Episode 84: Matt Sharpe Joins Us With Ironman Oceanside 70.3 & T100 Singapore Predictions!

From Olympic Dreams to Long-Distance Goals with Matt Sharpe

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📲 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and follow us @anothertriathlonpodcast for weekly pro insights and deep dives into the sport.

In this episode of the Tracklon Podcast, hosts JennaCaer and Josh welcome Canadian Olympian and professional triathlete Matt Sharpe to the show. 

Matt opens up about how Simon Whitfield’s Olympic gold first inspired him to get into the sport and how his path through youth racing, Olympic-level competition, and recurring injuries shaped his growth as an athlete. 

Matt shares the pivotal moments in his career—injury struggles, chasing Olympic dreams, and shifting focus to the Ironman 70.3 distance. He opens up about the lessons learned through setbacks, the evolution of his training philosophy, and why intent matters more than content in training.

The crew also breaks down the upcoming Ironman Oceanside 70.3 and T100 Singapore races, including predictions, pro field dynamics, and how heat, strategy, and start lists are set to shake things up. With insight into Lionel Sanders, Kristian Blummenfelt, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Ashleigh Gentle, Tamara Jewett, and more—this episode is stacked with triathlon talk from three sides of the sport: racing, commentary, and fandom.

📲 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and follow us @anothertriathlonpodcast for weekly pro insights and deep dives into the sport.

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
02:03 – Matt Sharpe's Journey in Triathlon
05:59 – Transitioning to Elite Racing and Olympic Aspirations
12:00 – Injury Challenges and Personal Growth
17:51 – Olympic Experiences and Team Dynamics
24:11 – Shifting to Long-Distance Triathlon
29:56 – Current Goals and Future Aspirations
31:58 – Pro Racing Insights and Predictions
32:48 – Oceanside Race Preview
42:16 – Predictions for the Men's Race
44:41 – Women's Race Insights
51:00 – T100 Singapore Race Discussion
01:00:28 – Men's Race Dynamics: Talent and Strategy
01:05:52 – Podium Predictions: Insights and Speculations
01:08:40 – Quickfire Questions: Personal Insights and Fun
01:12:31 – Final Thoughts: Intent Over Content in Training

#TracklonPodcast #MattSharpe #TriathlonProSeries #Oceanside703 #T100Singapore #IronmanProSeries #TriathlonPodcast #CanadianTriathlon #OlympicTriathlete #AshGentle #LucyCharlesBarclay #LionelSanders #PaulaFindlay #TamaraJewett #TriLife #TriCommunity

Transcript

Jenna-Caer (00:00.834)
Welcome back to another Tracklon podcast brought to you by Mono Apparel.

This week we have got so much racing going on this weekend that we'll break down a few of the events from the Super Tri eSport World Championships to T100 and we also have Ironman Oceanside 70.3. But this week we've got something a little bit special. Instead of just us geeking out talking about triathlon, we have professional athlete Matt Sharp coming on the podcast to help give us some insight into the pro side of racing and hopefully help us out with some of predictions. Unfortunately, he was supposed to be racing, but he's going to be out this weekend, so I'm sure he will

done his homework on what's going on with the pros in the field. So let's welcome him. Thank you so much for joining us, Matt.

Matt Sharpe (00:41.495)
Cool. Thanks for having me, Jenna and Josh. Super happy to be here. Also a mana athlete. we're just, we're keeping it in the family, keeping it in the family on this one.

Jenna-Caer (00:47.857)
Excellent. There we go. Yeah, how have you been liking the monokit so far?

Josh (00:48.544)
Yep.

Matt Sharpe (00:53.237)
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I feel like you can just notice the performance aspects of it. So for me, when I put it on right away, I was like, this compression. Like I was not expecting that in the legs. I raced in it actually, you know, of course I'd never tried it before, before my first race, but I had so much faith I had in the monocrew and they delivered, I think one of the biggest thing I noticed when I did that race in Pucon earlier in January was kind of just the heat dissipation.

Josh (01:09.324)
You

Jenna-Caer (01:10.808)
with.

Matt Sharpe (01:23.145)
It was a hot day. The sun was beating down. I was hurting for sure, but I think I did notice how much cooler I was. So yeah, there's just a lot of, I think, performance features packed into the suit for sure.

Jenna-Caer (01:34.882)
Well, that's great to hear. We're so happy to hear you're loving it so far and a couple extra watts there.

Matt Sharpe (01:37.527)
Definitely.

Josh (01:38.41)
You can't miss it on the race course either. It's a pretty fancy suit.

Matt Sharpe (01:41.801)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And being down there too, there was some good, I guess, support from the crowd for sure. They knew the Monarch team and the Monophama, so we were rocking.

Jenna-Caer (01:55.336)
Excellent, that's what we like to hear. Well, why don't we introduce you a little bit more to the audience for people who don't know you're an Olympian, you're fellow Canadian here. Why don't tell us how you got started into this crazy sport of triathlon, especially coming from Canada where there's a lot of, not a lot of long, huh, summer training.

Matt Sharpe (02:03.446)
Yes.

Matt Sharpe (02:10.641)
No, no, and maybe not the first spot that people will think of triathlon, but Canada definitely, for many years has always kind of been a hotspot or maybe punching above its weight in terms of it's standing in the sport. Really, I would say like a lot of people of my cohort, we were all kind of inspired by Simon Whitfield's Olympic gold medal in Sydney and that was in 2000.

I think I was about nine years old that year and I actually did my first triathlon that year. Um, yeah. So really, I mean, I was also doing swimming and other sports, whatnot soccer, but yeah, that was definitely a huge catalyst for, you know, getting more interest in myself, interested in the sport. And really, I think I just fell in love with the variety of it. Like I said, I did it when I was nine and then actually started focusing solely on triathlon when I was about 14.

Jenna-Caer (02:41.1)
cool.

Matt Sharpe (03:06.229)
So definitely, I'm 33 now, so long, long time in the game for sure. But yeah, I was also pretty fortunate that having Simon, like I grew up on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, and that's where the national triathlon center was. That's where Simon trained. So there was always this kind of high performance aura or high performance influence kind of on my environment. And, you know, when you see somebody win a gold medal in something,

You're like, okay, well, we're good at this. know, we actually are, we know how to do is not just, you know, ice hockey, that Canadians are famous for all of sudden triathlon. So yeah, I think having that, influence certainly drew me further into the sport as I got older.

Jenna-Caer (03:48.686)
That is very cool to hear. Yeah, there's something about being that close to that performance and we see it time and time again with the Olympics. Like we saw the British kind of explode after Alice Brownlee wins. We've seen the Americans step up the game too when we saw Juan Jorgensen and it just the Australians forever who are just dominating it. So it really makes a difference having that influence so young and just seeing that it is possible.

Matt Sharpe (03:56.491)
Yes.

Matt Sharpe (04:09.328)
Do you ever remember, like, did that register for you at the time?

Jenna-Caer (04:14.102)
You know what, I did not play any sports as a kid and was not. I didn't watch the Olympics for the first time until the first time I saw Alistair Brownlee win it. So I got into marathon and sport very late.

Matt Sharpe (04:16.682)
Okay.

Matt Sharpe (04:22.264)
wow, crazy, crazy. Good, that's alright.

Josh (04:25.844)
Take a look at her Instagram stories right now. The first trophy she ever held was an Ironman podium trophy.

Matt Sharpe (04:30.879)
Amazing. It's crazy. Crazy.

Jenna-Caer (04:34.194)
But yeah, now it's very cool and I've had the chance to meet Simon and stuff and it's just, it really made such a difference in Canadian triathlon. It was very cool to see that it inspired so many.

Matt Sharpe (04:37.492)
Awesome.

Matt Sharpe (04:43.511)
Definitely.

Josh (04:45.644)
What was some of your favorite parts growing up in the sport, in the short-cursed world that kind of like, all right, this is something I can do. This is something I want to do. Obviously you had the inspirations there, but like, when was that moment that you're like, this is it. This is what I want to do.

Matt Sharpe (05:00.607)
Yeah, no doubt. think, yeah, like I kind of alluded to having that high performance center, there was almost like a gravity to it where, you know, if you showed some interest or, you know, whatever promise in the sport, they kind of had their eyes on you a little bit. And obviously I was paying attention to what was going on with that. So as I started doing these kids races and eventually kind of went into the youth racing, we kind of, I think I had the, one of the assistant coaches at the center at the time.

kind of reach out to my mom and say, you know, if Matt's interested and he wants to come down, maybe do a little training or something. And I think I did a training weekend at the center. It wasn't training with Simon at the time, but just kind of, you know, being in that proximity, just kind of led to the next steps in a lot of ways. So yeah, I was doing the youth racing. I did, you know, youth nationals, I did kind of the provincial games that they have in Canada, you know, kept going up that.

kind of high performance ladder. And really every step I took, I wanted to take the next step. even if I got kind of beat up at certain stages, especially when I was a young guy coming into the juniors, I was, I was a little dude. wasn't six four. So, but yeah, just loved every second of it. I think as I went on to, I kind of knew I had a bit of a skillset to potentially be successful. So I grew up swimming.

I was in a swim club for many years. So I had that swimming background, which for the short course racing. Yeah. It's, pretty, pretty important for sure. So I kind of was able to leverage that a bit. And yeah, I love to ride my bike, love to mountain bike, all that kind of stuff. And then I also ran track as a kid as well, just kind of normal, normal kids stuff. And so I kind of had a bit of a skillset to succeed and definitely brought that into the racing. had early success. I.

Jenna-Caer (06:31.97)
Definitely helps.

Matt Sharpe (06:54.071)
won youth races. think I, in my second junior nationals, I was 17 racing against 19 year olds. came like second. Um, and so just stuff like that, like, you know, there was that I ended up going to junior worlds the year after didn't have a great result, but again, just kind of hitting those, those steps in the ladders and really. I maybe like a big kind of catalyst or certainly like a identifying point of when I was

ready to really commit to high performance. Yeah, was the Junior Worlds in 2010. It was in Budapest, Hungary, which was actually an incredible place to race. were right downtown Budapest, which is spectacular as an aside. But I came ninth there. And at that time, that was the best result a junior male had ever gotten at the World Junior Championships. So for me, was kind of OK. I'm in that pathway. I have the skill set.

