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A 9th NZIM Title

posted: 6 March 2010

It was another exciting day for me yesterday as I took my 9^th Bonita New Zealand Ironman title, but things didn’t go my way for the first part of the race.

Conditions were fantastic for the 3.8km swim, flat calm waters greeted the 1300 athletes. The professionals started 15 minutes ahead of the age groupers as darkness was just lifting. I tried to get on the feet of Keiran Doe and Terenzo Bozzone, but Keiran blasted out of the blocks right from the cannon with Bozzone on his feet and I was left floundering in their wake. Bozzone was able to stay with Doe for the first few kilometres, and I swam the 3.8kms completely on my own, so limiting my losses was the only consolation. I thought I was a lot closer to them coming out of the water, until I heard over the PA I was four minutes down on Keiran and three minutes down on Terenzo. This was not the start I had planned, but I was feeling good so that was encouraging.

Riding strong on my Avanti Chrono.

Onto the bike I was anticipating to reel in Terenzo first, but I ended up catching Doe after 50kms and Terenzo was nowhere to be seen. Terenzo was tearing up the bike course and riding away from us like a man possessed. Every 10kms he was putting 30 seconds into me and by the halfway mark in the cycle he had a scary seven minute lead and by the 110kms it was eight minutes. I was averaging good wattage for the first half of the course so I was riding well, it was just Terenzo was riding better. My new Avanti Chrono which I have only been riding for a few weeks was feeling great as was I, so now it was time to start reclaiming some time to Terenzo. The last 70kms of the ride saw Terenzo’s lead decrease as the k’s went by. His lead had been pulled back to four minutes by 150kms and 10kms to go had diminished to one minute. Doe was still on my back wheel as we came into T2, where he’d been since I caught him 50kms into the 180km cycle.

Heading out to the turnaround.

As I exited the bike/run transition Terenzo was just over a minute ahead of me, with Keiran having a faster transition and 30 metres ahead. I was unsure how Terenzo was feeling going into the marathon, but by the time I had completed the town loop, his lead had halved and I could see him just ahead. At the 6km mark I was on his heels and I wanted to gap him straight away. Initially I pushed it out to 30 seconds pretty quickly, but then it plateaued and I was only putting in a few seconds every kilometre. I ran through the 21km mark in 1h20m (2h40m marathon pace) and at the final turn around at Five Mile Bay I had a four minute lead over Terenzo and nine minutes to Keiran. I was still feeling strong, but the wind was getting stronger and seemed to be taking a toll on all athletes.

Finally after completing the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run, I crossed the line to become an Ironman for the 32^nd time, a personal accomplishment none the less, but to take out the 26^th Bonita Ironman NZ title was another dream come true. It was my 9^th NZ Ironman title and a very special victory in front of a heap of family, friends, sponsors and supporters.

2010 New Zealand Ironman Champion