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My first ironman experience – Challenge Wanaka

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At the finish line - still have a smile on my face.

At the finish line – still have a smile on my face.

Wow, what can I say….. an amazing event.  Challenge Wanaka was voted the world’s most scenic triathlon and for good reason, as the views are stunning.  It’s renowned as a tough, honest event and the race day conditions were perfect.  The months of training paid off, as I can truly say, I was able to enjoy every moment of the 15 hours and 54 mins of the racing experience, especially crossing over the finish line with my family.

I didn’t allow myself to think about breaking record times, after all my first ironman was always going to be a Personal Best.

The Wanaka lake had ‘swimming pool’ like conditions starting from the beach at 7:15am (the pro’s started at 7am).  Exiting the water, after the 3.8km swim, I felt ready and full of energy for the biggest part of the challenge for me, which was the 180km cycle.  The most I had ridden in the past in training was just over 100km, so I was going into the unknown.  Usually, I wouldn’t recommend anyone taking on an ironman without completing the individual distances separately, but my excuse was living in Vilnius over the winter period in December and January, were temperatures can get as cold as minus 20 degrees Celsius, so I was restricted to in-door cycling for my build up.  I could only manage a maximum of 2 hours doing in-door biking, but that was enough to get me through on the big day.

The cycle leg was a fun part for me (all seven and a half hours of it), as wearing a white number (indicated I was completing the full ironman distance) the other competitors that passed me, often wearing the red, yellow, or green numbers (indicating full distance team, individual half, and team half respectively) often yelled out positive, supportive messages.  Individual names were also shown on the numbers.

One group that kept passing me, was a wedding party.  Mark and Allysa decided to choose Challenge Wanaka as their wedding location and their wedding vows were due to take place during the race at 6pm after completing 21km of the run.  As drafting wasn’t allowed, their group couldn’t ride together, but they made regular longer stops at each aide station to catch up, which meant I seen the back of Mark and Allysa more times than I care to remember.  They had beautiful flowers attached the the back of their road bikes.  When Mark first passed me, he made a positive comment – something like ‘go Mike, keep up the good work’.  During the second or third passing we had a good catch up and he told me about the 6pm wedding, which I already knew about as it was also covered in the pre-race briefing as one of the highlights and in the local press. The next time he passed me, he said ‘Mike, I think you are going to make our wedding…’, then later after the next passing, he was making the following comments spread out over the next 6 hours.
‘Mike, you are definitely going to make our wedding…’
‘Mike, I think you are the best man…’
‘Mike, you are definitely the best man…’
His humorous comments continued and kept me going along with the positive cheers from the supportive crowds and amazing volunteers who kept us all fuelled at the regular aid stations.  It was the last couple of aid stations were the wedding party was just taking off before I arrived and looking at the time it was coming up to 4pm, so I knew I was unfortunately going to miss their 6pm wedding.

However, I caught and passed their group on the run section, as they were all running late for the wedding.  It was just after 7pm when I completed the first 21km run loop and I seen Mark and his wedding party when I was on the way out to do the second lap.  He yelled out ‘Mike, where are you going? The best man is gong to miss our wedding!’ I replied ‘sorry mate, but I have to crack on.  Congrats again!’

Feeling fresh at the start of the run.

Feeling fresh at the start of the run.

The last leg of the race was the biggest unknown to me, and I was conscious not to push the body too much.  After about 24km I sat down for a little 2 minute rest and pulled out my emergency energy gel.  I could feel myself low on fuel and that gel certainly did the trick to get me back up and running again.  It was a good reminder of a useful piece of advice I received from my brother.  He said to me a couple of days before the race.  ‘Even if the energy gels make you feel sick, make sure you have them at every stop, as your body will thank you for it‘.  I made sure I stuck to the gels at each aid station and that got me home feeling great.  The last 200 metres were fantastic with supporters cheering me home, even though it was after 9:30pm in the evening.  I was then joined by my family for the last 20 metres in the runners enclosure.  It was the perfect way to finish, as I really appreciated their support in taking on a huge event like an ironman.

If anyone is thinking of completing an ironman, then I can fully recommend Challenge Wanaka, as this event seems to be growing from strength to strength and everyone in the town gets behind the competitors.  For overseas visitors, Wanaka is situated in one of the must see areas in New Zealand.  Afterwards, you can spend some time relaxing around the central otago lakes and vineyards.  And for those that want more action, make sure you head to Queenstown for some more adventure activities, like white water rafting and jet boating.


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