Ironman New Zealand
In at the Deep End
Richard Ussher / 11.03.2009
This year I forwent Coast to Coast for the first time in as many years as I can remember – all to see if I could match it with some of the big guns from the Ironman world. The past 3 months have seen quite a different approach to training and the absence of kayaking as I have instead been in the water rather than on it. My build up had gone really well barring a small bike on car incidence where I unfortunately managed to crash into the back of a car, scare the pijibers out of the occupant, collect an additional 14 stitches and just for good measure a fair amount of bruising. The reality was I was extremely lucky to walk away from the accident without any broken bones and I was also fortunate that I was able to continue training in various forms almost right away.
Race day hadn’t even dawned when it was time to hit the water as the pro field this year was given a 15 minute head start over the age group field. It was quite a strange sensation to be swimming around while it was still dark and at 6:45am the hooter sounded and we were off.
I seemed to be going well for the first 100 metres (should that be milli?) and was still surrounded by swinging arms and kicking feet which I figured must be a good sign. By half way down the first leg I was ever so slowly drifting back through the main bunch but I was still hanging in there OK. I ended up near the back of the main pack and was aware that there weren’t too many signs of anyone close behind so I knew I had to hold on to this last pair of feet no matter what. I was starting to feel more comfortable and was able to see the pack right in front and settled in for the remaining couple of kilometres.
Round the turnaround and everything still seemed OK until I looked up and a gap was rapidly forming between the pack and the person who’s feet I was swimming on. A few seconds later when I sneaked another look the gap had grown exponentially and it was now clear water to the pack. I did my best Ian Thorpe impersonation and tried to cross the gap – failing miserably in the process I did at least manage to get around the swimmer in front and set about getting to the finish of the swim as fast as possible.
The main problem is that fast and swim don’t really belong in the same sentence if you’re talking about me and without the benefit of the age groupers coming through I was losing time at a drastic rate. When I finally touched the shore and looked up I could have cried when I saw 56 minutes on the clock – 5 minutes slower than last year and I was now almost 9 minutes behind the front runners.See All Event Posts
