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Published: January 29th 2008
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challenge wanaka
the start- SWIM! Saturday, Janary 19th was
Challenge Wanaka, the Ironman distance triathlon race held here in Wanaka. It was the second year they have put on the race and it was wonderful! For all you who don’t know what the race is, well, it’s a 3.8k swim, 180k road bike, and 42.2k run (a marathon). You can enter either as an individual and do the whole thing by yourself, or as a team and split up the events. My work,
Racers Edge was one of the sponsors so all leading up to the event we were busy setting up, preparing, helping out the athletes, etc. Also, our manager Merryn was doing the race by herself, so we were all excited for her! It was a busy week, but definitely worth it.
On race day, I got up around 6am to make the 7am start at the lake. It was a perfect morning for the swim—calm, flat water and cool, crisp air. There was a decent sized crowd for such an early hour. I made it within 3 minutes of the start. The athletes swam two laps around the buoys in the lake. As they were coming out of the water for
their transition to the bike leg, I had to report to work—I was helping out at the
blueseventy expo tent. I talked to people about b70’s wetsuits, goggles, skull caps, etc. We were in a good spot- right in front of the transition area and finish line. I got to see the athletes ride away on their bikes. The biggest excitement was when Merryn came out third woman overall! We were all so excited for her.
The day continued on and eventually all the individuals were on their bikes. A little while later they started the team event, another exciting race to see since more than likely each event would be on a fresh pair of legs, so times would be fast!
We got word throughout the bike leg of the standings of all the athletes. For the men, an Australian held the lead through most of it, while a Kiwi woman stayed steady in the lead, constantly gaining time on her opponents. The bike course took them out to Cromwell, back through Tarras, Hawea, back through Wanaka, out to Treble Cone, and back to Wanaka. We all ran to a corner so we could see the bikers
pass by on their way to TC. At this point, there was a good distance between the leaders and the rest of the pack. We waited for Merryn to pass, screamed our heads off and headed back to work. She looked so strong and was currently in 5th.
The sun had been beating down all day and the bike leg got hot. But even worse was the run leg. After so much work, they all still had to run a marathon in the sweltering heat. It got up to around 33-35 degrees Celcius (about 93-97 degrees F). Imagine! But they all pushed through and headed off on the run. Locals were great and put out their sprinklers. The run took them through Wanaka to the
Outlet track and back, and they had to do two laps, which was good because the crowd got to see them twice on the run if they stayed by the finish line. At this point, the gap between the first and second man had closed significantly and we eventually got wind that the Australian was passed by the German on the run. For the women, the Kiwi was dominating the race by a huge
margin—about 30 minutes or more. A woman had dropped out of the bike as well, so Merryn was now in 4th place!
The German ended up winning by a little over 2 minutes, as well as the Kiwi woman with a lead of about 40 minutes, smashing last year’s course records. Merryn finished fourth, well under 11 hours. Go Merryn!
All in all, it was a great day! They lucked out overall with the weather—calm conditions for the swim, no wind for the bike and run. Even though it was hot, it could’ve been worse. It was such an inspiration to see these athletes compete- whether they were professionals, locals, or internationals. It was especially great to see the locals finish after the months and months of training. Congratulations to all the athletes! I hope to be in the race sometime in the future!
Frisbee the other day was awesome! We had about 17 people show up, mostly thanks to my friends who bring their couch surfers, but we still had a good amount of locals. I started playing soccer during the week as well so I recruited some people from that.
After frisbee, I headed
run leg
last years winner to the Challenge Wanaka party at & Bar. I got to meet the athletes, organizers, and everyone who was involved in making the race successful.
Other than that, it's been hot and sunny here! Every day is gorgeous. I've actually signed up for a local triathlon- just a baby one (300m swim, 10k bike, 3k run) but I'm really stoked because I have been training on a road bike!!! I went road biking for the first time a couple days ago and loved it! The bike goes so much faster than a mountain bike. Yesterday I rode about 22k out to Cardrona Valley with a couple friends (who were riding to Arrowtown, about 60k farther out!!) and back, so about 45k total and I did it in 2 hours and 4 minutes! It was so fun, beautiful scenery (even though I had a strong headwind on the way back). I've also been swimming in the lake (with a blueseventy wetsuit!) and running. Anyways, the tri is on Feb 16th in Wanaka. I'm excited!
Yesterday i also went wine tasting at
Rippon Vineyard the winery/vineyard in Wanaka which was really nice. There's a big music festival there next wknd
which I'm going to- should be awesome. That's all for now, computer is being fussy so we'll see how many pictures I feel like uploading before I want to smash my computer. 😊
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