- 2009 Tauranga Half Ironman
- 2009 NZ Ironman
- 2009 ITU World Long Distance Champs (Perth)
- 2010 Tauranga Half Ironman
- 2010 K2
- 2011 Tauranga Half Ironman
- 2011 NZ Ironman again
- 2011 K2
- 2011 Ironmaori (Half Ironman)
- 2012 Tauranga Half Ironman
Reason number 1: Four words.... Spain in three weeks! This year's ITU Long Distance World Triathlon Champs are being held in Vitoria-Gastiez, Spain and rightly or wrongly I took up the qualifying spot.
Reason number 2: The Spain qualification's a bit special. The qualifying race was this years Tauranga Half Ironman on the 7th of January. On the 29th of January my Mother lost her long battle with cancer. News of qualification came through soon after... so Mum, this one's for you.
Reason number 3: Friends, family and nosey folk keep asking how it's going. Now I can point them here.
This ITU World Long Distance thing.... what's with that? Because it's there I guess. To be honest, not my ideal event - that'd be something like a 1km swim, 200km cycle and a 2km run. This year the distances are 4k swim, 120k cycle and 30k run. Not quite an Ironman but not far off and to be honest, the training hasn't been that different.
It's a family trip too. My wife Rochelle and daughter Isobel are coming along to be my support crew and to help cheer on the NZ Team. We had a blast in Perth 2009. Something tells me Spain and the ensuing two weeks traveling up through France and the Netherlands will live up to this. Adding to the travelling Hams is my Dad who's coming with us as far as Barcelona on the way over. He's continuing up to the Netherlands to spend a bit of time with family before he joins us on the return journey home.
Today in two weeks we're on a plane.....
