Suck it up Buttercup!!

That is my new mantra, 'suck it up Buttercup' will help you through when the going gets tough! But we'll get to that, lets start at the start of the day for what was Half Ironman number 3 in my race repertoire!

Did things a little bit different this year and drove down to Ashburton on race morning which meant a 4.30am wake up call. I'm ok at that hour of the day but Geoff was also racing, him and his 2 brothers had entered the half as a team, that meant getting Mr I'm not so good in the Mornings out of bed as well...... He did really well actually, it did help that I planned a 15min leeway into the morning plan so that I wouldn't need to stress! Worked perfectly and we arrived in Ashburton on time. It was a slightly nervous drive down tho as its the first time I have taken the bikes out on the open road on my flash new roof racks but all went well!

I got the necessary stuff (registration, body numbering) out of the way quickly so I could potter about setting my stuff up in transition while eating my breakfast, this worked well and I seemed to have stuff everywhere before managing to create some sort of semblance out of it all.

The plan for the swim was to give it a good nudge and see what I could do, I have been swimming quite well in the pool lately and I have always done the swim at the half at a steady/comfortable pace and I figured it was time to see what I could do if I put some effort in. I got myself nearish to the front alongside Geoff's brother Roger who was doing the team swim, I figured that was a good place to start as it was likely that Roger would beat me out of the water. It was a bit bedlam at the start but nothing too crazy, after all a bit of biffo in the swim is just part of the day really. I was swimming quite hard and felt good until I got to the second orange bouy where I had to swim quite a few polo strokes while trying not to throw up! Hmmm, thats not good, here's hoping that feeling goes away! It was gross, I would put my head in the water and then couldn't breathe out for fear of puking and there was no way I could swim polo for the next 1200m! Quick refocus, told myself I was ok and just got on with it! Had a similar but shorter episode again but quickly got on with it and just swam!!! Out of the water and running to transition I snuck a look at my watch once I got my arms out of my wetsuit sleeves and was stoked to see that I had swum 35mins!! Woohoo, my quickest half IM swim ever and right on target!! Was really surprised running into transition to hear Geoff cheering me on as I expected him to be out on the bike already, turns out Roger had a wee panic just after the first bouy, he hadn't realised quite what he was letting himself in for with that swim start! He came right tho and ran into transition as I left on my bike, I then managed to hold Geoff off for a massive 900m!!! haha!

On the bike I was pleased that I had decided to wear a long sleeve top cos it wasn't warm at all!! The knob helmet was good to wear today tho cos it meant my head and ears were nice and toasty :) Start of the first lap was busy! People everywhere while everyone settled into their groove and spaced themselves out, I was getting passed by quite a few people but consoled myself with the fact that I had swum quicker than them and it was a long day where anything could happen. It took me awhile to get onto my aerobars, I have a mild paranoia about them since crashing off my bike when on them last year. Its esp nervy when its wet out as it was when I crashed. After the first wee turn around a few kms into the race I told myself to stop pissing about and get on my aerobars, telling myself that everyone else was using them and I needed to just get on with it. And get on with it I did and was cruising along pretty nicely feeling fine! First lap went ok except for the fact that it seemed like every female rider who went past me seemed to have an E on her calf indicating that she was in my age group, it felt like my whole age group was passing me! Back into transition for the half-way turn around I saw Geoff heading out for his second lap and I was feeling good that he hadn't gapped me by too much given his superior bike strength and the fact that he didn't have to run afterward I didn't really expect to see him again on the ride. Heading back out for lap 2 it was as if someone had flicked a switch, all of a sudden I was miserably uncomfortable on my bike, it ached to sit on my saddle, my back was sore, my stomach was feeling ick and I wanted out and I wanted out now! Had a wee chat to myself and made myself stretch more on my bike thinking that I would come right once I turned the corner off the main road. Hmmm, I didn't come right, I got worse! Turns out it was hideous period cramps! I knew it was due, only figured this out early that week and there wasn't anything I could do about it except hope that it didn't come on race day as the first day is the only day that I usually feel like crap, every other day is fine. So there I am out on the bike feeling hideous and every turn of the pedals makes me ache but I need to keep turning the pedals or I'm not going to be going anywhere! All I want at this stage is some panadol or something to take the edge off the pain but I don't have any on me, I had some in transition but that was 30kms away! At this point, 60km into the ride, I start to bawl my eyes out, great big ugly shoulder shaking sobs!! And I can't stop, I ride like this for about 3km and this is where the suck it up buttercup starts kicking in! I've heard this saying before when people when about stuff (it seems to be one of John Ellis's favourites!) and it got stuck in my head so I'm biking along telling myself to 'suck it up buttercup' and occasionally telling myself to 'suck it the f**k up buttercup!!' I said it out loud more than once and I feel sorry for anyone who passed me in this dark dark part of the race. This seemed to sort me out and everytime I slipped back into wallowing in the pain it was straight back into 'suck it up buttercup!!' With 15km left to go I had to give myself a virtual slap and tell myself that 15km was easy, for crying out loud its only a ride to Sumner, thats easy, anyone can ride that far!!! That bollocking got me through the next 10km, then with 5km left I just wanted off my bike, lucky I'm a slow runner or I think I would have got off and run my bike in! Instead I berated myself yet again and told myself that 5km wasn't even as far as biking to work and that if I couldn't bike that far I had some serious issues!! It hadn't helped that I was passed by 1 or 2 more girls in my age group in that last 15-20km, either that or I was hallucinating F's on everyone's calves.....

