Catriona Morrison

 

Last night I was awarded the Sportswoman of the Year 2009 by the Evening Times. Let’s just say that it was a bit of a surprise! My mum and I had a fab night and enjoyed the company of some very interesting women with some truly inspirational stories.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks-ignore/margo-is-the-queen-of-scots-1.1004046

Something new for the experience box: I’ve been nominated for the Evening Times Scotswoman of the Year Award in the sports category. My mum and I will be attending the awards evening next week at the City Chambers in Glasgow. How exciting :-)

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/features/women-of-the-year-1.1001219

Mid 6hr ride pastries!

We may have fallen foul to the collapse of FlyGlopespan and lost our original tickets to Spain but quick re-booking (and hopefully a credit card refund) meant that we only arrived one day behind schedule and will leave one day ahead of schedule. Not too bad all things considered. And it would seem that the snow falling as we left Scotland on the 18th of December has not stopped. So it’ s raining today in Aguilas, but a few days of rain is nothing compared to weeks of below freezing temperatures and snow. I’m not complaining :-)

Richard nearly meets his maker climbing to Cuesta Del Gos!

Once again Chirstmas and New Year in Spain has met all my expectations. Good food, great training and a solid return to fitness. It’s fun to see old friends and to get back to some beautiful bike rides in the hills. I even started to listen to my Spanish Language podcasts this morining in a vain attempt to pick up some more lingo!

Another week and it’ll be back to the garage and the turbo, but that’s seven days away and there’s lots to do done before then….

Hello Everyone,

I have once again succumbed to email Christmas greetings through a combination of sheer laziness (90%); cost (9%) and superior morals for not sending cardboard across the country and world (1%). Feel free to do some maths and rearrange the percentages as you see fit!

It has once again been a busy year, but then this is the normal pattern of life for everyone. I had a great season – finished on the podium in every race that I competed in, apart from one. Of course as fate would have it, the race that was disappointing was the most important race of the season – the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii. It would seem that I now have good reason to believe that I was unlucky enough to contract the famed swine flu just before the big day. I won’t bore you with the details as you can catch up at: www.catmorrison.com  . You can also “friend” me on facebook (or crackbook) as I have come to call it where I attempt to regale the world with amusing anecdotes on my life. Note that it is only an attempt and I am rarely successful! There are also photos of some of my travels.

During my racing season and training season this year I got to visit some new parts of the World and revisit some familiar shores and faces. I once again experienced wonderful hospitality. The triathlon community excels itself in welcoming athletes from far away lands and I am so blessed and thankful to have been invited into the homes of so many great people this year. Thank you so much for opening your doors and making my travels far richer as a result.

I’ve been trying to get over some injury woes and get back into training in time for jetting off to Spain for a month over Christmas and New Year. This trip is now an annual event which suits me just fine: some sun, longer days, good training and the advantage of missing out on the over-indulgences of Christmas. This is a good thing when you are trying to claw yourself back into some form of fitness following a very long and lazy break!

There is one  stumbling block when it comes to going away this year. The “girls”. Eggweena, Hennrietta, Ally and Scookumchook arrived in September and finally started laying eggs in October (as soon as I had left the country to race). Not everyone is laying (she knows her time is ticking down….!) but we are averaging 4-5 eggs every 2 days. My cholesterol levels are surely rising but it’s worth it just to observe their antics in the garden. Luckily, our neighbours are very bird friendly and are happy to take care of them when I go away. Although a month may be pushing it……

Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Cat

This season I have been podcast and videoed more than ever before! To catch up, follow the links below:

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2009/10/features/video-catriona-morrison-from-kona_5102 - Inside Triathlon

www.industrialmultisport.co.uk - follow the webpage to episode 11

http://staytunedreport.blogspot.com/ - episode 55

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=5985&CAT=3&xref=xx  IMtalk podcast 

 http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=341  - Competitor Radio

I have had a truly fab (or perhaps that should be flab) 4 week break. I’ve had a holiday in Hawaii, visited friends and relatives in Canada and spent some quality time at home. I’ve raked up sooo many bl**dy leaves in the garden that I am sure that I have amassed extra muscle on my right side - I find that I can only rake effectively on one side - like teeth brushing and hoovering! I’ve been able to catch up with some long neglected friends and family and generally chill out and relax. I have experimented with making my own tasty alcho-pops (fizzy wine and freshly squeezed apple juice) and have now sickened myself so much with over-indulgence that I feel compelled to get back on that training wagon. These first couple of weeks are sure to be painful though. I am still nursing some achilles discomfort which means for the time being that I will be doing my best impersonation of a mermaid with two swims a day. Combine this with visits to the gym and I will have knuckle dragging gorilla arms soon! Biking and running will have to wait a touch longer which is frustrating but necessary as I want to start full training with a perfectly healthy body and in a positive frame of mind.

