Well 2008 has flown by and today I find myself in 2009. Since racing Ironman Western Australia I have taken a 2 week break and began training again last week. The first week back is always hard especially swimming but now I am feeling alright. The year ended with some of the most challenging sessions of the year. It has been hot here, which I love as it makes the training that much harder. I have trained a lot in the heat this year, South of France, Cairns, Singapore, Kona, but nothing compares to training in the harsh New Zealand sun. Living out in Oxford it is usually about 6 degrees warmer than Christchurch and without the cooling sea breeze and the last few days have been around 35 degrees. I broke my helmet and so have had to train with my aero helmet and my head feels like it is going to explode especially when doing hill reps. On Tuesday I did a run intervals session and I was running on the road, and the road had completely melted, not just in patches but the whole road. Lilly and Raro got tar and stones stuck in their paws and my racing flats are no longer lightweight! I loved it as it was so challenging and I was so exhausted at the end I ran straight into a road sign!
So Brett and I have a bit of an adventure planned for the start of 2009. I am going to bike around the South Island and Brett, Lilly and Raro are coming in the car. We will be camping along the way and the first part of the journey will cover the Catlins, Southland and Fiordland before we travel to Wanaka for the Challenge Wanaka race. After the race we will cover the West Coast, Nelson, Golden Bay, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson lakes and then return to Oxford. I’m not sure how far it is or how long it will take, it’s all part of the adventure, and of course we will be doing lots of running and swimming along the way too.
I wish everyone a very happy and successful 2009.

I am so excited that Ceepo is now the official bike of ironman. I have been riding Ceepo for the past year and my cycling has gone from strength to strength. Below is the official press release. For New Zealand info you can visit www.ceepo.com.au

Tampa Bay, FL (December 18, 2008) – Ironman is pleased to announce its new licensing deal with Ceepo, a triathlon-focused bicycle company recognized for its innovative designs. The agreement establishes Ceepo as the “Official Bicycle Partner” via a multi-year global licensing deal, with new branded product available beginning January 2009. Additional models, such as the Ironman “Viper” and the Ironman “Katana” will be released in late spring.
“As a 14-time Ironman finisher, I recognize Ironman’s brand recognition in the sport of triathlon and worldwide. It was a goal of mine to partner with Ironman and I am thrilled that we will be working together in the coming year. I look forward to a successful journey ahead,” says Ceepo President, Joe Tanaka.
CEEPO was formed in Aichi, Japan in 2002 with the primary goal of constructing only the highest grade of bicycle carbon frames, specifically designed for non-drafting triathlon races. The company has grown rapidly, under the leadership of Nobuyuki Tanaka, its founder and Chief Executive Officer. The CEEPO brand has become a household name in Japan where it remains the market leader. In 2007, CEEPO International was launched and now has distribution channels on five continents. The current Ceepo frames known as Venom, Killer and Stinger will be supplemented in 2009 by the Ironman “Viper” and Ironman “Katana” models.
“Partnering with Ceepo was attractive to us because of their advanced aerodynamic platforms and the quality of their bikes,” stated Sponsorship and Licensing Manager for Ironman, Andy Giancola.
World Triathlon Corporation, owners of the Ironman brand, is a Florida-based company recognized for athletic excellence, performance and quality products. With the addition of the Ironman 70.3 Series launched in early 2006, Ironman now has 55 qualifying events worldwide. Supported by partners that include Ford Motor Company, Dell, Timex and Gatorade, Ironman is the No.1 user-based sports brand in the world. Ironman has been a respected name in triathlon since its inception more than 30 years ago and is regarded as the world’s most challenging endurance event. Each year, more than 90,000 athletes compete for slots in the Ford Ironman World Championship held every October in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and the Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 held every November in Clearwater, FL. Both World Championship events are broadcast on NBC and boast 14 Emmy Awards to date.
To learn more about Ceepo, visit www.ceepo.com. For additional Ironman information, log on to www.ironman.com.

Well today I was able to add to my list of Ironman victories. One interesting fact is that it seems I only win races beginning with W. First Ironman Wisconsin, then the Challenge Wanaka ironman distance event and now Ironman Western Australia. It is always so exhilarating to win. I love the feeling and I was so happy to also have the added bonus of going under nine hours for the second time this year and breaking the course record. It wasn’t an easy race for me. Like most ironman events you are dealt your fair share of problems to contend with and often a result is a reflection of how well you are able to deal with what comes your way. In my nine ironman events to date I can say that there is only one which was a perfect race and that was Challenge Wanaka.