If you want to commit, which I did, it made sense for sure.

Jenna-Caer (07:54.35)
No, absolutely. And where was, where was kind of that turning point where you started to get into the Olympic distance race and that longer distance going to the WTCS races? Kind of when did that shift happen?

Matt Sharpe (08:08.009)
Yeah, there was definitely some interesting moments as I progressed through from junior to elite racing. I definitely had some success as a junior. Then you kind of get thrown, at least at the time when I started racing elite, you basically go from racing sprint distances to all of a sudden doubling the distance racing Olympics. Yeah. You know, for sure. Easy, easy transition. no, it was not an easy transition for me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're basically like, I was still kind of a boy.

Jenna-Caer (08:25.388)
No big deal, yeah.

Jenna-Caer (08:30.99)
.

Josh (08:32.054)
Still at redline.

Matt Sharpe (08:36.823)
And then I was jumping in with these men. it just, they're, they're just bigger than you. They have more experience, blah, blah, blah. Uh, so definitely a bit of a learning curve there. was interesting though. I would say every year that I kind of was going through the, I guess, high performance rungs, you know, from as through a junior through till you 23, I always had some kind of kind of overuse injury. So, you know,

the classic like shin splints or stress reactions, tendonitis, all the ituses. Like I always had something, but I was still able to compete at a fairly high level. Although until I got to U 23 and after kind of having a few decent races, but then getting injured and kind of went through this injury cycle where, man, I just like, couldn't almost really get to my potential.

And at that time too, we, as part of triathlon Canada, we were in a pretty high performance training group, actually training with Gwen Jorgensen. This was in Australia around 2015 or so. And really what happened was like, had just a spell of injuries after a bit of, a bit of success, but definitely a long stretch of injuries. And it kind of came to a point where it was like, okay, well, I can't continue down this path because I'm not going to like reach my potential.

And I'm not going to be able to get on the start line to, you know, keep building through the rungs of the ladders towards ultimately the Olympics. And the kind of low point for me, I remember I like did a race in South Africa. It was a terrible result. I ended up going back to Canada for the summer and the coach kind of just like ghosted me. Yeah. And to be fair, like I don't even hold this against him like

Jenna-Caer (10:26.078)
no, that's great good confidence.

Matt Sharpe (10:34.055)
Nowadays, because like I was definitely not the biggest priority and you kind of knew that going in when you you're in a group with like Gwen and whatnot, there's certainly a bit of a pecking order. So I think he was just kind of like, I can't deal with this guy when he's in Canada and I've got all these other athletes trying to win world championships and whatnot. So it kind of threw that period of, you know, struggle. And I ended up coaching myself for a while. It kind of dawned on me.

that, okay, this injury cycle, it's constantly happening. was kind of like, okay, well, what I've had different coaches through that time, many different coaches, you know, what's the common denominator. And it's, turns out it was me, like at the end of the day, different training, different stimulus. Maybe the Australia guy was a little bit too much stimulus, but that's fine. it happens, but really, yeah, I was the one who was deciding to push through these training sessions when I was hurt, you know, when

Jenna-Caer (11:22.229)
Thank

Matt Sharpe (11:30.968)
it ultimately led to me missing races or missing blocks of training. so through that kind of period of struggle and difficulty kind of figured, okay, I'm the one who's doing this. So I'm the one who can control, you know, getting better and making better decisions. And then coming out of that, that's kind of when I was able to start getting more consistent in racing and almost had a return to, okay, I'm still back on the Olympic.

trajectory after that.

Jenna-Caer (12:01.742)
No, fair enough. And that had to be tough too, kind of dealing with that injury cycle, just mentally and physically having to go up and down. And we've all, we've all been there, I think at some point, but not with the same stakes out there.

Matt Sharpe (12:12.031)
Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things where you just, like I'd had so many injuries. Like this wasn't just like a revelation off like one thing. Like I had so many growing up and maybe because I was growing as well at the same time. But yeah, ultimately that was the biggest, I think one of the biggest moments of clarity or turning points in my career was being like, okay, I'm in control of, you know, how I stay healthy and make it to the start line.

So once I figured out how to kind of control that, then that's when things started just going up into the right, so to speak.

Josh (12:48.716)
And when you figure that out, I mean, was it changing coaches? Was it just something clicked and it all came together? I mean, I consider you, I mean, you've got your tempo news and you're constantly putting out amazing content. consider you like a student of the game. Like you're one of the most knowledgeable athletes in the game who can speak to it and compete in it. So I'm assuming you're trying to learn as you go.

Matt Sharpe (13:04.062)
Thank you.

Matt Sharpe (13:11.719)
Yeah

Josh (13:17.664)
but also make sure that you're continuing to step up in the game too. was it just all of it coming together at once and that aha moment and off and running?

Matt Sharpe (13:27.427)
Yeah, kind of just definitely going to that low point and kind of really questioning like fundamentally, like what is going on? Like, like I said, I'd had different, it wasn't like I had the same coach for years and years and it was always getting injured. had different coaches. And so ultimately I was like, well, I need to take ownership of this because ultimately your coach can't feel what you're feeling. You know, your coach, you can only communicate so much. They don't truly know what's going on. They may have a pretty good idea.

But ultimately you are the one who's driving the ship and you have to make those, those calls. And so, yeah, just being okay. Like if I really want to actually have a crack at achieving my dream of competing at the Olympics, like I need to, I need to take control of this situation. And yeah, once I decided to be the one who ultimately decides, you know, what I'm doing and, and, you know, if I can have a training session that I'm maybe not feeling so great, like I'm have to be the one to decide, no, I can't just.

defer to my coach. yeah, just taking ownership really. That was, that was the biggest thing.

Jenna-Caer (14:30.606)
Yeah, absolutely. Now, when it came to the short course side of racing, what are some of your favorite memories or events that you've done in that? Because you get to travel the world, see some cool places and suffer a bit at the same time. What do you remember?

Matt Sharpe (14:43.561)
Yeah, definitely, definitely. There's just, there's been different like periods in my career. Man, I had a pretty extensive, luckily to have a pretty extensive short course career. So I was able to travel a lot. I always love racing. think anytime I got to race Hamburg, which is kind of the gold standard of the world triathlon series races, always the crowds are amazing. It's in the city center. It just has like a world championship atmosphere, even if it's not the world championship. So anytime I got to race that was exceptional.

Anytime I got to race in Canada was always just, I don't know, my game always raised, for those races. I always felt they meant a little more to me. A lot of times at Edmonton and Montreal, they hosted a lot of races. So that was always a highlight. Yeah. got to travel to some crazy places too. Like Romania was one that kind of sticks out for me. Like, I don't know if I'd ever go to Romania otherwise. Super random, super random. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (15:38.478)
I'm gonna take a random.

Matt Sharpe (15:42.259)
a lot of just incredible places to compete in and it's an exceptional way to see the world for sure.

Jenna-Caer (15:50.304)
Yeah, absolutely.

Josh (15:54.081)
When do you, what was the whole, I guess you've now gone all the way up to the top. You're healthy again, you're competing, you're succeeding. What was the Olympic moment like and going through that qualification process and really like, I mean, that the nervousness of it all. And now you're just going through it again with your partner and your wife. So you're revisiting it all again.

Matt Sharpe (16:16.467)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, two, two. for sure. Yeah, that was a crazy time for sure. But I guess for my Olympic qualification, and this is kind an interesting aspect too. At the end of the day, I was performing well, racing well. And, but in reality, when we were kind of getting closer to that 2020 year, triathlon Canada, my federation.

You know, it was pretty clear they were going to do what it takes to kind of get a medal or at least be in contention for a medal. And for me, because I had never really cracked that top five or so in the world series, like I'd run, I'd come in the top 10, a handful of times or whatever. but really it was clear that my teammate, Tyler, Mr. Chuck, he kind of had that running pedigree that on a good day, you know, he could potentially be in the metals. So.

Ultimately, that kind of Tokyo test event, Triathlon Canada kind of made it like a two up battle between me and this other guy for the right to be able to help Tyler try and win a medal. And ultimately, I was happy to do that because as I talked about earlier, that Simon Whitfield influence, I never would have...

become the athlete I am, I never would have had the experiences I had really in life in a lot of ways because of his influence. And and Jenna knows, know, Canadians, don't get a ton of medals. So, now not compared to the U S anyways. So any medals that we get are usually kind of a big deal. And so for me, like if I could help play a role in helping Canada win a medal, to me that, that would mean the world. That would have been an incredible achievement.

Jenna-Caer (17:51.04)
Not in the summer side.

Matt Sharpe (18:09.015)
Um, so in 2019, we had the Tokyo test event and the goal was to help Tyler try and win a medal. And leading into that, like, I knew he was training well. I was quite fit. So we were like, man, we're ready to just rip it up. Like, obviously there were great athletes there. We, we knew it was going to be competitive, but we knew we were competitive. And in the end, we had probably the perfect race. Um, we both swam well. We were in the front group.

Once the groups kind of came together, I stayed right at the front of the bike and he was right behind me. And I kind of guided him safely towards T2 and made sure that he wasn't doing any crazy. Accelerations out of corners. I would hurt his legs and you know, I dropped him off in T2 and next, next time I saw him, uh, we were high-fiving on the sideline after he'd won the race. So that was pretty awesome. And that was a, a huge signal for, you know, triathlon Canada for the Olympic people in Canada be like, Oh, like these guys are.

