- What's up trainiacs?
In today's Triathlon Newsday Tuesday, Canadians drop it
like it's hot all around the world.
Daniela Ryf lays the hammer down on a race in
Switzerland including a big chunk of the Pearl Men's Field
and Javier Gomez makes his full Ironman debut.
Oh, man, I've been looking forward to this for years.
(exciting music)
What's up triathletes?
Welcome to this week's Triathlon Newsday Tuesday
where we talk about all of the wonderful on goings
around the world in the triathlon world.
As always links to full videos that we can link to
on YouTube are going to be in the description below
and make sure you stick around to the end where we share
everyone's favorite part of Triathlon Newsday Tuesday,
that is a story from the trainiac community.
We've got a motivating one this week.
Now let's start it off where the best short course athletes
in the world showed up to play at ITU Leeds.
On the men's side, Richard Murray won in 1:45.52,
just nine seconds ahead of number one world ranked,
Mario Mola.
While Great Britain's Vicky Holland won the women's race
and the number one ranked world triathlon series points
winner, Katie Zaferes finished in third.
Now on to Daniela Ryf who hasn't raced for quite a while,
but she raced Ironman 70.3 Switzerland over the weekend,
where Josh Amberger won on the men's side,
but Daniela Ryf won the women's race by like dozens
of minutes in four hours and 54 seconds,
placing her well ahead of the entire women's field
and she would have
actually finished seventh overall in the men's field.
So Daniela Ryf while she said on Instagram leading up
to the race that she wasn't sure how it would go.
It went pretty damn well.
All the women at the full distance race should be
pretty scared of Daniela Ryf this year.
In other Half-Ironman races, Half-Ironman Staffordshire
was won by Elliott Smalls and Emma Pallant.
While Ironman Eagleman 70.3 was won by Canadians
Cody Beals and Stephanie Roy.
Now speaking of Canadians, it doesn't just end there,
full Ironman Boulder happened and Kirsty Jahn
fresh off her win at Ironman Brazil, just a few weeks ago
ended up winning full Ironman Boulder while on the men's
side Chris Leiferman won.
And, and, and it isn't over for the Canadians,
Heather Wurtele won the half iron distance race
at Challenge Gerrardsbergen,
basically named by the Swedish chef from the Muppets.
Now the story for this week was Javier Gomez making
his debut at the full Ironman distance race.
Leading into this week for basically the past two years
when Javier announced that he'd be starting to step up
to gradually longer and longer distances trying out
different races, Xterras, Half-Ironman, winning world
championships at the half distance, everyone has been
looking forward to seeing how Javier would do at the
full distance, myself included.
I thought that he would be incredibly dominant right from
day one, but that didn't happen.
Braden Currie into that racing at the front with all the
leaders throughout the entire day until the last half
of the full marathon, when he pulled away from Javier Gomez.
This was completely unexpected considering that Javier
is probably one of the best runners ever in triathlon.
Braden Currie however dropped 2.39 to prove that he wasn't
scared of Javier and that he himself is going to be a top
contender at this year's Ironman World Championship.
Congratulations Braden and that is not to say
that Javier is say underperforming.
The man still went under eight hours in his first full
Ironman distance race and this is very rare,
only accomplished by just a handful of athletes
in the history of full Ironman racing.
So considering that it was at an Ironman Cairns,
which is historically a very slow course for
Javier to be in his first race on that course and
still go under eight hours, he's got talent and
as he says he made a fair amount of mistakes that didn't
allow him to race well in the last half of the marathon.
So still could be right thinking that he will be
juggernaut in full distance racing.
And the winner from the women's side of Ironman Cairns
the Asia-Pacific Ironman Regional Championship was
Teresa Adam who ended up beating out Mirinda Carfrae
in Mirinda's full Ironman return.
Now let's get into everyone's favorite part of
Triathlon Newsday, that being a story from the
trainiac community.
This one comes from Matt Herald who says, "hey Taren."
Hey, Matt.
"For the first 35 years of my life I was a professional
couch potato.
I was never athletic, even as a youngster.
As I got older, I only got worse.
At my worst, I was easily over 250 pounds
with a 40 inch waist.
After a cancer scare my doctor finally cornered me
about my blood pressure and he told me that either I
would have to do something about it or he would.
I asked what I could do and he told me to lose the weight
and the blood pressure would go down.
So I changed everything.
I didn't want my life to be dependent on a pill
so I decided enough was enough.
I started slow by changing my diet and just walking.
I stopped using escalators and elevators
and searched out stairs wherever I could and I replaced
potato chips with carrots and I counted my calories
using my fitness pal.
I lost 30 pounds in just a few months.
It was then that I decided to take the next step and
I downloaded a couch to 5K program and started running.
Those first few weeks were brutal and pathetic,
but I didn't give up and I was able to complete a 5K
without having to walk it.
Then my 5K times improved.
I decided to go for a 10K, then a half-marathon
and later a full marathon.
As I'm typing this I'm in my final taper for my second
full marathon that takes place in just four days.
Picture me in the orange shirt as a shot of me at mile 26
of my first marathon.
Every time I look at that photo I become emotional
because I remember everything that was going through
my head just to get me through those last thousand feet
of that race.
Shortly after my first marathon, a friend challenged me
to a triathlon, being a good engineer that I am,
I didn't just go and try one, I did research first
and this is how I discovered this blond Canadian
who looks ginger on a video."
Well, Matt, you look like a pirate in your triathlon
picture with whatever's in behind you that looks like
an earring.
"Who has a channel devoted to teaching triathlon,
one trick, one race, and one message at a time.
This is exactly what I needed.
To date I have completed one Super Sprint Triathlon
and three Sprint Triathlons.
Right now, I'm looking at my first Olympic distance
triathlon in June.
All in all, I've lost over 65 pounds before my weight
plateaued and went from+ a 40 inch waist to a 34 inch waist
and still medication free.
I've gone from couch potato to runner to marathoner
to triathlete to role model and currently am looking at
completing my first Half-Ironman in 2019.
Thanks for all that you do."
Thank you Matt for sharing this story.
I wanted to share this especially because instead of
taking what common Western medical advice is,
here take a pill this will make you better,
you decide to do something that didn't just make
your condition better, it made your life better.
That's why I'm such a big proponent of people being active,
however they can with just 30 minutes a day, four, five
times a week, you can get off of all these medications,
whether it's weight or blood pressure, anxiety,
or depression.
It has a huge benefit on all these things
so triathlon doesn't just make you better on the scale,
it makes you better in life, like Matt.
So thank you Matt for your story and if anyone wants
to get their story shared here on Triathlon Newsday
Tuesday email me at Taren@triathlontaren.com
and if you dig these Triathlon Newsdays and you aren't
yet subscribed, hit the subscribe button below.
If you are subscribed, thanks for being you.
No ads, just our thanks.
Later trainiacs.