Race Warm-ups

Brett Sutton aka 'Doc' has some fantastic inspirational anecdotes. Not always easy to understand the mans writing (he is an Aussie afterall) - I have directly cut and pasted him so don't blame me for the spelling! His latest story is one of the best yet. Read it and be INSPIRED!!! Enjoy :)

to read the complete thread go to: http://www.teamtbb.com/forum/index.php?topic=1617.15

here is a scoop .
one of my athletes never been in the top 20 at a world cup
was lining up in the itu san sabastion spain .
when itu did real races 7km climb and a 4km climb
now the day was an absolute crazy day rain pelting down freezing , and the itu wanted to call it off as the swim had a 4ft swell and it was a biting wind
i can still see it now .
2 of the top seeds both americans were standing there pleading as they cried with les to cancel the race
the european athletes got the shits and voted to race .
top 2 seeds gone .
then it got so cold they had another meeting this time the sponsor said its on .
with or with out itu .
so i called my little ironwoman charge over .
so you get the picture , this girl was one of suttos favourites , hard as nuts .
not very fast but unlike most ironmen then she could swim .
but tracey wasnt the fastest on the bike or the run .
but she has won embrun ironman and was a record holder there before our own bella smashed it .
so weak was not something tracey ellingham had in her vocab , crazy yes , but no weak .
so
ole coach saddled up to her and said tracey , here is the day , you put yourself in the australian team for the world champs as this was a qualifier ,
she said you got to be joking , i said not if you listen and be crazy enuff to not listen to the others .
i reckon the ole ironman can pinch a top 10 .
so the tactics were wispered she laughed she shook her head and said dont be stupid
so i left it at that .
ok the gun goes off and tracey is duelling at the front of the swim , crashing through the waves like a good brisabane girl does when you surf every weekend
out they come and tracey is in the first 4
the wind howling the rain hammering , and the coach yelling go for it while they all dancing around trying to get their wetsuit off and then get dressed in all long stuff .

tracey looked at them and made a split decision ,go with coaches instruction
she jumped on the bike full wet suit on .
and away she went full bore .
out of tranistion and she was gone , noboody new she was gone because the fastest transition was about 2 min tracey was 2 seconds .
so about 1/2 way the cclimb the spanish announcers are going ballistic , because they thought they were following the leaders but thru the mountain pass , some one had wired in that there was a girl already gone thru , but we dont know if she is in the race because she was wearing a wet suit
thru the col and on the other side kaos reined as the girls were rained on and their was no paper to cut the wind chill , they were bailing out all over the place , not tracey she said she ddint even feel the wind coming down the mountain .
so down the transition she came with a 20 sec lead on the pack of 4 day light next .
she whacked the shoes on and was screamed at to take the wetsuit off so they could see the number or be disqualified
tracey was no fool either
she took it down to her waist and kept running the whole 10km in it .
finnishing an astonishing 4th for her, at a world cup and first australian .
tracey had just preselected herself into the world championship team for muskoka .
now that is not where the story ends .
as you see tracey also knew the value of the dollar .
so when she had to be in muskoka 2 weeks before world championships .
team orders ,
trace said coach , if iget top 30 i will be lucky but i want to go , ill never get another chance .
so i was thinking may be all the short course girls have to be there 2 weeks for their teams
there is a race in geneva the weekend before , and the money is big , ususally we wouldnt go coach but
with all them girls in canada , can i ring and find out we can race collect the cash and fly out that nite
to canada .
tracey was a girl with a plan .
so they didnt just give her entry and expences but said we will give you a hotel room
for you and coach ,
but arent you going to the world champs , they asked , tracey said i love your race better
now then a swiss frank was worth a lot compared to the aussie .
so tracey was willing to say i am sick wont be there the first week ,
the sting was in .
we arrived at the train station got picked up by a chauffer driven car , we didnot know what to think
then we arrived at this palace , absolute palace , i didnot get out of the car , as i knew it was a mistake
but the guy with the long funny suit and hat come to the window and said miss ellingham , let me take your luggage .
in we went and the first thing tracey asked was how much is a room normally , 485 sf a nite
was our answer .
sitting there stunned , we spent 3 nites and tracey went to the race
and snuck off the front to lead all the way till the last 2km when she was overtaken by a girl also on a mission , i started to do the sums for 2nd and was very happy indeed with our decision as the girl come around the crner with a km to go hotly pursued by the shuffling turn over of miss ironman with dollar signs in her eyes , i yelled great job tracey and all these years it still one of the magic moments of my coaching career her answer , "Not yet coach , i got this bitch " and sure enuff she hit her sprint right from there
1km out and the girl kept with her right till the last 200m and 3000 lovely sf which turned into 5,ooo aussie just jumped into her kick .
but there is more ,
that nite we are on the plane to muskoka team officials livid , your not starting yadayada yada .
tracey look very unpreturbed by the whole curfufle
world champs was on saturday , her calmness when the team manager sacked her was unbelieveable
i was ready to go thru the whole executive but tracey
said coach , settle down , dont worry , they will let me start , soon as i start crying about tuesday ,
but you need to book a bus for us here after the race sat , we got to be for the 1/2 ironman the next day sunday .
we are here coach we may as well earn .
so tracey turned the tears on wed by friday they give her her track suit she apologised
did the race and while all was getting drunk at the awards party , not me that yr we had a wipe out
tracey was rolled up like a ball in a bus seat ,checked out and heading to an 1/2ironman ,
where she duely greeted the judge took the cash ,
and showed me ,
she was a true professional .
tracey was racing where tracey knew her abiltiy lies , and
the moral of the story , wet suits are more than useful in some weather conditons
epilogue .tracey stayed with ole doc , and we improved the bike and run and she did compete in 2 more australian teams .

your not forgotten kid .