Grant Harding Ironman II: Kona

Training Programme: Week 7 of 28

Day 43 Rest Day

Day 44 20km Cycle/5km Run

Day 45 8.5km Run

Day 46 30km Cycle

Day 47 50km Cycle/2km Swim

Day 48 Rest Day

Day 49 12km Run/2km Swim

* This was a full (easy) training week, the swimming distance covered in two rather than three sessions.

 

For many who take on the Ironman challenge, just completing the event is their goal..

After all, it wasn't so long ago that running a marathon (42.2km) was the craze.

But Ironman with its 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run also has its competitors - professionals and age-groupers.

They are athletes for whom the holy grail is Kona, Hawaii - home of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship.

From its humble beginnings in 1978 when 15 men started and 12 finished, it has grown into the climax of a full season of qualifying events around the world. It remains today undiminished as both the spiritual and physical home of Ironman.

Yesterday the 35th world championship was run in the heat of Kona, and in the field of 1800 were about 30 New Zealanders, including one who had qualified through the worldwide lottery which offered 50 starting positions.

Among them was New Zealand's greatest male Ironman, Cameron Brown.

The Aucklander is not a household name like Richie McCaw, but to this country's triathletes he is a legendary figure. Four times on the podium at Kona, for two seconds and two thirds, and 10 New Zealand Ironman titles.

Now 39 years old, Cameron couldn't foot it yesterday, withdrawing on the run after being well behind all day.

Even here in Hawke's Bay local triathletes dream of Kona, and that is thanks to the likes of Ali Hollington and John Moriarty (also 2009) who were New Zealand age-group representatives just last year.

Another local, Brett Mudgway qualified for this year's event by coming second in Ironman New Zealand's 55-59 age-group. But he turned down the opportunity to take on Kona for a second time.

I saw the toll it took on Mudge at Taupo in March, and sometimes ask myself the question when my training is starting to hurt: "Have I got it in my gut to take myself to the place Mudge went last March?"

It's a question which makes me keep going, even when I'm feeling tired. Although I acknowledge there is quite a distance between Mudge's pain threshold and my own.

So we have our own role models close to home, people to measure ourselves against. We can see what it takes. We can understand what is needed. We can ask ourselves: Do I have it in me? Do I want to embrace that pain?

Well I know that I won't in 2012. The times recorded in my 50-54 division are beyond my current abilities and work/life situation. One has to be realistic.

But that doesn't mean we can't dream, can't look at where we can improve, can't think about how we could one day produce the perfect Ironman in relation to our ability.

It's what I thought about while I ran 12km in Auckland yesterday morning, and when I swam 2km in the afternoon to complete a full week's training before heading to Eden Park.

Most of us will never reach Kona as an athlete like the great former champion Erin Baker, New Zealand's current crop of greats, Jo Lawn, Samantha Warriner, Brown and Terrenzo Bozzone, or some of our local heroes. But I will get there one day, through media work or as a spectator.

The beauty of Ironman is that we compete on the same course as the greats, we do the same distance as them. They are the standard setters who we average triathletes respect, discuss and are in awe of. But they are present - motivating us.

In Kona yesterday a whole bunch of great people put their bodies on the line, swimming ocean waves and, cycling and running over lava covered terrain, in the name of Ironman. Amen to that.

Footnote:

Ironman came into being following an endurance running event in Hawaii in 1977. Locals began talking about putting the three toughest existing events on the Island together. Founder John Collins got on stage and announced it, and said the winner could call themselves an "Ironman". The rest as they say is history.

2011 World Ironman Championship Results

Elite men: Craig Alexander (AUS) 8:03.56, 1 (race record); Pete Jacobs (AUS) 8:09.11, 2; Andreas Raelert (GER) 8:11.07, 3; Dirk Bockel (LUX) 8:12.58, 4; Timo Bracht (GER) 8:20.12, 5. Also: Cameron Brown (NZL) dnf.

Women: Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 8:55.08, 1; Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) 8:57.57, 2; Leanda Cave (GBR) 9:03.29, 3; Rachel Joyce (GBR) 9:06.57, 4; Caroline Steffen (SUI) 9:07.32, 5. Also New Zealanders: Samantha Warriner 9:43.25, 17; Jo Lawn 9:56.15, 19.