All About Mitch

Coming off Ironman Australia, blueseventy's Mitch Anderson confirms that he's an athlete to look out for. Mitch will only get stonger as the year progresses. Recovering well from IM Australia, Mitch snatched the title here in Japan at this Strongman event. He writes...

"I headed over to Japan on the Monday night prior to the race. It took us 38 hours and two nights in airport hotels (epic!) before Sam Hume and I got to Miyakojima, which is a near tropical island at a latitude close to Taiwan. The weather is usually humid (80%+) and warm (25-30C) for race day…plus the white sands of the local beach and a magic buffet breakfast make it a paradise for triathletes. The race has a cap of 1500, for which 2500 Japanese locals apply. I was joined by Humey, German Norbert Huber and the top Japanese athletes like Kawahara (2:47 off the bike last year, 4th IM Japan 08) and Matsumara (2:50 runner, 2nd last year). My legs felt pretty good in the lead up- I was able to run 80 min on the Sunday following Australia and swing an Eliza loop (115km) with the boys…so I had my fingers crossed that I could push the bike and hang tough on the run.

That’s pretty much how my race panned out- I swam 41 high with Kawahara, losing time to Hume and 2-time Olympic turned TBB athlete Nishiuchi…but Hume double flatted and I swept to the lead by the 35km mark. I felt like I was riding a motor scooter for most of the bike portion- I rode a 3:54 for 155km (incl transitions- which was a record by 1.5 min). This was 8 min faster than I had ridden on a much easier day in 2004 and 7 min faster than Matsamaru, with the third best bike split 20 minutes down! My new TT is really perfect, as is the wheel combo of zipp 1080 and sub-9 disc. The marathon was a challenge for my legs after 15km- they felt like dog meat for most of the next 27km. The course is undulating and we had a strong headwind on the 21km out, which made for a bit of a sweaty time on the run back in. I turned with a 7min lead on Matsamaru, who was having a similarly tough run, after expending a fair amount of energy limiting his losses on the bike. I knew it was unlikely that given he had only made 2min up in the first half, that he could make up 7 in the second half…unless I totally cracked. So I kept up the base 4m 30s pace, with a few dips on the ups! I got to the finish which consisted of 300m on an athletics track, and was joined by some local drummers and a couple of guys dressed up in dragon suits! Magic stuff- I thought I might have been taking a serious dose of L.S.D. When I saw those characters!

So, a good win so close to IM OZ and this means I get an automatic invite back next year. I hope I can get Bridie to come for a holiday on Miyako in 2010. Congrats to her for a stellar TT on Chong Ming (45km/h for 21km!) I’m trying to get an Australian tour together, so I’ll keep you posted on that with help from Shane Smith and TriTravel. Many thanks to Naant and Sam for race day support, plus Gary Sato who did a stellar job keeping me running the right directions (no flash backs to IM Japan!). Of course thanks to Darren, Graham and Jo from Giant for all their help- plus a supply of t-shirts and socks that make me constantly branded correctly! Thanks to Darryl and Steph from Shotz, who supply the worlds best nutrition products. Mary and Neil at Supercraft for their moral and continued support. Matt and Michelle from Shimano for the right groupo- looking fwd to electric durace asap! Antho and the Daves’ from CBD keeping my equipment in prefect nick. Glenn from Cannibal keeps me looking like the fastest athlete, even when I mightn’t be. Chris and Greg from Zipp for the ceramic weaponry. Greg from Rudy- the new glasses are all fantastic and a real step up in eye wear. Guy from Blueseventy for the wetties and Tim from Nuun for the tasty electrolyte replacement. Paul for the Puma gear on and off the track! TriTravel for getting me where I need to go- thanks Shane and Tiff. Sally for the Polar heart rate monitors to help keep me objective. Monika for the Giro helmet free speed and finally Phil at computrainer for making sure I train hard in any weather and can prepare for any course!

My next stop is Europe, where I’ll be hitting a few halves over their summer. This will allow me to prepare for a big day in Kona in October, with IM WA in December.

See you at the coffee shop,
Mitch"