Pete Jacobs: Professional Triathlete

Hi,

Firstly, I am very happy to announce that I am a Newton Running sponsored athlete. I have been very happy with these shoes over the last couple of months trying them out, and would have continued to wear them no matter what as my overall goal is to be the quickest I possibly can. But I have a contract with them, and it is such a boost to my confidence and motivation to have the best sponsor possible in the running shoe department.

I was also on a new bike on the weekend, thanks to a sponsorship from Azzuri. It felt much better than my old unmentionable, and the high specifications and running gear make this bike extra sweet. All I need to do now is ride it more! But that won’t be a problem, it’s comfortable, fast, and powerful. I’ll enjoy training on my TT bike now, something I haven’t done for months.

Another first race for a new sponsorship in Singapore was my Suunto heart rate monitor watch. I’ve never raced with a HR monitor. I always thought of them as uncomfortable and restrictive around my chest, BUT I did not even notice the strap once. I knew it was on because I looked down and watched my HR throughout the race, I loved it. So much information was there to see, and now so much more is waiting for me to download and analyse through the extensive programs Suunto has. Very exciting and interesting. I’ll be wearing it in all my training, and in IM Aus too.

Now to Singapore 70.3 . I  made it home from Singapore last night, after a brief 4 nights that went very quickly. Thursday I flew all day, and happened to be on the same flight as Chris McCormack and Craig Alexander, so i had lots of questions for these legends.

Friday was an early ride, breaky, in-store Newton running shoe appearance, swim (with expats Even and Nicole Galllagher at their resort style apartment!), ESPN 5min interview, press conference, carbo dinner, and sleep.

Saturday was early ride, breaky, swim a few laps in hotel pool, spend hours in darkened hotel room resting(watching TV), get bike ready, check bike in, buy take-away dinner and eat it in bed.

Sunday was an early start. 5:50am. It’s 10min walk to race site, drinking and eating on the way. Start was a beach start, I got a good run into the water and got an early small lead (there were a few jellyfish and i got stung in a couple of places, but nothing serious). I took it a bit easier, then Craig took the lead around half way of the swim. I took the lead again for the second lap and exited the water in first. The bike was tough at the start, I had put on socks in transition and had to make up 5 seconds. All was going well until there was a surge up front of the pack, and I was at the back, and paid for it. SImon Thompson and I couldn’t make up the time and lost 2 mins in the last 25km. We then  ran together, catching 4th, then 3rd place, but we where too far down to get close to Macca, and Crowie was flying in front. With 6km to go I blew up, a bit dehydrated, and really slowed down a lot in the last few km’s.

After the race, a few hours lying on the bed, then awards presntation from 4-6pm, then another great expat Brian Mcgovern gave me a lift to Orchard rd shops to kill an hour, then picked me up again to take me to the ANZA cycling club dinner event.  Most of the professionals were there, and we were all special guests. 150 club memebers were there and it was the biggest and best group of triathletes/cyclist I’ve ever had dinner with.

Monday I flew all day, and was very happy to get back to Jaimie waiting for me at the airport. The weekend went quick, but I still missed her every second.

Now I’m back training for Aus Ironman in less than 2 weeks. There is more work to do than I can fit in in 12 days, but the big picture allows plenty of time for everything.

A very big thankyou to the ANZA cycling/triathlon club.

And thank you to Newton Running, Azzuri bikes, Suunto