Finally after what seemed like hours and hours and hours I arrived back at transition and could get off my bike at last, I racked it thinking that I would be quite happy to never see it again! I sat on the ground and the first thing I did was reach for the panadol and slugged them down hoping that they would work some magic cos I could barely move at that stage, my back, stomach, thighs were all aching and quite frankly all I wanted to do was curl up on my towel in transition and have a sleep until I felt better. But no, I was good and I pulled on my shoes and socks. Geoff came over to talk to me cos he was loitering around in transition, I told him what had happened and started having another cry, he gave me a big hug and wouldn't let me stay in transition so I headed off with everyone cheering and telling me to run. Hmmm, lets see you lot try and run when you're in that kind of pain! Honestly, it was hideous, if I had been at home I would have been in bed with a hotty! Having said that if I had been at home I would have had better access to pain relief and probably would never have felt that bad! I headed off at a very slow pathetic pace just hoping that I would come right cos I didn't fancy a 21km sufferfest as well. Just after I started the run the boys (Paulie Davies and Andrew Black) ran past and cheered me on telling me I looked good, I guess I did from behind, I cheered them on as they were on their last lap and were sitting in 2nd and 3rd overall which was cool then figured I better summon up the effort to run or it was going to be a much much longer day than it needed to be. I trundled off and started the 'suck it up' mantra again, it really works by the way! A lady ran past me and started walking... hmmm, walking..... hmmm, that looks nice.... quickly reminded myself that my race plan was to only walk the aid stations, that is the aid stations and nothing else! So I kept running, yay! Headed round the back of that lake to discover that first aid station was a bit further away than it was last year...... suck it up, keep running! So I did, then I grabbed myself a nice cup of coke and had a lovely wee walk while I drank it. By this stage I was starting to feel heaps better! It must only take 10-15 mins for panadol to kick in, that and the relief to be off my bike I guess. From then on I stuck to the plan and ran from aid station to aid station only walking to suck down my gels and to drink. It felt good too I must say, only thing is, people need to have respect for your race plan and know that its ok for you to walk just after you pass the finish area cos thats an aid station and its ok to walk that part if its in the plan! Managed to kick it up an extra notch or two in the last 4kms and passed a few folk, to be fair not all of them were on their last lap but I still passed them so mentally that helped me along the way.

