Windy Waihi.

Sunday morning dawned reasonably fine but very windy. At least that was an improvement on Saturday's weather. We packed the family into the car & headed 40 mins north of Tauranga to the small mining town of Waihi for the inaugural Newmont Waihi Gold Town Duathlon.

Race HQ was the Waihi Rugby Club. After a short race brief the long distance race got under way at 9:15am. Starting with an 8km run, which was 2 laps of the Gold Mine on a gravel walking track. Before the race I had heard a local say uphill & headwind in the same sentence when describing the course. How correct he was!!! 1km into the run & bang up quite a steep grind. I just took it easy for the 1st lap then built into it for the 2nd & managed to pass a number of people going up the hill. At the top it over looked the mine & had a great view of the greater Waihi area. Each lap the family gave me words of encouragement. I don't know who was doing it tougher, me in the race or them freezing in the howling gale.

Onto the 4 lap, 20km bike leg & it started with a nice tailwind , followed by severe crosswinds then straight into the wind up the hill. By the 4th lap it was getting tough. Besides the downhills the most enjoyable part was going through town with the tailwind. Reached speeds up to 50km/hr along the flat. I started getting a sore calf when I got out of the saddle so hoped it wouldn't stop me from running.

Luckily it didn't & I got round the 4km last lap in one piece. The finish was on the soft rugby field so was no chance of a sprint finish.

Was happy with my offical time of 1:41:58 & 6th place for the long course race.

Managed to pick up a spottie ( sports bag ). Kids got a good look @ the mine & wife got to watch for once so all in all a good day.

Headed home & did the afternoon swim squad.

The rest of the weeks training went well. Now this weekend I've got the Okoroire 70km fun ride on Sunday so hoping for fine weather.

Will add some photos at some stage.