We just spent the last 2 weeks touring Kona and visiting with relatives in Vancouver. A wonderful break - eating all the great local food, some walking, snorkling, wine tasting, kayacking and general relaxing.

We had such a culinary tour on the Big Island, what a fantastic place for fresh fruit, steaks and homemade goodies from the farmers’ markets. We certainly had our fill.

It’s now time for some 2010 planning and to at least contmeplate training again.

I’ve put a few holiday snaps into the gallery - look under racing 2009.

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who helped me get here to Kona - friends, family, sponsors. Special mention to Richard for always believing in me and to Coach Phil for guiding, advising and putting up with more shit than he deserves!! Extra special mention to the other pro girls and supporters who shouted and gave me encouragement.Yesterday was a lesson in survival and determination. I would and could not come to this Island and not finish and I am proud (but obviously disappointed) to have finished and officially become an Ironman. Although I came here for a result I also came for the experiences, and they have been wide and varied and they are in the bag for next time. I swam well exiting with Belinda and Rebekah I was a happy bunny! The out portion of the bike seemed pretty relaxed and on turning at Hawi I felt as if I could push a little harder. However, this proved not to be the case and as I biked along the Queen K into the headwind I felt as if I was swimming upstream - the effort level was surpassing the speed generated! When I jumped off the bike I kinda knew that things were not right - usually my legs are heavy but yesterday they were made of lead and had anchors attached :-). Out and back along Alli Drive was really messy. This was one of the worst parts of the course as the buildings shade any air movement and it was darned toasty. I gimped my way back into town and stopped to get some sympathy from Richard and Phil and promptly nearly fell over. I think we all though that I was going to stop (in fact by that point I had stopped, quit triathlon, E-bayed all my gear and run into the boonies for a sustainable, self sufficient life growing potatoes and eating the eggs from my chickens). Anyway I owed it to myself and everyone else to finish this race and off I plodded (yes, that was the locomotion of the day, with jolly walks through all the aid stations). I swear I could not believe how far it was to the Energy Lab turn around, miles of cones as far as the eye could see. I was beginning to think that I should have swallowed my pride and stopped in town… but hey hoo, I was committed and eventually got into a rhythm of sorts and ticked the miles off. The last 4 miles were the longest and most painful ever. My legs, back and glutes were screaming - I swear I could hear the muscles shouting for mercy. I finished in 17th place, tired and beaten. I have first degree sunburn and I am finding it hard to walk as I am soo sore. This is a novelty as I usually don’t get too bad after a race and could provide comedy value as the day goes on as I randomly collapse.Two Ironman races done, a huge amount learnt. Things may have been different if I had been healthy over the past month and indeed the past week.  A lot of my energy was obviously going into fighting the chest infection that I picked up last week - but that’s in the realm of shoulda, woulda, coulda and I don’t live there. I did the best with what I had on race day and I have to be satisfied.Most of all I am humbled by the extra special performances that we witnessed out there yesterday: Chrissie and Crowie showing us the way, Mirinda smashing the run and Belinda for encouraging everyone whilst she was in a world of pain of her own and Leanda for showing guts and determination. Congratulations also to Rachel Joyce for a fantastic performance.Now sporting that sunburn which will be but one of the souvenirs that I take home from this Island!! Aloha 

Put it this way, if I didn’t laugh right now I’d be a sobbing mess. Still, it’s hard to be miserable in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and I’m bottling my energy and frustrations and putting them in the right place for race day.

Kona certainly is a different kettle of fish (lots of very bright ones actually, and the odd turtle). It’s true what they say about the winds and the heat - pretty intense. I think I have now experienced the extremes so shouldn’t get too surprised on race day. There’s a lot of preening and prancing, strutting and swaggering. You know me, I’m great at that (haha). I really should have invested in that fake tan.  Some things live up to expectations - the climate for example and the wonders of the volcanic landscape (but that’s the geologist in me) other things are a little more ordinary. Take the infamous Energy Lab. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s just a few wee huts with some solar panels on the top (apologies to the renewable scientists out there, I suspect there is more to it than that!). Right enough, it is a wee bit toasty out there.

(more photos in the gallery)

As for the race, I’ve come so far this season and even doing my first ironman distance race was a real acheivement for me. Kona is Kona, Cat is Cat. I’m here for the experience and the challenge and I’ll race as hard as I can and we’ll see the results next weekend. Until then, I’ll work on that tan. Or at least at becoming a darker shade of pale…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9cMKDDGw6U