Ironman New Zealand 2003
1 March 2003 – Taupo, New Zealand

“This time, no screwin’ around.”
That was what Gordo told me before the race. He usually gives his athletes one tip to focus on for their “A” races. Sometimes he’ll have one tip for each leg, or just one tip overall. At both my previous IMs I mentally lost it on the run. This was screwing around. Any time spent walking the marathon was screwing around. Any time spent getting over-excited and redlining my heart rate on the bike was screwing around.I had my orders, and, well, there would be no screwin’ around.

Gordo also named my gremlin, Bob. We all have a personal gremlin. That’s that little voice in your head that tells you what you can’t do or how much you suck. So when it came to race day, my mantra was “No screwin’ around, Bob.”

Pre-Race

I can’t say enough about how awesome it was up there in Taupo. What a great town. Ally and I stopped in at a fresh produce store and when the woman that ran it learned that we were there for the race, she asked us to write our name, country and race number on a whiteboard placed in the window so she could follow us on the radio while she worked on race day.

Yes that’s right, on the radio! The local radio station was devoted completely to Ironman. They had regular spots about the event, the volunteers, what it is and what it takes, and they had little radio spots and interviews with the pros and big names. On our drive into Taupo we heard an interview with Julie Moss. On race day they broadcasted live from the finish line. Did I mention what a cool place Taupo was?

I was feeling pretty relaxed all week. I was about to toe the line of a race that I wouldn’t be standing there thinking, “did I train enough?” or “if I’d only done that one workout...” After six weeks of some serious training with Gordo, I was confident that I had what it took to get through this race in good shape. Hitting 26-hr training weeks leading up, I couldn’t have done anymore than I did.

It wasn’t until the day before that I got all excited about the race. Ironman is such a cool thing to be able to do. I just love it. Speaking of which, when putting reflective stickers on my special needs shirt I had the urge to be creative. Instead of cutting out little square strips, I cut out letters. The final product: a happy face with “I LUV THIS” underneath. I figured it would be a good reminder when things went south.

So, I’ve done my training, I’m rested, my race bags are packed, I’m fully carbo-loaded, my bike is checked in, and now the best part begins...

“Boom! Ready or not...” – P.O.D.

It was a beautiful and warm morning over Lake Taupo when we woke up at 4am. I hadn’t slept much that night, maybe three hours at best. After some breakfast and last-minute checks of the special needs bags, we were off to the race start to get numbered and go about our pre-race rituals.

Ready to go, we wandered down to the beach early to suit up for the start. I stood chest deep in the lake waiting for the starting gun as the sun peaked its head over the horizon and danced on the tops of the hills across the lake. I can’t think of too many ways better than this to start a day.

There was a three-light countdown to the canon, each light one-minute apart. That last minute seemed to last forever. Finally, the canon blasted, I wished Ally a great day (this was her first IM), and my third Ironman adventure was underway.

The swim was pretty uneventful overall. It was an out-n-back along the shoreline, then another 600 meters to the exit in the river mouth. The water was crystal clear — you could see rays of sunlight reaching down to the bottom and all around you. Not quite the fish bowl clear of Kona, but a close second.

I hit the turnaround pretty fast and effortless. Don’t know what happened on the return though. Seemed to me there was a current — of course, I was the only one that felt it. ;-) I had to work a little more on the return and had trouble finding feet to draft off. I finally made it to the exit, got hauled out of the water by three volunteers (it was a deep-water exit, too) and calmly trucked on up the stairs to T1. My swim time was a few minutes slower than Lake Placid last year, but I didn’t care. I was happy with it and happy to be out of the water.

Ally was sitting there when I ran into the T1 tent. We said a quick ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ and she was off with a big smile. There were no wetsuit strippers here like at the North American races, but the volunteers were happy to help with anything you needed. Unfortunately, the volunteer helping me was having more trouble than I getting my wetsuit off. I was hoping to do a little better with my transition this time. Both IMC and IMUSA were seven-minute T1s. Looks like I still need some work on that one.

Swim 2.4 Miles: 1:25:56
T1: 8:00

“Keep it rollin’, rollin’ rollin’, hey!” – Limp Bizkit

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a bike ride! It was warm at the start of the bike with a little cloud cover and a gentle breeze. Less than 10 minutes into the two-loop bike course was a short hill. Its easy enough to make think you can hammer it, but second time around it can come back and bite you hard. I started out on the first loop very easy. There would be no screwin’ around today. I was going to ride disciplined. I was going to ride at slightly below steady pace the whole way. I wasn’t going to get all hyper and do the song-n-dance thing on the bike. I was going to ride my race and nothing was going to interfere with that.

I think every single person that I beat out of the water passed me in the first 20K. I wasn’t troubled by it though. I had mentally set myself in for a long ride, besides, they’d all come back to me. Especially the ones that were huffing and puffing up the hill — at the start of the first loop!

When we got our gear bags, there were stickers with our names that we could put on our race numbers. As I was reading the names of those who passed me, or I them, one name made me giggle — “Justin Paine”. Was that for real? I almost yelled at him, “Are you?!”

The bike course here is beautiful. It meanders along through the rolling New Zealand countryside. When we did our recon drive, it seemed like it was downhill all the way out AND downhill all the way back! Out there on the bike it seemed to be a very fair course to me — no major down, no major up, nothing too hard, but it was deceiving. It was too easy to go out too hard and blow up on the second loop — which several people did.

I really loved this course. It was my kind of course — flats, rollers, a couple short hills, through both farmland and forest, and the best part is a nice downhill into town/T2.