Overall I was about 15mins slower than last year and that can pretty much all be attributed to the crappy bike ride I had. And it turns out that I was passed by pretty much my whole age group cos I had the fastest swim time in my age group!! Woohoo, not bad for someone who not that long ago couldn't swim 50m without stopping! Run time was almost the same as last years at 2.15, so while its a minute slower than last years run time its the most I've ever run in the run part of a half Ironman so I'm still happy with it. I think I'm running better than I ever have, must be those flash Newton running shoes!! Overall time was 6.10, so 15mins slower than last year but tougher conditions with the weather and being a girl. Can't win em'all, but am pleased that I was able to put the cycle leg behind me and stick to my run plan as well as focus on sticking to my nutrition plan throughout the day even tho I felt like crap.

7 more weeks of 'suck it up Buttercup' and Wanaka will be done and dusted! Bring it on!!

Ohh and I love my bike again now, I forced myself to go for a wee 20min spin on her this morning, I was worried I would really want to sell her otherwise! A wee spin in shiny new kit and all is forgiven!

And, the boys did good in their team, they were 3rd male team so are pretty happy with that for their first foray into triathlon. Geoff had the 4th fastest cycle time in the teams so he is quite stoked with that.

Aarghh, scary wind!!

Yikes, that was a ride and a half today. Headed out nice and early to do hilly long bays again, this is probably one of my favourite rides, nice hard climb up to the Kiwi, cruise along the Summit Rd to Coopers and then done Gebbies around the bays up Evans and then home. Last week was great, I cranked out a PB to the Kiwi, that hurt a lot! Spent about 5mins at the Kiwi trying not to throw up while waiting for my legs to stop wobbling before cruising round the rest of the ride. No PB today, my legs were a bit fried and there was a head wind for a good amount of the climb as well plus I figured I was going to need some oomph left in my legs for the rest of the ride today with the wind kicking in. And boy did it kick in!! Heading along the Summit Rd it started to get very cold and foggy, ick! I never even saw Coopers Knob today thats how foggy it was. Other than that I was having quite a nice ride until I got to the Sign of the Bellbird where the wind really started to whistle along the top of the hill! Aargh, tis ok I figured, this end of the Summit Rd is less exposed than the Sumner end. Umm, no its not and its blimmin' scary up there! I think I pretty much screamed, cried, whimpered my way from the Bellbird to Gebbies!! I did think about turning back but was so far along the road I figured it was quicker to keep going forward and get off the hill. Coopers to Gebbies was just plain frightening, I was either yelling 'Nooooo' or whimpering out 'help' while clinging to my bike for dear life!! The wind just about biffed me across the road many many times, I think the only thing that would have made it worse/scarier would have been if it started to rain! I was hugely relieved to see the top of Gebbies Pass so that I could stop for a breather. There were a few guys there umming and aahing about whether to go up to Coopers or not, after I told them how hairy it was up there today they still headed on up so hopefully they had fun! One of the guys is Andrew who Jo from Complete Performance coaches, he is also training for Wanaka so that was cool to meet someone else heading to Wanaka. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful luckily cos I was pretty much over the wind by this stage! Yay for an easy week this coming week :)

Palmy North Half Marathon and the injury

So I headed off to Palmerston North again last weekend to do the Palmy Half again. I quite like this course, its quite pretty and runs along the river for most of it and given that I did a PB there last year I was pretty keen to go back and give it another nudge to see what I could do, esp as I had been running well recently.

Saturday afternoon was fun, Pete has a choc lab, Cadbury and his birthday coincides with the Palmy Half so for the second year in a row I got to help take Cadbury to Animates to pick out his birthday presents! Did all the normal race pack pick up stuff that afternoon as well. Al's friend Helen from spin, was doing the 10km with some friends from Massey so kept bumping into her at the airport and at Shoe Clinic when picking up race packs, never saw her on race day tho.

