For this race you have to have your bike racked before 7pm on Friday night which does make Saturday morning just that little bit more less stressful. Going to bed Friday night & the wind was fair howling, so I expected it to blow again on Saturday. How hard would be the question ??
Race morning.
Up at 4am for the morning feed & a quick look outside showed some wind & overcast conditions. Went about all the normal things you do on race morning & for once this year I actually felt a little nervous. Hardest thing was waking the kids up & getting them moving.
Down at transition prepared all my gear & made my way down to the start area with not much time to spare. This year the organisers moved the transition area up to Tongariro Domain ( like IMNZ ), which would mean the long 600m run to T1.
Swim.
We had the National Anthem sung then it was time for the action to start. Swimming in a lake has to be the best thing ever & when the gun went we were off. Had a reasonably good swim down to the turn-around buoy which was 860m down, then out 70m to the 2nd buoy. Here I really managed to find some space & rhythm & had a good swim back up to the turn marker & up to the beach stopping the clock at 37:58. Happy with this.
T1.
Yes there is a 600m run along a flat road followed by some steep stairs which take you up to the transition area. Once again I struggled to get the wetsuit off. This time it was just sucked onto me & just didn't want to come off. Never mind I just did what I had to do, got my gear on & headed for the bike exit knowing by this stage that we were going to in for a long bike ride as the wind was already picking up & it's only just gone 7am. This transition was a bit long & slow but oh well. Time 6:41.
Bike.
This year the bike course changed as well. I thought the changes would make the bike more enjoyable & it certainly was. If these changes work then don't be surprised to see them used at IMNZ.
We headed out to the Napier - Taupo Rd & climbed that up to the new East Taupo Arterial Rd then over to Broadlands Rd & straight out to Reperoa. The wind by this stage was starting to get up & blew us down the 1st 15 km's or so. Was having a good slingshot ride here with an other competitor & we were humming along. Down onto the flat section & the wind was a left to right crosswind but nothing to bad. By this stage I had decided to let the other person go & just settle into my race pace. Nutrition was going good & I was feeling great. Now I had a few mates / training buddies in this race also & I knew a couple of them were ahead of me in the swim, so it was as we got closer to the turn-around that I started looking to see were they were. Finally spotted 1 of them & we gave a wave to each other. ( Now I wasn't out there just to beat him but it does give you something to aim for ). Now as we turned it became very apparent that the wind had got up & was going to make the return 45km's quite difficult.It was the last 30km's which were the hardest as we slogged straight into it & the speed came right down.
Now the course also had a small change to it as you now went down a side road for 600m. It was whilst down this road I saw my mate & I had caught up heaps. I thought to myself just keep doing what your doing & you should get him by the end of the bike. That is what I hoped but that all changed as I was about 10km's from the end by rear tyre went down costing me 10 mins. Never mind just change it & get going.
Offical time 3:02:31, bike computer time 2:52:21.
T2.
Quick run with the bike round transition then into it to find your bike slot. Fairly quick here & off running in pursuit of me mate. Time 2:45
Run.
Firstly I had to stop for a nature call costing me another minute or so. ( This might come back to haunt me ). Settled into a good pace & started on the run nutrition. The run course also changed this year but nothing major & nothing that I hadn't ever run before in Taupo. With it being a 2 lap course there was plenty of time to see people you know & give them encouragement. After the 1st lap I had taken heps out of my good mate. LOL . I had now changed my game plan slightly. My whole approach for the day & especially the run was to finish feeling like I had more to give & wanted to keep running. Now I still wanted to finish like that but I had a burning desire to catch him. So on the 2nd lap a bit more intensity came into my running & I picked up the pace but kept my form strong. I really enjoyed it as I went on the hunt. Unfortunately I never got him & as I entered the finsh chute he was just crossing the line.
Never mind that wasn't what I set out to do today but it sure would have felf good to run him down. Unfinished business at IM. Stopped the clock for a run split of 1:53:27 & overall time of 5:43:22.
Nice work. That wind really does sound nasty - glad I wasn't doing it!
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