Bella Bayliss's Blog

It was interesting to watch some of the live vidio of Hawaii this year. Normally our internet connection is not good enough but this year it was. Although Charlie did’nt want us to watch the laptop, he wanted us to watch Stricly Come Dancing on TV (he loves to dance to the music)

It was great to see our TeamTBB members doing such a brilliant job battling it out on the race course.
When I woke up the first thing I did was check the results, and to see Caroline come 2nd, Mary Beth 5th and David in 9th in the mens was brilliant to see. Of course the 3 of them wanted better, unless you win you are not quite satisfied. But it is not easy and they did a brilliant job doing the best they could.
Seeing Leanda win was inspirational. What a couple of months she has had, winning the 70.3 World Champs and now the Ironman World Champs. In the last couple of years I have noticed how well she is doing, continually being so successful at so many races. It is not easy to keep winning, but she does!
I remember when I met her, it was at a little race on the Gold Coast in Australia, Darren Smith took the Scottish Squad for a training camp. I remember Leanda talking to me and being encouraging and enthusiastic about everything triathlon. I have bumped into her alot at the races in years gone by but maybe the last time I saw her was at Panama City Beach. She was’nt doing Ironman then, but when I saw her I thought, “oooh I have some competition on my hands” but she was actually there to support her boyfriend, so I did not have to race her that day!
We took her and Torsten to the swimming pool (the indoor one befor the beautiful one was built) It was “old fashioned” rules at this pool. We could swim from 1.20pm till 2pm I think. We had to be racing the Ironman to be allowed to swim. As she was’nt racing she was NOT allowed to swim!!! So she waited for us in the carpark till we were done!
Anyway, what a carear Leanda has had and is having. What an inspiration.
It was also great to see Gina Crawford coming 7th. She has a baby only 2 months older than Charlie. I could see she was going to do well in Hawaii after her amazing performance at Challenge Henley. Then the other girls who I thought were inspirational were previous Hawaii Ironman Champion Natasha Badmann coming 6th! At the age of 46 and after some years of injury problems, what a way to come back. And Sonja Tajsich, she has a baby of about 3 years old now, Sonja ran the fastest in the womans race! 2.59. Wow.

away from Hawaii and in the Bayliss household, …3 weeks ago Stephen and I went to Challenge Barcelona. We both totally messed our races up. It was a disappointing evening that night!!!
We thought maybe we were tired after Challenge Henley, but after analysing every detail of our races we think we got dehydrated. For what ever reason we messed up but that is history now. Next week we leave Switzerland as it is rapidly becoming a ski resort and we go to the Canary Islands for the winter.
We will both race 70.3 Lanzarote on November 10th. I was inspired by Lucy Gossage’s total motivation and excitement to race Challenge Barcelona. I dont think I felt like that going into Challenge Barcelona, you need to feel like Lucy did to have a good race. If there is even the slightest doubt in your mind (for me and probably many others) it is a high chance of a slippery slope to having a pathetic race.
So I will be prepared the best I can for November 10th. I am excited and cant wait to race 70.3 Lanzarote!

On Sunday at 4am Granny and Grandad Bayliss moved into our hotel room to look after Charlie for the day and Stephen and I left for the Challenge ahead.
At 6.30am the gun went off. The swim was in the River Thames in Henley which is a beautiful place. The water was cold but actually once swimming hard it seemed a good temperature for swimming in. We swam against the current till the turn around. The only problem I had in the swim was getting caught in a strap around my wrist which was hanging from the turnaround bouy, …for a few seconds I was stuck!
I found the bike hard work but I just plugged along best I could till the end!
I found the run course fun. It had lots of different parts to it, and coming through Henley and the spectators 3 times was uplifting.

I did what I could on Sunday. I am not a flying supermum like Gina Crawford yet! Gina is going so strong. She did an amazing race on Sunday and was in a different leauge to me. But I am happy with my 2nd place, it was a good training day for me and a good pay cheque.

Stephen did brilliant, it was very special to see him win.

Charlie had a good day with Granny and Grandad, playing in the parks of Henley all day long

We will all recover from Henley and have a sit down and a think about what race we will do next.

ThankYou Challenge Henley for a great race. See you next year!

Stephen, Charlie and I are looking for an Aupair, We would like this person to enjoy looking after Charlie for a few hours each day. We would also be happy if this person enjoys triathlon as there will be plenty of time each day to get some training in. Stephen and I would be happy to give you great tips to improving your traithlon skills.
You would live along side us, but have your own space. You would have to be happy to travel with us and be happy to based with us in different parts of the world.

If you are interested please contact us with your questions and some information about yourself. Email, info@teamtbb.com

Yesterday I drove to Embrun in France, in convoy with the boys, for a few nice “relaxing” days away!… All I have to think about is myself, it is quite strange!

