European Extreme Sailing Series, 1st round - Sète, France

Yesterday Laurent and I were invited to the Extreme Sailing Series in Sète. We were invited onboard the crew speedboat of Red Bull Extreme Sailing.
The team had just warmed up and there were 5 races to come as it was day 4 of 4 of the competition. They were sitting in 5th place out of 8 teams. We went out on the support boat and they said we should put on the waterproof pants to stop our knees from being cut up. It was 15min til the days racing started and only then we realised, "We were going to be in the race!". It's crazy to think, but there is a 4 person crew, and each race they must race with a 5th man (weather permitting - if the winds are too strong the crew will race as 4, not to hurt the 5th man). The 5th man doesn't help to sail the boat but is there to distribute their weight around the boat. So I was given orders during the race to crawl from left to right and front to back of the trampoline in the middle of their boat. The picture on the left shows the 5th man in the red life jacket. My favourite part was when the boat lifted up on one side then crashed back down and made a huge splash. It's so amazing to see the control they have and how close the boats come to each other. I was 5th man in race 3 and 4. In race 4 at the first buoy we apparently cut off Groupama and we got a yellow card, had to do a u-turn as a penalty then continue.
My forearms are tired today, and I didn't even pull on the ropes. It's just from holding on!


Check it all out on http://www.extremesailingserieseurope.com/

1st - Dunkerque French Grand Prix

I arrived in France only 2 and 1/2 weeks ago but it feels like a lot longer. Settling in was really easy. We are living in the South of France, near Montpellier, where the sun is shining everyday.
I trained relatively easy for the first 2 weeks after Seoul and raced the first French Grand Prix for my club - Beauvais Triathlon, 8 days ago. I won which the team was really happy about, although my team finished in 3rd place. I was in the front group of 7 with my 4 team mates chasing in the the groups behind during the bike leg. Poissy triathlon had 3 in the front group, so I was told to wait for the run. This is tactically how it works in club style racing, as the 3 best positions of the team are calculated for the overall team result of the race.
What was different for me was during the run. I know I can match it and run up front but that's usually from running the pace up front. In Dunkerque, I felt like I ran a lot at my pace, which felt a lot more controlled. At some stages I didn't know who I was running with because of the tight turns it was single file most of the run. We finished with a sprint - surprise surprise! this time with Erin Densham AUS, it was very tight down the finsh chute. Erin overtook me going onto the carpet, then I managed to come back to cross in first!

1	Andrea HEWITT	00:58:17	00:09:31	00:05:59	00:17:44
2	Erin DENSHAM	00:58:17	00:09:24	00:06:05	00:17:43
3	Kathy TREMBLAY	00:58:38	00:09:23	00:06:06	00:18:06
4	Carole PEON	00:58:43	00:09:22	00:06:07	00:18:07
5	Magali DI MARCO	00:58:47	00:09:21	00:05:58	00:18:12
6	Jessica HARRISON	00:59:03	00:09:19	00:06:06	00:18:27
7	Anna Maria MAZZETTI	00:59:10	00:09:34	00:06:00	00:18:35
8	Barbara RIVEROS	00:59:39	00:09:46	00:06:00	00:18:01
9	Ainhoa MURUA	00:59:46	00:09:23	00:06:13	00:18:04
10	Maria Katarzyna CZESNIK	00:59:51	00:09:30	00:06:09	00:18:06

5th Seoul - Round 2 WCS

Hi, quick note to say I'm pleased with my race yesterday. Good swim and bike, then an up and down sort of run. I went from feeling bad to great but the worst feeling was when I was past twice over in the last couple hundred metres. Still 5th, so overall a good day in Seoul. I woke up this morning and surprisingly feel ok. After the race I really felt dehydrated and overall pretty sick. So, luckily all is actually fine.


Time to leave though, onward to France.
See ya
Andrea