Spoke to the legend, Chris McCormack, this afternoon.
Once again, forgive the typos. It’s late.
Why have you decided to come to Singapore?
For me, I sit down at the end of every season and we plan our year ahead and for being a bigger athlete I’ve always struggled in hot, humid conditions. With my key focus being Kona this year we decided to target some hot, humid races early in the season. We made some adjustments to my bike position and to my training we we’d like to see how my adaption is and Singapore was the perfect event. It’s half an Ironman, to do my first race of the year so, I’m definitely not in 100 per cent fitness but we’ll be able to see where my training is and see if any adjustments need to be made if I want to win Kona again.
What have done since Kona last year till now?
Uh, besides sulk? (laughs) You know we had a big break, we started the season a little later this year. I usually start racing in January but we decided we need to go away and look at a few things and look at really developing my run. To run a super fast run in humidity. My dilemma, like I said, if the world championships were held in other places, I think I’d have five or six world titles. But Kona is the race and humidity has always been an achilles heel for me, even when I was a short course racer. I’m a bigger guy, I lose a lot of fluid and we went to the labs early in the season and we assessed the situation there. So, we really focused on science in the early season which is something we don’t usually do until later in the season, but I wanted to get some of these numbers right. Some wattages, some powermeters, some respiratory rates, what fluids we’re losing, done early in the season and then we can come and test them. I’m doing this race this weekend and next week I’m going to Hawaii to do a race in Lavaman, then I’m going to do New Orleans 70.3. So three very hot races in three weeks, all to get the feedback to know how the planning is. It’s been different approach, similar in some ways, a later start but just a different angle and I think I feel in good condition and I’m ready to race well.
What do you think of the course?
I heard it’s relatively flat, it’s fast, I saw the times last year. I think the heat will be my key priority here. When we get on the run it’s going to be 10 in the day and it can be warm at that time if there’s no cloud cover. It’s potentially fast but if the sun comes out it could slow it right down. But I think it’s a phenomenal event. I’d love to come here many more times. I think the organising crew have done a wonderful job.
What would your strategy be?
I think I can win this race, you know. Obviously the guys I’m racing are four or five races into their season already so they’ve got a few races under their belt. But I feel in good condition, I feel nice, the travel over here was good, the hotel’s wonderful, the people are friendly. So my strategy is to do what I normally do, is to be aggressive from the beginning and set a tempo that’s uncomfortable for everybody else.
People are making this out to be a fued, Crowie vs Macca? What are your thoughts on that?
Ah, it’s good for the sport isn’t it? I think Crowie and I have raced 150 times in our career but no one has ever talked about those races. I think it’s good. We’ve both in the last two years won the Ironman World Championships, it’s good for the sport, if it sparks and interest and brings more interest to it then that’s wonderful. But I think the feud will be talked about in Kona.
How far do you go back with Crowie?
He’s friend with me. We used to race since the juniors together and then we moved into Cronulla after I won my world championships and we used to train together until 2002. We both lived in Europe together and then I moved to the States in 2000, I spent two years convincing him to come to America and he came. And then we sort of went off in different tangents, after I did a few years in the States and then I moved across to Ironman racing and he stayed doing the shortcourse events, and then the 70.3 series started, it wasn’t around when I went to Ironman. And my focus then was on winning Ironman races and now we’re back racing again at Ironman.
What are the similarities and differences with you and Crowie?
I think we’re both super competitive, sore losers. We’re aggressively competitive. When the gun goes we’re different human beings. We’re friendly off the court. We’ve been really close friends. We’ve had shouting matches in the middle of races but once you cross the finish line it’s over and I respect that about him. I’m the same. I think athletically we’ve both very well rounded, we’re very smart at picking the races that suit us. These type of flat events suit Crowie to a tee, as opposed to the events in California that suit me, so we don’t tend to meet as much as we used to when we were younger because we’ve got the right people around us helping us pick events that work for us. Sometimes like special occasions like this we come together and it’ll be wonderful to see where we’re at.
So you would say your strength is more on the hilly strength-based courses?
My strength is that I’m very very good at all three. On a wide open course, tough bike ride, tough run, I tend to excel the harder the bike. I think I’m the best runner in the world off a hard bike. If the bike’s easy then there’s a lot of the guys who are faster than I am. And some of these flatter courses tend to gravitate towards bigger groups in the front, that makes things a little bit easier, if that’s the case Craig’s a much faster runner but if the bike’s hard and I can keep it hard, then I’m confident that I’m the best runner in the world.
What do you respect most about Craig?
His tenacity. The fact that he’s stuck with it for so long. Cos it’s only been in the last three or four years that he’s really started to shine. He was a guy that, without sounding arrogant, as a junior I was one of the best juniors in the world, while Craig was 15th and we were always friends. Year after year he kept coming back, coming back, so his story is very very good in that, it’s a good story of perseverance. It’s very easy when you’re successful to stay involved in a sport and fortunately for me I was successful very young and was able to continue that success. While he kept coming back year after year and gradually improved and that shows about the character of the indiviual and I respect that a lot.
What motivates you? I’ve read that if you win your second Kona you might stop.
If I win my second Kona I’ll stop Kona, I won’t stop the sport. I’ll do this sport for the rest of my life. I was hoping that was going to be last year, because I don’t actually enjoy Hawaii to be honest with you. There’s so many beautiful races in Europe that I really enjoy doing, and Kona as a race it’s what we’re measured by in our sport. And I think if I win another one, and I intend to, I don’t have anything else to prove there. I’ve got so much in my career that people would respect what I’ve done anyway so. For me, as I get older I’ve got children now, and being home with family is important to me and doing events that stimulate me and excite me. I’d like to do a few more of these 70.3 races, I’d like to race more in Asia, I’d like to stay closer to home. Winning Kona would be able to do that on a personal level because I think I’d be content with my career and I could be much more selective in my races and the pressure, the build up, the time away from the family… you know, winning an Ironman World Championship puts a lot of strain on the family. It’s so selfish and I just don’t know if I want to put my family through that a third and fourth time.
People around here, they’re all coming down to watch you. They call you the legend. Do you feel like you’re a legend in triathlon?
No, I don’t think so. I’ve always just tried to be the best I can be and it’s funny how quick it’s gone, you know, the years. I look at some of the older guys like a legend and I get some of these young kids who write to me on my site or come to me on Facebook that tell me you’re a legend, I want to be just like you. It makes you feel a little bit old. I think that legend word is what they tend to give people who are old. No, I think I’m really humbled by people who think that. I just try to be the best that I can be, try to be myself and give my best everytime. I think people will respect that about me in my career.