To begin the day I had just started warming up in the water when I was stung on the chin by a jelly fish so now I have a great big blister covering my whole chin. I was very happy with my swim however, as I was the first women out in just over 50 minutes. The swim is an out and back course around the Busselton Pier and it was a rough one for me. I got 3 punches in the eyes each time knocking off my goggles and I had to do some backstroke to get them back on each time as I can’t deal with salt water in my eyes.
Onto the bike it was quite cold the first 60km lap and my toes were numb. I was so lucky for this race to have a Zipp disc wheel. Thanks so much to Jianni from FRF sports (www.frfsports.co.nz) for giving me this disc, it was absolutely awesome to ride. It arrived on Friday evening and I was at first unsure if I should use it in this race as I have never ridden a disc before and I didn’t have much time to practice, but I rode it that night and it was so fast I couldn’t believe it, and as this course is completely flat it was the perfect race to use it and I’m very glad I did. After the first lap I already had a huge lead and then I started to feel even better in the 2nd lap as I warmed up. But at the 80km mark my left aero bar came lose and my aero drink bottle was now sideways. I didn’t want to stop to fix it as I really didn’t want to give away any time and I discovered that I could keep riding it by holding it in place with one hand and pushing my aero drink bottle with the other. It was a pain though as I couldn’t really take my hands off the bars and I also totally lost my focus and my pace slowed as I worried it would get worse. Luckily it didn’t. I was aiming for a 4.50 and was on track for that until the problem but in the end I had to settle for a 4.56 which was still the fastest women’s bike-split of the day.
As I said in my last update I have been working so hard on my cycling since Hawaii. My much improved biking is also partly due to the bike set-up by Greg Fraine which has put me into a much more aero and also more powerful position. I believe Ceepo (www.ceepo.com) is the fastest bike on the market (designed specifically for ironman) but it is also so important that the rider is in a good position, and I unfortunately was not. I also made changes to where I put my drink bottles and that has also helped. The aim is that when I turn up to Hawaii next year, cycling will no longer be a weakness.
My biggest mistake in this race is that I simply didn’t eat or drink enough on the bike. At the end of the bike ride I felt incredibly hungry and was dehydrated. So it was not the greatest to begin a marathon feeling like this. I felt dizzy throughout the race and I thought I could fall apart at any minute. I stuffed in half a banana at nearly every aid station at the beginning but it was not having any affect so I tried some of the gels on offer and this helped a bit. I would feel ok for a km or so and then back to hungry and thirsty. I think it is too late once you begin running to try and re-hydrate, you just can’t get enough from a few sips every 2 or 3 km. So it was not a nice experience and I was amazed I held together so well. I had Charlotte Paul the defending champion running strongly behind me, but in the end she was only able to take back 2 or 3 minutes from me and I ended up winning by around 7 minutes. As usual I never run with a watch and it was so exciting to see 8.59 as I ran down the finish chute.
Brett was great support for me today. With the race being a 3 lap affair on both the bike and the run I was able to see him often and it is always such a boost. I’d like to say thanks to the Ironman Western Australia race organisers for putting on such a well organised race, and for having me back here. Also a big thank you to all my sponsors who have helped me throughout 2008. Ceepo, Orca, Blue Seventy, FRF sports, Oakley, Em’s power cookies and Fi’zi:k and particularly AMP for believing in me and giving me the AMP scholarship for 2008. And lastly a big thank-you to my coach Greg Fraine for the bike set-up and for helping me so much with my cycling.
So now I will have another break and then I will be racing both Challenge Wanaka and Ironman New Zealand over the summer. I am also excited about biking around the entire South Island in-between racing Wanaka and Taupo, it will be superb training!

We are now based out in Oxford (about 50km inland from Christchurch) which is set amongst the mountains and is a perfect training base with unlimited running tracks in the Oxford forest and heaps of quiet roads for cycling. Brett’s parents have been kind enough to allow us to stay here over the summer months.
Since being back I have been really busy with Orchestra work. We’ve had quite a few concerts and last week we played five performances with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. It is great fun and it keeps me busy. Without this work I find there is too much down time as a triathlete. I have never been the type of person who can rest easily. I can quite easily put in a 35 hour training week and still have plenty of energy to spare and then get a little bored, so this other side of my life is a perfect compliment.