Jenna-Caer (18:44.942)
you

Matt Sharpe (19:04.599)
potentially, you know, metal contenders, cause it would won the test event. And then, you know, there was that high. then after that, you know, there's the whole COVID situation, kind of alongside that I'd had a bit of a, a kind of not necessarily falling out, but an issue with the national coach at the time. we'd always had kind of issues over the years, but it was manageable. But by the time COVID came around,

Jenna-Caer (19:06.616)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Sharpe (19:33.046)
it had become clear to me, like I couldn't stay in that, performance center environment. Otherwise I wasn't even going to make it to the Olympics. was just going to probably quit because it was, it was so rough. and so dealing with that was, was super tough and I had to leave the national center, which kind of made me a bit excommunicated from the federation. I think they weren't really happy with that decision. And because ultimately if you had someone who wasn't in the federation kind of succeed, then

Jenna-Caer (20:02.017)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (20:02.239)
necessarily didn't reflect well on the Federation. So there was that whole thing, going into the Olympics, leading into the Olympics. so, yeah, that, that was, that was quite difficult. yeah, it was, there's that high, the low of, know, the, coaching issue, but ultimately, yeah, I was able to definitely prove that I was the guy to help Tyler and, know, Tokyo was standing on the start line. was, it was incredible experience. then the boat.

drove in front of us. that was crazy. That was crazy. For me, yeah, was a childhood dream, a lifelong dream achieved. Unfortunately, we didn't have the same performance as in the test event. I think Tyler had suffered a bit of an Achilles issue. And those things are tough. So he couldn't quite get to the level that he knew he was capable of, which is unfortunate. But at the end of the day, you know,

Jenna-Caer (20:32.782)
That was crazy.

Matt Sharpe (20:59.935)
I was never going to be the guy to get the medal. So I was always happy to help him, even if he wasn't a hundred percent. so yeah, Tokyo was incredible. And then as you alluded to Josh, the, Paris build with, with my wife, Kirsten Casper, she had her own issues, injuries, stuff, and whatnot, and a very, very competitive cohort to, you know, beat to get to just to get on the team. but then yeah, seeing

being in Paris and seeing the crowds and everything, was quite the contrast to Tokyo, that's for sure.

Jenna-Caer (21:35.244)
Yeah, a whole different feeling there that had to be a little bit bizarre. The Tokyo experience just not having those crowds and having everything, I guess, quarantined. How is the athlete village there? That would been kind of weird.

Matt Sharpe (21:46.57)
Yeah, it was, it was funny. Like we did the COVID testing every morning and you had to do it and get your results and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, there was, you weren't allowed to go into the city at all. There was no, like you were just so siloed in the village, even just in your building and stuff. Cause they didn't want people mixing around in case it was going around. And yeah, definitely it was eerie. Cause I remember we were, when we were cycling in the race and every time we'd come through the stadium area, it was just crickets.

Jenna-Caer (22:15.694)
That'd be so weird.

Matt Sharpe (22:16.577)
There was just, there was no, like, there was a few people coaches and stuff, but you weren't, there was no cheering or anything. Whereas like in Paris, I was on the sidelines, you know, in the crowd and you would hear this like wall of noise, just travel around and then it would start coming back towards you. And it was deafening. It was, it was just incredible to actually be a part of that and feel it. Cause I was like, okay, this is what the Olympics is supposed to be like. It was.

It was nothing like nothing else I'd ever experienced in a triathlon, that's for sure.

Josh (22:51.116)
least you got to go experience it correctly. Just on the other side, so a little less pressure on you.

Matt Sharpe (22:53.815)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, I was probably, I would say just as nervous, um, maybe more nervous for Kirsten's race than my own race, partly because like ultimately I wasn't there to win a medal. So maybe that pressure was off, but yeah, I just saw how much effort she put in over the years to how, you know, it was her third time trying to get the Olympics and she finally made it. She'd had.

injury issues and the lead in probably wasn't as perfect as she would like. But yeah, I just saw how much work she put in and yeah, I just wanted her to have the best race possible.

Jenna-Caer (23:33.486)
That's awesome. Well, so you went through the short course. What was that moment when you decided that you were going to go until long distance triathlon, make that shift entirely?

Matt Sharpe (23:43.466)
Yeah. Like for me, my North star was always competing for Canada at the Olympics. And once I achieved that, it really, to me didn't make much sense to try and stay in the short course game and kind of continue that path. And really at the end of the day, our goal shifted from, mean, it was always try to get us both to the Olympics, but once I had achieved that, then it was like, okay, we're, we're ride or die. We're

doing whatever it takes going all in to get Kirsten to Paris. And so that's partly why we moved down here to the U S and Boulder. So she could be, you know, in a great training environment and closely Olympic training center, all the good resources and everything. So for me as well, like being in that, maybe in that Boulder environment to just play to play the role, right? It's like a long course of Mecca. So everybody's doing it. So you're like, wow, might as well jump into a few, a few long course races. And yeah, I think after

that whole Tokyo run, like I'd, sacrifice a bit for the, for the team and whatnot. And so I was ready to kind of maybe have another go at some individual racing and yeah, pretty quickly, like 2021 was the Olympics and then 2022 jumped in with my first, yeah, or second long draft long course race or non-drafting race rather was that Olympic distance and St. Anthony's, which is actually incredibly competitive that year ended up taking the win.

And so for me, you know, once I did that, I was like, okay, like again, like maybe I'm good at this. Maybe I'm, you know, it just kind of was like a signal. And so it just kind of went from there really. And it also, because I'd done only short course, it felt like there's a whole different world of triathlon, which is actually now I know is the much bigger and kind of more impactful in some ways world, of non-draft. And so for me, it was also just an opportunity to explore that, that side of the sport. And I'm really.

really grateful I've been able to because again, had a lot of great experiences in short course. And now I'm having a lot of great experiences, meeting a lot of great people like yourselves in a long course.

Josh (25:52.205)
Appreciate that. So St. Anthony's, mean, it sounds like there's still a ton of pros that just can't give up St. Anthony's from their schedule too. it's like, you get all these races to choose from in the pro series and T100 and SuperTry, yet everyone still wants to go do St. Anthony's. I mean, what is it about St. Anthony's that you have loved and that others just want to keep going back to?

Jenna-Caer (26:01.358)
for sure.

Matt Sharpe (26:03.467)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (26:13.787)
Yeah. mean, it, to be fair, like anytime you get a win at a race or have a good result, there's always good vibes there. You're always like, yeah, this is amazing. Maybe if I went, you know, DNF spectacularly in the first race, the vibes wouldn't have been as high, but really that race, it feels like it's kind of, I don't want to say a throwback because it's thriving in a lot of ways. It just feels like a bit of like the heart and soul of the sport. It's an Olympic distance. You've got a lot of.

real amateurs, but then, you know, they bring, they put up good money for the pro race, like better than most Ironman races, I think each winter gets like 10 K. So ultimately there's a grassroots vibe, but then there's a huge respect for the pros. there's kind of that, that meeting that like meeting of, I don't know. So for me, it's just like, finish and then not too long after, like the age groupers are coming in and.

Jenna-Caer (27:04.686)
That's always fun.

Matt Sharpe (27:13.279)
Yeah, I don't know. It's, it's, it's special for sure. There's just so much, I guess, history in that race as well. They've been doing it for 40 plus years now. So it's a kind of community staple going to St. Petersburg, that whole area as well. I think it's a great area. Like I always kind of checking the Zillow there. not in hurricane season, of course, but other otherwise, yeah, it's just a nice place. The vibes are high. So yeah, St. Anthony's definitely a shout out St. Anthony's for sure.

Jenna-Caer (27:41.838)
Yeah, it definitely is a classic on the calendar and lots of big names have raced over the years, but Olympic distance, not my thing. The swim is too long. There we go. Yeah. Any more time? Ooh, okay. Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (27:46.743)
Are you guys ever going to race it? Are we going to see you guys out there?

Now, it's too short, too short.

Josh (27:55.25)
She could crush the duathlon though.

Matt Sharpe (27:57.048)
Okay, all right. There we go. I mean, lately they've canceled the swim. So who knows this year, maybe, maybe if do Athlon.

Josh (28:02.924)
She's in.

Matt Sharpe (28:06.709)
Nice.

Jenna-Caer (28:06.862)
Turning to this year though, unfortunately you're out for Oceanside. Let us know kind of what's going on, are your goals for this year, where you at?

Matt Sharpe (28:16.183)
Yeah, unfortunately, like I definitely would have been an ocean side. broke my toe. Uh, it would have been six weeks ago and that was just silly. Like I tripped over my dog and landed on the toe. Hey, yeah, it was super dumb. So that happens. These things happen. Um, yeah, definitely would have been primed for ocean side. Want to be there, you know, to, compete with these guys and also just be a part of kind of that ocean side atmosphere. There's a lot of good energy there, but for me, I think really.

Jenna-Caer (28:25.774)
That's the worst stuff.

Matt Sharpe (28:45.237)
When it comes down to it, I feel like I'm at this point in my career where, know, like Josh, you alluded to, like, I'm trying to build the tempo and that whole thing. So, you know, am I training to the maximum capacity that I have? Absolutely not. that wouldn't be possible trying to do, do all that, but really for me, I love competing. I still love to race and train at a high level. So I always try to scratch that itch and really for me.

just try and chase these podiums. it would be nice. Like the one thing that I'm sad about this year is that there is really no, not many pro options for racing in Canada. Cause yeah, if I had more, I would be kind of a little bit more fired up for those for sure. I don't know if I'm getting that T 100 T 100 Vancouver start. Maybe I'll be like a two days before the race, like, someone got sick, Matt, we need you. So I'll, I'll have my bike ready for sure to travel.

Jenna-Caer (29:37.71)
That's what you call it.

Jenna-Caer (29:42.51)
I'll put a word in the press there.

Josh (29:42.71)
Look at how many people jumped out of Singapore and that was a must must race, right? It must be it.

