Ironman 70.3 New Zealand

As most people will already know and saw, Taupo turned on some wild weather for the Saturday so the ironman was cancelled and we got to race over the Ironman 70.3 distance on Sunday. Not exactly what I wanted or probably about 1500 other athletes, but I know there where some pros who where smiling as the shorter distance obviously suits some athletes more than others.

So the pros where in the water at 7.45 with the age group men off at 7.55 and the age group women at 8am. I had a super start which ended up being the best part of my day and ended up sitting on Tim Reed hip for the first 500m but then the arms started to fatigue, got quite a few mouthfuls of water and then next thing I know I am going backwards which pretty much summed up my day.
Onto the bike and there was not much power going down, and the turn around confirmed what I was feeling as the lead group having a big gap. It was quite disappointing on the return leg to see some of the pro women having some very easy rides to T2, there really needs to be a 30min gap between the pro women and age groupers to have a fair race.
I got the run done and quite enjoyed seeing Tim taking it to the other guys in the race, unfortunately he got a little too excited at the start of the run.

I am sure some of you are wondering what has happened to my form over the Kiwi summer, well I had been doing some experimenting on myself and it obviously didn't work and the legs ended up getting very tired! the body feels pretty similar to when I got back from Switzerland in 2010. Once I got over Swiss I came back even stronger so some rest time for me now and then I will be back!
Or as Cerutty said, I will be back, and better than ever! 

Some highlights from my athletes racing was Erin getting her first Kona spot and on the podium, and Dave going under 5hrs for the first time. Graham also had a Kona qualifier and some PBs

We had a great stay at the Baywater, check out some photos of the weather from our deck

Also some photos of my first surf in quite a while

The Calm before the storm

Storm arrives

Guys surfing on lake Taupo

Ruapuke, a little fast for me

Ruapuke rocks