Let's cut the long story short, the half didn't go well. Even in the morning while having breakky I didn't think things were going to go to plan, my legs felt sore and tired and we hadn't even started!! I figured they might come right tho and since I had travelled that far I was definitely going to give it a nudge. The first 5km went fairly well, although I missed the 4km marker so it felt like a really really long km till I realised it was 2km! Was feeling pretty shite by this point so decided to walk the aid station and see how I felt after that. Hmm, things went downhill from there, I didn't seem to have any oomph in my legs and every time I looked at my HRM my HR was in the 170's which is ridiculously high for me and definitely not possible to maintain for anything much longer than 5mins or so. The 10km turn around looked mighty nice and I thought about turning there and just doing 10km but I am a glutton for punishment so I plodded on. By the time I reached 11km I could feel my right calf start to niggle. It had niggled a few times over the last few weeks but a bit of anti-flamme and it was always right as rain the next day. I was wearing my compression socks for the race just in case it flared up (and I wasn't the only one in compression socks, Palmy folk know about the socks as well!) So flare up it did and by km 13 I was hobbling and in a lot of pain and really not enjoying myself, I was one step away from sitting in the gutter and having a good cry! I hobbled on hoping that I would see a St Johns van, but no! I had seen them all morning but when I wanted one there was none around, had I been running with my phone I could have called Pete to come and get me cos he ran an impressive 1.32!! So I was kinda stuck with having to finish, I was quite worried about doing more damage to myself by running funny trying to compensate for my calf but I seem to have come away with just a pulled calf muscle.

So the verdict so far is no running for a minimum of 2 weeks and I am one week into that. Lots of visits to the physio and doing as I am told, which includes aqua-jogging! Blah, 90mins of it yesterday! If I can survive that I can do anything I reckon!!

Ohh and my embarrassingly slow finish time? 2 hours 20, I was quicker than that for the run in the half Ironman last year!! Oh well, I have learnt from this race which is good, sometimes you need a race to go badly so you can learn for next time! What did I learn? Don't mess with routine, have caffeine before the race. Plan, plan, plan, I had no race plan for this race, I looked at it more as a long training run than a race and I need to look at all races as races even if they are just small stepping stones on the way to the big race!!

So, whats been happening?

Right, I haven't quite fallen off the face of the planet but have been taking some time out from blogging etc for a number of reasons. Partly cos I couldn't be bothered, it seemed almost like it was a bit of a chore and it has been nice to tell people what I have been up to without them saying, 'yeah I read that on your blog' also partly I have been in a bit of a funk. Yes, me, really! It was bad but not bad at the same time, I did some learning while I was funking, did a bit of analysing about all sorts of stuff. Realised that I quite like myself so that's good and knew it was all turning round for the better when I actually googled to see whether or not extroverts get depressed! I'd never really been in a funk before so didn't know what that was about eh! I am just very pleased that it was relatively short lived, well compared to some other stories I have heard anyway. One of the guys told me it took him till August to get excited about IM again after doing his first one, yikes!! We had this conversation in May so it scared me some! Turns out having another big goal lined up doesn't make things easier, just so you know if you have similar plans/thoughts when entering that big race! I took a few days annual leave in late June and basically bunked nearly all of my training that week cos I was enjoying sleeping in and not going out in the cold cos I didn't have too for any other reason, then I realised how quickly that next race was sneaking up and realised that I needed to get off my chuff and basically harden the f__k up and just do my training! I have less time this time around as I am racing in January so it does mean I have to train a bit more on wintry days but I guess unlike some others who are over this winter thing I have generally been finding it ok, I seem to find enough parts of the week that aren't too cold and wet to get my training done in, this was probably helped by the fact that I haven't done a lot of cycling over winter as it has been all about the run! Now it is 6 months exactly till race day and I am into it, my training plan is challenging yet do-able which is good and I keep tweaking it with Richard in order to try and get the very best out of each session and that is good, its keeping me interested and excited and I seem to have a new idea every week or so which is keeping me fresh and alert.

So where to from here? I am off to do the Palmerston North Half Marathon again in mid-August, I really enjoyed this race last year so will be fun to test myself over the same course as it was where I set my PB half marathon time. Then South Island Half IM in November followed up by Challenge Wanaka in January.

There won't be so much blogging this time round, mainly cos the journey will be quite different I think. I know that I can physically and mentally complete an IM so that takes away a lot of the uncertainty that I had last time around. And I want it to be more about me than just about my training but a lot of that 'me stuff' I don't necessarily want or need to express in blog form. What I am doing is a lot of reading about goal setting, commitment to your goals and achieving your dreams. So all in all its looking to be quite a philosophical journey this time round, some of it I will share on here, some of it I won't, but I'll be around and I'll be training hard now that I have remembered where I hid those hard pills!!

