Amy C. Marsh

Ironman China. Arrived in Haikou, China this morning in one piece and so did my bike:) It is COLD here…about 60 degrees. I’ve been wearing the hotel robe around because I don’t have any warm clothes with me. I may have to make a trip to the store to buy a sweatshirt or something. It’s suppose to warm up to about 80-90 degrees by Sunday so the heat training in Krabi will come in handy then.

We’re staying in a Spa resort that is located right across from the host hotel. All the rooms at the Spa are massage rooms and don’t have doors, just curtains.

Will check out some of the course tomorrow and get a couple of short and sweet workouts in. Looking forward to a fun and exciting race on Sunday.

Off to get some hot chocolate!

A friend of mine is a 1st grade teacher.  One of her students is interested in Thailand and had some questions for us about our trip so far.  He sent us this video a few days ago…  http://www.tokbox.com/vm/v4ex1vopoe07

Brandon and I thought it would be fun to shoot a couple of videos with the answers.  Our videos are a bit short because our battery was low on the camera.  Enjoy!

How to say Hello in Thai…

Favorite Thai Food

How do Thai people travel?

2 in 1 question.  Are there dinosaur fossils in Thailand?  Do the Thai people write in letters or symbols?

One question that we did not answer on video was the population of Thailand.  We found the answer in our trusty little quide book though.  Estimated population is 63 million.  The population of Krabi, which is where we are staying, is about 27,500.

Thank you Connor for all the great questions!

The Food- I’m not very adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so I was a bit worried when I first got here. B and I have been buying some groceries and cooking our breakfast and dinner at the hotel. Mostly eggs, chicken, shrimp with either potatoes or rice noodles and some veggies. We’ve been eating our lunch’s out and I have been lucky enough to find some Phad Thai which is my favorite Thai dish. Lunch usually costs us about $3 for the both of us. We may try and splurge on Valentine’s Day and find some place that’s about $5.

Coach’s Accent and Workout Descriptions- Sometimes I feel he is talking in a different language…I think he may call it Sutto-lish(Australian, English, Swiss, and whatever else he can add in there). He talks fast and I never know if he’s pointing and talking to me or someone else. One of the first workouts that he gave was hill repeats and the whole time I thought he was talking about running but he actually was talking about bike hill repeats. Good thing everyone else understood what we were doing so that I could just follow along!

Scooters- They are coming every which way. Some pass you on the right, some on the left and then some even come straight at you while riding.

Cold Showers- We don’t have hot water in our hotel room. So, no hot showers. The first couple of showers I could barely rinse off it was too cold for me. Now after a long day in the heat the cold shower is all I can think about.

Swimming Australian Style- The first swim workout we did I had to circle swim the opposite direction that I’m use to with no lane lines. I was all messed up and felt dizzy. I’m sure once I get use to it, I will be on my way home to the US and then have to switch back to swimming the other direction.

After a few days of travel we are finally in Thailand.  We spent two days in Singapore on our way here.  Wanted to share some pictures from Singapore.  It’s a beautiful country of what I saw of it. We will also be spending a couple of days in Singapore on our return so hopefully we will be able to explore even more.

Entrance to TeamTBB condo.  It’s a 3 bedroom 2 bath with a kitchen and living room area.  Close to the harbour for nice some running and cycling.

One of the views from the condo.  Harbour with lots of ships waiting to load or unload cargo.

Another view from the condo.

B in front of the TeamTBB bike shop.  Inside the bike shop.

Me in front of the TeamTBB warehouse.  We met Eric who is in charge of all the TeamTBB equipment.

One of the many food courts that we ate at while in Singapore.  Can you find me?

This is one of the pools we swam at during our stay in Singapore.  The pool was above the TeamTBB warehouse and we were the only ones using it.  We decided it was 25meters.

Here is another pool we tried out.  It was two 50meter pools next to each other.  Once again no lanelines…great for me to learn to swim straight.

Mike from Bike Boutique was kind enough to show us some of downtown while we grabbed some food.  This photo reminds me of the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Tx (for those reading that are from Texas).  Lots of restaurants and shops around some body of water!

Singapore by night.

That’s all I have for now.  Stay tuned for more pics from Krabi, Thailand in the weeks ahead.

Today Brandon and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.  And here’s the story of how it all began…

Brandon and I met in 2002 at UT Masters swim.  However, we just knew of each other and didn’t really talk to each other until sometime in 2003.  At that time I had done a couple of triathlons and was getting hooked.  I had asked Brandon if he would coach me for the 2004 Gulf Coast Half Ironman.

I ended up having a good race at Gulf Coast and called Brandon as soon as I finished.  I told him that I wanted to take him out to dinner when I got back to town to ‘thank him’ for his coaching.  Now in the back of my mind, I thought this was a date.  I know guys think a bit differently and may be a bit slow on these types of situations.  But… Brandon was telling all of his co-workers at the time that it wasn’t a date, and that it was just going to be a business dinner since he coaches me.

Well, we ended up going to eat and 2+ hours later we were done.  I came home from the ‘date’ telling my friends that I didn’t want to see him again because I didn’t think he liked me, was talking about other girls he’s tried to date, blah blah blah.  Brandon on the other hand, went and told all his co-workers that it was a date since we spent 2+ hours together just talking and hanging out.

A couple of days later, I got a phone call from Brandon asking if I wanted to grab some ice cream with a group of people.  I was surprised that he called and debated whether or not to go.  I decided to go and glad I did.  When I got to the ice cream place, I was the only person that showed from the group…coincidence? or did no one else really get invited but me?  We ended up talking and hanging out for another couple hours and then decided to go on a ‘real’ date the following week.  And as they say…the rest is history!

Hi everyone.  Just a quick blog to introduce myself.  My name is Amy Marsh (aka…Brandon’s wife)and I’m thrilled to be a part of TeamTBB this year.  I would like to thank Alex, Sutto and everyone else behind the scenes for giving me this opportunity. 

I’m originally from New York (upstate) where it’s cold, then went to the University of Minnesota for school where it’s even colder.  I finally wised up and headed south to Austin, Texas so that I never have to be cold again.  I have been living, training and coaching swimming in Texas since 2001 and don’t plan on leaving any time soon.

Lately, just been trying to get everything situated before we leave for the first training camp that starts in a few weeks.  The last training camp I did was back in my college swimming days…which was a long time ago.  Some of the hardest training I ever did (until now I’m sure) but it was also some of my favorite memories…mostly of not being able to leave the hotel to go sightseeing because I was so sore/tired I couldn’t move.  Good times!

I’m looking forward to this challenging adventure and once in a lifetime opportunity.  See ya’ll soon!