My training has been going very well. I have been putting a great deal of energy into my bike legs. A few weeks ago my coach Greg was down in Christchurch and he was able to have a look at my bike set-up and we made quite a few changes. My seat was too low and my handlebars too high. Now I am in a much more aero position with a flatter back and I also feel a lot more powerful. In training we have added a lot more intensity into some of the sessions and I am feeling good and much, much faster. I always have done all my training alone which means that often I don’t get pushed very hard. Brett is coming out with me in a couple of my crucial sessions and consequently I am training harder than ever before. Hopefully these changes will have an impact on my races over the next few months but really I am looking to develop into a much stronger cyclist for when I return to Hawaii next year.
I have also had the great fortune since being back to pick up a few really great sponsors. Em’s Power Cookies are founded by Emily Miazga who has won the famed Coast to Coast twice and is also a qualified nutritionist. She has developed a special sports cookie and more recently sports bars. You can check them out on www.powercookies.com.
I have also been lucky enough to obtain Fi’zi:k as a sponsor. They have given me a great saddle (Arione carbon tri 2) which weighs about 100g less than my old saddle and is also a lot more comfortable to sit on for all those bike hours! They also have gel pads for my aero bars. Over the last year I have started to form bony lumps where my arms are placed on the aerobars and I didn’t even realize how unnecessarily uncomfortable I was until I had those gel pads. Thanks Fi’zi:k!
So next up for me in 2 weeks time is Ironman Western Australia. I loved traveling to this race last year and am so happy to be able to go back there. Last year I finished second but didn’t have a good race. I was too excited and didn’t sleep at all for 2 whole nights before the race, then I had a really bad swim finishing about 4 minutes down off the lead girls when I am used to being at the front, and then I biked for the last 60km with one arm as I had been so stupid to lower my aerobars by about 12cm just one week out from the race. So of course this year I would like to do better and I will be aiming for my fastest time on a very fast course.

Well my first Hawaii experience has come and gone and as the goal had been a top ten finish I was very happy to get eighth. Here is how my build up to the race and the race progressed.
I arrived in Kona nearly 2 weeks before the race to give myself time to look at the course properly. It was great to get out there and do some proper training on the course and Kona is a very nice place to train. The public swimming pool is free! Or else you can train on the swim course where three times I swam with turtles! Others swam with dolphins but I never got to see them. The bike course is mostly on a highway on smooth roads with a very wide shoulder so you don’t have to worry about cars. It was never very windy on the days I trained on my bike so the race was really the first time I got to experience the Kona trade winds and it was quite an experience. Coming from a race in Singapore I found Kona much cooler and very comfortable for running.
The swim was an out and back course following the coast to a turn point around a sail boat and back. The professionals started at 6.45am with around 100 men and 60 women. I didn’t enjoy the swim much as I found myself stuck in a very large pack of men and around 5 other girls and I was knocked around a lot to say the least. I tried to keep to the edge as much as possible and some relief came at the turn point as I got to lead the group for around 500m but then a bunch of men swam right over top of me. The last part back along side the pier was a mad scramble as people wanted to gain every last second. I tried to stay out of the way but to no avail.
So out of the swim and onto the bike. Like probably most people I ended up swallowing a lot of the sea water and it really took me a while to get into my rhythm on the bike. I found the bike ride quite tough. The wind didn’t kick in until around 50k at which point there was a strong head wind. We then traveled up a hill to the turn around at Hawi and turned around at 95km and came back down and then we faced some nasty crosswinds for around the next 15km. I found it very hard to hold my front wheel straight as the winds came in violent gusts from many directions and sometimes it would blow you towards the oncoming bikes and sometimes towards the road edge. I road quite conservatively during this section as I really didn’t want to fall off and I felt that I could at any moment. So I lost a bit of time here. Once through this section the wind had changed direction meaning we had a strong headwind all the way back to finish. My cycling has really improved a lot this year but I didn’t get to demonstrate this on the day as these conditions were so different to anything I have raced in before. I think being a little bit smaller than many of my competitors (I’m currently just under 50kg) made it a little bit more difficult for me in the winds but I can definitely work at improving on this as in Christchurch the strong North West winds we experience here in the summer where it gusts to sometimes 100-120km/hr is very similar. Now that I live in Oxford (50km inland from Christchurch) where the winds are even stronger I will get even more opportunity to practice. I have always focused on using this as a strength factor where as now I need to look at not losing too much speed in these conditions.