See you out there training, at the pool, on the road or doing a bit of Bikram!

Some inspiration

Some amazing things can happen when you walk the dog on a cold and windy beach...

Have you ever been told you can't do something or think maybe you're physically not capable of doing something that you would like to do? Then this is for you:

Believe in yourself; chase the seagulls!

At least once a week I take the dog to the beach so he can have a big hoon around, usually I spend the whole time laughing at him and his antics cos watching a dog hoon around at the beach is quite entertaining. Last week when we were at the beach it was low tide and there were quite a few seagulls hovering around the tideline. Zac thinks its great fun to chase them, little does he know that he has very little chance of ever catching one. Everytime he would race towards them they would just fly away. He would cruise back to me and then race off again after the next seagull. I got to thinking and realised that as far as he is concerned it is possible to catch one of those seagulls, you see he doesn't understand 'can't' or 'why' as far as he is concerned he believes that one day he will catch a seagull. I got to thinking about how often people tell us we can't do something eg Ironman, C2C, that we can't finish a race within a certain time etc and figure that if we believe in ourselves enough we can do those things, achieve those goals and dreams, so believe in yourself and keep chasing those seagulls, one day you'll catch one!

Athlete 536 - The Race Report

First up here are my goal times heading into race:

Swim 1 hour 20, Bike 6 hours 30, Run 5 hours - total time of 13 hours allowing about 10mins for transitions!

Pre-race

Alarm was set for 4.30am but I didn't need it as I had been awake for awhile, it's fair to say I was pretty excited that race day was here! Up and ate breakfast which was challenging, even though it was food I eat everyday it didn't taste or feel good going in but it stayed in and thats what counts! Geoff and his brother dropped us off at the race start just after 5am as we wanted to allow plenty of time to check bikes and get numbered. You should have seen Geoff's jaw hit the ground when he 1300 stunning race bikes all lined up! Geoff and Pete came through to watch me get numbered and take some pics, I'm looking rather nervous there! Then off to check my bike, walking in there was awesome and the first tears of the day happened there as reality kicked in again! Off down to the swim start to get wetsuit on and into the water for a bit of a swim before the start. It was still quite dark at this stage, the pro's actually started swimming while it was still dark but by 7am it was fairly light for us. It was pretty daunting being in the water and looking up to see all the crowds lining the road and lake front! I placed myself somewhere mid-pack for the swim start, I treaded water to find my own quietish spot so I didn't start off bumping shoulders and colliding with someone else.

Swim - time 1:15:14 (741st place)

The cannon went off and I just relaxed into the swim, I wanted to take it fairly easy as its a long day out there! I got into a nice comfortable rhythm and tried to stay on peoples feet for a bit of a draft. I started to get a bit knocked around after a few hundred metres after having had a surprisingly smooth start, nothing too serious tho other than a bit of a foot to the goggle which made my goggles suction on a little bit more. The swim honestly seemed to take forever!! I started to get tired heading down the back straight so focused on thinking about keeping my stroke long and smooth to conserve energy and keep my pace up. Finally turned around the last buoy and headed to shore, I started kicking a bit harder here to get the blood flow moving in my legs before having to run up to T1. I was certain that my swim time was going to be about an hour 30 so was telling myself to just forget about it and get on with the rest of the day. Imagine my surprise when I run under the swim exit and see the clock saying 1.15!!! Wow!! That meant I had 5mins up my sleeve for later in the day!

T1 - time 5:46

IMNZ has a huge run up to T1, they reckon its about 450m and a fair amount of it is uphill! The run took over 3mins! It's a bit like running a gauntlet, there are huge crowds of people on other side as you run through and they are all screaming and cheering, I actually found this part really overwhelming and almost started crying which then made me start to hyperventilate a bit. I was quite pleased to get to the top and to the relative quiet of T1. I shot through line of bags grabbing mine on the way through, I stopped just inside the tent and started to strip my wetsuit off, Aynsley saw me and came running over to help. She tipped my gear out and started sorting all that for me. Shoes on, vest on, food in pockets and after giving Aynsley a quick hug to say thanks I was gone. I grabbed a Powerbar on the way out to eat on the way to my bike. Paula and Tanya were cheering from across T1 which was cool. On with the helmet, bike in hand and I was off onto the bike leg.

