Ironman New Zealand - TriathlonFull Ironman

Started about middle of line and slightly to front of middle.

Navigation was poor down first leg - I was all over the place. Much better on way back.

I'm not a strong swimmer, so a 1.22 time was average for me. Last 1300m or so was much better, started to pull back some places.

More swim training through winter. Squads, then open water swims through spring/early summer to get used to the navigation & group starts.

400m run from exit of water to T1 so this adds to time.
Pretty happy overall with this given it's my first IM.

Train in, then wear tri-specific gear. I biked in my bike shorts, so had to put them on after swim, and probably lost 2-3 mins farting around with my clothing.

First time I've done a ride this long on fresh legs, so that combined with the adrenaline meant I went slightly faster than I intended. But generally happy.

Not much apart from being able to train off a good base over next year so hopefully be faster next year!

Needed some medical attention here - painkillers for sore knees (made no difference!).

Could be faster with better choice of tri-gear, rather than changing into running gear.

First 10k was OK. Not great, but OK. Then I got into my dark place in a big way on the return leg of first lap. Ready to quit several times, in quite a lot of back pain (lats, probably from being more in aeros than I usually am), generally had enough. Managed to keep going (walk/run) until I got to the turnaround where I ran past people finishing and getting the "YOU'RE AN IRONMAN!!!" call as they finished.

That motivated me hugely, and the ibuprofen gel I got for my back at an aid station helped too.

Support crew "chased" me on the 2nd lap of the run and kept popping up when I least expected them to do so. That helped enormously. Also, allowed myself to walk through aid stations to make sure I ate and drank enough (chocolate and Pepsi on lap 2) but absolutely only run between them.

Got into a good head space, visualised finishing, told myself I owned the hills, and ran a faster 2nd lap than first.

Not much. experience and a stronger base should help me be a little faster next time.
Interesting to experience just how much of a mind game it is.

Nothing specific. Couldn't eat or drink for about 45 minutes as I'd really pushed the last 4 kms. After that was OK, and able to drink champagne too!


Heart operation 15 months prior, which meant I was coming off a zero base, just 13 months out from the race. Not the same for next years, so hoping to build on this.


The most incredibly well organised 4 days of my life.
2000+ volunteers and a team of experts made this an incredible experience.