Matt Sharpe (29:43.832)
Yeah. I mean, this is the thing with the, yeah, that's an aside with T 100, but yeah, I'll be circling around, um, you know, in the paddock or whatever the transition be like, Oh, how's that guy looking? Um, yeah. So, you know, for me, yeah, it would be nice to compete in Canada and have opportunities to race. That's unfortunate, but yeah, at the end of the day, I want to be competing at a high level, the best level I can with the time I have and whatnot. So whatever

Jenna-Caer (29:52.078)
There we go.

Josh (29:52.256)
Yes.

Jenna-Caer (29:56.622)
No.

Matt Sharpe (30:13.289)
races I'm doing, want to be on the podium generally. That's always my goal. and also, we'll see, but maybe a full distance debut in the fall. TBD. I know I got to do one. I got to do one.

Jenna-Caer (30:24.791)
And you have, at this point, you've got all the other distances from SuperTran to have, so.

Matt Sharpe (30:29.001)
Yeah. Yeah. It's just the, for me, like the limiter, I guess, like where I lose most time versus my competition typically is on the bike. And unfortunately the bike is like the biggest part of Ironman racing. So yeah, it's going to be, you know, one those things where I would love to just really have a good kind of couple of months lead up to an Ironman just to put in the proper bike mileage, mostly.

and see where we're at. But yeah, definitely need to do one. So that could be incoming in the fall for sure.

Josh (31:02.27)
Is the TBD like depending on like your health going forward and like how you perform at St. George or whatever else you got coming up like is it all dependent on that or you're just trying to figure out which one to pull the trigger on.

Jenna-Caer (31:02.757)
any races.

Matt Sharpe (31:10.141)
Yeah, it's more like, feel like there's a few ones in the fall. There's like, Cozumel, Arizona. I would probably lean towards something like Arizona because I used to train there quite a bit. It's kind of a nice place to go to. Yeah, it'd be kind of cool for sure. Easy trip anyways, for sure, from here in Boulder.

Jenna-Caer (31:31.95)
Yeah, definitely. Well, let's jump into a little bit of the pro racing side of things and get some of your insights. Usually we kind of recap a bit of the races that happen on the weekend and then look ahead. And this weekend is so beyond jam packed when it comes to pro racing. Since we're already talking about it, how about we jump into that ocean size 70.3 start list and predictions and my goodness, is this race packed?

Matt Sharpe (31:58.61)
Yeah, it's crazy. got to know, I mean, the whole thing with this weekend and honestly, in some ways I'm happy to be an observer because it's going to be absolutely nuts on the course. There's kind of this, it's a really interesting situation. You have the first race of the T 100 season in Singapore, and then you have ocean side, is kind of typically, or traditionally the kind of like the kickoff. So you have these two competing races, you know, basically competing for the triathlete or triathlon world's attention.

Jenna-Caer (32:06.54)
you

Josh (32:06.675)
Hahaha.

Matt Sharpe (32:28.213)
I got to know, like, obviously you guys have seen the start list and you know what's going on at the races. If you can only watch one of the races, which one would you watch?

Josh (32:37.9)
That's why I'm racing.

Jenna-Caer (32:39.31)
There we go.

Matt Sharpe (32:39.383)
I love it. You can be at the live shot there.

Jenna-Caer (32:43.918)
Okay, can I split it up? For the men's side, I want to Oceanside more. For the women's side, I want to see T100 more.

Matt Sharpe (32:46.092)
Hmm.

Nice. Yup. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. That's good. That's good. Yeah. No, think, yeah, it's, it's going to be super interesting. I kind of want to see how, you know, just compare the broadcast, compare the vibes, you know, the social media vibes, all that kind of stuff. I, I'm curious to see how that plays out, but yes, Oceanside. What, let's jump in.

Josh (32:53.172)
That's a good approach. Very good approach there.

Jenna-Caer (33:04.3)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (33:14.094)
Let's jump in. So we got a few big names on the list. You might have heard of a few of these athletes. Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (33:19.445)
one or two.

Josh (33:20.268)
You're going to go through all 75 men.

Jenna-Caer (33:22.862)
I think I'll pick out a few of the top names in there. Just keep it little briefer. Although we could probably go 20 deep of recognizable names at this point, like it is insane. This is one of the first kickoff races for the Ironman Pro Series. We've had a couple already, but Oceanside is just this classic season opener. Ever gets fired up about it for the North American kind of start to the season. And we've got first off Canadian Lionel Sanders. He shows up just ready to fire at this race like nobody else most of the time.

We got Patrick Lange, Kristen Blumenfeld, Gustav Eden, Rudy Von Berg, Ben Knute, Brayden Curry. Let's see. We got Kam Wirff. We'll see if he shows up or not. He's on every single episode. Okay. We got a...

Matt Sharpe (34:01.623)
I think he is there. think he's there, yeah. Confirmed. It's confirmed.

Josh (34:02.452)
no, he's a, he's already there. He was trying to do some, side by side, like recon and he got caught, caught by somebody. So yeah, he's there.

Jenna-Caer (34:12.27)
There we go. We also got Joe Skipper on there. Another Canadian Jason Pole will be out there. Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (34:18.625)
Nice, mana, let's go team mana.

Jenna-Caer (34:21.07)
We've got another Norwegian with Casper Stornes, we got Harry Klaue, so definitely some massive names on this list. And some names we don't see race each other too often between the Norwegians, Patrick Lange, and even Lionel with them too. So what do you guys think? What are we gonna see go down in Oceanside here? Does Lionel have a shot at getting another win?

Matt Sharpe (34:43.031)
What do you think, Josh? Lionel, what do you think? Give us your Lionel take.

Josh (34:45.804)
mean, it's, hard to go against Lionel after what he did last year. And it sounds like he's had a pretty good block from, the YouTube, but I mean, you could have thought the same thing going in a Kona too, but that didn't work out so well. But, but, but Oceanside's a different beast when it comes to Lionel. I mean, the field's so stacked. I think the swim is a huge piece for him and who gets out in front of him and how close he is. Cause there's some guys that could get out in front of him.

Matt Sharpe (34:57.012)
Yeah.

Josh (35:12.074)
that could stay away from him on the bike. then it gets difficult on a half marathon for him to catch up and make ground. And as he's aging, I don't think that half marathon is going to be his go-to weapon as much as it has been in the past. So I don't think Lionel is going to get the win. I think Christian is going to lay the hammer down early and be like, the pro series is the reason why this field is the way it is too. mean, you can see there are clear...

Matt Sharpe (35:29.857)
Hmm.

Josh (35:42.028)
candidates that are people who have actually said I'm going for the pro series this year and they're here and Patrick's trying to get his 70.3 world spot. So what kind of Patrick shows up? Not the Patrick from last year finished what 20 something and

Matt Sharpe (35:53.024)
Ooh. Yeah. Me and Patrick, we were, we were together on that bike. We, he led me astray on that bike. He led me astray. I was like, I'm with the Ironman champion, world champion. Like this guy, he's a veteran. He knows what he's doing. I should have known. Well, that's hard. That course too. Yeah. That was before you kind of start going inland towards the, or like more in towards the base. And we, when we turned around, cause we were like, we literally stopped unclipped and we were like, where are we? Cause

Josh (35:59.678)
that's right, the wrong turn.

Jenna-Caer (36:01.506)
you

Jenna-Caer (36:05.656)
Gotta do it.

Josh (36:09.334)
That was early in the bike too, right?

Josh (36:14.785)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (36:22.537)
my god.

Matt Sharpe (36:23.135)
It was just like, the hell is going on? And by the time we came back, you could just see the tail end of kind of the big second group go through. we were pretty far back from them. And unfortunately, once we kind of started riding again, that's when the headwind started kicking in. So any chance we had to kind of catch that big second group was all out the window. and he kind of towed me around for a while. That's, that's ended up, his, his race. didn't see me much in front of him. That's for sure.

Jenna-Caer (36:45.271)
Okay.

Jenna-Caer (36:51.406)
Well, what do we think? What are the odds we see another WTCS Bermuda style race or it's a Norwegian one, two, three. Cause we got all the players in here.

Matt Sharpe (36:59.869)
Yeah. I just, I wonder with, with Christian and Gustav, I feel like these guys maybe are slow rolling the beginning of the year a little bit. don't know. just feel like they're kind of really going to be firing on all cylinders when it comes to the, the niece Marbella timeframe, especially when the pro series really cranks down with the points. that that's kind of my thoughts, but

Yeah, it's, it's another race, kind of what we saw this past weekend in South Africa, where you have this meeting of the short course and long course athletes and the whole new dynamic there, which is just going to blow things up this year. There's a, just a ton of Olympians, like just down the list. got guys like, you know, Kevin McDowell, Mike, I'm biased. He's my good friend. and, he's an athlete who is training as just, he trains insane and he's incredibly fit. Just often getting to the start line.

Josh (37:40.811)
out.

Matt Sharpe (37:53.688)
can be an issue with him, but he's coming to this, you know, healthy and ready to go. So I'm excited to see him. Obviously Casper Stornes, um, Seth rider, Olympic medalists from Paris. He's, he had, he's had a great 70.3 at the end of last year. Another guy, Roberto Sanchez, Mentecon Spanish guy, just another great athlete, Jake Burtwhistle Olympian in Tokyo. So yeah, you just got all these Olympians coming up who are going to push the pace in the swim. also have Greg Harper, who's the fastest swimmer in long course. Like he's the fastest and

Yeah, that'll string things out in the swim. But because there is so many bodies, I don't know if there's going to be massive gaps between groups. I think it might be more of a long line situation, which is actually to the benefit of someone like Lionel, if he can place himself well enough off the start. Yeah, just incredible dynamics is what I'm saying.