So I came off the bike in 13th I believe and felt very comfortable on the run. By halfway I was into 7th but then relaxed a bit too much and at a turn around point at around 13k to go I saw I didn’t have a very big gap to 8th or 9th so I picked up the pace. In my previous seven ironmans I have always had a very good last 10km so I believed I would hold on to 7th but at 10km to go I felt like I was going to pass out. I only eat bananas and coke on the run but kept missing bananas at nearly every aid station as no-one seemed to understand my accent! And I really didn’t want to stop which may have been a mistake. A lovely man at one of the aid stations had chased me down the road with a banana but I don’t think I quite was able to get in all the calories I needed. I drank a whole cup of Coke and pulled myself together and started to pull away a little from Bella in 8th but at 4 miles to go I got very nasty stomach pains in my intestines. I haven’t had this since my first ironman last year where I had to walk 4-5 km so not sure why it happened but it did and it was most disappointing when Bella came past and I could not challenge her at all. I could do nothing but shuffle as best I could to the end and my pace dropped quite significantly and I lost several minutes. In the end I was very lucky this didn’t occur before 4 miles from the end as there was only a few seconds separately me from 9th position. I was exhausted at the finish line. I have never been exhausted before and have always finished with plenty in reserve so at least I know I had given it my all so I am happy. I have a lot now that I can take away and try and improve upon for next year.
I would like to thank AMP. In August I found after applying for the AMP scholarship back in June that I had been selected as one of 15 people from a vast variety of backgrounds to gain a $10 000 scholarship to help me reach my goal. My goal was to gain a top 10 finish at the 2008 World Championships and to be able to continue training and racing in 2009. The scholarships were only announced to the public two days before the race. The $10 000 will do a great deal for me to keep living this dream for a while longer but the thing that has helped me most is having the belief of a company such as AMP that I could achieve the goal I wanted to achieve. To learn more about the AMP scholarship programme please visit www.amp.co.nz/templates/Page.aspx?id=6945.
I would like to thank my sponsors for helping me so much in this race. Blue seventy provided me with their latest version of the point zero 3 which covers the knees and is very, very fast. Ceepo with my amazing bike, Orca with the clothing that kept me cool and comfortable for the whole race and I would like to welcome Oakley sunglasses who provided me with some great eyewear for race day.

I have been training for the last month in Australia mostly in Cairns with Brett and everything has been going very well for me there. That was up until I arrived in Singapore where unfortunately I caught some kind of bug which affected my sinuses, ears and then turned into a bad cough. So the last few days have been spent with me taking Echinacea, vitamin C and garlic pills, breathing in lots of steam, and eating lots of McDonalds (as that always seems to help when you are sick) in a desperate attempt to get myself well for the race. Luckily the race was not on the Saturday as that was my worst day, but I still knew the race would pose a bit of a challenge for me, however there was no way that I was going to pull out as I was very hungry for a race and I so desperately needed some prize money as Singapore is a very expensive place to visit with the hotel here costing us more for 5 nights than the entire month of camping in Aussie! On race morning I did some steam breathing and tried to cough up as much phlegm as I could and I was good to go.
The swim was the hardest part as it was very difficult for me to breathe. The professionals got a head start of 15 minutes on the first wave of age groupers which I like as it makes for a much fairer race for the women who are unable to draft off the age group men during the bike leg and I only try to race in races now which have this in place. It was nice to have a non wetsuit swim as it is good practice for Hawaii and the Blue Seventy Point Zero 3 was awesome to swim in. My body felt good but my lungs did not. I actually thought I was coming last as at the first turn buoy I looked behind and I’m sure there was no one there but I ended up coming first women out of the water with a handy lead.
