Completing the profile

Ah, my first post! As it's all rather new and I'm not even sure how the page really looks until I make a post, I thought I'd kick off by completing my profile. You'll get the most out of following my blog if you understand what type of athlete I am: what's average for one person is a heroic performance for another...

Born in '67, I'm 182cm for anywhere between 67kg and 74kg depending on the season and the amount of chocolate within reach - sweet does not begin to describe my tooth.

Performance wise I've run a 2:57 marathon (Paris '04) and a 1:19 half (Paris '04). My best Ironman time is 11:48 (Switzerland '07)and my best 70.3 is 4:54 (Vendôme '05). My best bike split in Ironman is 5:27 (Roth '09).

I've always run: from jogging on my paper round in my teens, to slogging out a 10:56 Comrades ultra-marathon (South Africa '96). In 2001 I got my first (and still only) road bike - A BH Aprica and since then I've loved my riding.

But I can't swim - seriously my best Ironman swim is 1:27 (Switzerland) and I usually exit the swim of an Olympic race in around 33 minutes! My 11-year old daughter beats me hands down over 25m and I really need to work on this.

Perhaps most importantly, I am time and money conscious in my approach to sport; I want the best bang for my minute of effort and my hard earned buck! Until August 2009, when I began a sabbatical, I was a tax lawyer and director with Deloitte - the world's largest professional services firm and time to train was scarce. Eight to ten hours a week was all I could commit to training on a regular basis. For Ironman I'd squeeze in 4 or 5 weeks of 18 hours.

Until my sabbatical I enjoyed the privilege of a high income which has allowed me to buy a road bike, a tri-bike, an MTB and the paraphernalia that goes with multisport. These are luxuries, but I'm a frugal chap: I'll not be buying a Pinarello Dogma or a Cervélo P4 anytime soon and I'd rather drop a 100g through training rather than an expensive carbon stem.

Getting the picture?

Voilà! It all sounds a little egotistical and self-indulgent, but knowing a bit more about me, should help in understanding my take on life, the world and the universe...

Oh and about my life? I'm a born and bred Essex man, from Chelmsford in the UK, who has spent the last 20 years moving between France, Belgium and South Afria.

And why triathlon? Well, when Magnum PI, Tom Selleck, did Kona and solved a crime in the same show, I was hooked.