Transition 1 was a bit of a blur. I held a steady jog along the green carpet then up the stairs and through the waiting volunteers who had my transition bag out ready for me to grab. What a team! Into the tent and another volunteer found me quickly and stripped off my wetsuit and grabbed my gear out of the bag. Bike shoes on, spare chocolate brownies in my back pocket (thanks mum!) and sunglasses in hand, I ran out of the tent, accepted a rapid application of sunscreen from more volunteers and found Black Beauty.
Time for the fun part of the day!
Onto the bike and into my stride. The bike course can be broken down into four sections. It's a two lap course, out to Reporoa and back. There are a few hills around the Taupo end of the loop and then it is mainly flat, although slightly downhill overall out to Reporoa.
The first lap on the bike went to plan. A solid pace, passing lots of people and feeling strong. I was eating and drinking regularly and my biggest concern was staying out of trouble with the technical officials! There were a lot of people around me (that I was mostly passing) and staying legal distance from the person in front was a bit of a challenge… The best approach seemed to be making sure I was always moving through the "pack" whenever we were being watched and this approach seemed to work.
Either that or I was just lucky...
The first lap on the bike went to plan. A solid pace, passing lots of people and feeling strong. I was eating and drinking regularly and my biggest concern was staying out of trouble with the technical officials! There were a lot of people around me (that I was mostly passing) and staying legal distance from the person in front was a bit of a challenge… The best approach seemed to be making sure I was always moving through the "pack" whenever we were being watched and this approach seemed to work.
Either that or I was just lucky...
Towards the end of the first lap, as we were heading to the hills coming back to Taupo, I went past a girl who then came by not long after and called out as she passed, "I thought it was you!". It was Leonie, a friend from Rotorua who I had met through Jacky when she came to do Ironman Cairns, her first full distance after the aborted IMNZ in 2012.
Leonie and I then proceeded to track each other through Taupo - I'd go past her on the downhills and flats and she'd catch up again on the hills. I remember thinking to myself that it was going to be a great second lap if I could stay with her for the rest of the distance and then maybe get far enough ahead on the flat section of the course to hold her off on the final climbs back into Taupo. (No, I'm not competitive…).
I went through the 88km mark in 2 hours 48 minutes - well inside my 3 hour goal for halfway. But I knew there was an additional climb to negotiate on the second lap, plus I needed some breathing space for the inevitable headwind that we would encounter for the final section coming back into Taupo. So I was happy with the split and confident I was on target for a 6 hour bike split.
On the second lap we deviate slightly and go onto a private road as we head out of town - which adds the extra hill. This was all fine until about 500m from the end of the road when my back wheel starts going "thump, thump, thump". I didn't want to think it possible, but it was the heart-sinking bump of the wheel rolling over the valve when the tyre is flat. The road surface was quite rough so I took a minute freewheeling to see if it was really going flat or hopefully it was just my imagination. But, no, finally I cruised to a stop, got off and, sure enough, the tyre was down.
Just as I stopped Leonie flashed past me. That would be the last I saw of her… crap.
Ah well. Better get this tyre fixed. Back wheel comes off, tube out, carefully run my fingers around the inside of the tyre to find whatever it was that caused the puncture.
Can't find it.
Run my fingers around the inside a second time. If there's something there I need to find it, otherwise this is going to be a bit of a disaster.
Still can't find it.
Run my fingers around the inside a third time - and double-check the outside of the tyre. Nope, nothing.
At this point I decide I need to take a punt and put the new tube in, hoping like anything that it doesn't go the way of its predecessor in 5 minutes time. Inflate the tube, put everything back where it belongs and get going again.
The Garmin later shows that I was stopped for 7 minutes. But it didn't ruin my day. It had given me 7 minutes additional "rest" which surely can't be a bad thing, plus my main goal for the day was to put in a solid run, and if my 7 minutes "rest" was going to help that then I'd take it!
