History Lesson

This is a pic from Tuesday's ride out on the far end of the bike leg. Its taken about 15km from Hawi, looking back towards Kona, which is on the coast as far away as you can see (approx 70km away). This is not how I want the weather to be on race day - I want overcast, and no direct sun! It makes a big difference. I experienced this today, when I did a 90 min ride with intervals. I was working hard, and with an overcast day I found it warm, but not unpleasant. Maybe after six days here I'm also getting acclimatised.

I figured that its time to mention why I've chosen to invest nearly two years of my time, not to mention thousands of dollars of money, into this race. Well, in a way, I actually blame you, Mr Sean Waters, along with your partner in crime, Mark Rayward.

In mid 2006 the three of us were out on a 'mission' on Mount Bradley, which translated means a mountain bike/run session of a couple of hours following our noses (which is always a recipe for a hard time when Mark is there). Along with Rob Gathergood, a few months previously we'd come in as the first NZ team home in the Oxfam Trailwalker in Taupo, a 100 km cross-country circuit that we decided to run, rather than walk. That was an interesting 13.5 hours...

Anyway, when we weren't excessively panting, we were talking about what our next challenges might be. I casually mentioned that I was contemplating doing the Ironman again, with the aim of qualifying again for the world champs in Hawaii. I'm sure there was some one-upmanship going on; I should have kept my thoughts to myself...and I wouldn't have put myself through this again...and contemplating the hardship that is now only eight days away...

As I've already mentioned, both Teresa and I completed this race in 1988. From my perspective, I took the whole experience of qualifying for, and competing in, the Hawaiian Ironman pretty much for granted at the time. Sure, it wasn't easy to place well in the Ironman in Auckland to gain a spot, but I didn't realise at the time just how well I was racing, and how hard it is to get one of the elusive slots.

Racing the Ironman in Hawaii is a profound experience. It remains the iconic triathlon in the world, period. The race conditions are pretty brutal - finishing an Ironman distance race (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike and 42.2 km run) is tough enough at the best of times, but here the heat takes it to another level. Its also very special lining up alongside the best in the world.

Coming back after 21 years is a statement to myself, and a bit of journey of personal achievement. I need to have something slightly intimidating lurking on the horizon, but also something that I know is achievable if the necessary work is done to get there. If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space, or something like that. So, being back here is very satisfying, as its been a significant and hard-earned challenge re-qualifying, and then putting in the huge volume of training through the winter.

Mind you, Teresa may have retired from ironman racing many years ago, but she's into something much worse. Her endurance horse racing, where they race one horse over 160 km in one day is, as far as I'm concerned, sheer masochism.