Dan Wilson

DAN WILSON ---- Professional Athlete ---- Part-time Wordsmith
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Talking London

Greetings friends, 

Ok, so another punctual blog... this time less than a month has past since my topic of salience, London World Champs. Anyone who has had the (un)fortunate experience of sharing a domicile with me whilst on tour, may be familiar with the delight I take in butchering the English accent with my Ringo Starr voice, an impersonation that famously lasted for 3 continuous weeks in 2008. Arguably more eager to try out the accent on home turf as I was about racing World Champs, don’t let that lull you into the sense that I wasn’t excited to race... I was just REALLY excited to try out the voice. Go on, try out an English accent right now... You know you want to...

So, after boarding the plane for France, the 2 weeks prior to London I had the pleasure of getting back in my familiar Aix-les-Bains groove with the rest of the crew. Amongst the usual shenanigans of training, relaxing, and banter, I also made the admittedly hasty decision to buy a commercial coffee machine off ebay, a purchase made with very little rumination, and mostly just repeating the phrase, “Well, I’d be an idiot NOT to get this, wouldn’t I?”. Turns out I don’t have enough big enough power supply to run it, lack sufficient piping to plumb it, and unless I put it on my bed and sleep on the floor, certainly don’t have enough space to house it. Never-the-less, I’m still stoked with the purchase, and still stand by my analysis, I bought the machine, thus, I am NOT an idiot. 


The race. I had a pretty solid swim, alas, as seems to be my trademark this year, missed the small front group by about 5 seconds. It was touch and go, but the boys up front had more speed than a Sydney nightclub, and I couldn’t bridge up. I rode with a group of 5 in no-mans-land for about 15km, when the group behind us caught us to form the large chase pack for the rest of the bike. Coming into T2 around 40 seconds down on the front group, I ran quicker than I have in 3 years to pull through for a solid 18th overall with a 30:45. Given the last 3 years of battling injuries, I was as chuffed as if I’d read an entire soliloquy as Ringo. 



In other news, once on home soil, I managed to bag a win at the Morton Bay tri, an all you can eat buffet of lactic, 300/6/1.5 x 2, with a small break in between. For now, I’ve got a few more weeks of training, then I’ll race the Noosa Tri as my last race of the season, after which I’ll have a brief sabbatical from aerobic endeavor, during which time it’s quite possible I’ll open a coffee shop. After all, I’d be an idiot NOT to open a coffee shop now I’ve got a machine, right?

Take care friends,
Willy

Enjoying a small refreshing beverage post-Morton Bay Tri.