Josh (38:44.14)
The swim is definitely a huge determining factor. Being in the marina and knowing that factor this year for the first time ever is probably a big inspiration for Lionel. He knows he doesn't have to worry about the waves or even that being an impact. I think he was close. Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (39:01.939)
Yeah, he sw- I remember last year he had a spectacular swim. Like I was leaving transition and they were like, and Lionel Sanders coming out here. And I was like, what? Like, this is crazy. But still that fact that I heard his name, I'm like, he's only like 90 seconds down. Like he rolled up on the front guys, like myself and Mark Dubrik so quickly last year. So yeah, I mean, I think the swim will be quicker this year, but given what happened last year, I'm-

Josh (39:12.876)
No, he still had a minute and a half to run to get to the bike, but yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (39:13.07)
Thank

Jenna-Caer (39:21.08)
That's

Matt Sharpe (39:30.903)
curious to see if that same thing happens where, maybe he's just leapfrogging guys getting that enjoying that 12 meter, you know, draft a Rue, as he moves up through the line. yeah. Yeah.

Josh (39:42.069)
Yeah. I think last year too, we saw a little bit of separation on that first climb on the base. like, do you kind of see that just always kind of being a huge impact and maybe guys either overcooking that first one and then they're not ready for the second one or guys that are playing it safe. Like how have you kind of gone after that, that climb and what have you seen when you get there? I got it in a few days.

Matt Sharpe (39:48.908)
Yes.

Matt Sharpe (40:06.039)
I don't want to remember that climb last year. It was painful. Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. You'll do fine. You'll crush it. I'm sure. But yeah, think just based on the names who were here, you could just see with the race ranger too, all that good stuff. I don't know. There might just be a big old pack of like 20 guys, maybe Lionel's in there because they're kind of looking at each other as they're going along. No one's willing to really take that risk.

Josh (40:13.055)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (40:33.899)
because of the headwinds too, right? Those big headwinds when you're going like the last half of the race, it's brutal. No one wants to put their nose in the wind for that long unless Lionel's paying them, you know, or whatever. Like it's just the dynamics that way will be interesting as well. So yeah, I could see, I could see a huge group coming off together or maybe a splinter of like three guys who are willing to risk it, but hopefully they don't have people too close coming up from behind. Cause that run.

Josh (40:38.229)
especially

Josh (40:56.94)
Brush it on the bike, yeah.

Jenna-Caer (40:57.358)
So there are reasons.

Matt Sharpe (41:01.609)
If people are feeling good for that run, they'll, they'll fly for sure.

Jenna-Caer (41:05.774)
Do you think, like Christian Blomfeld in the Norwegians and stuff being in the race here, will that mess with Lionel's head at all? Cause it seems like he's kind of used them for motivation, but at times kind of seen himself not able to beat them. Well, really Lionel is one of the most winning athletes at 70.3s ever.

Matt Sharpe (41:23.807)
Yeah, I think he's, he respects them for sure, but you know, he's a cutthroat competitor. And like I talked about earlier, having those good vibes at a race, like he'll come in to this race, remembering the great memories. You know, he'd be thinking of that sprint finish that year with Rudy, him down. Just, just that kind of stuff. think outweighs having the Christians and whatnot in the race for him and just how he played the race last year. It just, he

Jenna-Caer (41:39.051)
if that helps.

Matt Sharpe (41:53.034)
He smashed it and I can't imagine he's much less fit than he was this time last year. So yeah, I think he's, he's going to be, even if he's not up for the win, he'll perform very well for sure.

Jenna-Caer (42:05.056)
Yeah, this is kind of coarse. Well, let's make some picks here. Who do we think takes the win in this race? We're going to start with you, Josh. Put it out there. Who do you think takes everyone down?

Josh (42:16.14)
I don't think we're going to see Gustav yet. think Gustav is that slow roll that Matt alluded to earlier. I think he's going to kind of work his way into the season and really focus more on the worlds where I think Christian's really going after every point and every second and playing the cards for the $200,000 big check at the end of the year. And I think he is going to perform. It seems like from their videos and stuff that he is

kind of ready to go. And if they get there and get there healthy and he doesn't have stomach issues and a 70.3, I think he can make it through. And they've got a different approach this year. There's no Alexander blue in their ear every second and all the lactate testing. So let's see how it works. I'm going to go with Christian.

Jenna-Caer (42:56.546)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (43:04.27)
Who do you go out here?

Matt Sharpe (43:06.143)
Yeah, I've got a Norwegian, it's actually, I'm thinking Casper Stornas is going to be ready to, to, go for the win. He's, he's fit. He's hungry. He had that. What like car accident before 70 point three worlds. I think he just kept training afterwards. Like this guy is, he's going to be king in the early season. And I think, you know, some, like, I feel like it could be one of these, you know, Olympians podiums. got Casper on there. think my guy cav, know, Seth.

Josh (43:10.337)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (43:11.992)
looking into.

Matt Sharpe (43:35.297)
Jake Burt whistled coming off the podium and, he ran really smart in that Geelong race. So yeah, yeah, I'm always biased towards short course athletes though. So just that.

Josh (43:45.751)
The other X factor we haven't talked about, I don't even think we've mentioned his name is Justin Reale, but I know he's coming off of not being able to run, but if he, he's going to be in the front near the front out of the swim, we know he can bike and he's been throwing down some crazy Watts and on his new bike. But, I just don't know if his runs there to stay with everyone, but I think he can be a factor coming off the bike in T2.

Jenna-Caer (43:45.895)
No.

Matt Sharpe (44:04.787)
Yeah. Yeah. He's the kind of guy who needs to have that three person breakaway and then have everybody behind kind of looking at each other, which is a possibility. But in this field, if he's coming off the bike with these Olympian guys, like they just, have that run pedigree. and yeah, it's, it's tough going for sure.

Josh (44:11.54)
Yeah. And go. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (44:25.974)
No, definitely. Well, I'm going to go with the nostalgia pick and hope that Lionel Sanders takes the win here again. I think he's going to be further out of the water than what we see.

Matt Sharpe (44:30.805)
Yes, let's go. It's not a bad pick. You just see where he is out of the swim and maybe who's in his orbit, and then you can kind of figure, OK, let's see. That's right. What about the women's race? What are their thoughts?

Jenna-Caer (44:41.826)
He goes, it all comes down to this one for sure. Let's jump into it here. So we have, again, topping the chart a couple of Canadians with, right, come on. We got Tamara Jewett, Paula Finley, Jackie Herring, Danielle Lewis, Alice Alberts, Grace Alexander, Jonah Ryder.

Josh (44:42.848)
You just replace me with that Canadian flag in that segment.

Matt Sharpe (44:54.623)
Yeah, you're going to have a Canadian winner out of this race for sure.

Jenna-Caer (45:07.862)
see who else we got here. we got Melanie McQuade. She's insane and inspiring. She's still out there racing and doing some good things on the course.

Matt Sharpe (45:14.975)
I think she's going. I feel like I haven't heard her talk about it. She's on the list anyways. OK.

Jenna-Caer (45:18.028)
Yeah, she should definitely be out there. yeah, we got, it's a little less stuff in the women's side of the racing here, but definitely some big names that'll be out there hitting and chasing down that win. And most of them were in the Ironman Pro Series. We don't have Paula Findlay in that. I don't think she's named a long distance or an Ironman race yet, but she always mixes it up the race with that kill flip.

Matt Sharpe (45:40.457)
Yeah, it sounds like she's racing. Like she's only doing the Iron Man series this year. She's not doing T100. Do you know?

Josh (45:49.386)
No, Paula is doing T100. Yes.

Jenna-Caer (45:49.728)
So she is doing 2,100. Yeah, she got an exemption for this race because of visa issues, apparently. So you're supposed to...

Matt Sharpe (45:51.968)
Okay.

Matt Sharpe (45:55.802)
Okay, yeah.

Josh (45:57.089)
Because they got married, she applied for a new visa and can't leave the country in order to, like during that process. Yep.

Matt Sharpe (46:01.076)
She

Matt Sharpe (46:04.503)
I know what that's about. I empathize with her, although I feel like she'd be happier going to Oceanside anyways than Singapore. I think that's not a bad move for sure.

Jenna-Caer (46:10.766)
20%.

No, definitely, especially with that heat of Singapore and all that travel, Oceanside will be a lot more fun. And I think Eric is debuting his film down there too. Awesome. That'll be really good to see.

Josh (46:21.452)
Yeah, I got tickets, so I'll be there. I'm to go check that out. Yeah, there's so much going on in Oceanside this weekend. Like Matt said, it's just that the vibe is amazing. Even if you're just a fan and not racing, come down. mean, it's such a cool spot to be in. The atmosphere is totally epic and really gets you fired up for your own season.

Matt Sharpe (46:21.493)
Yes. Awesome.

Matt Sharpe (46:38.423)
So with like, there's less bodies on the start line, given who's in the race, how do you think it's going to play out?

Jenna-Caer (46:47.086)
Yeah, this one's a little tougher to call, especially early season. We haven't seen too much from anyone really on the start list here. You always got to think. Yes.

Josh (46:54.314)
And we have a lot of long distance, one like Ironman distance, female athletes on the start list too.

Jenna-Caer (47:01.614)
And that's the difference. We've seen a lot of the Olympic distance athletes that we would sometimes see on this list are definitely doing the T 100 over in Singapore. So I don't think we have that front end kind of swim pack that we're going to see in the men's side of things. I think it's going to be a lot more strung out at the front of the race here before we head on the bike, which, you know, it makes it a little bit, maybe a little bit more honest on that bike course with a 12 meter draft zone. We have a little bit more separation going on on the swim.

Matt Sharpe (47:24.555)
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe more of a bike strength kind of race, which someone like Paula Finley, Lisa Baccaris, there's someone to throw out there. She's a great cyclist. If, if it really comes down to what goes down on the bike. Yeah. She's definitely someone who can be up there. Yeah. It'd be interesting. Then you have kind of Tamara Jewett who I think she is focusing on Ironman this year. She's doing pro series.

Jenna-Caer (47:30.006)
Yeah.

Totally.

Josh (47:35.606)
Yeah.

Josh (47:52.235)
She's doing pro series, yeah. So she's not in the T100. And I think this is a huge redemption year for Tamara too. So, I mean, she's going after it and I mean, I want nothing but the best and she loves Oceanside. She's already won Oceanside. So, yeah.

