I am back from Irontown NZ and had the most
amazing weekend EVER.
Okay, I will be completely honest here – there was
one negative – so let us get that out of the way first. My experience of Taupo was of it being a very
expensive town eating-out wise. Normally
I can find at least a dozen places to eat at on a budget, but I was pushed to
find four. I am starting to hate
travelling in-season.
I also found avoiding my uncommon food
intolerances and anaphylactic allergy virtually impossible in 96% of the cafes
and restaurants. I had huge problems finding
stuff that I could eat. I was not
prepared to pay $30 for a main that was half deep-fried anyway, but everything
was laden with onions and garlic (my intolerances) or smothered in raw tomatoes
(my anaphylactic allergy). Between the
roast shop, Bodyfuel, Fine Fettle and the place that does the rotisserie
chicken opposite Caltex, I covered off most of my nutritional needs.
Dozens of restaurants and cafes serving yet
more deep-fried food complemented the evil quadrangle of BK, Maccas, KFC and
Pizza Hut. Seriously, not everyone wants
to eat chips (fries) with every meal or have to call Greenpeace to come mop up
the oil slick in their stomach after eating out.
Yes, I was staying in a hostel with a
kitchen. However, I was on holiday. Who wants to cook when they are on
holiday? Not me, that is for sure! In hindsight, I should have. I hate the lack of control stemming from placing
my life in the hands (literally, with my tomato allergy) of strangers charged
with preparing my meals.
I could have been more organised and brought
food down with me (more junk to carry, and carting said junk around town when
you do not have a car there is a pain in so many places).
Anyway, with that rant aside, the weekend was
awesome! After a six-hour bus trip with
a half hour stop in Rotorua for a very quick and small lunch, I arrived in
Taupo early Friday afternoon and dumped my bags before heading to Ironman
central at the Domain. I restrained
myself at the expo, buying only a pair of Pearl Izumi socks and a Pearl Izumi
race top. I attempted to find some real lunch
(FAIL), took some photos, found Pak N Save, bought a few bottles of water (plus
milk, apples and yogurt) and headed back to the hostel.
About 7pm, I was hungry again, so headed out to
the rotisserie chicken place for dinner.
I had another walk around the shops, bought a pair of neoprene toe
covers for my bike shoes from the temporary SwimT3 shop, and then headed back
to the hostel for an early night. I got
back, took some photos of the sunset, got ready for bed and was about to turn
off the light when a gigantic moth flew in the room. Fifteen minutes later, the Chinese woman in
my dorm and I had finally “encouraged” it to bug-ger off. I went out like a light.
The alarm screamed at 5am and I got up,
showered and dressed before scoffing down my protein shake. I sat on the deck and admired the serenity…so
much serenity. I started walking down to
the swim start and came across Stuart, Sean and Belinda at Bodyfuel. Awesome!
Given that my Windows Phone was in hospital with all my contacts on it,
I had no way of getting hold of the boys and was happy to find them on Tongariro Street
Sean suited up and we walked down to the swim
start. We left him and walked over to
the fence to watch the pros starting the swim.
The starting cannons sure were loud, as was the sound of wetsuited arms powering
through the remarkably calm water. In
what seemed like three minutes instead of fifteen, it was Sean’s turn. Well, apart from my least favourite part of
the swim start – the countdown beforehand that has previously made me freaked
instead of focussed. I hate it, and I am
always like “just shut up until the *insert name of starting device* goes off!”
The cannon blew us away again, and watching
these remarkable people setting off for an epic journey of 226km was really
quite overwhelming. We watched for a
while, and then walked over to T1 to sit on the mount line. About 20 minutes later, Kieran Doe flew out
of transition and took off on his bike.
My favourite Kiwi triathlete Terrenzo Bozzone was in hot pursuit, but
sadly he earned a penalty for mounting his bike before the line. I tried to figure out whom the penalty would
have devastated more; Terrenzo, the two elderly Italian women down the chute,
or me!
I could not believe I was about two feet from
Kieran, Terrenzo, Jo Lawn, Kate Bevilaqua, Gina Crawford, Cameron Brown, Meshy
Holt and James Bowstead. It was just so
cool, especially for someone like me who is still relatively new to triathlon
and still has her training wheels on.
Sean came through in about 1hr 10. He had a great swim, and I later learned his swim time was 1hr 1min and a few seconds. Fantastic work! Here is Sean heading off on his bike:
After Sean left on his bike, we had breakfast
back at Bodyfuel, and then I headed off for a walk around the shops. I broke my backpack at T1 and had to find a
suitable replacement. I went to every
bag-selling store in Taupo before finding one that is just awesome and has the
capacity of a TARDIS. I stopped in at
the Warehouse and spent my voucher (I love market research payments in the form
of vouchers), buying a new pair of cooldry gym pants, a cooldry top and some
cooldry socks. I went back to the
hostel, changed over my bags and set back out to see if I could find Sean
returning from lap one of the 180km bike.
