Sunday, March 13, 2011

Ironman New Zealand 2011 - The Prologue

Sh*t!

Tuesday night of the earthquake and we had just gone to bed.  No, it wasn't an aftershock.  I had just closed my eyes and shifted my mind away from the earthquake and onto ironman when I suddenly realised I had a minor problem.

My wetsuit.

I didn't have it.

It was in at The Frontrunner having its minor nicks glued in preparation for ironman.  The Frontrunner is in the CBD which was now in a pile of rubble and in complete lockdown.  I had no idea whether or not the store was still standing or whether my wetsuit was in one piece.  Either way it didn't matter.  There was no way the CBD was going to be open again before we were due to head north to Taupo in a week's time.  I was going to have to get hold of a new wetsuit.

Fortunately that was indeed a relatively minor problem.  My bike had been serviced the day before and I had, thankfully, picked it up that evening (Monday).  If I had left it one more day then it would also have been stuck in the CBD and I would have had a much bigger problem to contend with.

There was no question, though, about going to Taupo.  We had sustained no damage to the house, we weren't injured and all our family and friends were accounted for.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however.

We did lose water for a couple of days and with the damage sustained to the city's infrastructure, we were all asked to limit our water and electricity use and so that meant no showers, no flushing of toilets, no laundry etc.  All those day to day things you take for granted suddenly became a real luxury.  Add to that the requisite aftershocks and by mid-week we were starting to feel pretty drained, physically and emotionally.

Because we didn't know how long the water situation would go on for, and because I needed to ensure I kept getting good rest over the coming days we decided to bring forward our departure date and managed to book in for a couple of nights in Kaikoura.  I had looked at accommodation options in Picton and Blenheim but the exodus from Christchurch after the earthquake meant that motels were in short supply and so we were glad to find a room at Kaikoura Waterfront Apartments

View from our apartment
It was a great spot, right across from the ocean and we were able to catch up on laundry and generally just chill.

 On Sunday morning we took the opportunity to head out on a Whale Watch tour - one of those things that, as a relative "local" you never tend to do.  It was a fantastic morning out on the sea and the company runs a slick operation for the tourists.

We saw three whales during our tour as well as a seal and several different birds and the weather was perfect for being at one with the wildlife.

 During the afternoon we checked out the seal colony - and they were looking as chilled out as I was becoming.  Fantastic.

Yes, you may take my photo...

By Monday morning we had caught up with the laundry and had achieved a couple of nights' good sleep and were on our way to Taupo.

First stop was Picton where we caught the early afternoon ferry to Wellington and it was an overnight stop in Wellington before continuing on Tuesday, getting into Taupo early afternoon.

Just before we got to Taupo we had a very important stop to make.  The Prime Minister had declared that there would be a nationwide call for 2 minutes of silence in remembrance of the Christchurch earthquake at 12.51pm on Tuesday, exactly a week after it hit.  We were just a few kilometres out of Taupo at the time but stopped the car and stood roadside, paused in thought for our shattered community.

After we unpacked the car I remembered the roll of white electrical tape we had with us and thought of a great use for it:

Thoughts are with home even though we were half a country away.

Wednesday dawned and I had a very important job to do.  A wetsuit was needed!  Down to the ironman sports expo and straight to the 2XU stand where I had established the preferred model to replace my wetsuit languishing amongst rubble in Christchurch.  Half an hour later and we were walking out with a 2XU V1

It was also time to take the bike out for a light spin so a 45min ride was completed and I used that ride to scope out the run course.  Everything was feeling good, the bike was running well and I thought I was pretty calm and relaxed.

What I did start dealing with, however, were migraine-type headaches.  I can fall victim to migraines if I don't drink enough and get a bit dehydrated but in this instance I was slugging back Powerade so I couldn't believe that was the problem.  Another possibility was the climate - it was noticeably warmer in Taupo than I had been used to and I wondered if the heat/humidity were getting to me a little.

The most likely explanation, however, would soon reveal itself.

In line for registration
In the meantime I had to register, and did this on Thursday.  At registration we had to sign our lives away and get weighed.