Tomorrow I will race Embrunman. The toughest iron distance probably. This will be my 6th time racing Embrunman, I know it well, and what I have ahead.
We start at 6am and I will be out there all day!!! With Dan, Powder, Dave and lots of French guys. It will be a lot of fun!!?!!

I have won this race 3 times before, I remember them clearly, they were very special wins. Embrunman was my first iron distance race back in 2002, Brett took me because he thought I was tough enough for it, I won that day and I will remember it forever. 2 times here I have had tough days, in 2006 I came 2nd and in 2010 I came 4th. I will battle it out tomorrow, I expect with Erika Csomor who I have battled with 2 times already this year!

I will update you how it goes in the days after…!

Here is a photo my sister took of Charlie on his 1st birthday last week when she was visiting!

Yesterday morning Dan, Scott, Mathias and I lined up close together to begin the “war” of Ironman Switzerland.

The water was nice and warm, but once you got out in the middle of the lake the warm water was not so friendly, it seemed rough and diffiuclt to navigate. I think I lost concentration for one moment, I was leading the pack with one other, but after a while the 2 of us had gone right and I looked up and the rest were left and going the correct way. arghhh. I then had to swim the next 2km on my own, not so fun!!!

The weather forcast had looked really wet for the race day, so I had lots of clothes in transition to put on, but I could’nt get them on, I expect I was rushing. …less haste more speed. However what I did put on seemed perfect, but then the rain started, then the pea sized hail stones, OUCHH!!! I did just about have enough on and my gloves saved me.
Erika Csomor caught me at about 50km, we then rode close by each other till 180km. We rode well. It was fun having her around to ride with, brought back memories when we used to train together!

When I got onto the run, I did’nt have my run legs that I had at Ironman Lanzarote. My left foot was sore, but I thought it would get better, but it did’nt, it just got worse. Brett told me he did’nt care about my foot, he just told me “if it falls off, carry it” ! ha ha haaa!!!
Nikki Butterfield and Regula Rohrbach flew past me, but I then ran past them later on, I then past the early leader Simone Brändli then I was in 2nd.
At 20km half of me wanted to stop, but the other half of me was so determined to make it a positive day. So I continued on and got to the finish line in 2nd. I was happy. I was in a lot of pain at the finish line, but now I am feeling better!
ThankYou Brett, Caroline, Reto, Alex, the ON guys and all the spectators for your support, it helped me lots and lots,

Great race Erika, very happy for you.
Well done Scott on your 5th place and Mathias on your 3rd place.
Dan, you got a great training session in for next weekends IM UK, we will be following you.

Now I am looking forward to getting home to be with my baby boy and Stephen

Tomorrow Dan, Scott and I are going for a little trip to Zurich. We will meet up with Mathias and all race Ironman Switzerland on Sunday. It will be the first time Dan, Scott and I have raced this one, but Mathias and Caroline who have raced it before have told us all about it.

Normally when we race there is a big travel day included a few days before the race, but this is a local race with minimal travel so we feel like we have extra time on our hands this week!

After a very successful TeamTBB weekend of racing last weekend, …James winning Roth, Caroline winning Frankfurt, Stephen coming 5th at Roth and Mary Beth winning 70.3 Norway the 4 of us are really motivated to get out and do our best at Zurich this weekend.

ok got to go, need to pack and do the final preparations…
follow us on www.ironman.com
or twitter @trisutto who will be out there with his whip.

Yesterday I raced Challenge Aarhus in Denmark. It has been a great few days here in Aarhus, Denmark it is a lovely part of the world. We stayed in an Aarhus city centre hotel so we got a good feel for the city, it is really nice. If I had time I would love to go shopping! There are some lovely shops here!!

I finished 2nd in the race, I feel pretty happy with my result as I think I got the best out of myself with the fitness I have right now. I felt a little stronger than I did in Lanzarote, so my fitness is going the right direction.
The swim was freezing! I hav’nt swum in cold water like that in a long time! I was nervous about swimming in such cold water but actually I did fine, Lisbeth Kristensen and I swam together and came out the water together,
I then spent (what felt like ages) putting clothes on, the weather was cool and Stephen and I had already experienced riding in torrential rain the day before so I did’nt want to risk getting frozen on the bike. I had a feeling it was going to rain, Denmark is like the UK!! And I was right, it absolutely poured during the ride.
Camilla Pederson is a strong swimmer and came out the water in front a few minutes ahead of me and rode well, she led the race from start to finish, so well done to her.
During the ride Asa Lundstrom flew past me on the bike, she was riding like a fast train,
but I managed to get my running legs moving, even though I was so tight in my calves but I put mind over matter and managed to have the fastest run split from the girls race and over take Asa to get 2nd. I felt happy.
Then! I did my pee for the drug testers first time!!! yeayyy, (last time I was tested, after Lanzarote it took me 4 and a half hours to pee!!

