home in front of the aussies but felt for troopy who had put in so much work as i passed him with 8km to go. the last 2km were down a long floodlit boulevarde and i could see several athletes up ahead but none were catchable so just enjoyed the run into the stadium and the crowd of 40000 at the parthenikos stadium cheering like crazy which included my parents in there somewhere. no chance to get to closing ceremony as organisers hadnt allowed any transport to to take us there other than medal winners and i wasnt in any state to go anyway post race of course everyone was talking about the brazilian who was pole axed by some crazy irishman and my priorities included rehydration using a drip, food and a few quiet beers of celebration. |
| sauze d�ulx, italy, september 2004 no time to bugger about in athens, the village empties real quick follwing the closing and i too had to be off to italy and into the mtns to join up with the kiwi team. a very good team atmosphere we had there including ben fouhy who not content to sit on the sidelines ran in the open race at worlds and ran more than a bit respectably. some of the vets stayed on for our races including pat meffan who bronze medaled the week before. also our organising committee for welly 2005 made the team quite large and added extra kiwi support, so thanks arthur and murry, tetam manager, marty mac and penny who was a life saver for me with massage and some interesting conversation about lingerie amongst other things!! by race day just 1 week after the marathon i felt good, confident and ready to go despite the large sections of downhill in the race. it was a case of staying calm and conserving in the first few k�s and not panicking when the two eritrean runners went ballistic on the downhill. i slowly reeled them in on the long climb and by the start of the last descent had a good 45s lead. bloody nasty steep at the finish but so much support and cheering gets you through and made it a fourth world mountain running title by 1minute 17s in the finish. the italians won the teams in mens and womens and the kiwis while reletively inexperienced performed with credit. the kiwis performed with great credit on sunday night during the haka which went down very well with the locals with myself as leader and just the enthusiasm of ex pat kelvin broard needing to be reined in. kelvin puts 100 percent of his energy into all his projects with an infectious enthusiasm but the 200 percent he put into the haka almost broke joe�s foot when he got stomped! there were a few tired eyes and sore heads the next day, but there were solid bonds formed between the kiwis, russians, a certain canadian lad and of course the locals to take away as memories. |
| lienz, austria, september 2004 not being content to take a break i had to be in lienz for saturdays dolomitan mann. callum and i travelled via trentino and the valle di fiemme near the marmoladas where antonella and i had a live tv show appearance on running for regional tv which was a bit of a laugh The dolomitan mann has been a bit controversial for not allowing women to compete (yes, who said male chauvenism was dead) and the big fat former profi ski racer organiser was saying he had no intention of allowing them in either The race is a big redbull sposnsored extreme teams race televised worldwide which includes: 12km mountain run climbing 1800m to finish at 2500m paragliding including a portage and relaunch section white water kayaking including again some portage and slalom a mountian bike leg climbing about 800m in height the day before we were helicoptered up to 2100m and we did some filming. our team leingruber stayed at a very nice hotel on a small lake with very friendly owners and callum was drafted into a german team who needed a runner at the last minute the run was pretty brutal and bloody steep scree rocks in places but i gave our team a handy 4 minute lead and they never looked back. callum and i managed to hitch a ride in the helicopter back down again to save the legs a long walk and so our team liengruber won by about 7 ot 8 minutes. now i have one of the heaviest trophies ever to think about taking back to nz, worth so they tell me, about 5000 euro�s (its made by the guy who does the oscars so maybe that accounts for the ridiculous cost!). popped a bit of bubbly on stage and the team was out of control - no sleep and a few radlers were a good way to finish a great day 80km back down the road is the drei zinnen and on sunday callum and i had a trot here as well. beautiful area but a bit cloudy today so callum didnt get to see these incredible mountains at their best. Leutasch again next for a rest, phew, its been a crazy 5 weeks, and only now can i really reflect on what has been pretty amazing time for me. right no mucking around, it�s back to the dolomiti for the val gardena extremlauf held next to the sella group and the race climbs to a rifugio on the saso loungo. great views of the marmolada from there and a seriously steep last kilometre. kim and imke rodley accompanied me to see in summer where they had been skiing sella ronda in winter. 600,000 people per hour these chairlifts in this area can take. it is seriously big and the race organisers are tring to get me back here in january to see for myself! after 6 weeks of doing only light training i am able to get back into some good work in leutasch in between visits to innsbruck, salzberg and chiemgau with friends from italy. the rain (and snow) held off for bergen this year although the last part had a sprinkling. bergen was a nice race again and the course was a bit smoother and faster then in previous years. highlight was john brown's "turn left coxy" at the first corner where there was the biggest arrow i have ever seen. This finished the mountain racing season for me as i elected not to race the last grand prix in favour of a 10km road race in italy against olympic champion - steffano baldini. a wise move as it turned out as the race in slovenia was wet and slow |