I felt very good on the bike and had a brilliant start. After 40km I looked at my time and it was 1.01 which is the fastest I have ever gone by far and I felt very comfortable and aero on my Ceepo bike. The first 30km lap was great as there were only a few people on the course (which I thought was going to be flat but which had a fair few hills in it), but the 2nd and 3rd loops were pretty crowded. I built a good lead and at one point I had a 5 minute buffer on anyone else, but they then started to catch me and at around 75km it was down to around 2 minutes. At around 85km I got a flat tyre which I tried to keep riding but it was too flat. I had to pull over and luckily I had some of the spray goop with me as I can’t change a tubular tyre. Most of it went off in my hand but some went in and I prayed it would be enough to get me to the end. I was very lucky it happened right at the end of the bike ride as after the race my tyre was flat again. So there went my lead and I then came off the bike in 4th position. Damn.
The run was hard again because of my breathing so it was an ironman paced shuffle for me unfortunately. By around halfway I moved into 2nd and that is where I stayed. At 6km from the end I thought I was going to pass out, I hadn’t taken in enough calories on the bike and I have become very dependent unfortunately on Coca-Cola being provided on the course and it wasn’t at this race and I had only water on the run. I just kept going and the crowds gave me energy and I was very happy to finish in 2nd position. It was a great race with a lot of challenges for me and I got through them all, and with the heat and humidity it was great preparation for Hawaii.
So hopefully I haven’t done my body anymore harm by racing. I feel better than I did before the race although I do have a new voice! So now it is back to Christchurch which I think is going to be a bit of a shock after such nice warm weather over the past month and then on to Hawaii. Thanks to Blue Seventy, Ceepo and Orca.

Challenge Roth is the second biggest race in the world behind the Hawaii Ironman World Championships with around 4500 athletes competing either as individuals or as part of a team. This years women’s field was very strong with four women from the top 10 in Hawaii for 2007 competing as well as Yvonne Van Vlerken the previous years winner who nearly broke the world record in her first ever ironman distance race last year, and who has not yet competed in Hawaii. Going into this race I really wanted to race these girls to see how far off the mark I was compared to them before I race in Hawaii. I had a goal of going under 9 hours in this race as it is a very fast course, however I thought to do this I would need perfect conditions, which for me means warm weather!
The last four weeks I have been training in France at the Triathlon New Zealand base in the Pyrenees. Training had been perfect there especially for the biking and the weather had been brilliant with some days reaching highs of around 37 degrees. It was very easy to train well as I had no other commitments and could focus solely on my training as everything is set up to enable us to do that and I feel very lucky and thankful that I had the opportunity to use this facility.
Everyone that knows me knows how much I suffer in the cold conditions. I sometimes feel I am solar powered. When the sun shines it gives me energy, when it does not I feel drained with absolutely no power in my legs. I have never before been successful in cold conditions so for me to be successful in Roth in the conditions that we had made me very happy.
I didn’t start the day off too well however. I had not such a good swim. My swimming has been going extremely well in training but I simply did not warm up enough on race day. I have learnt that I need quite a big warm up to get my body ready for the sprint start but we were allowed in the water only 10 minutes before the start and then we swam about 50 metres to the start and then waited. I had a bad start and then got in with a big pack and just couldn’t get away. It was very frustrating as the pace felt really slow for me in the second half, but when you have athletes on your hips it is very difficult at that point to get away from them. So in the end I came out with Belinda Granger and Rebekah Keat who I knew to be exceptional cyclists, and so I had hoped I could get a bit of space between us before the cycling leg. My swim time was around the 48 minute mark.
The only reason I survived the bike leg was because my coach Greg Fraine had told me to put some newspaper down my top for insulation. I put on some arm warmers but decided to forgo the cycling vest I had in my bag, a decision I definitely regretted later on in the ride. The first 20km were fine as I wasn’t too cold. I managed to pass everyone and even took the lead for a time but then I felt that power go from the muscles in my legs as they became really cold. The weather was around 12 degrees and with rain for the entire bike ride. It didn’t let up at all and in some patches was really heavy. I became so cold that I was shaking uncontrollably on the down hill sections. I had to deal with a lot of negative thoughts as I really didn’t want to be there and was very miserable. Usually in an ironman it is like a roller coaster ride with swings from positive to negative. The bike ride for me was so difficult as the whole experience was very negative and I was really wondering if I could get through it. However, apart from the cold I actually felt quite good and the most improvement I have made in my biking from previous races was my bike endurance. Usually there is a great contrast in my speed from the first to the second part of the bike ride. In Roth my speed was constant over the entire journey so I am very happy with this. The other thing I was really happy with was the way my Ceepo bike handled all the corners. I have never been technically competent around corners and on downhill sections and on my previous bike really struggled and felt out of control. With the rain the roads were very slippery but I felt confident on the Ceepo bike and I seemed to be cornering much better than some other people who were really finding it difficult.
