1st Karapiro Half Ironman

Well I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season with a win on my home soil. It is my first race under a new coaching plan at vo2coach so to see results early in the season is encouraging.

The Karapiro Half is in its second year running and has a lot going for it, with a great location, spectacular scenery and three demanding legs to suit a pure swim/bike and runner, it is a race that everyone should slot on there calendar for 2011.We started the day off with a 2km straight swim down the World Rowing Championship course. While it was a fast swim I was a bit off the pace the rowers roar down there at clocking around 25mins and exiting in first place with a handy lead on the field behind.

The bike heads around Maungatautari and is a really honest ride having a mixture of flat and hilly sections through the quite roads of the Waipa District. With westerly winds whipping up during the ride the last 20km was going to be tough so being conservative early was wise. It was a lonely ride out in front but good practice for Ironman racing :-) and good chance to think about nailing the 4th discipline nutrition.

Having around a 3min lead to Matt Burgess off the bike who was having a great ride and race I was pretty confident by now that I could hold my own in the run. I learnt a lot with pacing myself in America this year, too many of my races I ran out like a ITU athlete and paid for it three quarters in. But today was perfect and while running within myself I was still able to keep even and controlled.So finishing with a win in front of family and friends was cool and I hope to continue the season with more top performances. Next up is Tinman on the 5th December.