TEAM HARDING
www.hbtoday.co.nz
Shane Harrison and the Hawke's Bay Multisports Club
Ironmaori
blueseventy
Plus Rehab (CHB, Hastings, Taradale, Napier)
Advintage
Training Programme Week 15 of 28
Day 99 - Rest Day
Day 100 - Rest Day
Day 101 - 30km Cycle
Day 102 - 1400m Swim (Two lap swim, Pandora Pond)
Day 103 - 20km Cycle
Day 104 - 90km Cycle - Relay Leg of IronMaori
Day 105 - Rest Day
I am used to living in chaos. After all I work at a newspaper, and have three daughters. But Friday afternoon was more chaotic than usual.
I left work in Hastings just before 3pm faced with registering Froggie's Fitness Fanatics for the IronMaori mixed relay, attending my latest physio appointment with Tony Snell at Plus Rehab, then collecting my new bike, which was being assembled at Cranked Cycles having arrived by courier that day, by 5.30pm.
Thankfully the Gods of triathlon smiled upon me, and I left by the side door of the shop as the proud owner of a Giant Defy 1 at 5.45pm. Then I set off on a 20km ride to satisfy myself that I could actually drive my first new bike in 10 years, with the IronMaori just a little over 12 hours away.
Earlier in the week it had been off the agenda. At Tuesday lunchtime I had tried to jog a few steps while walking outside the Hawke's Bay Today building only to pull up lame again with a sharp pain in my left leg. Within a few hours the pain was in my neck, metaphorically speaking.
Janet rang from Taupo and told me, without telling me, that I was an idiot. How could I have got up from sitting down all morning and tried to run in my work shoes she lectured.
The next day Tony was even angrier when he saw me walk in without my running shoes. It was like being back at Hastings Boys High School in 1978, in front of the late Kevin Barry. For a moment I couldn't remember why I hadn't brought my running shoes with me, as his fuming eyes dressed me down. Then I told him the full story. To say he was unimpressed would be an understatement. Tony lives to heal, and he wanted to get me to the start line of the half-ironman. I had not stuck with the game plan. Idiot!
All was not lost however. Janet came back with an offer. She would be my team-mate if I was allowed to switch to the relay. I could swim and cycle, she would run - but I gave her the swim as well. I was doing the registration - "Froggie" is an amphibian, I am a concrete block in comparison.
It was time for another major decision. My turn of the century Avanti Triplo was never going to be the business for Ironman 2012, and to be honest it was affecting my enthusiasm for cycling. Janet had recently given me a card with four $50 notes in it - her donation towards a "demon" new bike, she penned. It is difficult to accept such a generous gift, and easy to spend it on groceries, bills and incidentals.
But it was time to bite the bullet, especially as she did all the research on "my" new bike in consultation with her bike mechanic friend.
The Giant Defy 1, while not full carbon, was a hot deal - not excessively expensive, and a major step up was the advice.
Full carbon fork and seatpost, full 105 groupset, Giant sealed bearing wheels - I wish I knew what all that meant. Thank goodness for bike shops and the clever people in them.
I felt great as I mounted it for the first time. A new haircut and a new bike in the same week. Talk about sharp!
Janet thought so too, although her interest in my aerobars had me thinking they would need to be alarmed in the near future.
After a night out at Antonio's Pizzeria, Froggie's Fitness Fanatics were ready to go. Well, sort of. We had no plan. Janet, for all her experience of events, was incredibly nervous.
No matter how low key we were, beneath our competitive surfaces both of us knew that we wanted to get something out of the day, and work hard for each other.
While she prepared for the swim, I ran into Callum Campbell, a good local Ironman. He gave me grief about being injured "again" and then got my mind on the job, set my day up. "It's not a bad time to smash yourself," he said of the fact that Ironman New Zealand was now just 13 weeks away.
The mixed relay was the final event to start, and Janet faced the difficult prospect of swimming through the slower competitors in the other four categories. Having cheered her out of the water after the first of three laps, I headed to my bike. The plan was formulated. I wanted to average 30km per hour.
When Janet loomed up I was ready to go. Suddenly the Giant was into the mid 30s, but my left hamstring was tight. I eased back, settled myself down and steadily held the pace at about 32km. Poraiti Hill didn't bother me. The bike was superb. I was on the aerobars virtually fulltime - for the first time in Ironman 2012 training. The weather was warm. Mentally I was in a good space. Physically I was holding.
It was a beautiful ride out. The supporters and race officials make IronMaori so special. And they were dotted around the course at regular enough intervals to keep the body charged. There were also many familiar faces out riding, and it was great to share a word of encouragement.
By 45km I was still above 31km per hour, but the head wind took its toll just past Omahu. My legs slowly started to drain. I was hanging on - just. By Puketapu I was empty, the hamstring felt close to breaking and I wondered if I should get off and stretch. Instead I thought of my team-mate, how well I knew this course, how close I was to home. Did I have it in me to break three hours for a 90km split for the first time since Ironman 2010? It proved to be a case of close, but no cigar! I crossed the line a few minutes over, but I had "smashed" myself - done my best.
Unfortunately I then stuffed it up big time. I ran past Janet, through transition and out the other side. It was a Life of Brian moment - sort of. There was nothing in front of me. Only thing was there was nobody behind me either. I was no Messiah. Just an idiot running around with a bike! I quickly headed back into transition where Janet was standing waiting for me. We had lost minutes.
No matter. It was just a training day - right?
Janet ran an excellent half-marathon (unofficially - one hour 40 minutes or better), and we finished a united and happy team. After some lunch we came back to watch other athletes work their way through the afternoon.
So what of IronMaori 2011 and its massive 1500-plus field? All I can say is that I hope it will never conform to the normal Ironman model. It is a special event doing marvellous things for the community. And along the way it breaks a few of the rules - all for the greater good. Maori are comfortable in the environment, and dominate the event's entries. Good on them. But I also love it, and I am proudly pakeha. Next year I hope to guide my eldest daughter, Ashley, around the full half-ironman - although she will probably try and blow me away on the run. IronMaori is in my blood.
Janet, blonde and English, proclaimed it to be the most enjoyable half-ironman she had been involved with.
Later that night at the McLean Park prizegiving we were astounded to hear "Froggie's Fitness Fanatics" announced as third in the mixed category just three minutes and 50 seconds behind the winner, and just 1 minute and 38 seconds behind second. As the night went on that bungled transition became a source of black humour.
The blonde from Taupo regularly assured me that she was unconcerned, but I was sure I could see an impish glint in her eye and a little crinkle on her nose. Even when she left the following day it was not a problem - it had been a great day, she said.
But as I drifted towards sleep on Sunday night a text came in. "Don't lose any sleep over 3:50 minutes," it said. Charming!
IronMaori 2011 Mixed Team: 1st, Have You Heard the One About, 5:24:57; 2nd, Whanau McKay/Southee, 5:27:09; 3, Froggie's Fitness Fanatics, 5:28:47.
Grant Harding's training now enters the Ironman-phase. A 13 week programme designed to have him ready for Ironman New Zealand 2012 - a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run in Taupo on the first weekend of March. Follow his progress right here at www.hbtoday.co.nz
Did Lonely Planet mean to write Naples instead? No, it did not.