Aloha, hello, hey, whats up, hallo, good morning, good evening, g'day mate, hi, yo, how's it going, greetings, a wave of the hand.
The past few days have been all training. Although we did go into town today, but besides that it has been swim, bike and run. SO. MUCH. FUN. No, but really, it had been good times all round. I am very much enjoying myself. The weather here is interesting. One day it is amazing and then the next it is raining and very windy. This morning I discovered a new level of intensity in my training. Bike, swim reps are the definition of murder! I am experiencing the life of an athlete and it is wicked. I am off to bed now. I will try to find something more interesting to write about next time! Soz!
Ta ta for now,
Maddie

Today has been a very good day! I felt awesome, despite doing one of the biggest training day EVER! We went for a 100km ride through the valley in Siggy ( short for Sigmaringen). It was wicked, despite the pouring rain! It is awesome riding over Europe and it reminds me of how awesome the sport of triathlon is. We to go all over the show, whether it be running or cycling! I have been for an awesome run in the forest. It is so beautiful, right beside the river. I love it here! Minus the crappy weather but it is soo so so so wicked. I think I have found my new country of residence, sorry New Zealand! We are having amazing team dinners every night and the food here is incredible. I think I have said that.. but I can't stress it enough.  AWESOME! So not much really happens besides training, facebook and skype. Tomorrow is an easy day so I am going to make a trip into town :) WOHO.
That is all for now,
Maddie

Halo!

Guten-Tag! Grüße von Deutschland! (Greetings from Germany)

Here I am, after 24 hours of travel I have made it to Sigimirignen. I have a lot to blog about as I have not done one in quite some time and quite a lot has happened! So on Thursday we had the team event that consisted of a 250 meter swim, 6.7km bike and a 1.6 km run. I was really excited for this event as we were doing it with the auzzies, which was really awesome! It meant we were able to train with them in the days leading up to the race. As well as being super excited to compete with them I was a little nervous, as I knew the auzzie coach expected quite a lot. On the day of the race I was not nervous at all! Which was great. I had a fun nights sleep and I was ready to rock! I had discussed with the auzzie coach to have change in warm up as it was such a short, hard and very very fast race. The shorter the race, the longer the warm up. Ellie Salthouse was the first girl, then Michael Gosman both from Australia. Ellie set us up for the race nicely but we were a little behind the leaders. Michael moved up into 3rd position equal with Europe and then it was my turn. By this time I new that all I had to do was ride as hard as I could, and that’s what I did. I took 40 seconds out of the 50-second lead that America’s team had but was unable to drop the European girl who stuck to my wheel like glue! I tried as hard as I could for the European competitor to run away from me as I new she was a faster runner. I tagged Aaron and he set us off, it came done to a sprint finish between Oceania and Europe. Unfortunately we got 2nd place but it was still an amazing effort from everyone in the team! We gave it everything and that was the result. I was so so so happy and excited! My very first Olympic medal! To celebrate the New Zealand team hit the youth Olympic dance club! Yes, such a thing exists and it is awesome! We boogied the night away (11o'clock) and then the next day flew to Germany! Where I am now. I only just arrived not too long ago. So far I have not seen too much besides the hour bike ride that I went on. But from what I have seen I LOVE! It is so beautiful. It is everything I imagined Europe to be and more! I will post up some pictures because words cannot describe this beauty! And another thing the food is AMAZING! Everything is so fresh. I tried fresh cranberries for the very first time today and they were delicious! I am missing my mum, brother and sister and wish I could share it with them but besides that everything is fantastic. I will try being more regular with the blogs. I am slack, I know.

Peace out!

Ohayou gozaimasu, namaste, bonjour, shalom, hey!
Not a lot has happened since I last wrote besides the intense weather, doing a mega load of washing and something else happened yesterday, um.. Oh yeah. ONLY WATCHING AARON BARCLAY WIN THE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN THE MENS TRIATHLON! It was seriously impressive! The most awesome race I have ever watched! He destroyed them. I was very inspired by his race and it made me realize that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it (cheesy, I know). After watching his race I went for a small tour around Singapore. When I came back to the village it was insane. Aaron is a hero! Everyone wants a piece of him. Besides that not much else has happened. I am going to watch the athletics tomorrow as well as the 200-meter women’s freestyle final! We had a massive thunder and lightening storm today, it was nuts! The food is amazing. A little too amazing! I am kind of looking forward to going to Germany so I don’t have the temptation of the food here! I have the team’s race on Thursday with Aaron and two auzzies. We have a got a very good chance of winning! That is all from me.

