July 31,  2011 : The dawn came early this hot day as Laura and Jerry Ackerman travelled to Blacksburg, South Carolina for the “Assault on Cherokee” Olympic Triathlon.  Jerry paced a good 3 disciplines to garner a 5^th overall and a 1^st place in his age group!! He rode a really strong bike and followed it up with a lightning fast hilly and hot run to smash the field to bits.

Laura Ackerman’s season has been slowly gaining momentum and as this was her 2^nd Olympic distance race ever, she had her eyes on the podium. However, a small mistake in course marking and recognition threw her off track for the run. She finished the race in a solid position also winning her age group. However as She reviewed her times for the day, she knew something was amiss. She then realized she took a wrong turn on the run and cut out part of the course. Before the awards ceremony, Laura graciously told the referee what had happened and relinquished her prize that day. Based on her times and fitness for the day however, I still think she would have scored a first or second place. Next time Laura.

July 2, 2011: Nathan “Woodsy” Wood and his lovely Wife Michelle made it up to the Gold Coast from Leeton for the World Class Gold Coast marathon. Woodsy’s training was going good for some time, yet a couple months before he was to make his marathon debut, injury beset him. As he was getting very frustrated by not training, I knew his mentality would take him through the day, however, I was a bit worried with his big chassis, he may reinjure himself. So with some top notch physio work and a couple of last minute 30K runs, it was do or die. The Sun rose on a beautiful day on the Gold Coast and over 5000 runners took off for the full Mary. Michelle quickly got a gap on her husband, but he was to have none of that and caught her and slowly drew away. His goal time of 3:30 was achieved with a 3:28 (on limited training at that!) as Michelle busted the 3:45 mark with a fine run for the day.

A great start for the season as Woodsy has a few big races planned this season and good on him and his Wife.