My goal for the bike ride was to do around the 5 hour mark, but I didn’t think that I would do that in those bad conditions so when I finally got to the end of the bike and saw 5.01 I was very happy indeed and I certainly was very happy to get off and start running.
I felt good for the entire marathon and really loved the course. The rain had stopped as soon as I got off the bike, and the majority of the run is on fine gravel which is much easier on the legs. I could feel I was running much faster than in previous races and felt I had a much better rhythm. I usually always have a bad spell from 20 to 30km but luckily not on this day. I had come off the bike in 4th position and I was 12 minutes behind Belinda Granger. I very slowly ate away at that time difference and at 4km to go I finally caught her. I was sure that when I reached her she would start to sprint so I tried to save my energy for this point and then just as I reached her I gave it everything for the last 4km. It was really hard the last part and my hamstrings were really starting to hurt but I didn’t stop trying until the last 100m when I saw my time was less than 9 hours and that I had secured third position. I never race with a watch so I supposed I would be around 9.10. When I saw the clock with 8.57 I was ecstatic, and now I have the fastest time for any New Zealand women in history. I was most happy with my run time of 3.03 and I am getting closer and closer to my run goal time of 3 hours. The two girls ahead of me Yvonne Van Vlerken and Erica Csomor both had exceptional races and both went under the world record which hasn’t been broken since 1994 also on the Roth Course.
Even though the weather was bad and the spectator numbers were much less than that of previous years the amount of support was really overwhelming. Going up the Solarberg climb in the bike there are spectators everywhere shouting, leaving only enough room to go in single file and on parts of the run it was amazing. The best part was the finish line. There are crowds for the last 1km and at the end you run around a U shaped stand full of people it was really a great experience that I will never forget.
Finally I would like to thank the Scheibel family who have been my home stay here in Germany. They went out of their way to help me all throughout the race week, and on the race day their support was fantastic. I am now heading back to New Zealand for a couple of weeks and then I will be training in Queensland, Australia for the following 6 weeks before competing in my next race the Singapore Ironman 70.3. This race I know will definitely be warm and very good practice for Hawaii. Thanks for all the messages of support I have received, I try to reply to everyone, Take care, Gina.

This race was so much fun and so much different to any other race I have done. There is no other race in the world like it. It consists of around a 2km swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco, a hilly 30km ride and a 12km mostly off-road run. The weather here was absolutely perfect and I now resemble a tomato after coming from a much colder than usual Christchurch winter.
The race was incredibly well organized and everything went according to plan. The transition was down at the marina and we dropped our bikes off early and then were bused to the boat that would take us to Alcatraz. We were all put on the boat according to our division and the race started in waves. The pro’s started first and we were all lined up along the boat and when the horn sounded we dived in. Well I was supposed to dive but I chickened out at the last minute and jumped in. As expected the water was extremely cold. 56 degrees Fahrenheit they told us which I think is just slightly under 14 Celsius. It was a bit of a shock but wasn’t bad once I started swimming. At first the current was strongly pushing us in the direction we wanted to go. The middle section of the swim however, was a little bit rougher with rolling waves and chop. We swam across to a beach and then ran up the stairs. My feet were so numb from the cold I was finding it hard to walk. We then had a mini transition where we took off our wetsuits and put on our shoes for a 1km run to the transition (as the ground was a little rough). Some chose to run barefoot.
The bike ride is undulating throughout, just the kind of bike ride I like. I started well and caught several girls on the up hill sections but later I lost time on the down hill sections and they over took me. Throughout the race I felt like I was going in easier gears than I usually would. I had practiced the course the day before and had done the whole thing in the big chain ring but instead I had to go into the small chain ring on the front cog. After the race I found that my back brake was on and the wheel was hardly spinning at all. I had checked this more than once before the race so I am unsure as to how this happened, but at least I got a good workout I suppose!