Matt Sharpe (48:06.133)
Yes. Good vibes. She's got the same Lionel, Lionel win energy. So yeah, she'll be coming in with some, some good vibes. No doubt.

Josh (48:14.188)
I think you're right. think, I think this is a race that, mean, Paula's not in Singapore. She's getting to do Oceanside. She loves the whole atmosphere. They've got a whole thing going on all weekend and just probably good vibes and take a lot of the race day pressure off of her, which sometimes can get to her and she'll have a decent swim and a great bike on a course she knows well. And I think of those bikers, she's also got the best run. don't think Lisa's runs ready yet, as well, but I could see.

Daniel Lewis running through and getting herself and I would actually go Paula, Jackie and Danielle as your podium.

Matt Sharpe (48:46.263)
Hmm.

Matt Sharpe (48:54.494)
Ooh.

Jenna-Caer (48:55.446)
There we go. Yeah, we definitely saw her and then yeah, Jackie Herring was second in the pro series last year. So she's super consistent. She just keeps showing up gets on those podiums time after time in there. So she's gonna be a tough one to beat and especially targeting the hopefully to get to the next step in the Ironman Pro Series with that overall win. So she'll be chasing hard.

Matt Sharpe (49:16.449)
Jenna, who do you got for the win?

Jenna-Caer (49:19.072)
Man, I gotta go with the Paula Finley. I think just this course, that bike course, her bike strength, and just like Josh said, kind of those good vibes going in with Eric going with his movie and stuff, and the relief of not having to travel to Singapore and do a race in crazy hot temperatures in April definitely helps.

Matt Sharpe (49:36.885)
Yeah. I, I, I got, I got Tamara. Then I'll take the other side. If it, if it, it, does win, it'll be probably in the final miles, which would be a great, great race. We'd love to see that. We want that intrigue. We want that final mile. Just mowing people down.

Josh (49:40.562)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (49:41.272)
There we go. Yeah, hopefully.

Jenna-Caer (49:48.536)
And that's always fun to watch, yeah, with those fast runners.

Josh (49:55.575)
My goal is to be on the course before they finish. Be on the run course before they finish.

Matt Sharpe (49:57.793)
Good. Yup.

Jenna-Caer (49:58.76)
Good luck!

Well, and you know the Iron Man commentators likely won't notice what's happening, so it'll be a last minute incoming of, there's Tamara Jewett coming through here. Where'd she come from?

Matt Sharpe (50:10.069)
Yeah, feel like those guys, man, they cop a lot of shit. I feel like the broadcast, like the production of the broadcast is just so not great that they just have nothing to work with these guys. I feel like they get a short straw, I think, in a lot of ways.

Jenna-Caer (50:21.846)
I know.

I think it's tough to like with T 100, they have people like Torsten Rad off to the side, like breaking down, looking at the numbers throughout the race and giving the commentators some of those updates of what's actually going on. And Torsten tried to do the same thing with Ironman. They just, I guess, weren't interested. So I think you need that person off screen that is looking at the actual numbers, giving time splits, because it's so hard to talk and watch everything going on and speak to what you're seeing and then try to do some mental numbers in the background, kind of analyzing it. just.

Matt Sharpe (50:50.135)
It's hard to talk about triathlon.

Jenna-Caer (50:55.632)
Man, you need that grace of a name.

Matt Sharpe (50:55.719)
Yeah, well, speaking of T100, it's a good segue.

Josh (50:58.529)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (51:00.332)
There we go. We have got T100 in Singapore going down this weekend. Like I I am very excited about this one. So the interesting part with this race, and there's a bit of kind of speculation and rumors going around in there too, because when the athletes signed these contracts, the race in Singapore was the race they absolutely had to be at to fulfill their contracts. So we were all getting geared up, even though it was going to be early season, going to be a hot race to see everyone on that start line fit and firing and ready to go.

hasn't quite worked out that way. We still have most of the big names coming out to race, but we've definitely had a few other ones drop out here. And I think we had something like six or seven wild cards on the women's side of things and a number on the men's side. So that definitely changes up the dynamics when it comes to race day. And the biggest shock, I think for everyone was Taylor Nibb just announced that she is going to or not going to make the start line there for personal reasons, which on one

Matt Sharpe (51:57.944)
Do you have an inkling of what's going on there or just personal reasons?

Josh (52:03.052)
Yeah, completely dark on that one.

Jenna-Caer (52:03.906)
No idea. Yeah, on one side, it's a bummer because she's such a dominant force in the sport and it's cool to see her race. But on the other side, it opens up the race a whole lot more. A whole lot more people started thinking, I can win this thing now, which... yeah, frothing for that. Yeah, and I think there's been a lot of talk about how...

Josh (52:13.502)
It makes for a heck of a female race.

Josh (52:19.788)
Ashley gentle is like, Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (52:21.855)
Yeah, yeah, especially in Singapore.

Jenna-Caer (52:28.98)
a lot of athletes didn't want to do this race so they have to do it but the travel this early in the season dealing with those conditions is really tough on the athletes early seasons we saw some athletes just completely burn themselves out in this race last year and didn't really recover afterwards so I think a lot of

Josh (52:47.134)
And then Martin Van Riel is going to be like, what are you talking about? I just did an Iron Man and here I am.

Jenna-Caer (52:52.638)
Martin Van Riel doing an Ironman six days earlier, seven days earlier. It's unreal. Yeah, if he is on the podium of this race, he is superhuman doing an Ironman's on the earlier. That would be... Hopefully one day you feel that feeling, that post at your bed. It's like oddly satisfying.

Matt Sharpe (52:53.536)
Ugh.

Josh (52:56.492)
you

Matt Sharpe (52:56.659)
wild. mean, yeah, man, it's crazy stuff.

Matt Sharpe (53:04.08)
He's not going to be on the podium at this rate, so I'll tell you that right now.

Josh (53:07.946)
He was having a hard time walking after that race.

Matt Sharpe (53:09.779)
No.

Matt Sharpe (53:14.615)
This is the feeling I'm trying to avoid. it scares me.

Josh (53:16.972)
Just don't back it up with another race.

Matt Sharpe (53:21.526)
Yeah, true.

Jenna-Caer (53:21.875)
in a painful way it's so satisfying but yeah it makes things a little challenging I can't imagine that travel after an iron man to go to a t100 race

Matt Sharpe (53:29.259)
So for now that nibs not racing, then what is the women's race? How do you think it plays out?

Jenna-Caer (53:34.926)
Yeah, so we got some of the top names in here. We got Ash Gentle, Julie Duran, Luz Byram, India Lee, Flora Duffy, Lucy Charles Barclay, Taylor Spivey, Mila Watkinson, Els Visser, Mary Ann DeBoer, Grace Deck, Marta Sanchez, and then we have a number of, like I said, kind of fill in spots there. one. Yeah, she did. So she's going to be.

Matt Sharpe (53:54.433)
Marta Sanchez also raced in South Africa, Okay, all right.

Josh (53:57.921)
You did and, and, and Geylon too. she, did she respect it back then too? She's done it. She's done two races this year. So that was her second. This will be her third.

Jenna-Caer (54:08.302)
That's unreal. But somebody's wild cards are really interesting too. The last minute call ups like a Jess Lear month, it'll be really good to see how she does for that killer bike strength. then Kate Waugh has been coming up. She's a younger athlete who's definitely doing some big things as well. So I think we're going to see some of those athletes changed up. But Lucy Charles-Barclay, I'm so curious to see how she goes here. We haven't had like a fit and firing Lucy against like an Ashley Gentle and Julie Duran really come together in these series where everyone's on top form.

Matt Sharpe (54:14.825)
Yes.

Matt Sharpe (54:37.661)
Yeah. She, she's someone who like, don't really know what she's doing for training necessarily, but she's always putting out the content. So it looks like she's going well. mean, if I'm just going off her, what she's putting out there on social media, like she's ready to rip it up for sure. She's healthy anyways. She'll be ready to go.

Jenna-Caer (54:53.088)
Yeah, when she's quiet on social media then something's going on. She's not quite healthy, so she's putting down there, so... Definitely.

Matt Sharpe (54:55.925)
Yeah, that's a big, flag. Nice.

Josh (55:02.078)
It's an interesting race because I mean, I think we've got a seasoned Flora Duffy now too, and Julie Duran, and now they're removed from that Olympic distance just a little bit further. And they've had a full training block into a one race. And I don't know if we're going to see Ash Gentle run away with it or take the top step this year because of that factor. And like you said, those Olympic athletes are just on a different level right now and Flora's still there.

Jenna-Caer (55:06.955)
you

Josh (55:31.274)
later in her career. And I think it's going to be a battle. And depending on Lucy, think the four of them that I've now listed, Ash, Julie, Flora, and Lucy Charles, it'll be really interesting to see who can take it.

Matt Sharpe (55:45.46)
Yeah, the athletes are battling each other, but they're also battling the elements in that race. is oppressive in Singapore. I raced the super league race years ago and it was short. Thankfully it was short because being in those conditions and competing is absolutely brutal. So a lot of this racing too, like it depends on how much people are willing to risk early on to go into the red zone if they need to. Cause once you go into that red zone and in those conditions, you're not.

Josh (55:49.206)
Thank you.

Jenna-Caer (55:50.582)
Yeah.

Josh (56:04.3)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (56:15.255)
You're not coming back. That's it. Yeah. Yes.

Jenna-Caer (56:16.686)
I did the corporate race there and that was just such like super super short and even then it was just like I am dying it feels like you're trying to breathe through a wet cotton ball. It's super stupid.

Matt Sharpe (56:24.221)
Yeah. Yeah. mean, someone like Ashley, she has, I think, lot of success in Singapore and in those conditions as well. So.

Jenna-Caer (56:31.598)
of a heap. Yeah. No, shouldn't have.

