Turkey Trot 2009

This year was my 2^nd attempt at the 10k turkey trot held in Ayr however this years edition ended up being ran on the beach due to the ice. Now I have a lot of great places to go running in Stirling- theres great trails, a track and a lot of pavement to follow. The one thing we dont have is any sand.

So there I was doing my warm up on the beach, running on sand for the first time in 3 years. Theres a lot to think about- should I run on the hard but slightly wet stuff? Is it faster to run on the softer dry sand? Which line should I follow for I have no idea where the turn around point is at the other end? And will Ayr United football club mind us interruptin there game of beach football as 200 plus runners come hurtling by? I finally decided to give up thinking and just follow the person in front.

With the most basic of race plans the race began. It was 2laps of 5k out and back along Ayr beach and for 9.95k of that I followed the person in front. This was by far no way easy in fact it was probably one of the, if not the toughest experiences of my life. From 3ks onwards I felt that I was just hanging there hoping the pace would not go up. The final 2k`s was a series of the person leading making a surge, me losing a few steps and then clawing my way back up.

With 300metres to go I thought he had finally escaped me but I hung on 5metres back and then managed to edge back a metre at a time before I sneaked past with about 20 or so metres remaining. 33.36 for 10k on the beach was pretty good going.

The next day I convinced myself I deserved to pop into Walkers and picked up a new pair of Sidi cycling shoes- white since I`m of to spain soon and I hear white is all the rage over there.

David McNamee, International Triathlete

Antequerra

Antequerra, Spain was the location for the largest ever British triathlon camp with athletes ranging from the senior world champ to the more talented juniors- I fit in between somewhere. It was an odd warm weather camp with rain everyday, at least one bike crash a day and half the camp being sent home early as they came down with a vomiting bug. In fact just surviving the week became a success in itself. Amongst the carnage though there were some team time trials in the rain, 20k climbs in the rain, and an APR in the rain. The majority of us only brought out warm eather kit so wearing two jerseys at a time was the norm- we made it look cool.

It was good to get away to see exactly where my fitness sits. My swimming is a lot stronger than it was last year and I am running a lot better than I expected. Biking wise the aerobic fitness is there but the harder end stuff just seems to be missing.

So for the next two weeks there will be a lot of hard turbo sessions before I head out to Spain for a 3weeks for a camp where I will once again try and move everything on little by little.

Merry Christmas

David McNamee, International Triathlete