The run section was my favorite part of the course. The first 3 km or so was flat and I had a really bad start and lost a lot of time here I think. I only came right after we headed up a few flights of stairs, through a tunnel then up a longish hill. I then found my rhythm and started to feel much better. We carried onto the beach until the turn around and heading back was much easier as it was now a tail wind. The next section was the sand ladder up 400 steps up a sand dune. I had anticipated this to be absolute agony but actually it was very easy and I was able to pass several people up that section. Once at the top we retraced the course and I had a strong finish.
So in the end I finished in 9th place in a strong field and am happy at what I now need to work on in the next few weeks. I am now off to France to train at the Triathlon New Zealand base in the Pyrenees. I am looking forward to doing a lot of cycling there and my next race will be in just over a month’s time at Challenge Roth, Germany.

Since Ironman New Zealand I have had a break from training to refresh myself for the rest of the year. I have never really had a break from training since I started three years ago so it was a bit of a struggle for me more so mentally than physically. The first 2 weeks I did pretty much nothing at all and then the last 3 weeks I did some unstructured training consisting of a bit of mountain biking, and some swimming so that I wouldn’t be totally unfit when I turned up to race Xterra NZ. Luckily I have had a fair amount of violin playing work these last few weeks to keep me occupied.
I really enjoy racing in the Xterra race and somehow I had managed to win it the last 2 years, although I always felt that my mountain biking skills or lack of really didn’t warrant me to the title. Rotorua where the race is held is an amazing place for mountain biking. The race is staged at the Blue Lake and the mountain biking takes place in the Whakarewarewa Forest. We came up a couple of days before the race to train on the course and every time I do this I am in awe of the tracks. There are so many of them and they are graded from level 2 through to level 5. The hardest we had to do was a level 4 which was pretty scary for me as I hate going down hill and over obstacles but I got through it without incident. Those 2 days on my mountain bike I could feel myself getting stronger and stronger on the bike and it is no wonder that some of the best mountain bikers in the country come from around the Rotorua region and train in that forest.
This year the course we road was different and I was not able to hang on to that Xterra NZ title. The course in previous years had been 33km with the first half being mainly single track and the latter being 4wd tracks. I always lost a lot of time in this first half and then gained some time back on the second part which required no skills but strength and endurance. I remember last year at the half way mark I was 7 minutes back in about 7th place but by the end I was in 2nd only about 3 minutes down. This year the course was only 26km and I was not able to claw any time back that I lost in the technical descents. I came off the bike in 8th place over 7 minutes behind and was only able to run my way into 4th position. I was quite happy with my race on an individual level however. I ran about 2 minutes faster than in previous years with no running training, I felt strong all day and I feel refreshed from my break. It is funny how in some races you can have a pretty good race and finish down the order and in other races you can have a bad day and still win. That is why it is important to not judge yourself on places alone.
So tomorrow I am back into training again. I have 8 weeks training here in Christchurch until I head over to Europe. On the way I will stop in at San Francisco and will race Escape from Alcatraz. This race has intrigued me since I started triathlon 3 years ago and I am very excited that I will now have the opportunity to race in it myself. I will then have 4 weeks of hard training at the Triathlon New Zealand base in the South of France before I head over to Germany to race in Challenge Roth. I am looking forward to doing lots of hard work over the next 3 months and getting myself back into the best shape possible. Thanks again to all my great supporters. It was great having my fiancée Brett racing along side me in his first ever race this weekend and thanks again to my sponsors Ceepo, Asics, Orca, Blue Seventy and High5.

This was my third ironman in less than three months and I was hoping it would be my best performance, however it showed me that I can cope quite well with two ironman races in quick succession but that three is pushing it.
After competing at the Challenge Wanaka ironman I felt that I made a quick recovery, however my blood tests did show otherwise. I knew my immune system was struggling to cope and I knew I would have to be very careful the next five weeks until my next race. I got an infected toe after racing in Wanaka which I hoped would clear up by itself but after 2 weeks I was forced to go on antibiotics. I then headed back to Wanaka to do some altitude training at Snow farm which is at 1500m altitude. Looking back now I see it wasn’t probably the best decision I have made as living at altitude doesn’t allow your body to recover quite as quickly as at sea level and after being there for only five days I developed a cold. This was two weeks before Ironman New Zealand so I decided to return to Christchurch to try and recover fully before the race. I took a few days off training and started to feel a bit better but then I stupidly combined three days of training into two and my cold returned again. So this wasn’t ideal being sick so close to my most important race but I was able to do all my sessions although I did lay off on the intensity a lot. I told myself that once the race started everything would fall into place. However just two days before the race I came down with a stomach bug so I knew on race morning that the race was going to be a bit of a challenge for me. Here is how the race turned out.
