Chris_McCormack

Thanksgiving in San Francisco

San Franscisco is a cool town and one of my most favourite places to come in the USA. I drove up here from LA last week to finalise my greencard application and to spend some time up here with close friends who live up this way. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I thought it would be a great place to spend thanksgiving.

I have been staying downtown just above the Presidio in Pacific Heights with my close friend Kristina Pollack. Whenever I am in San Francisco I stay with Kristina and her brother and getting some great running done through the Presidio and down along the trails that surround the bay and beaches by the Golden Gate bridge and around into Bakers beach. Over the weekend I headed out east with my bike and decided to get some solid riding done in the nice weather up and over the beautiful mountain ranges that surround the east bay. One of the key climbs out that way is Mount Diablo. The east bay is home of triathletes Wendy Ingrahm and Chris Lieto and is famous for its incredible riding and great running trails. I ventured out to stay with a friend, Paige Dunn and go riding with a few of the guys who live out that way.

 What an incredible backyard for riding your bike in. It was absolutely spectacular and I was really impressed with the amount of beautiful rididng that was available and the lack of traffic. The Mount Diablo climb from the Walnut Creek side was just brilliant. I took my camera and snapped a few shots. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will have another crack at the mountain before I head home after thanksgiving.

I have uploaded a few pictures from the ride to give those of you who have never seen this climb an idea to how lucky these cyclist who live in this area really are. It is just breathtaking and I really enjoyed my few hours on the bike.

This is a short blog as I get ready for thanksgiving. I will be spending thanksgiving with my friends Julie and Lloyd Talbert and Paul Amey here in San Francisco. My family is back in Australia and I am still here in the USA for 2 more weeks. As a non American I must admit of all your holidays celebrated here in the USA, thanksgiving is my most favourite. The food that you eat over the next 4 days is unreal and the pumpkin pie is one of the greatest desserts that has ever been invented. I love the stuff. I need to get a few more rides in over the next couple of days to burn off the calories that I will consume on Thursday. Bring it on.

Have a great thanksgiving.

Macca

Silverman Las Vegas

We are back in Los Angeles after spending the past 5 days in Las Vegas. We spend a lot of time in Las Vegas as some of our closest friends in the USA all reside in this town. It is always great to go out and catch up with them all, which we were able to do again this time. The Murphy Clan, The Oselands and now more recently The Classon family are our first point of contact when we hit Nevada and it is always wonderful seeing them all.

Thanks to Rob Oseland, we stay everytime at the Wynn Casino which is without question the best Casino on the strip. It is at the Northern end of Las Vegas Boulevard and is incredible. If you have not stayed at the Wynn you have truely missed out on an experience. It is just spectacular. Rob has been flat out this year working on the new Wynn development, "Encore" which is the new Tower that sits next to the current Wynn Casino. It is absolutely incredible, and I was fortunate enough to get a private tour of the new "Encore" Casino with Rob on this trip. It is set to be opened in mid December and I can tell you, it is absolutely amazing. It was bizzarr walking through a Casino that is not yet opened but to see the rooms and the suites and all the big budget things that come with a 3 billion dollar development was amazing. Guests will be truely spoiled. This project has been Rob's baby for the past 3 years and it was awesome to see the fruits of his labour.

Our purpose for our trip to Vegas was to compete in the Silverman Triathlon in Henderson. This is without question one of the toughest triathlon races in the world and I was excited to come back to this race after winning it last year. The finishers shirt says it all, with every finisher at Silverman getting a shirt that says - Worlds Toughest Athlete - . It is an exceptional event and these finishers shirts are tough to come by. Finishers wear this shirt with pride and are deserving. Of all my finishers shirts this is one that I always keep.  This years race will be broadcast on Versus TV for 2 hours, and will be a great event to watch.The weather was cold and windy this year and made for a tough event and the TV special will show this. World Duathlon Champion and multiple Ironman 70.3 Champion, Paul amey joined me for this years race. I knew it was going to be a tough battle against Paul, but knowing that he had Ironman Hawaii still in his legs, gave me a definate advantage on this tough of course.

Paul and I exited the swim together and rode most of the bike together. Onto the run and I was able to clear out on the long first climb and never looked back. Paul is one of the best runners in the sport of Triathlon, and it was obvious he still had the Ironman in his legs as he began to loose a little time. I was able to stay strong and hold onto the win on a very tough day. Without question this was a very hard day at the office with the rain and wind on the very hilly course making it brutal. Frank Lowrey and his Team, who live for this race, need to be commended on a fine event and hopefully with time this race will grow into a season classic. The tough course seems to intimidate many athletes but as a multiple winner of this race I can only say, it is an awesome event to race and to conquer. Dave Scott greets every athlete at the finish line and will be the TV commentator for this years race. Check it out.