Cycle - time 6:37:54 (909th place)

The roads were still really wet after the rain from the previous night so I was being cautious heading out through town on the cycle leg. My legs were feeling really good which was great, I stuck to the plan though which was to just spin up the hills, the first of which is very early on in the race. Heaps of people passed me going up here, surprisingly some folk who I thought would have already been way up the road. Not to worry tho, I had my race plan and I knew I would pay for it later if I didn't stick to it. I got settled into eating and drinking fairly quickly, I was feeling hungry after that long swim and wanted to keep on top of my nutrition. I wasn't drinking as much as I should to start with as I needed to pee, now I have tried to pee on my bike and I haven't been able to do it so I stopped at an aid station about 30kms in to use the loo. Of course both loos were in use when I stopped but I used that time to adjust my Bento box and rearrange the food in my pockets as they were bugging me. Back onto the bike feeling much comfier and able to drink at a better rate which was good. Through the turn around at Reporoa at about the 45km mark, Geoff and co were there cheering me on and taking photos so that was cool. I hadn't expected to see them there so that was a nice bonus to see familiar faces! Back into town, by this stage it had started to rain, luckily it wasn't cold but it was bucketing down at times! At this stage I decided to use my aero bars less than I would have liked to. I had managed to crash off my bike using my aero bars in the rain prior to Xmas and had my first DNF, I was wary of this happening again and decided that although not using them would make me slower, I would rather be a few minutes slower and be able to finish the race. So I used them when it was dry and not when it was wet. By the time we headed back into town I was starting to feel a little bit flat after having been out on quiet country roads for such a long time, coming into town was fantastic, its all downhill and I was fair flying! I heard Mike Reilly call out my name as I came hooning past the finish area. Saw the girls cheering me on and then went through the main part of the course where there were huge crowds shouting out which was great and give me a good lift heading back out for the second lap. The best parts were hearing the voices that you recognised although you couldn't really see them in the huge crowds. Back up that wee hill which was a little tougher this time round but I just kept spinning away. Special needs was at the top here so they were calling through your number as you came up so your bag would be ready. I decided I didn't need mine, I knew what was in it and although I was after something sweet by then as I mainly fuelled on my cheese/marmite toasted sammies for the first lap (I was worried they would get soggy in my Bento box with the rain) but knew I had Powerbars for the sweetness factor so I would be fine which I was. Second lap was more of the same really, a bit more rain and I slowed down a little as I was getting tired, was still tracking ok tho so was happy with where I was at. Bottle pick-ups etc went ok, I stopped for the first one as it was really wet and I didn't want to slip but all the rest went fine and I got what I needed everytime. Those support station folk just rocked! They were so good! Coming back through town knowing that I just had to do the run was an awesome feeling, I couldn't stop smiling even tho I hurt a bit by then! Managed to remember to get off my shoes on the bike so I didn't have to do the cycle cleat hobble to transition.

T2 - 5:23

I love that these guys take your bike from you so you can just head off, they call your number as you come in on the bike so that someone has your bag held out ready and waiting for you. I grabbed that and shot into the tent and sat down on the chair! A lovely lady came over and started sorting out my stuff as I took off my helmet and vest. Compression socks on, shoes on, cap on, sunnies back on my head and stuffed gels etc into my pockets. The lady spotted that I had panadol in my bag and asked if I wanted it now which I did as my back was quite sore from the ride. She went and grabbed me a cup of water so I could down those, then I headed off to the loo before heading off onto the run. Paula and Tanya were right by the exit from T2 and gave me a big cheer as I headed off on my way.

