Ironman New Zealand 2014 race report- part 1: Pre race + swim

Firstly, it must be noted that this race the 30th anniversary race; IMNZ was one of the first Ironman races outside of Hawaii. It started off in Auckland with a sea swim, a rolling, tough, bike course and a waterfront run. The race moved to Taupo in 1999. This meant record numbers in 2014:-  1700 athletes registered ( ~1651 starters). The previous three times I have competed here there were only ~1100 athletes!

Sometime I wish was just a runner and only had to pack a pair of trainers.....

Secondly, many of the previous champions had been invited back to race in the age group category ; notably Scott Molina, Ken Glah, Jan Wanklyn.....awesome!

Dessert on Awards night

Weather forecast looked good for race day - Southwesterly breeze, chilly start but clear skies and sun for the whole day. Phew. I had had several nightmarish dreams in preceding weeks that we would encounter similar weather to that of 2011- torrential rain ALL DAY. Yah, yah- I know you can't control the weather and all you have to do is pack the appropriate clothing in your T1 bag but riding 180km in the pouring rain is miserable enough without the added insult of having to run a marathon with wet,  wrinkled feet.

Performance enhancing gear.

I slept reasonably well the night before and leapt out of bed, again forgetting about the sloping wooden beams in our holiday home attic bedroom and narrowly avoiding concussion. Just the demise of more brain cells.......

Breakfast was my tried and trusted pre race brekky of big cup of coffee, Em's chocolate oat explosion bar, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter and a banana. I decided it would be prudent to try force down a few more calories but all I could muster was another half banana and sipped on my electrolyte ( High 5 zeros+ water) drink.

Breakfast of champions ( banana missing!)

Once dressed and various lotions were applied ( Deep heat, sunscreen, Butt butter...) I got into my new SOAS black carbon racing kit and was ready to get this show on the road. Woo.
As we were dropped off at transition to pump tyres and switch on Garmins, it was quite chilly and I remembered alarmingly that I had not put my toe covers on my bike shoes; in fact I hadn't even given them a second thought. Oh well, too late now!

I spent ages ( as usual) putting my wettie on and making arm circles and angels in the fresh air, pretending I was a **swimmer**. Ha ha.

Z+I having a face off pre race

We watched the Maori waka come sailing round the corner and the haka on the grass then the pro athletes set off and soon it was time to get in the water, mostly as I was busting for a pee and needed enough time to sort out the goggle fogging situation. I couldn't remember ( being four years since I had raced in Taupo) where I normally line up for the swim - I try to seed myself about one third to halfway back from the start line - and thought it would be better to be closer to the buoy line as I really prefer not to swim any further than the designated distance! Having done Ironman Canada with a mass start of 2900 athletes and IM St George with ~1800 athletes ; I was not too worried about the extra numbers....... Hmmm.

Don't mess with the dudes who set off the start gun.....

I can't remember much other than bobbing around in the lake, a pink capped head amongst a sea of blue caps and other  pink caps intermittently placed; desperately trying to de mist my goggles then BOOM! , canon fired and we were off!

So glad thats over......!

Not much to say except I got absolutely pummelled in the first 500m and knew I was swimming at an effort a little higher than I would have liked but there was nowhere to go so just had to settle in and in the words of Dory -"Just keep swimming , just keep swimming". After a hard blow to the chest around the golf balls ( golf balls are visible on the lake bed ~ halfway up the swim course due to the hole in one putting thingy on the shore) I was getting rather anxious but repeating to self " its not personal, just keep swimming long, strong and smooth". By the time we were getting close tot he turnaround, I was blinded by the rising sun and could only hear the kayakers shouting "left, left, left" so wondered if we were inside the buoy line but i couldn't see so blindly kept swimming and then arrived at the large turn buoy - I was right beside it so got clocked once again; this time in my left eye but no damage done to goggles. Phew.
After the next turn buoy, I started to count the orange buoys and doing maths in my head...I knew the last one before we headed into shore was number 25 so was going to tick them off. However, I was under the impression the orange buoys were 50 m apart and the sums didn't add up?! Many strokes later, I solved the problem - 150m!
The southwesterly breeze was more evident on the return leg as there seemed like a very slight side on "swell" ( swell is rather an exaggeration but I can't find another word to describe properly...perhaps "rolling" is better...) although it could have been some wake from a boat, not sure. I had drifted a little and was annoyed with myself for straying off course slightly, not helped by the twat who whacked me with EVERY stroke for the next, oh.....250m. I think I thumped him on the leg or gave him an elbow as I was getting very pissed off. Is a pink cap a target for age group men to exert some of their muscle?

For the age group men at IMNZ...

Much to my delight, buoy number 25 had been replaced by a large yellow M dot turn buoy then it was a straight swim into the beach. I swam as far as I could and when stood up in the shallows the clock said 1h 11:30 but my time to the timing mat was 1h12:00. I'll take that ( my fastest time here is 1h11:58 and slowest 1h13:00 so no complaints. I am such a talented swimmer that from my first ironman to my seventh, I have only knocked off 1 minute. Pffffft.

Still can't get those dam sleeves off!!

Fumbled a bit ttrying to get my my sleeves off and lost both my swim caps. Hrrrrrmph. Transition in Taupo is ~ 400m run including a steep flight of stairs so you end up at VO2 max before you have even mounted your bike!

Next exciting instalment coming soon.......