Dreaming of, Travelling to, Racing in...... Rotterdam!

Rainy Rotterdam. We arrived in rain, we left in rain. Miraculously, the only day that it wasn't raining was race day.

A PNW (Pacific North West) girl at heart, this didn't dampen – excuse the pun – the mood.

This being my first world championship event I wasn't quite prepared for all the people and the set up. It was really a race week, rather than just a race weekend, or day. On arrival in Rotterdam, we saw ITU flags everywhere, and as race day drew closer there were more and more people donning their country flags on various articles of clothing. At the race venue itself, the transition zones and the expo, the energy and excitement was palpable.

Feeling very new to international racing I decided to go in with an open heart and mind, and just soak it all in.

Yume KobayashiOctober 5, 2017triathlon, world championships, race report, race weekend, Rotterdam, Netherlands, travel, race, ITU, Grand Final, swim, bike, run

ITU Cozumel World Championships: A Day in Hell

I don't even know where to start with this race. Saying it was hot just seems so underwhelming. It was super mega death man hot. There, that's a better explanation. The day started just like any other race - woke up, ate breakfast, shuttled to the race site, set up transition, waited till start. Except for one small detail; the waiting around for the race to start ended up being three hours of waiting in the scorching heat and humidity. Athletes were all piling in under any piece of shade they could find to stay out of the sun until their race start. It still baffles me that we had to wait that long, but with thousands of athletes going off at different times during the day, it was just very unfortunate that I was in one of the last groups to go off. The current was quite aggressive that day and some of the weaker swimmers were actually being pulled from the ocean with a time of over 45 minutes for 750 meters! Just wild.

Eric DokterApril 24, 2017world championships, ITU, Mexico, Cozumel, Eric, High Performance, Triathlon, Swim, Bike, Run, Racing

Dream. Travel. Race.

Dream. Travel. Race. That's exactly what I did back at the beginning of this decade. I had been training and competing in triathlon for a few years when I decided to make myself a goal. My wife and I had always enjoyed travelling, but I had never thought about combining two of my most favourite things.

I set the goal to qualify for the ITU World Championships. In fact, I gave myself a goal to accomplish this within 5 years. I trained extremely hard, and won the National Championships in my age group. Qualifying for the Age Group World Championships was one of the greatest accomplishments I have ever had. It was an absolute amazing experience that are difficult to put into words.

Kyle JensenApril 17, 2017triathlon, racing, travel, world championships, competing, coach, goals

London Calling

“Having won the 25-29 Age Group Sprint Canadian Championships in Edmonton last year, I qualified for a spot on the Canadian team for the 2013 ITU Age Group World Championships.

Kyle JensenApril 3, 2017age group, triathlon, world championships, london, england