The making of IronMaori

On her right arm, Heather Skipworth proudly displays the only tattoo on her body. It is a design based on the word IronMaori.
Her affection for the word, however, is not just skin deep.
The creator of IronMaori is passionate about her half-ironman and the long-term difference she believes it can make to people's lives.
And it is passion, work ethic and determination that have seen this 37-year-old lifestyle coach work her way into a business despite the lack of a CV when she started out in the fitness industry a few years back.
Then she had an idea to change the dreadful health statistics of local Maori people and not much else.
Add to those attributes, vision, and IronMaori with its growing reputation comes into focus - 592 competitors this year against 288 in the inaugural year, with 60 per cent of entries from outside Hawke's Bay. It recently saw Heather honoured with administrator of the year at the Ngati Kahungunu Sports Awards.
Tonight, she could go one better. Along with her co-organiser, business partner and friend Missy Mackey, their trust has been nominated in the community initiative category of the national Maori Sports Awards - but they won't be in attendance. Instead, they'll be at "the best alcohol-free party in town", the IronMaori dinner at Centennial Hall in Napier.
It is the cherry on top of months of planning and hands-on leadership of the "crew" who have been under Heather's caring command for several months with the aim of pushing away boundaries and completing the half-ironman, or a relay leg for a team, today.
Heather is only too aware of the negatives surrounding Maori, and her life's work has become to dig for the positives for those who have long since lost sight of them. She mainly works with the overweight and obese.
It was in Taupo that this daughter of Pakipaki, the predominantly Maori settlement south of Hastings, had what could be described as an epiphany.
In completing her first Ironman in 2009, there were times when she wondered if it was possible to finish the gruelling event made up of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run. When she won the battle, a feeling that nothing was impossible came upon her and her life has been on an upward curve since.
The traditional Ironman tattoo was spurned in favour of IronMaori as the idea for the event formed.
"I always find that my clients lack self-esteem and confidence," she says. "I thought if we could create the same sense of achievement in the IronMaori then our people would feel more confident and have better self-esteem and go off and achieve anything they wanted to do in life."
She viewed a half-ironman as a challenge that would force a significant lifestyle change that could be continued - "one that would lengthen the time to get to your grave".
Certainly the approach had to be different. So in this often fiercely individual pursuit, she created a unique sense of team - whanau support.
More than 100 people attended the final race briefing at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga on Tuesday night. For months, many of those same people have been turning up night after night, and at weekends, to swim at Pandora Pond in Ahuriri, or to start long bike rides and runs - together.
And almost always, Heather is there - not overbearing, just encouraging. Sometimes the mother-of-two will swim or bike with them, but often she'll just be on hand to support - for hours on end.
The growth in these individuals, many of whom had previously neglected their health to their detriment, is clear. While last year they parked on the road, this year the Humber St car park is full. And there is raucous laughter, and camaraderie. They belong - even some who are carrying twice the weight of a normal triathlete.
The Hawke's Bay Multi Sports Club, of which Heather is a member, has embraced them as fellow athletes. Stalwart Shane Harrison is the unofficial coach of many, having written the programme published on the IronMaori website. He is often seen at Pandora Pond shaking his head in wonder at what is happening.
Heather cannot be condemned as a preacher who does not practise. She will be lining up in Taupo for her third Ironman alongside her husband, Wayne, and her brother, Rhys Te Au, who is doing his second, in March next year. And a source of great pride is that one of last year's IronMaori crew will join them, while many others are goal setting well beyond today.
There have been battles along the way.
The friendly, joking, caring lifestyle coach and IronMaori front person can sometimes be careful, almost reserved with those she doesn't know.
While not uncomfortable in the pakeha world, she is more relaxed with the crew, and even more so in the embrace of her family in Pakipaki where she can throw off the reins of leadership for a moment.
But she takes on the responsibility because of the mission, while always being careful to credit her collaborators - Missy and her husband, George, race director Jeanette Cooper, Wayne and others who helped get last year's event off the ground. It was learn-as-you-go and Heather is the first to admit that this year has been much easier on the nerves.
Looking back on 2009 though, she doesn't dwell on the "oily rag" scenario. Instead she remembers "people that looked like they were non-achievers were achieving the unbelievable".
While the event's name has been questioned, IronMaori is not exclusive - all people are welcome, and Heather is adamant it will remain that way.
But when she assesses the positives, nothing could give more pride than the fact the tactically named event has attracted Maori like no other triathlon, with many of them making great strides towards better health as a result.
The individual entries for today's event sold out in a day, and 92 per cent of this year's competitors have nominated Maori as their ethnicity.
When Heather and Wayne did their first Ironman, they could count the Maori and Pacific Island competitors "on one hand".
IronMaori is an emerging and remarkable story. It will continue to reverberate. And make no mistake, Heather is ambitious.
When she says, "Our event is about people believing in themselves and going off and achieving the unbelievable", she might just be talking about herself.