Laguna Phuket Triathlon = D.N.F

At the beginning of the year i wrote 3 goals that i was aiming to do for 2011, The first two were to break  35 mins for 10ks, (done twice), Run a sub 50 mins City to Surf (49.17) and the 3rd was to go one better then last year and win my age group at the Laguna Phuket Traithlon (LPT) over in Thailand.
So with the first two in the bag and with a near perfect preparation i set off with confidence high that i could achieve the trifecta for the year.What was to follow could only be described at the most disappointing race outcome of the year after succumbing down with a mystery virus that gave me  my first ever DNF in a triathlon.
Race morning woke to a scorcher of a day even by 5am as i made my way over for the 1.8k swim, that consists of a 1.2k ocean swim and then a quick transfer to the Lagoon for the 600m freshwater leg, Struggled through that and  could barely walk out the water on the ramp, Got to the bike and really struggled just to get the leg over the frame as i had virtually seized up around the hips, quads and hips, Could not get down on the tri bars and basically just rolled for the first 2ks praying that it would 'come good', Knew then the race was over for me and the 'Dream' will have to wait another year, but thought i would try to cruise around the course for the morning taking in all the sites and sampling the atmosphere, but another 1k down the road i realised that even turning the pedals was proving to be near impossible and then made the call to return to base a sad and broken man :(
Was gutted to be honest after putting in a good training program leading up to this only for this to happen, Still not sure what the problem was and i was still sore and aching even for about 4 days after, Personally i think i had some sort of kidney infection? It was touch and go whether to go to the hospital later in the day after constantly passing red like urine but tried to pump as much water into me as the thought of being in a Thai hospital is about as enthralling as listening to Kanser's injury woes for 12 hours.
So all doom and gloom there for a time - although when your are in the 'Land of Smiles' its hard to be down for to long and with the  good sun, sea, massage, and the nighttime parties Young Timmy soon had the smile back on his dial. Had a great rest of the week and then caught up with Enda who was over there with his wife Angela for the Half Ironman,  He went well as did Charlie Low, and i am sure Enda will give you a full write up on his blog, although i do have many a photo from his night time activities in town that again will be posted over the next day or two that  will bring SHAME to the good HuRTS name that will surely bring more grey hairs for Chairman Tom once he sees what his troups were up to .
As for me i think that pretty much wraps up the year race wise, and i will just try to keep the training going albeit at a less intensity for the remainder of the year,
Enda did this Movember Charity thing with his 'Mo' if you can remember? .........Well i saw him on the last day over there and i think personally he took it a little far, i could hardly recognize him on the start line for his race.

tomorrow i will post ALL the pics from the holiday - but please if you are easily offended then don't log back on for a few days as some of the pics i have of the HuRTS duo Enda and Charlie will leave you shell shocked?

Cheers