Run - 5:01:24 (861st place)

My plan was always to walk/run the run as my running still has room for improvement. I didn't have any set ratio for the run/walk, plan was to just keeping moving forward as quickly as I could! If there was one part of the day that I didn't enjoy much it was this very first part of the run, the streets were packed with people, Cam Brown had just finished and Terrenzo was heading towards the finish so it was all pretty hyper out there. The cool part was hearing Terrenzo called over the line as he completed his very first Ironman!! It was overwhelming running through all those people calling out your name (it was on our race number) and they are being really nice and encouraging you along and all I could think was I'm in agony, I just got off my bike and I have to run a marathon and I have no idea how long thats going to take! It was at this point I put my sunnies back on and decided they would be staying there even if it got dark! I was nearly crying and figured life would be easier if people couldn't see my eyes! I was very pleased to get around the corner and find that it was nice and quiet and I could have some me time!! That was good as it gave me a chance to get my head together and focus on blocking out the distractions. It was good heading out along the lake front towards the airport, I started seeing people I knew heading in to finish their first lap and then later some finishing their second lap! That was cool and it was nice to encourage and be encouraged along by other athletes, it was more meaningful then being cheered along by the crowd. Geoff and his family kept driving up and down the course so I saw a lot of them which meant I had to keep running so I didn't have walking photos!! I would run past them and then walk tho so not sure if it helped my run too much!! They were great tho, they had a huge day and sent heaps of text updates to the girls who couldn't be there along with keeping Richard informed of my progress. The run course was fun once you headed out of town, Rainbow Drive was probably my favourite part, there seemed to be something different going on there every time I went past and you go past 4 times. I got told off on my first lap, apparently Rainbow Drive is a non-walking zone so that was pretty funny and I promised to run it on my way back! There were heaps of folk out partying around that area, stereos blaring, BBQ's going (they smelt great!), funniest part was on the way back for the last time and some of the lads had started rating us, not sure whether to be happy or concerned that I got rated a 10/10 after slogging it out for over 12 hours, I was pretty sweaty and disgusting by then!! It made me laugh tho!! I was checking my times every 3km for the first lap and I was averaging around 20mins every 3km so figured if I could keep that up I would be fine. I lost track of kms tho around the half way mark, I was distracted by picking up special needs bag which I did use this time as I had some treats in there which I wanted as a reward by this stage. Also was heading back round the finish line so was very focused on the road in front of me and stopped looking for km markers. Round the back and picked up that last arm band which meant I was on the final lap!! That was a highlight, that meant the finish wasn't very far away. I had started to get quite jealous of the people I was seeing with 2 armbands on as it meant they were on the way home and now I had that coveted band as well! I have to be honest and say I really really enjoyed the second lap, just knowing that I was going to make it seemed to spur me on and helped me keep the momentum going, also knowing exactly where the turn around was and the aid stations were made it easier for pacing yourself. I was starting to get pretty tired and sore but I just kept ticking out the kms!! Caught up with Di from Ontri on the way back into town, she was still on her first lap and was worried she wasn't going to make the cut-off. I chatted with her and did some quick maths and worked out that even if it took her half an hour to get back into town from where we were she would still have over 3 and a half hours for her second lap. I felt a bit bad leaving her when I ran off towards the finish but was stoked to see that she finished around 11.15pm!! Well before the cut-off time!! Nice work Di!! Saw Bec out on the run course as well, she was looking good considering how little run training she had got in due to her shin splints etc! Thought I saw Selina and shouted out a hi, realised after that it was a different Selina! Oops! It was awesome running into the finish, everyone was shouting out 'Go Kiwi', 'Go 536', 'You're nearly there', 'Well done', 'Awesome work' etc etc. I think I ran the last 5kms pretty much saying 'thank you' the whole way!! As I passed people heading towards the chute I was checking how many armbands people had on as I didn't want to do a sprint finish and race someone to the finish line, I just wanted to enjoy it, after all you only finish your first Ironman once!! I managed to get the finish chute to myself which was awesome!!