BYYYEEE 

Good Evening :)

I have just arrived back from the food court with a belly full of pear crumble and ice cream and now I am ready to sit down and polish off this blog! So.. The race. It was in a nut shell, the scariest thing I have ever experienced! I don't think I have ever been so frightened in my whole entire life. I don't know what it was that scared me the most. I think it was a combination of the whole youth Olympic experience and the element of the unknown, not having a clue what to expect. I had never competed against European girls before so I knew nothing about them! Another element of the unknown which scared me a little was my big debut in racing togs instead my regular tri-suit, which was rather minor! But all the little changes add up. So I missed the opening ceremony yesterday thinking i would be better off getting an early nights sleep, which did not happen! I ended up getting to sleep at around 5.30 am NZ time, so 1.30 Singapore time. I was freaking out! I just could not sleep. Eventually after having a small chat with Evelyn Williamson, who just happened to be awake, I fell asleep. My alarm went off at 4.30 so a few hours less than usual! Once on the bus my nerves had settled a little. I had come to the conclusion that I can only do as much as my best performance and with that I decided there was no point freaking myself out! So some how i found myself on the start line and it was all go! My swim was not good at all! Which I was rather surprised with as I had been swimming really well in training. Due to my average swim, me and the chick from USA had to ride up to the bunch which already had 40 seconds on us in transition. We got them on the start of the second lap. The rest of the ride was fairly boring besides a few crashes which were bound to happen given the wet conditions and tight course. I had a good transition on to the run and felt good for the first 3 km. The last 2 were a struggle but it was awesome having so many supporters! Even though half of the people were not kiwis, they were cheering for me as I was from their country! It was groovy. I guess people just love us kiwis! Overall I was happy with my race but I know I have a bit of work to get me to where I want to be. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't gold! I won't be a 100% happy until I have gold, but we all have to start some where! I cannot wait till we fly to Germany on thursday for the last couple of weeks of training before world champs in Budapest! Yahhhooo! I am looking forward to watching my team mate Aaron compete in the junior men tomorrow morning. It should be wicked! Anywayssss I am asleep. Good night!
Peace out

Hey, hey, hey!
Today has been very busy. We traveled out to the race venue for the second time for a familiarization of the course. Yesterday was the first time we traveled out to the venue. Unfortunately we missed the "official training" which meant that we did not have on site medical attention while we trained and were to train at our own risk. When I was told this by the organizers I thought it was rather hilarious but after my run I understood why, it was so hot! I was looking forward to a cool swim in the sea after my painful run but little did I know the water was about the same temperature as the air, 28 degrees. I wouldn't mind this bath water so much if it wasn't littered with a plastic bags, bottles and everything else that has been discarded by the hundreds of huge ships that are anchored not far off shore, but still I forced myself in. I would not call it much of a swim, it was more of a splash and dash and get a rash. After that I put together my bike, with lots of very helpful input from Aaron and went home to bed! This morning we had to get up at 5.30 to have breakfast and bet the Singapore traffic to the race venue. We rode over the bike course which is so tight and narrow at some points it was frightening and then went for a swim. The race venue is at East Coast Park which is a lovely location but the bike course shall be very interesting to say the least! One thing I have learnt so far through out my travels is how very lucky I am to live in New Zealand. Singapore is an awesome county but we are so lucky to have clean beaches and clean water to train in! I for one defiantly take that for granted. Once we got back to the village we had the race briefing and got our numbers. The nerves are starting to take effect but all is good. That's all from me :) Thank you for reading!
Maddie

Hello my friends!

Greetings from across the globe. I have made it to Singapore. And what an awesome country it is. I arrived here last night at around 7.00 o’clock Singapore time which is around 1 o’oclock in the morning in NZ so I am pretty tired today. The flight was 12 hours. About 8 hours longer than I am used to but the time truly did fly by (excuse the pun). Once we had arrived at the airport we got picked up by a bus which took us to the athlete village. The village is based on a uni campus. It accommodates 5000 of us athletes and on top of that officials, managers and coaches. So it is pretty full on, as you can imagine. After we had gone through the metal detectors and what not, every person in the games was given a touch screen Samsung! I just though this was incredible. How many phones is that? Like 6000? Singapore is holding these games in style, that’s for sure. After we had been given our phones we took a look around the food hall which is when the reality of being at the games really hit me. Athletes from every country in the world, countries of which I have never even heard of populated this massive hall! Food from all over the show was being served. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing as if they had been living there for weeks, and there I was stunned! Every athlete that walked past I tried to see which country they were from and which sport they competed in, a task which is close to impossible. I don’t think I have ever been surrounded by so many fit and athletic looking people in my life. Not a lot has happened besides that so far. We are going to do a quick swim, bike, run on the course later and that’s about it!

Thank you for reading!

Toodles,

Maddie :)

Count Down to D-day

The bags are packed, the legs are waxed and I am ready to hit the road jack!
For all you avid listeners out there tune in over the next few days as Singapore gears up for the Mad Report. I shall be giving daily updates on all the thrills and spills of the big campaign over the next 5 weeks. Believe you me this trip is gonna be a cracker, so add this blog to your favourites and hear all about it!
Catchyalater!!
M.D OUT