Josh (56:34.354)
It's summertime for her right now. So she's been training in this. And like, even saw one of, when I was on my, my ride this afternoon, she was training in a wetsuit in the heat and doing an open water swim. Just, just, just to get it. Yeah. Hey, all right. And, and she's like, yeah, even Josh is happy with my swim these days. So, I mean, look out. but I think that is again, a huge advantage for her Singapore early season where others have been training in what we consider.

Matt Sharpe (56:38.059)
Yup.

Matt Sharpe (56:47.179)
That's a flex. That's a flex.

Jenna-Caer (56:48.333)
Yeah.

Josh (57:02.646)
really cold temperatures and you can only put on so many clothes.

Matt Sharpe (57:06.421)
Yep.

Jenna-Caer (57:06.738)
Definitely. Flora Duffy, she's a big fan Yeah, all the heat training these days. But yeah, Flora Duffy just got better and better through the season, more time on that TT bike. So I think she'll definitely be dominant. But then again, Ash Gentle, at the end of the season last year, she held on to Taylor Nib through most of that bike course. So we could see some big things there.

Josh (57:07.166)
As Jenna knows.

Matt Sharpe (57:27.785)
Yeah, I feel like it's Gentles to lose in a lot of ways. think Duffy is either sniffing at that win or definitely on the podium. She also is great in hot conditions. She won in Tokyo that year and that was also very hot. So she knows how to play those conditions. And like you guys said, she's improving with every long course race. So yeah, in terms of podium, what do we think?

Jenna-Caer (57:42.339)
Yes.

Jenna-Caer (57:55.842)
Josh, you got here for the win.

Josh (57:57.453)
I mean, I would love it Taylor Spivey, but I feel like anyone who's been in Gerona doesn't have a shot, we did. Is this been.

Matt Sharpe (58:03.579)
Ha ha.

Jenna-Caer (58:04.078)
That's all I hear about how the weather's been rainy there.

Matt Sharpe (58:07.115)
We'll see, now all these people in Gerona have a chip on their shoulder. They're gonna say, hey, I gotta prove Josh wrong.

Josh (58:10.028)
Right. but then Martin went and did pretty well in South Africa, but that's not Singapore. Um, no, I, I think, uh, I think we will get a Julie Duran, Ash gentle, Lucy Charles podium. That's, that's where I'm going to go. I think Lucy's going to lead out the swim, but, but floor is going to be there with her too. But I just, haven't seen floor. Hold on to the, to the, the bike runners yet.

Jenna-Caer (58:10.06)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (58:29.132)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (58:39.534)
No, fair enough. How about you Matt? Who do you got for the win here?

Matt Sharpe (58:43.549)
Yeah, I like Ash Jandel for the win. Just good vibes in Singapore in the heat. Flor Duffy second and yeah, Julie Duran third. That's my podium.

Jenna-Caer (58:54.23)
You know, I'm gonna go Lucy Charles Barclay. I think she's just hungry for a win to get out there and do something after all of this downtime. She will not be happy about that. So she'll be ready to fire and then I'll go Ash Gentle and Julie Duran. They're gonna be making that run interesting, chasing down Lucy Charles.

Josh (59:08.684)
out

Matt Sharpe (59:11.157)
Nice.

Jenna-Caer (59:12.91)
Okay, let's jump to the men's side here. Again, a couple names racing. When it comes to the men's side, we've got the real deal Martin Van Riel, got Cal Smith, Rico Bogan, Sam Long, Tais Margeret, Yuri Kulin, Fred Funk, Meek & Newt, and Yella Geens. We can go down the list. Hayden Wild will be there. We've got the short course athletes showing up like crazy in this race. And I think they're going to mix it up with Leo Berger, Hayden Wild, Vincent Louie, Max Stapley, and of course, Tyler Miskochuk.

Matt Sharpe (59:42.999)
Of course.

Jenna-Caer (59:43.056)
he's gonna be tearing it up here too. So we have an infusion of Olympic distance athletes like never before in this T100 series and I'm really curious to see how it switches it up. That swim is gonna be so much faster than it has been.

Matt Sharpe (59:58.422)
Yeah. I will say it's when it's really hot like that. I feel like the swim gets muted a little bit, but also Vincent Louie's in the race. So there is no muting, really of, of the swim. Yeah. It's, it's like this race, there's just so much firepower in every aspect. Like whoever, I guess, if somebody wants to risk it on the bike, man, that's going to be, that's going to be kind of crazy, but maybe they'll pull it off. Just the heat though.

Jenna-Caer (01:00:05.454)
No, I'm fair.

Josh (01:00:09.1)
Yeah

Jenna-Caer (01:00:09.166)
Not at all.

Matt Sharpe (01:00:28.053)
the heat. Yeah.

Josh (01:00:28.844)
That's pretty much what Hayden said, right? Like he's like, I'm either going to fall down dead on the course or I'm just gonna go for it and crush it.

Matt Sharpe (01:00:35.357)
He's, he's a guy too. He will, if he's, if he's feeling it, you know, he swims decent enough, gets to the front on the bike fairly early. He'll take the risk because he just does that sometimes. He can't not, he can't, he can't sit in and, and Mark, you know, ye, he always has to, to run away from him and then get caught. Hopefully this time doesn't get, caught by someone coming up.

Jenna-Caer (01:00:35.501)
Do it.

Josh (01:00:42.208)
Yep. Yep.

Josh (01:00:47.979)
Ha

Josh (01:00:55.422)
And now Yela, he's got that build, that little competition going already.

Jenna-Caer (01:00:58.08)
I'm making it work right now.

Matt Sharpe (01:00:59.927)
Yeah, it's just a lot, a lot of bodies, a lot of talent. Guys like Yella, guys like Tyler on the run, especially because they're so small, a huge benefit being in the heat. mean, Yella is just good all around, so there's that. But someone like Tyler could definitely just chew through that run and scoop up bodies along the way.

Jenna-Caer (01:01:21.07)
Well that's why I'm so proud of this year.

Josh (01:01:21.12)
I think we'll see if the fresh legs too, like there, there are a lot of guys that have raised in, in, in now podiumed at other events with, with yellow and Martin, too, if these guys were playing their first game of the year, this is their first race. think it would have a whole different dynamic with those two coming in fresh, but because they have raised, I don't think they're going to be as big of a factor. I think they're with the dynamic of so many other people on the swim.

If Hayden, like you said, can get to the front, I think that's a huge piece. But then you got the T100 veterans that are still going to factor into this. And Yuri's got a chip on his shoulder not to fall down dead at the finish line and win again this year and grab the bottles along the way.

Matt Sharpe (01:01:55.095)
Yeah, definitely.

Jenna-Caer (01:02:02.478)
I mean, for that fear of that feeling.

Matt Sharpe (01:02:02.679)
For sure, for sure.

Matt Sharpe (01:02:07.42)
How do we all think Sam Wong's going to do in this context?

Jenna-Caer (01:02:11.148)
I'm so surprised to see that he took the T100 contract. Like I totally respect it because he's like, okay, I need to step up my game in the swim. This is going to be that development path to force me to get better at that. But with that much swim power in the front of this race with all the Olympic athletes, I think we're going to see him even further back than we have in the past. And it sounds like he started his training season a little bit later than he did last year. Last year we saw him have a few big hit outs early in the season, but he hasn't quite followed that same schedule.

I don't know, I think he's just gonna be too far back. There's no way he runs in bikes four or five minutes into these front cuts. They're too good.

Matt Sharpe (01:02:48.585)
Yeah, I'm, I'm just kind of confused with him. Like he talks about doing the T 100 to like develop his swim and develop, but like, what has he done in training to develop his swim? Like I just haven't seen any, any, any moves, any decisions that would indicate that he's really trying to up his swim other than just swimming a lot. I don't know. you guys

Josh (01:02:51.674)
Ha

Jenna-Caer (01:03:15.246)
Hmm.

Josh (01:03:15.51)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (01:03:16.696)
Have you seen anything? Because I haven't seen anything.

Josh (01:03:19.552)
No, I mean, he's working with, yeah. mean, it just always seems like his zone one, his zone two, and he talked about it in volume. those are his things. And like even his down days, his down weeks are still higher than most people's big weeks. So I don't know what we're going to see. I mean, we all saw, we didn't expect him to do what he did last year in Singapore either. And, and, coming from back and finishing second for the second time in a row with Miami and then Singapore.

Matt Sharpe (01:03:20.843)
He's working hard. I don't know.

Josh (01:03:49.707)
Now he's fresh coming into this being his first race. maybe those fresh legs, unless he's done too many of those, shakeout rides out there. maybe the fresh legs in Singapore, will be something that he'll be able to run up with, but he's running with the, the, the elite runners of the world right now. And like, these are good guys who jump into 10 Ks and like with pros and hold, don't hold their own.

Jenna-Caer (01:03:49.794)
Yeah, thank you.

Matt Sharpe (01:04:13.611)
I know. Yeah, I, I'm, I'm certainly not bullish on Sam having a good, a good result at this race, just based on the context around him. I'm sure he's incredibly fit, but yeah, I haven't seen him do anything that would suggest that he's really focusing on his swim. At the end of the day, he seems like this year he's really, like he's doing the T 100, but like many athletes we saw last year, they were also doing the T 100, but they weren't training for the T 100.

Jenna-Caer (01:04:14.806)
Yeah.

Josh (01:04:20.106)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (01:04:42.574)
quotation marks.

Josh (01:04:43.734)
Yeah.

Matt Sharpe (01:04:43.831)
So I personally think that's, that's his move. And yeah, I mean, he earned the contract. had great races last year, great performances. And so they offer him a contract and the terms are of a certain way and he likes it. Then he'll do it. mean, at the end of the day, having him even tend gently involved with the T 100 is pretty big for them because of his standing within the triathlon, like his

Jenna-Caer (01:04:50.606)
Absolutely.