We would get weighed before and then straight after the finish, something that, I believe, is unique to the NZ ironman event.  It was a bit disconcerting to find that, apparently, I had put on 5kg since leaving Christchurch a week earlier.  On seeing that I very quickly resolved not to dwell on it - there were so many possible explanations and it really wasn't worth worrying about.  My weight fluctuates hugely at the best of times and my attitude had been that I was prepared to complete ironman no matter what weight my body decided to sit at (as it obviously has a mind of its own!).

We got back to the motel and checked out the registration bag.  We had been given three marked transition bags, labelled for the swim, bike and run legs.  Also, the freebie for competitors was an ironman branded wheel bag.  A great bag for your aero wheels - pity my Fast Forward aero wheels had come with a free bag already!
 
A bonus in the registration packs, though, was a special race number for the Christchurch athletes.  Instead of the pink or blue background (for women and men respectively) we had a red and black striped background (Canterbury's sporting colours) and the message "Christchurch is my Home".  It was a really nice touch and there was no question about wearing it on race day.

That afternoon we also headed out to Reporoa to check out the bike course and then I had the job of sorting out the transition bags, ready for handing in with the bike the following morning.
Gear ready for the transition bags - hopefully I haven't forgotten anything!

In the meantime Coach Dave had been in text contact.  He had just arrived in Taupo and suggested we meet up for a brief swim on Friday morning.  It wasn't scheduled but any additonal excuse to take the new wetsuit out was a good one.

Before that, though, there was a very important function to get to - the carbo party.  This was the first opportunity for athletes to get together and do a bit of carbo loading and it was also the first opportunity for me to meet Iron Jack (Jacky) in person.  I've mentioned Jacky in previous posts, but I had met her via Facebook last year when she posted a link to her website on the IMNZ facebook group.  I followed her progress with training and we realised that we had a lot in common - first ironman, not your typical lean, mean, fighting machine, out to prove an average person can achieve extraordinary things.
Iron Jack and I meet!

It was so good, then, to finally meet Jacky and we had a great time catching up and sharing experiences.

Friday morning and on the real countdown to IM!  We headed down to the yacht club and met up with Dave and Curly for a quick swim.  While we were getting ready I mentioned the headaches I had been getting all week.  "Hmm", said Dave, "it's probably tension".  Duh, I thought, why didn't I think of that?

Final swim, Friday morning, with Dave - the calm before the storm.
Well I probably didn't want to think of that as I was so busy being "calm" about it all.  That was all about to end, however, as we went out for our swim and my brain decided it had had enough of being calm about all of this and proceded to have a meltdown.

Great.  Here I am swimming to the assigned buoy.  Stop to look for the others and find they've disappeared.  So I head to a couple more buoys and then start swimming back and, as I do, it all becomes too much and before you know it I'm bawling my eyes out and my goggles are filling with water.

Unbelievable.

I know I can do the distance, I've done it before, so why am I freaking out?   Well I guess it was just a release for all the tension that had been building up all week but that was no comfort at the time.  I got to shore and tried to pull myself together.  St Pete was standing on shore trying to figure out what was going on but I wasn't in any fit state to talk to anyone right away.  I gave myself a good talking to and decided I needed to finish the swim on a positive note so, much to Pete's confusion, turned around and headed out again for 100m.

Calm and happy.  Calm and happy.

You can swim, and it feels fine.  You can do this.

I got back to shore and walked up to the car.  "What's going on, are you OK?"  Pete asked.  "NO" I blubbed....

And that set the tone for the rest of the day.  I was a complete wreck and felt sick.  A good long soak in the motel's hot pool was called for and by lunchtime I was about as ready as I'd ever be to go and check in the bike and transition bags.  That done I tried to chill out again in our room for the afternoon while St Pete tried to maintain a calm and happy atmosphere while providing happy treats such as pikelets and chocolate...

By early Friday evening I was emotionally shattered but with the help of advice from Jacky (think like Nemo: "just keep swimming") and a pep talk from Coach Dave, I was ready for a decent sleep.

7.30pm arrived and I was indeed off in the land of ironman dreams...









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