ThankYou to the organisers to Challenge Aarhus who I thought put on a great race and very well organised, even with the last minute swim start location having to be moved because of sewage getting into the water at the original swim start.

And thankYou Granny and Grandad Bayliss, we could’nt have both raced without you. Charlie says thankyou too, he says he had fun!

Well done Reto on his win! And well done Stephen finishing 5th after crashing on his bike.

Stephen, Charlie and I are about to say goodbye to Denmark and fly back to Switzerland now.

Today Stephen and I are getting organised and packed for a little trip to Denmark.

We have had a good few weeks training since Ironman Lanzarote and now we are ready to race again. We are excited to race Challenge Aarhus in Denmark on Sunday where we have been welcomed by the Challenge Aarhus organisation.

Stephen and I have raced in Denmark once before, it was the World long distance Triathlon Championships 2005 in Fredericia which is just south of Aarhus. ! We were both on the British Team and had just started going out with each other, ahhhh how romantic

There is a competitive womens field at Aarhus, 3 of us racing are Mums! Lisbeth Kristensen from Denmark, Eva Norstrom from Sweden and myself, we all have babies around a similer age but when the gun goes off that is not on our minds!

The race will be a bit different to Ironman Lanzarote, ..a little bit shorter, a little bit cooler and a little bit flater but it will be a great race I am looking forward to giving it my best shot on Sunday.

Wish us luck!

Today I am enjoying a relaxed day with Charlie, Stephen, Granny and Grandad Bayliss after a really hard effort at my first Ironman in 21 months!

My first race back after having Charlie was Challenge Fuerteventura 5 weeks ago, and it was good preparation for yesterdays Ironman Lanzarote.

I have now raced Ironman Lanzarote 5 times so I knew what I was in for and it did not let me down!
A hectic swim, of course I stand right at the front beside all the big men, so I get a bit smashed up. This time I actually got pushed under, that is a horrible experience, I wanted to find a space and lie on my back and get saved right there and then after 600m! but I kept going…
The ride was beautiful but such hard work. no rest! either up hill, against the wind or over rough surfaces. I felt like I should get off my bike after 90km, but I kept going…

When I got to the run I was surprised that I was moving along well, and continued to run well till 30km ..the last 10km got very hard but I managed to keep it going…
I really was not quite ready for such a tough race, although I have been training I hav’nt had enough miles in my body for such a long tough race but I thought I had enough to get around.

It is amazing how things change in these races, at one minute you think you are going so bad, but then later on you are still going and other people are having rough times, at one stage I was in 5th place, but at the end I got myself into 2nd place, I was very happy to finish and very happy to finish 2nd! I was also so happy that Stephen managed to race strong and finish 2nd. We are happy Bayliss’s today, we believe we are going in the right direction!

It was so good to see Charlie at the finsih line, it was a long day without him, the longest I have spent away from him, and it was made even longer because I was held up at drug testing for 4 and a half hours, ….because I could not pee. 4 and a half hours is a long time, but not my record, I have had a 5 hour wait once!

ok time to go, I have a crawling climbing baby to chase now!

In 2 weeks time Team TBB Gran Canaria, (Dan, Stephen and myself) will race Ironman Lanzarote.
Ironman Lanzarote is one of my real favorites because hills/volcanoes, heat and wind test physical fitness and mental strength. No bike packs are formed, little advantage is given to anyone by drafting on the bike. I like this because fair results are the outcome.
This year, rookie Dan will race after his great race at Challenge Fuerteventura last month. It is great to see Dan improve. Last year he came to train with Stephen and I in Ibiza for a few weeks. He was quite new to the sport, had talent but not much experience for it, now with a good few races and great training under his belt he is really improving! Have a great race in Lanzarote Dan, …but dont beat Stephen again! ha ha!!!

Stephen is ready for Ironman Lanzarote, his training is all there, he just needs to show it at one of these races coming up. I know he will perform at one of the races, we will just have to see if it will be Lanzarote or another race down the road!

I will also be racing. Hopefully Stephen and I will start healthy and fresh, unlike Challenge Fuertaventura where we were on our last legs as the gun went off.

I love Lanzarote, I know the island well as we have spent a fair bit of time training there and two of my really special Ironman wins have been in Lanzarote so I am definitely looking forward to the 19th of May.
Unfortunately the prize money on offer is minamal, I dont know why but TeamTBB Gran Canaria will be doing our best anyway.

Ok, time to go ride up some mountains here in Gran Canaria so I am as ready as possible for the volcanoes in Lanzarote!