Josh (01:05:02.304)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (01:05:09.708)
Matt Sharpe (01:05:13.751)
Like he's one of those, I think, upper echelon pros that have massive followings and almost can get people who are not even that involved in the sport to kind of follow along. So yeah, I mean, I hope they, I hope they figure out a way to keep them around as long as they can, because he brings a lot of eyeballs. He brings a lot of attention. but I just don't know after this first race, what his feelings will be. We'll see. We'll see.

Josh (01:05:29.514)
He's more of a celebrity in the sport.

Jenna-Caer (01:05:42.254)
Absolutely. So who do we got for these podiums here? Start off again with you, Josh. Who do you think is going to take this win and bring it home? Early season hot race?

Josh (01:05:52.845)
Uh, man, man, man. Um, I'm to go against everything I just said and say, Yela is going to keep winning until someone, someone knocks them off. Uh, right. mean, when was the last time he lost? Uh, I wish he had a chance to be at Dubai, but we'll see him in the final, the grand final this year. Um, yeah, I'm to go with Yela and I think, I think Martin's still going to finish like third. I think this is going to be an attrition. we're going to have like Sam Long is going to run up into the top five or top 10.

Jenna-Caer (01:05:58.094)
Yeah, that's I

Josh (01:06:20.79)
Just because everyone, other people are just going to drop and, and that, that is what we are going to see at this race. And he is going to finish the race because he's coming from behind. And I think he'll, he'll just have that mindset. But I think upfront will be yellow. I don't know if Hayden gets on the podium. I think he epically crashes and like on the run and just, just the heat gets to him, until he proves us differently. Like he hasn't really handled this type of weather well in a big race. So.

Jenna-Caer (01:06:20.942)
short.

Matt Sharpe (01:06:23.243)
for sure.

Josh (01:06:50.572)
and then Tyler for third, think Tyler's ready to go.

Matt Sharpe (01:06:52.855)
Nice, nice.

Jenna-Caer (01:06:53.814)
Love it. How about you Matt? Who do you got here?

Matt Sharpe (01:06:56.727)
Yeah, I definitely like this, the smaller athletes at this race. Just, man, it's just so hot on that run. feel like, yeah, Yella for me, he's going to probably take the win. He's in great form. Like coming to this race, his swim isn't really going to hold him back too, too much. And if he's a little further back, he's got other guys who are going to come up with him and work with him to catch up. You know, he, him for the win, I think Hayden second.

Leo Bregère third, that's my podium. It's like a World Series race.

Jenna-Caer (01:07:28.93)
Fair enough. Okay. I'm going to go with Hayden for the win because he always kind of blows that last couple of miles and this is a couple of miles shorter. maybe he'll come in. There we go. And also, so this year they changed the Singapore course too. So instead of five laps, I think it's eight laps with that bridge and hill in it. So it's going to mean a lot of kind of that short punchy kind of up and down in there. I think he does well in that.

Matt Sharpe (01:07:39.197)
It is. Well thought out.

Josh (01:07:40.153)
And it's true.

Josh (01:07:56.501)
and knowing exactly where you stand a little bit more too with the extra laps.

Matt Sharpe (01:08:00.994)
Do they get in a lap before Sam gets out of the water?

Jenna-Caer (01:08:05.038)
I think they will like honestly with eight laughs. It's a possibility

Matt Sharpe (01:08:07.895)
I don't know.

Matt Sharpe (01:08:12.651)
We'll see. That's a good betting thing. If they had DraftKings for Triathlon, you could do a parlay on that.

Jenna-Caer (01:08:17.132)
That'd be great.

Josh (01:08:17.164)
I mean, I am in Boston. I'll go knock on their door.

Matt Sharpe (01:08:20.203)
Yeah

Jenna-Caer (01:08:22.702)
yeah, I'm going to go Hayden, Elegans and then Leroy Vergeer, or no, Vincent Louis. I'm going to say Vincent Louis is going to come back and start to do something big again in this middle distance. So I think he'll be good out there. Yeah. Well,

Matt Sharpe (01:08:31.863)
Nice.

Matt Sharpe (01:08:36.107)
gets a good pack. Vince's, Vince's always a good pack.

Jenna-Caer (01:08:40.344)
Quickly to wrap it up here, we have one thing we always ask our pros that come on the podcast, a couple of quickfire questions. Nothing too crazy, just to get to know you a little bit more, some random stuff. But we're gonna start off with, what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten during a race or training? Have you ever just been completely bonked at a gas station or somewhere random in the world and eaten something?

Matt Sharpe (01:08:59.895)
I think I've had like a pickle, one of those pickles or something, because I was just so dehydrated and just like, oh, I need salt. Give me the sodiums. Yeah, one of those like, I don't know, those pickles at a gas station. Gnarly. But yeah, one of those for sure.

Josh (01:09:00.256)
Yeah, figured.

Jenna-Caer (01:09:03.975)
yeah!

All this sodium.

Jenna-Caer (01:09:12.162)
That's a good one, that's a first actually.

Josh (01:09:15.2)
I had a feeling shop would come through on this one.

Matt Sharpe (01:09:17.463)
I'm sure there's weirder stuff, I just can't remember it. I was in a haze, a bonked haze.

Josh (01:09:20.478)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (01:09:22.418)
There we go. If you had to race an Ironman paired with another pro, who would it be and why? And this could be someone who will either push you to go faster or just someone you like spending time with that you'd want to spend that much time out on the course of them.

Matt Sharpe (01:09:35.933)
Yeah, it's interesting. mean, I always like racing with my friend, Kevin McDowell. So probably him. I think he would beat me in the end, but maybe because I have a bit more long course pedigree, we would like somehow meet up later in the run or something. I don't know. That could be fun. That could be fun for sure.

Jenna-Caer (01:09:49.528)
There you go. I like it. And if triathlon had a fourth discipline, what would be the most bizarre activity that you could add that would give you the edge in the race?

Josh (01:09:50.336)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Matt Sharpe (01:10:02.337)
They'll give me the edge in the race. The one thing that I'm really good at in, in actually like kind of triathlon sphere is band only swimming. So if they threw some band only swimming at the end, if it was like some bike run band only, man, I would just roll up so many people at the end. would be like, it's insane. Like sometimes I think I some better band only than like regular and people who I train with, they, know my band only skills. So yeah, it's kind of a weird one, but.

Jenna-Caer (01:10:11.946)
man.

Yeah. Just crush it.

Jenna-Caer (01:10:30.51)
Oh, I died a slow death on some band-only. like it. What's your guilty pleasure song that gets you pumped up either during training or race mornings or anything that really gets you fired up?

Matt Sharpe (01:10:31.979)
that would be. I know, I know, it's no one's favorite except for me.

Matt Sharpe (01:10:46.367)
I would say there's this one like on YouTube, it's called Two Friends. They're like DJs and they have this thing called Big Booty Mix and man, that just gets me fired up. It's just like those mashups of like pop songs or whatever kind of remix. They do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, and it's just so, the thing with this stuff is too, it's so reflective of our like, you know.

Josh (01:10:53.579)
There.

Josh (01:11:00.01)
You just got to stay updated because they keep throwing out new ones and like, all right, I got to get to like the number 20 volume 28 or 20.

Jenna-Caer (01:11:04.142)
You have to look this up.

Matt Sharpe (01:11:13.191)
little attention span, like you only get maybe snippets of like five to six seconds, maybe a little bit more of a song. And then it gets melded into something else. It's like, you know, your brain, it's like TikTok brain, but with music, I don't know. It's fun. So I like it. Not great for my attention span long-term, you know, I can't pay attention to anything, but big booty mix. Fire it up.

Josh (01:11:28.044)
Yeah, it is good.

Jenna-Caer (01:11:31.47)
Okay, check that out there. Then last question, what's a piece of advice you've been given over the years that's kind of resonated with you?

Matt Sharpe (01:11:43.105)
feel like a piece of advice, maybe from like a coach way back, I remember, you know, it's easy to get caught up in like numbers and hours of training a week, but really at the end of the day, it's about your intent in training, not necessarily like the content. I don't know if that necessarily makes sense, but I, for some reason that always stuck with me. And so, yeah, like I've talked about way back at the beginning of this, I feel like for me,

being able to stay healthy and be on the start line, make good decisions around training, kind of falls in line with that. just instead of focusing on like, I got to hit 30 hours this week. Well, what if you just nail 20, like perfect hours and you keep doing that? I don't know to me, you know, it's about the intent, not the content. there you go.

Josh (01:12:31.5)
Nice.

Jenna-Caer (01:12:32.814)
Yeah, it's actually been a common theme on our podcast here, how you can, you can do a training session or you can really do a training session. Completely different experience.

Matt Sharpe (01:12:39.709)
Yeah. I feel like one of the things this year for me in my training is like figuring out what's the best ROI for time. So I'm trying to like collect those nuggets of wisdom. Maybe I'll do like a book or something. I don't know on that. All right. For time. That's what we're all looking for.

Jenna-Caer (01:12:53.314)
There we go.

Josh (01:12:56.352)
There you go.

Jenna-Caer (01:12:57.294)
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for spending so much time with us here and helping us break down the races. And it was really great to get to know a little bit more about your experience within Triathlon. And we wish you all the best this season. Thanks for joining.

Matt Sharpe (01:13:08.311)
For sure. Thanks, gang. Thanks for having me. Lots going on this weekend. Yeah, let's go, mana. La fama.

Josh (01:13:09.79)
Actually, in that moniket, we didn't even get to last week. We didn't even get to last week. like, did Magnus throw down the hammer on the entire pro series? mean, yeah.

Jenna-Caer (01:13:14.633)
Hahaha.

Matt Sharpe (01:13:18.283)
He won. He won. Yeah, he's going to win the pro series. You heard it here for the millionth time, I'm sure.

Jenna-Caer (01:13:21.315)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (01:13:24.878)
absolutely insane. Well, we will be glued to all of the streaming services this weekend to watch all the racing go down and we will be back next week to break it down. Have a good day guys.

Matt Sharpe (01:13:34.2)
Cool, thanks for having me, gang.

Josh (01:13:34.221)
Okay,