Silverman was wonderful, but the entire Las Vegas experience is always awesome. Emma and I grabbed the Elton John, Red Piano show at Ceasers Palace and enoyed a few nights out at the clubs and with friends. We are now back in Los Angeles and Emma and the kids are preparing to head home to Australia for Christmas. I am here in the USA until mid December and will be back home for Christmas. I have to be in New York for a few days which will be wonderful and will be in San Francisco for Thanksgiving. This year has gone incredibly quick and it is wonderful to just unwind. I am looking forward to touching back down in Australia and seeing my friends and family, before kicking off the 2009 season.

Anyway safe training everyone and I will write again in a couple of days. I have uploaded a few photos from our trip to Las Vegas including the aftermath and drive back to Los Angeles with Paul in recovery mode. He is going to kill me for putting that picture up, but anyone who knows Paul will find it funny.

Macca

Back in LA

Well we had a great time in Bermuda and we are now back in Los Angeles settling in for the rest of the year. Bermuda was a real buzz. it was great to catch up with The Butterfield Family who i have known for more than 12 years now. Tyler was only a little boy when I first went to Bermuda for the ITU World Cup Triathlon in 1996. I was home-staying with Tyler and his family and we have stayed friends ever since. Tyler is now getting married so it was wonderful to be out their and celebrating with him and Nikki for their big day.

The Escape To Bermuda Triathlon was a great day. I had not done much since Kona and was really focused on spending some quality time with my family on our end of season vacation. This being said, the course was a tough one and despite their being some super fast guys in town who had all just flown in from the World cup race in Mexico the week prior, I figured it would be wonderful to get in the mix and see what I could do. The race in Bermuda has a big prize purse and IMG do a wonderful job bringing the athletes in and accommodating their needs. For this reason it drew a solid field with 6 Olympians racing and 4 of the guys from the top 8 from the week prior in the World cup race. It also drew a lot of the European boys who were making the trek across the Atlantic to race in the Ironman 70.3 race the following week in Florida. My wife and I joked that I was going to get slaughtered as we saw these guys motor-pacing around the Island behind mopeds and running the hills, while we were drinking cocktails and eating at functions with our friends for Tyler's Wedding.

Race day dawned and i felt ok. I drank a couple of cups of coffee and said to myself, lets just hurt as much as I can for 2 hours and see how I go. I realistically thought i could get a top 5 if I could get away on the bike, but knew come the run, these guys would have too much leg speed. I simply had not done anything to build my leg speed up in an Ironman preparation and then ultimately a 3 week rest. It was not the ideal preparation for an athlete looking at winning a race in this caliber of field.

Matty Reed and Benny Sanson kept me laughing and on the boat ride out to the start, the competitive juices started to kick in and i started to really get excited about the race. I thought, I am going to take out as many of these young guys as possible. I drank in another coffee and away we went.

I swam great and despite Benny Sanson, was 3rd out of the water right next to Matty Reed. I was surprised these guys didn't swim quicker than this, but i actually felt wonderful in the water. On the bike Matty and i exploded and rode immediately away from the group of 6 behind us. By half way we had separated ourselves by about 90 seconds from the chase bunch, but Matty was starting to distance himself from me. He was really strong on the flat windy sections and I just felt like a big diesel engine and had no more power to give. I could not go any faster but was feeling unreal. I started to think I was half a shot at winning the race if I could just stay close to Matt.

Off the bike and Matty had about 45 seconds on me. As I ran out of transition I saw the big pack of cyclists come in behind me and thought this is going to be interesting. I was feeling great but my legs just would not go any quicker than the pace I had set. I didn't have the leg speed and it was obvious. I could have run the speed I was doing all day, i just could not go any quicker. At the 7km mark the boys started to pick me up. first the German Raelert caught me and on his tail was Aussie Simon Thompson. I tried to tag them but they ran away on the down hill. In the end I cruised through for a 4th place finish and felt unreal. I had a great day and was really surprised to be this close in the mix and to have some of the athletes I did have behind me. Matty Reed came over and congratulated me, and to be honest I felt pretty stoked with my race. My first big short course race since winning Noosa in 2005 and to be still in the mix was sweet, especially knowing what I had done in training.

Emma and I enjoyed the rest of our vacation laying out in the sun on the incredible beaches of Bermuda. We had a night out with the crew from Bacardi who made me drink a little more than I wanted to, and hung out with TTyler, Nikki and the athletes enjoying this amazing place. what a great event and what wonderful holiday. We left Bermuda yesterday with a smile on our faces. My girls loved the resort, loved the people and enjoyed the pace of this great Island. I have included a couple of pictures from TTyler and Nikki's cocktail party that we went to on the Saturday night before the race. These pictures give you an idea of how cool this place is.

Safe Training,

Macca