Jills MBE (Monday Brain Exchange)

Jill over at her blog - "Finishing is Winning" is doing her Monday Brain Exchange where she asks us to asnwer a question that she posts and then link to her blog - she's great, she loves triathlons so go and check out her blog - here's the link - http://onelittletrigirl.wordpress.com/

Next Weeks Topic: 2011 Racing
Next Weeks Question: What race are you most excited for in 2011? Any destination races? Are you trying out a new distance. Tell us what it is in general you are looking forward to when it comes to 2011 racing.

Here is my answer:
(see my post below re the Rarotonga race)

I have done 2 races that are part of the Contact Energy National Triathlon Series of races around New Zealand and they have been the sprint distance of  (750m swim / 20km bike / 5km run) and these are the longest races that I have done thus far BUT I have entered the Rarotonga International Triathlon in May. This is an Olympic distance event on a South Pacific Island so this will really test me big time but hey, at least I'll be on holiday. My goal is to race in an international destination each year.

All I really want to do in 2011 is to improve on last years results. I am a newbie to this fantastic sport that is triathlon and I really enjoy the thrill of taking part.

Tri it, you might like it!!

Rarotonga International Triathlon.mp4

I’ve entered the Rarotonga International Triathlon and I’m taking a group of clients as well – I have 8 people joining us so it should be a great time.

This will be the longest tri that I have attempted but I really can’t pass up the opportunity to do this and have a holiday on a Pacific Island. The full details can be found on the website - http://www.rarotri.info/ and here is a short video of last year’s event.

Enjoy – I intend to and am looking forward to this trip for sure !!

Quick Post

We've had 3 good earthquakes in the last 2 hours - have I mentioned that we're all over this and would like them to be done. Here's what the results are off the geonet website.



o NZDT: Thu, Jan 20 2011 8:06 am

o Magnitude: 4.0

o Depth: 15 km


o NZDT: Thu, Jan 20 2011 8:02 am

o Magnitude: 3.4

o Depth: 10 km



o NZDT: Thu, Jan 20 2011 6:03 am

o Magnitude: 5.1

o Depth: 10 km

Road trip and race report

Hi all,

This is going to be a race report as well as a roadtrip report. I posted last week saying that I was heading South for my first race in a National Series but as my wife had never seen the West Coast of our amazing country - I thought that a roadtrip that way was in order.

We headed West and stopped at the top of the Otira Gorge where I was pretty sure that we could see some Kea (native mountain parrot to New Zealand) - these birds are such playful and cheeky parrots that will steal your hat or sunglasses if you're not alert. Here are a few pics of them

It was great to see them here being playful and there was such a buzz from the tourists that had stopped at this spot to take photos and my wife was chuffed to see these birds in the wild.
Sometimes I take this sort of thing for granted as when I used to work up the mountains on ski areas, we used to see these birds all the time.

We stayed the night in Franz Joseph Glacier and spent a good amount of time in the local hot pools - just what you need after a long drive.

The next day we headed South as we needed to get to Wanaka where the race was to be held - it was an awesome drive and the West Coast lived up to its hype and the day started with mountain cloud and drizzle. Here is a photo of the Haast River, we took this going over a bridge and we are heading up over a mountain pass. I just love the colour of the glacial water - we do live in an amazing country!!!

 

Got to Wanaka and the weather was very warm - Wanaka is in the Southern Lakes District of the South Island of New Zealand. This area comprises a large number of glacial lakes including Lakes Wakatipu, Wanaka, Te Anau, Manapouri, Hawea, Dunstan and Benmore - such a beautiful area of the country.

These pictures above are of Lake Wanaka - I went for a walk the evening we arrived to stretch the legs and took this photo with the sun going down - so nice!!!

The next photo was actual race day for me - so hot, about 32 degrees with little wind but I'll get to that soon.

Race day arrived and I was feeling very nervous, this was my first sprint distance race (750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run) and I had to do it in a National Series Event.

Triathlon New Zealand has this national series called the Contact Tri Series (have a look here http://www.triseries.co.nz/ ) and this was race 4. Race 5 is here in my home town in 2 weeks and I am entered in this as well.

Race start time was 5.20pm for our race with the Elite men starting at 8.00pm (with daylight saving time, it doesn't get dark here until after 10.00pm)

The sun was shining and it was bloody hot at start time and we had to walk down the beach to the start. Lake temp was 16 degrees so it was a wetsuit swim and I had a great swim. Came out of the water in 7th place (out of 34) in 12mins 09 sec.

T1 was super quick even though my fingers were quite cold, out on the bike to start an 8 lap course - great for the spectators for sure.

Out on the bike course - very fast and hot!!

T2 was another great transition so very happy with that. Got the helmet off and running shoes on and off on the run. The finish line that is shown in the photos is not the one that we used - there was "Challenge Wanaka Ironman" the next day and this was on the running circut.

Did I mention it was HOT!!!!

This was a great event and I really enjoyed being a part of it. We watched the elite race that was later in the day so I have a few photos of this race BUT for the record on my race.
I finished 2nd in my age group and
26th out of 34 participants
In a time of 1 hour 19min 09 seconds.

Sis - you asked about my knee in the last post - the knee feels great and strong. I just need to keep pushing it and see what happens.
Julie - enjoy the pictures.

Here are a couple of photos of the elite race.

The leading bunch in the elite mens race - Kris Gemmell, Aaron Barclay, Tony Dodds and Laurent Vidal

Laurent Vidal from France, the race winner

Next post will be about the Challenge race.

House of Travel Triathlon Festival 2010 Race report

Hi all,

This will be a short post but with heaps of pictures for you Julie so please enjoy!!
I had a great race and everything just clicked – I have my next race coming up next week as part of the National Series (Contact Tri Series New Zealand)

The HOT Tri Festival is the event that our company had the naming rights for and it was an awesome inaugural race.

It was a 500m fresh water swim, 15km multi loop course bike and a 5km run – I mentioned above that I had a good race as I was well prepared and pretty relaxed.

I'm on the far right of this start with the X on the front of my wetsuit, about to start my stopwatch

Came out of the water in 4th position and had a super quick T1.










Got out on the bike fast.






The course was 3 laps of a 5km street circuit and the roads were very smooth – great fun ride.

T2 was pretty quick as well but there must have been an issue with the timing because I don’t have a split (not to worry)

Heading out of T2 with legs like jelly (jello)

The run was 2 loops of the lake, a nice smooth path and very scenic as hopefully the photos will show.
Crossed the finish line strong in a time of 1.07.34 – this was 86th out of 161 competitors, 58th out of 89 men and 29th out of 42 in my age group.

I’m pretty happy with that.
Enjoy

Here are photos of  the Elite race winners - Tony Dodds (currently world Under 23 number 4th ranked male on the ITU) and Andrea Hewitt (current world number 6 on the ITU)

3rd of January 2011

Had a surf yesterday - it was ok but good to get in the water, Sis, I got a small right for you but it closed out, sorry!!

Rode 34km on the bike this morning in the heat - buggered now, might take a nap.