Well I have finished the Columbian Island race experience and it went rather well.  A small group of nine of us got away on the bike and about four of us worked hard for the first four laps to gain a significant lead with the other five guys chipping in on the help in the last lap.  Better late then never I guess.  Paul Tichelaar who came down specifically to help my race go smoothly did an excellent job of keeping the pack moving and rolling along at a fast pace.  We got off the bike with about a two and a half minute lead on the next group.  So my only worries were the couple of Columbians in the group and Daniel Lee from Hong Kong who is also in the hunt for Olympic ranking points.  Myself Daniel and Paul all headed out onto the run together at a steady strong pace for the first 1km.  Daniel then tried to pull through and put a surge on me but I hung on his shoulder and then proceeded to pull past him once his surge was done.  For the next 2.5km I maintained a controlled pace to see if I could run away without exerting myself too much.  By 5km I had a small gap of 15-20sec on Daniel with Paul in behind him shortly after.  Going onto the third of four laps a Columbian runner came surging up on me so I reacted to him once he had just reached my heals and pulled away from him until the 7.5km mark.  At that point he started to gain on me again and I was wondering where he had come from to start.  I didn't know if he was a lap down or he had just stormed through the pack.  None the less I figured I would push hard for the final 2.5km with the final stretch of 1km being exceptionally hard.  Once I neared the finish it was soon revealed that the attacking Columbian was a lap down and I had over 45sec to the second place Daniel Lee.  Would have been nice to know I could have cruised the last 2.5km and saved a little for next weekends World Championships.  I guess a little speed work will help me to prepare too though!  So yeah, I had a good race and won, getting some valuable 200 world ranking points which puts me into Olympic ITU qualification.

Now I head back home where I will be there for twelve hours before I get back on a plane to go to Portugal for World Elite Championships.  I hope to have a solid race at worlds so that I can maintain my Olympic ITU qualified spot.  Then I will return home for a block of training before South Korea World Cup where I hope to gain my final Canadian Olympic Standard of a top ten placing.

The Island of San Andres in the Caribbean (Columbian state where I am) is spectacular and really quite cheap.  I have had a good time here and the people are very nice.