Just down the road from my hostel was part of
the bike route. I sat on a hay bale and
waited. About 15 minutes later, Sean
came flying past. Hooray! I did not get a photo of him at that point but
I did get to yahoo at him. Big smiles
all round! Some annoyingly loud American
chick was yelling “looking good, looking good” at EVERY SINGLE PERSON who rode
past. Let me tell you, I am all for
supporting the triathletes but seriously, could you get some new material! LOL!
I was starting to get thirsty so headed off for
a coffee. I was wandering around trying
to decide which café’s coffee to try next when I ran into Geoff from work and
his wife Sarah. Surprise! We had a quick chat then I headed off for my
caffeine. As those of you who know me
can attest, I need my daily fix. It is
my one remaining vice after giving up booze, junk, refined carbs and chocolate
for this triathlon madness. As the
saying goes, garbage in, garbage out!
After the coffee, I headed off for yet another
walk around town. I had about an hour
to kill before Sean came back on lap two of the bike. Whitcoulls had a nice selection of triathlon
books, so I stopped in for a read. It
was pretty close to 2pm by now, so I hit the lakefront and found a nice spot on
the roadside just up from T2. I got to
watch Kieran, Terrenzo, Jo, Gina, Kate, Cameron, Lucy with the togs, the Canada
guy, a couple of Irish guys, a couple of Italian guys and the Brazil guy
running past a couple of times.
About 2.15 Sean came past on his bike, heading
for T2. I yahooed at him again, but
don’t think he heard me. I missed him on
his first pass on the run (he had added a blue run top and that threw me) but
snapped him on his way past out to Five
Mile Bay
I sat on the roadside for an hour or so and
then had to eat. I headed off and got a
Subway and a banana, washed it down with a protein shake and topped it off with
an apple and yogurt. I decided it was
getting pretty close to home time for the pros, so I walked over to the finish
line. On the way there, Cameron Brown
ran past:
And so did Terrenzo
And Jo
I wanted a nap in the shade, in the hammock at
the hostel, so I went back there for a while.
However, I was too wired to sleep, so I went back to the finish line and
parked up in the grandstand. It started
to get cold about 5.30pm and after Sean ran past just after 7.45pm I headed
back to the hostel to put on every piece of warm (or otherwise) clothing I had
with me, and get some dinner. I got back
to the grandstand at 8.30pm and continued to freeze. It just seemed to get more and more cold, the
wind which had whipped up on the bike course made it even more cold and by 10pm
I was desperate for a hot chocolate to keep my hands warm. I stood in line for 20 minutes to get one and
it was good…really good!
About ten minutes later, a nice young man named
Alex sat next to me in the grandstand and asked me if I knew what was going
on. He had never seen an Ironman before
and did not know what all the fuss was.
He was in Taupo visiting his whanau and had gone out for a walk because
they were driving him nuts. He heard the
noise and the party at the finish line and decided to investigate.
I spent the next half hour explaining the
event, the distances, the rules, the preparation, the training involved, the
time commitment, the fact that Ironman is a life-changing and all-consuming
beast, and just how amazing the people were who were crossing the finish
line. Mike Reilly called a man home who
was about 68 and was on Ironman 46. The
oldest competitor was 73 and he came through in a really great time (I think
under 14 hours). People who had lost
40kg, people with seven kids, lawyers, doctors, bankers, teachers…etc.
There were people doing multiple laps of
honour, high-fiving everyone in the crowd.
There were mums and dads being handed kids over the barriers and running
down the chute with them. There were old
people, young people, big and small, tall and short, fast and slow, fit and
really bloody fit, and everything in between.
Mike Reilly was whipping up the crowd into absolute frenzy and it was
fantastic. It was definitely the best
party I have been to this year (actually, it was the only party I have been to
this year!).
Alex and I stayed in the grandstand until the
last person crossed the line. That
amazing woman did it in 17 hours and just over 1 minute. She did not get an official time, but she was
still an Ironman. I was in tears, and so
was more than half the crowd. She had
being going since 7am, probably up since 4am, it was now after midnight, and
she had completed Ironman NZ (I am tearing up just thinking about this
again). Alex went back to his family,
but before he left he said I’ll see you on the finish line in 2012 and we’ll go
have a drink to celebrate us both being “an
Ironman”. Wow. Talk about laying
down a challenge!
With that in mind, I walked back to the hostel
and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was not a restful night though. At 3.48am, a bunch of arrogant, annoying,
drunk American boys having a fight rudely woke me and about 90% of those trying
to sleep in Taupo. I went downstairs,
got in the middle of them, and in no uncertain terms told them to shut the hell
up and go back to bed. People were out
on the balcony watching the fight, and they clapped and cheered when I told the
yanks to shut up. Go me, but it pays not
to wake me up from a nice deep sleep unless you want an earful!
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