Thankfully the new tube was all good - sweet! Only thing was, my knee was about to stop playing ball.
About 5km from the turnaround at Reporoa my injured knee started making its presence felt and so the last 50km was spent nursing it back to Transition. That final, fourth section, also had the headwind arrive, and the slight overall climb back to Taupo which meant I took that last stretch reasonably conservatively. Spinning the legs more and knowing that I still had a run to do and that this is where I was planning to make up the bulk of my overall time.
While I punctured and got a sore knee, though, it could have been a lot worse.
One section of road on Broadlands Road had been resealed just that week and so we had a section of road, about 400m long that was even rougher than the typically rough chip seal surface we were riding on. And at least one guy went down on it and was being tended to by medics when I went past. His food and bottles from the bike were still strewn across the road and. I was pleased to have got through that section (and the whole bike leg, in fact) in one piece.
I rolled into T2 still happy with my efforts - an overall bike split of 6:13:59 which was still 17 minutes faster than my 2013 IMNZ bike split. No puncture and injury-free knee means a 6 hour bike split is definitely within my sights on that course!
Just a little run to do :)
Leonie and I then proceeded to track each other through Taupo - I'd go past her on the downhills and flats and she'd catch up again on the hills. I remember thinking to myself that it was going to be a great second lap if I could stay with her for the rest of the distance and then maybe get far enough ahead on the flat section of the course to hold her off on the final climbs back into Taupo. (No, I'm not competitive…).
On the second lap we deviate slightly and go onto a private road as we head out of town - which adds the extra hill. This was all fine until about 500m from the end of the road when my back wheel starts going "thump, thump, thump". I didn't want to think it possible, but it was the heart-sinking bump of the wheel rolling over the valve when the tyre is flat. The road surface was quite rough so I took a minute freewheeling to see if it was really going flat or hopefully it was just my imagination. But, no, finally I cruised to a stop, got off and, sure enough, the tyre was down.
Just as I stopped Leonie flashed past me. That would be the last I saw of her… crap.
Ah well. Better get this tyre fixed. Back wheel comes off, tube out, carefully run my fingers around the inside of the tyre to find whatever it was that caused the puncture.
Can't find it.
Run my fingers around the inside a second time. If there's something there I need to find it, otherwise this is going to be a bit of a disaster.
Still can't find it.
Run my fingers around the inside a third time - and double-check the outside of the tyre. Nope, nothing.
At this point I decide I need to take a punt and put the new tube in, hoping like anything that it doesn't go the way of its predecessor in 5 minutes time. Inflate the tube, put everything back where it belongs and get going again.
The Garmin later shows that I was stopped for 7 minutes. But it didn't ruin my day. It had given me 7 minutes additional "rest" which surely can't be a bad thing, plus my main goal for the day was to put in a solid run, and if my 7 minutes "rest" was going to help that then I'd take it!
Thankfully the new tube was all good - sweet! Only thing was, my knee was about to stop playing ball.
About 5km from the turnaround at Reporoa my injured knee started making its presence felt and so the last 50km was spent nursing it back to Transition. That final, fourth section, also had the headwind arrive, and the slight overall climb back to Taupo which meant I took that last stretch reasonably conservatively. Spinning the legs more and knowing that I still had a run to do and that this is where I was planning to make up the bulk of my overall time.
While I punctured and got a sore knee, though, it could have been a lot worse.
One section of road on Broadlands Road had been resealed just that week and so we had a section of road, about 400m long that was even rougher than the typically rough chip seal surface we were riding on. And at least one guy went down on it and was being tended to by medics when I went past. His food and bottles from the bike were still strewn across the road and. I was pleased to have got through that section (and the whole bike leg, in fact) in one piece.
I rolled into T2 still happy with my efforts - an overall bike split of 6:13:59 which was still 17 minutes faster than my 2013 IMNZ bike split. No puncture and injury-free knee means a 6 hour bike split is definitely within my sights on that course!
Just a little run to do :)
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