Sam Gyde joins the endurance Junkie ranks

On a mission to race his second Ironman Hawaii in 2011, Belgian triathlete Sam Gydé joins the endurance Junkie ranks. As a member of the Test Team, Sam has helped extensively in developping the Sportwool Race Suit and will use the suit in his upcoming races at Ironman Canada and Ironman Florida.

Sam is as busy as a bee and lives life to the fullest. Bitten by the triathlon bug about six years ago, he had nowhere to go but forward. After some short distance racing, a half Ironman and the 3/4 distance race of Gérardmer in France, Sam participated in his first Ironman in Austria in 2007.

After finishing his rookie race in a time of 9h29'09", he set out on a quest to one day race Ironman Hawaii. It only took him two attempts, qualifying at Ironman Frankfurt in 2009.

"The cool thing about training for Ironman is that it gives you plenty of time to think", says Sam. "I struggled with the fact that besides myself, no one else was benefiting from my training. So I decided to race Kona and raise money for Abajaa! - a local Belgian charity - at the same time by having family and friends sponsor my race miles." Raising nearly € 2.000, Sam eventually finished Ironman Hawaii in the top 100 with a time of 9h29'16".

Check out Sam’s blog (in Dutch).