So far so good. I was now cruising along just below steady pace, focused and feeling great. Remember all those people that were passing me at the start? It only took 40K for me to start reeling them back in. I love this stuff!

Coming up to the turnaround I saw Ally. She had about four minutes on me. Heading back in more and more people started coming back to me — including a guy that went past me puffing up the hill at the start. “That’s what you get for hammering, Homer!”

At the 90K mark I passed a smiling Ally. Special needs was set up just at the top of the hill on the second loop. When I stopped the volunteer asked me where I was from. Just as I finished saying, “Canada,” Ally pulled up. I pointed to her and said, “and that’s my twin. She’s from Australia.” He gave me a funny look as I took off with a giggle.

This is where I had to keep myself in check. I was heading out on the second loop feeling fantastic. The song-n-dance mode was starting to kick in, but I remembered my mistakes from Lake Placid. I also had a mantra to recite. Instead of getting all hyper and burning up valuable energy, I just said aloud, “No screwin’ around, Bob.” Then hummed a little Limp Bizkit and woohooo’d softly under my breath and smiled. Bob backed off and I rode on.

I don’t know what it was about this bike ride, but I kept on rollin’, kept focused the whole way, maintained my pacing and felt like the day was still just beginning. It seemed to go by fast and before I knew it I was rolling back into town.

I rolled up to T2 with a look at the race clock — 7:29:52. Oh man! Don’t make me get off here! I have to go sub-7:30! Ugh, couldn’t clip out and run over the mat before 29 clicked over to 30. That’s okay, still good for a 31-minute bike PR. :-)

I was so stoked about the split that I ran through T2 and was out in four minutes. This made me even happier. Both IMC and IMUSA were nine-minute T2s. Yay, I got a PR in T2! ;-)

Bike 112 Miles: 7:30:02
T2: 4:14

“Gettin’ closer to the prize at the end of the rope.” – Foo Fighters

As happy as I was about my bike, I didn’t want to celebrate just yet. I had a marathon to run now and any mistakes I made on the bike were going to make themselves known over the next 26 miles.

The run started off heading into town, past the finish line, around the Great Lake Center, and then back out of town to the turnaround at Five Mile Bay (it was a six-mile run to Five Mile Bay. Just sayin’). We had to do this loop twice. As I was running through town, the streets were lined with spectators all yelling my name and cheering me on. I have to say, I was feeling mighty fine. Nine hours later and the day was still just beginning.

There were a few hills on the run course, but they were the kind you really can’t justify walking — they’re too long and gradual to walk, so you shorten your stride and run. I didn’t find them hard though. Not until the last 10K — downhill was getting a little painful by then. ;-)

It was pretty hot at the start of the run and the intense sun was biting at my skin. I was hoping we’d get a little cloud cover to ease that, and I soon got my wish. A storm cell rolled across the backside of the run course and cooled things off mighty quick. It was raining so hard it was falling from the ground up. Shortly past the 10K mark I was completely drenched with two full soakers and running through little rivers. Then the wind kicked in and it started raining sideways. It was so refreshing and so much fun I couldn’t stop from laughing. The storm cell passed over in less than 30 minutes and then it was warm and sunny again, like it never happened. S’all good, I say. :-)

In my last two IMs I had a couple pretty good mental breakdowns on the run. I kept expecting it to hit me here and had it all planned out how I was going to tell Bob not to screw around. I had broken the run down into four 11K sections and figured the third section would be where Bob would try and mess with me.

Funny thing happened though, I just kept on running and smiling and joking with the volunteers and spectators. I was feeling good, my mind was clear and focused, my body was holding up well. My only issue was that I had to stop at pretty much every bloody porta-potty. Sheesh! I was getting pretty close to classifying that as screwin’ around and just going on the move. Luckily for those that had to drive home with me later, it didn’t quite reach that point. ;-) I do have to say, however, those porta-potties were pretty posh!

As it turned out, I had gained 1.5kg during the race. “Drink a lot?” was the first thing the med volunteer said. Uh... ;-)

Into the last turnaround still feeling great, still in the game and heading for home. I thanked the volunteers for a lovely evening and said I’d see them next year. My quads were really starting to pack it in by now, but I kept on running and started to pick the pace up a little. I had my groove on and once I hit that last 11K mark, I knew there’d be no visits from Bob. Hmmm... must have scared him off on the bike earlier.

Looking at my watch and doing a little calculation, I saw myself heading in for a major PR on both the run and the overall distance. All the way into town people were still lining the streets drinking and cheering. Everyone that passed by in cars honked their horns and yelled out encouragements. Taupo really gets into the race here — it’s a lot like Penticton in that respect.

Of course, I had to stop at the last porta-potty on the final mile. Rounded the final corner and down into the finish chute. Man, I love that finish chute. It was downhill on grass and I was running flat out high-fiving every outstretched hand along the way. I jumped over the line with a clock just ticked over to the 15th hour, a new run PR by just over half an hour, and a new PR on the distance by 90 minutes. Yeah, Baby! That’s what I’m talking about! ;-)

Run 26.2 Miles: 6:00:02
Overall: 15:08:15

Post race I felt fantastic. My quads were pretty much shot, but I still had energy to burn. I had myself a great day out there. I also accomplished a goal I had set at mile 11 on the marathon in Lake Placid last year. I did not want to be a 16-hr finisher anymore. Not only did I meet and beat that goal, I realized that I have it in me to go even faster — and I will.

Man, I love this stuff! I’ll definitely be back to race IMNZ again next year.