Rotorua Half Ironman 2008 Race Report

Well, let me just say that it was 7 long hours, and 14 even loooonger minutes of hot crappiness!

The Rotorua Half Ironman is a very challenging course. The bike is undulating with a couple of mean hills (both in the last 20kms I might add), and then an off road/on road run that is either up or down - there ain't much flat.

The swim is in the Blue Lake and is simply beautiful. I am over sea swimming as there are too many critters in there, but lake swimming; now that is something else. It was even warmer in the water than out! The men start 5 mins before the ladies so at least we didn't have them to contend with. My start was ok apart from a foot to the face whacking my goggles. Got that sorted and then just found a space to cruise. 900m out to the first turn and I felt good. 1100m back and I got bored???? WTF??? Bored in a race.... it just felt like 1000m too long to be bothered with.

Anyhoooo, no idea what my swim time was as the split included T1 which I know was a dawdle. I figure looking at it that it was easily a Sub 39min swim so was more than happy with that considering my lack of inspiration for half of it.

Onto the bike and it is straight up a hill! Nothing like a good climb right after a swim to get the heart rate into the red zone. Still, a lovely long fast downhill sorted that out and I was off on the ride. Or so I thought 'til I realised that my front wheel looked funny. Figured out eventually that it was on the wrong way around, and given that I had directional race tyres on I really had to stop to fix it - didn't want to wreck those expensive puppies! So after a quick whip around of the wheel I was away (again) and actually feeling pretty good.

Some of the new chip they have put on the road recently was crap, there was wind swirling all over the place, and it was heating up; but I managed to get to the halfway point averaging 26kms/hr which is pretty good for me, and waaaay ahead of my time target, so I got all kinds of excited about thrashing my previous bike time on this course. Alas it was not to be, and after a scary run off the road into gravel (my own fault for looking at my tyres not the road - I'm always worried I've got a puncture, what's up with that??), and a tussle up the crap hill, and then another tussle with a crap head wind, and yet another tussle with an even crappier hill, I watched my speed shrivel along with my PR time - basically I did the same ride time as last year, (just over 3hrs 40mins for 90kms) - DAMN IT! More than a little annoyed, but feeling ready to redeem it on the run.

Another long transition as I struggled to put my straight jacket on (aka running bra for the big busted), and I was off and running. I tried to keep my pace down so that I could make it through the whole race without walking - that was the goal anyway. Unfortunately the run starts off on single track through the bush, winding and weaving it's way around the gorgeous lake we had swum in earlier. There are stairs, roots and trails to negotiate. I did a quick walk break up one hill, and then off again.

To tack time onto the run without going to Timbucktoo and back, they make us run a few kms out and back up a little dirt road. It was so stinking hot in there I thought I was gonna die. An older lady I waved to going the other way tripped and lay sprawling out across the dirt, so after a quick check to make sure she was ok, I was running again (btw, she passed and beat me!). I managed to make it to 8.5kms in the first hour, and I was STOKED. I felt I hadn't pushed it and had plenty in the tank to nail this run! Unfortunatley not long afterwards the wheels fell off. I walked HEAPS, got extremely thirsty, was getting burnt to a crisp, was starving, and generally felt like poo! I was just making it aid station to aid station, and at one point contemplated pulling the pin. It had got too hard, too hot and too much!

But, I really didn't want to do that either - I have never DNF'd a triathlon before, and I wasn't about to start now. So, on I went to the finish. The last lap of the lake was ok actually. It is 5.5kms around, and most of it was in the shade, which was more than a welcome relief at that point. I walked the uphill sections and then ran the downhill parts. The entire run was again about the same as last year, but I ran more last year and felt way more pleased then than I did on this day. My total finish time 7hrs 14mins. Last year I got 2 punctures on the bike and had a 7hr 25min race, so taking that into account, you could say I did worse this year - GUTTED. I felt really good at the end of last years race, but this time I was very hot, tired and disappointed. The beer at the finish line was bloody marvellous though!!!!!!

There were many others still finishing behind me as it just got hotter and hotter. They were all champs and we cheered everybody in. It had been a long long day.

We had a team of bloggers there who had all logged their training into Buckeye Outdoors. Kate, her hubby Phil, and Juls all finished well. Unfortunately for Mike his calf wasn't going to allow him to finish that day, and we were all terribly disappointed for him. But he has vowed to be back next year fitter and faster, so I guess...... here we go again!!!!!

As for my Hubby - Paul, The Saint, whatever.... he absoultely smashed his first ever Half Ironman finishing in some stupid time of 5hrs 21mins or something - all I know is that it was nearly 2hours faster than mine, and he has been well and truly demoted from The Saint to The Ba$tard - lol.

All in all, I am happy now with the day. The time was disappointing as I had hoped to do Sub 7hours, but I got myself to the finish line, and that is always a fantastic goal achieved, no matter what the time was.

I do it all again in 4 weeks (and believe me, I thought about that ALOT on the run).

WHAT A FRIGGIN' NUTTER!

PS: sorry no pics as the usual photographers were racing! Hopefully there will be some of the next race, when also HOPEFULLY I will be riding my new mean cycling machine.... watch this space for that update.