I had quite a strange swim. I found myself in no man’s land yet again. Not quick enough for the top group and there was just the two of us for the first part of the race. I drafted a guy until just before the turn buoy at which point he pulled over wanting me to do some work which I did. I made it to the turn buoy and then turned around for the return journey home and found myself completely disorientated. I could no longer see anyone in front of me and everything was orange. Two rows of orange buoys and I think two rows of kayakers wearing orange vests. The one second I had to glance up and look was not long enough to tell what was the buoys and what was kayaks so I started aiming for what I thought was a buoy but I then heard a shout as I was about to swim into a kayaker who then pointed out the buoy which was about 50m to the left so I had to swim back and the guy I was with was now about 50m in front. I tired to focus on the buoys again but this time I drifted out to the left to some more kayakers who I thought were buoys again and then I saw that about 50m to my right a big group of people. So I swam over to them and joined them to the end of the swim and I estimate I probably lost about 1 minute due to my terrible navigation. A bit disappointing as I am usually pretty good at the navigation part but I still managed a swim split just under the 50 minute mark.
I headed out onto the bike in first place but Jo Lawn was only 20 seconds behind me and I was hoping for 1.5 to 2 minutes lead. She caught me at 20k and I stayed with her and a couple of guys for the next 20 km or so interchanging the lead with her but sticking my 7m distance. The pace was then upped and I just couldn’t stay with them. At the 90k mark I was 2.5 min behind her and I was right on target for the pace I wanted to do. The rain then started and I headed into the head wind and I got very cold. I have always struggled in the cold and I love hot conditions and I felt all the power drain from my legs as I became colder and colder. I got caught by a big group at 120km which contained all the women who got 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I enjoy competing in races where the professionals get a 15min head start (such as Wisconsin and Western Australia) as this means slower women swimmers can’t draft off age group men. I believe in that kind of race these girls wouldn’t have caught me. I tried to stay 7m off the back of the pack and did so until the turn around at 135km at which point I slowed to pick up my arm band and lost the group as they sprinted off. This is not the style of racing I like to do. I enjoy being by myself all day and pushing my own limits not trying to follow others. I don’t enjoy surges in pace and like to control my own race. In the future I will try to stick to races which enable me to race this way. So I came off the bike in 5th position about 8 min down from 1st and with a bike split of 5.16. I was very pleased with this. My target time was 5.15 and I had thought that if I came off the bike less than 10mins down I could be in the hunt to contend the win. This was if I ran my normal pace. I felt confident that on this course I could run a 3.05 and that would have put me in contention at least.
However it was not to be. Coming onto the run after doing only about 1km I felt the effects for the first time in this race of that stomach bug. The race then for me became a matter of survival running from toilet to toilet. At the 21km mark heading past the transition area it took all my will power to not just run in and call it a day. I was so cold and feeling really, really bad but I knew I could not live with myself the next day if I was a quitter. The crowd was so supportive and it was them that kept me going and the thought that so many people would be racing until midnight, many with much worse problems than me and none of them would quit. So I just thought to myself I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and I can keep stopping at all the toilets and I have about 7 hours to finish. So I did that. I ran around the 3.20 mark which is pretty slow for me but not too bad considering and I was able to stay in 5th position and did a 9.33, which was probably around 15 minutes slower than what I could have done. The positives were that I did about 40mins quicker than I did last year at this race in my first ironman.
So it was a really big learning experience for me. I learnt that I can’t expect to turn up to a race where everyone else is fresh and foot it with them. And after analyzing my past year I can now see that the races I did my best in and felt good were the ones where I was well rested. So my race schedule will now be a little different. I was planning on doing another 2 ironman races before the world champs but that will now be reduced to only one. I hope that with the reduction of races I will be able to race at my potential and that means not putting such stress on my body that I get sick before a big race. The major down side is that without any major financial backing from any sponsor I am reliant solely on prize winnings to support myself, and often that is not enough to even cover the costs of getting to the event. So it will again be a very financially stressful year for me but hopefully it will pay off in the long run.
I would like to thank my family and sponsors for their support. It was great being able to race in front of them and I am sorry I couldn’t put on a better show.