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| Spent a bit more time in italy and watched the italians battle it out in a nice relay race in morbegno. following this however i was involved in a fairly serious car crash. while there was no fault on my side it is not such a good way to leave europe in 2004 and has meant a lot of organising and driving to collect a new car and sort out the insurances, police report, lawyers, hospital etc. i have recieved some amazing amount of help and support from lots of people. actually, all year i have had some great contact and support with many people so thank you all ciao |
| the karwendleberg 2700m |
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| hohe munde 2654m |
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| marathanos and the race start, marathon olympic games right: tattersal and wyatt with cooling vest just before race start |
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| the olympic stadium, track and field the architect was santiago calatrava from spain |
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| fribourg - trento, october 2004 made it down to the world cycling champs in verona and what a spectacular venue. with the arena and crossing the river and up through hills overlooking the old town. unfortunately i couldnt stay for pauls race on sunday as on friday i had an epic 550km cross country drive to milano, lago di como, into switzerland and the longest tunnel i have ever driven - the st gottard at 17km. over toward zurich, across to bern and ended up in the french speaking town of fribourg at 1am after leaving milano at 8. fribourg is a nice town set on the hillside above a winding river in much the same way bern is. it was designed by the same architect along with our race start in morat. the race morat - fribourg is the oldest race still going in switzerland at 71 years old. it commemorates (believe it or not) a battle where the swiss defeated the french and sent a messanger to fribourg to deliver the good news. on delivering news of the victory the messanger duly died (presumably from exhaustion). now the swiss inform that this indeed did actually happen unlike the greeks who are a little more vague on the subject. However, as the distance was a mere 17km i think the swiss are possibly a bit softer than the greeks! a first kilometre of 2min40s meant the record was always on and on the steep climb at 12km with hundreds lining the road tour de france style i broke away from the africans and held on to win. 8 ethiopeans and kenyans followed and then the first swiss. an evening in graz was a chance tto catch up with team mates from the dolomitan mann team and also a chance to use a porsche 911 carrera 4 for 24 hours. crakie and i went to meet friends in heligenblut (austria). driving at night on the autobahn it was possible to outdrive the headlights and paul was reading the satalite navigation to see if there was a corner coming up! very accurate and a useful piece of kit. we comfortable arrived almost 1 hour ahead of the GPS prediction due to plenty of illegal bursts including a new PB of 265kph for me. here in austria that sort of speed, more than twice the limit can get u in serious trouble! the next day we drove a private road to a mountain top and a good chance to explore the limits. friday was a long drive to trento in italy where i had a 10.9km race over 10 laps through the old town. the olympic champ, stefano baldini from the athens marathon was up to run along with the junior winner of the world cross country, and the winner of the world half marathon champs, paul kosgei. i had a solid run at the front until 2k to go and then the gaps opened and i had to settle for 4th. bloody knackered at the end of that. a hot race at night and the constant accelerations out of the bends over 10 laps is tough. i finifhed in front of kosgei but was achingly close to third which would have been a better result. still the race organiser was more than happy and we had plenty of the good trentino vino following the race. race report at: well that�s it for the season. i have plenty more to do out here including meetings in graz, lucerne, and bad hof gastein. the latter is for an inviation to train next year which is a health resort area in austria and includes some pretty famous thermal springs and a tunnel going 3k into the rock where you sweat like crazy and breathe in radon gas which supposedly has many long lasting health benefits. i have to say i seem to feel pretty good after it so maybe there is something in it. the german and austrian governments pay for people to use it who are suffering from lung diseases and arthritis. as well it supposedly restores the immune system |
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| 911 C4 and me |
| jono |
| yes, everybody dresses like that in bavaria |
| ok, who is the sprinter...thomas nitsch and i in munich doing what the locals do |
| above and below: liengruber personnal winning team for the dolomitanmaan and that trophy |
| next years transportation maybe..... |
| shot from the hohe munde at 6.30am in autumn in osteriech - cheers |
| train ride 3km into a mountain in the name of therapeutic gases, its the first train driver i have seen wearing a bath robe |