Wow what a buzz turning up that finish chute, there were a couple of marshalls there pointing the way and almost ushering you into the chute and they were so excited to see you which was amazing as they had already helped a lot of people finish! I gave them a huge thumbs up, lifted my sunnies back onto my head and headed up that chute, I could hear Mike Reilly saying 'we've got 3 in a row, 3 first-timers, lets bring them on in!!' I heard him call out my name and say 'Nadine Voice, you are an Ironman!!' That was amazing, its hard to describe how awesome that felt. I had a wee cry coming up the finish chute, its huge that culmination of all those hours of training and the sacrifices along the way all coming to end as you become an Ironman!!

Total time - 13:05:43

Am I upset I didn't come in under 13 hours? No.

Would I change anything if I did it all again tomorrow? No, I'm happy with the decisions I made out there on the course at the time.

Would I do it again? Hell yes!! In a heartbeat! I loved every minute of it!

I did get a bit of a hard time about the fact that I smiled all day, that was in my race plan tho! Richard always says to me keep smiling no matter what and it will make it easier, well it does make it easier and there were times when I was running and smiling and people were saying 'wow, you look really strong' what they couldn't see was the pain and the hurt cos I was smiling it away. The one time I forgot to smile was at the end, so in my finish photos I look shattered not smiley but thats ok, I have finish photos!! :)

Friday - the day before race day!

Friday was a bit interesting weather wise, I got up early to go for a quick swim as I was going to the women's breakfast to listen to Paula Newby-Fraser speak. It was raining fairly steadily while we were swimming, there were lots of folk heading off for a quick ride etc but I had already decided I was just going to swim rather than risk sliding off my bike in the wet.

The breakfast was really interesting (the food wasn't quite normal brekky fare for me, Zarnia and I were disappointed that there was no cereal!!). Paula Newby-Fraser is certainly an interesting person and she talked about how she got into Ironman and then offered up some advice for us for race day. It was all pretty sensible stuff but nice to be reminded of so close to race day, she mainly talked about the fact that we had done the training and to focus on getting to that finish line on race day.

After that it was off to race briefing. That was pretty full on as there was lots to go over by the time you had course briefing, race rules (I was way to scared to be close to another bike after that in case they thought I was drafting!!), medical briefing, support station briefing and the list goes on. But it was good as they made sure you knew everything that you could possibly need to know for race day.

It was still raining as we headed off home to get our gear bags and go down to rack our bikes. When you drop your bike and helmet off you get your own helper who shows you to where you rack your bike then walks you through transition showing you where the swim entry is and where to pick up your T1 bag etc. This was pretty cool as it means you have one less thing to worry about on race day. I had a wee teary moment as I left my bike there. That was making things a little bit real, there's no going back once you hand over the bike! Then off to drop transition bags at the other tent so they could be taken to the correct places for the next day. Picked up special needs bags to get ready for the next day then I headed off to the Jon Acland seminar on 'How to do your best Ironman'. I mainly went along as he has written some interesting articles on Sportzhub and I figured I may pick up a pearl or two of wisdom from him, which I did. Some of the key things I picked up were, start the race as you want to finish, focus on just 50m at a time, 'am I doing the best I can over this 50m?' eg whats my form like, am I feeling good, what do I need to change? He had some good tips about when the race would go pear shaped, he said the first time would be the swim start as everyone charges off, then along the back of the swim when you start to get tired, other times are when you come through town on the bike and the run as the crowd lift you and you forget your race plan and go hard in front of the crowd. Very wise words that all helped the next day and reinforced everything Richard has told me as well. It's nice to have those reminders so close to race day.

Then I headed off to the Orca shop to do a little more shopping, hey I needed running gear that fits and my old stuff will be going on Trademe very soon!

Had a wee nap in the afternoon, Paula and Tanya arrived in town and popped round to say hi. It was lovely to see a couple of friendly faces who weren't race nervous!!

Then time to eat, mmmm lots of yummy mashed potato and chicken followed up by a bowl of ice-cream!!

Geoff and his family arrived a little after 10, so after settling them in I headed off to bed to try and sleep but I was way too excited!! I think I managed about 3-4 hours! Oh well, I have plenty of time to sleep now!!