It all started when my brother thought it would be a good idea to enter us both into the Laguna Phuket Triathlon. Brilliant i thought! - who in their right mind is going to turn down a free entry into a race (maybe its the Scotsman in me). At the time i knew little or nothing about the race itself except it was listed in one of the triathlon magazines as one to do before you hang up your race suit/bike/race flats.

I will only briefly mention that trying to continue training into the winter months when the days are dark and cold and everybody else is well into the off-season, training its bloody hard and towards the end i felt as if i was getting slower instead of faster - maybe it was the thermal layers, tracksuit and wooly hat slowing me.

The whole trip was a pretty short eight days. I met my brother in Hong Kong as that is where he is based at the moment, after a couple of days we flew on to Thailand. The couple of days in HK was thankfully enough for me to adjust to the time zone and any jet lag i might of had, which was thankfully very little (coming back was different).

We arrived the Thursday before the race and straight away it was hot, damn hot. Immediately unpacked our bikes, assembled and headed out for a test ride. After 3 fights and numerous hours at the mercy of baggage handlers i was slightly concerned the condition my bike would come out at the other end but thankfully thanks to Jamie's bike bag my fears were unfounded.

The race is centered around the Laguna Phuket resort of Hotels, of which there is about 5, outside of which there is a few villages and a few shops but not much else. So with 900+ athletes and their entourages descending the race generate a lot of business into the area.

Friday 8am we headed out on an organized bike course spin which had a police escort and police at every junction. The race organizers recommended competitors not cycle the route outside these escorted trips over safety concerns as local drivers are less accommodating to cyclists.