Well, I think i am ready to really get training. I have been building up and feeling strong but will get’r going when in NZ in another week. I spent the past Sunday in Guelph for a Kids Training day and none other than Simon Whitfield. I got to be his viginlant sidekick and talk with some of the kids about the Pro Triathlon lifestyle and got to tell of some of my adventures as a ‘lesser known character’ .. hahahah. Was really cool to catch up with the master and some of my old training buddies Steffan Timms, and Ryan Polawski as well.
I guess I will be getting my things together and sorting some loose ends (between freezing my axx off.. it snowed here yesterday) before I am back on the road. Can’t wait!
I am trying to post a video, just to see if you can do that on these things.
more soon…

Well.. here they are… the pool results. We did get thrown a bit of a curve ball as Timo was DQd in a bit of a mix up… My sympathies by the way. Timo is one who really pushes the pace in races and in NEVER close to drafting, always leaving an extra buffer. Anyway, it’s neither here nor there with us; we have to go with the official results which did affect the winner. The would be ‘co-champion’ lost two points having picked Timo’s place and dropped to second, leaving a French WOMAN with the outright win at 13 pts.
Here they are: (although, due to the fact that I am only ‘almost’ perfect and not comlpletely, there could be an error, although doubtful. Feel free to double check my calculations and I would be happy to make the corrections)

Zelie Barthod 13
Andrew Farrow 12
Dragstra 10
Peter Van Mol 10
Tomas Tittel 10
Sebastian Kienle 10
Mignon Vatlach 10
Todd Withycombe 10
Tim Seddon 9
Gary Fegan 9
Susanna Buckenlei 9
Erica Csomor 8
Scott Bombard 8
Baumgartner 8
Jaime Vigaray 7
Tom Barker 7
Eric Smith 6
Dano Wells 6
Frank Neuman 6
Terry Lauzon 5

Macca
Stadler
Llanos
VanHoenacker
Alexander
Vernay
Bracht
Potts
Brown
Van Lierde -Luc

Wellington
Csomor
Major
VanVlerken
Granger
Kraft

tough picking .. no matter who you pick, you leave someone out. I am betting on more runners bc I think he weather is going to be kind again.. that is the forecast for now… we will see.
The mens race.. I am thinking Potts will be away with Sanson, possibly McKenzie or Jacobs… Sindballe, Stadler, Lieto will ride through, Sanson will go with, Potts might try for a while too… the main bunch will include the big runners, MACCA, Crowie, Llanos, possibly Vernay and Bracht. It will be a matter of who catches who and who holds on the best… I really want to squeeze Pete Jacobs in but I don’t know if it will happen this year…

Womens. two groups.. Chrissie will break the first one open.. maybe Granger will go with, maybe Kraft too. The second group with Wallenhorst, Bella, Csomor, Van Vlerken will try to catch.. again mish mash in the end but i don’t think Chrissie will be caught…

Alright, This will be interesting because I am doing it on such a small scale but I think there is not enough of this so let’s do it.
The game is simple. You pick your top 10 men and top 6 women in Kona in the order that you think they will finish in. You get 1 pt if they are in the top 10 and an additional point if you got the place right. He with the most points wins… Wins what? Well the prestige and… hmmm.. Ok 100 Canadian dollars … hopefully one of my sponsors will kick that in.

You can find a start list at: http://ironman.com/assets/files/races/worldchampionship/2008bib.htm

I will be postig some useful informataion shortly and will let you know where to find. Process is simple though. Email me your top and top 6 in order and I will log it and post the results of the pool on Monday. Cheers!!

I am just finishing off the longest break I have ever taken since …. je ne sais pas… a long time.. many many yrs. I am feeling great.. have excessive energy, springy legs, and am getting very moody and anse to get’r going.
I haven’t wasted toooo much time though during break and have refurbished some other skills that I haven’t used for a long time. You see in the Dragstra household, after a few days visitation one is no longer a guest. So there has been a few hrs of work to do most days around the place as my pops is doing some renovating in the basement, touching up the drive and so on. I have realized that the less the thought that has to go into the work, the better I am at it. Ripping stuff down, I think, is my specialty. My dad is more concerned with details and is, i believe, frustrated once in a while with my destructive or ‘just gett’r done’ working style. But it has worked out pretty good, I think as he has left the simple and dirtier jobs to me and he does the more finesse type work.

It has been good because it has kept me busy some days and some of the work required some strength and my back and hands have toughened up some. One can develope weaknesses even when training 3 sports at a time, i have found and will be starting up with some better core strength than I have had for the past few years.

Check the pix of this hard workin’ man!!
L8R