TRIATHLON: Teacher doesn't fear race, just sharks

ANENDRA SINGH
Oh crikey! Raewyn Calder's no Steve Irwin, mate. Even the slightest movement in the sea is enough to send her scurrying for the shore.
"I'm not a sea person. There are sharks and things so it freaks me out," the teacher from Sacred Heart College in Napier tells SportsToday, perfectly aware that the shark example is a gross exaggeration but satisfied that it aptly describes her phobia.
Having had a taste of triathlons late last year after borrowing equipment from the Hawke's Bay Multisport Club development officer, Jeanette Cooper, Calder felt it was time to invest a princely sum in a wetsuit and head for Pandora Pond in Napier.
"I was practising at the pond when I saw something shiny and, swish, I swam as fast as I could to the shore. It's silly because it's probably too shallow at the pond for anything but it just freaks me out.
"I do panic when I get into the water and sometimes I have to breathe slowly. I also change from freestyle to backstroke," the 22-year-old physical education and health teacher from Hastings says with a laugh.
On Saturday Calder will be among hundreds of competitors in the seventh race of the nine-race nationwide Triathlon New Zealand National Series in Napier.
Calder will take part in the Tri My Sport segment of the Contact Energy-sponsored event, which comprises a 500m one-lap ocean swim, a two-lap flat cycle course around Pandora Pond and a 5km run.
The Contact Energy New Zealand Cup race segment is a medium-to-advanced level competition open to anyone over 18 and includes a two-lap triangular 1.5km swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run over grass, road and a concrete walkway towards Bay View. It offers $75,000 in prizemoney.
Since the series kicked off in New Plymouth in November last year, more than 1000 competitors have taken to the start line in New Plymouth, Auckland, Nelson, Christchurch, Rotorua and Kinloch. Whangamata will host the eighth race on March 17 and Wellington will stage the final one on March 31.
Saturday's Napier race, which coincides with the Art Deco weekend, will feature Art Deco-themed race marshals and front and tail vehicles to keep the crowd entertained. It will be Calder's third triathlon. Her first one was the Shed 2-sponsored Ice Buster Triathlon in November last year where she was the first woman home in the short-course event.
"I then went to Auckland for the Big Day Out and decided to enter the Panasonic People's Triathlon, which was on in the same weekend," says Calder, who swims three to four nights a week and runs and cycles in the evenings if time permits.
Her first brush with multisport began in 2004 when former boyfriend Andrew Ellmers, a Central Hawke's Bay College physics/science teacher, encouraged her to buy a bicycle in Christchurch, where they were studying for their education degrees at Canterbury University.
"The bicycle sat in the shed for almost two years. When we moved up our friendship wound down. I thought, 'well, I'd better do it myself instead of having him nagging at me all the time'.
"Now that we've done a few triathlons together since breaking up in September, it's really good. I call him my hero. If you put that in (the paper) he'll probably crack up," says the former Hastings Girls' High School head girl.
After competing in last month's Tour de Beautiful in Waipukurau, Calder feels she doesn't have the attention span for 50km rides but prefers the stimulation of three codes in triathlons to break that monotony.
In the future she hopes to do the Olympic distance of a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run, a step up from the 600m swim, 20km bike and 5km run.
She doesn't lack any motivation from her family, with her mother, Joyce, father John and brother Paul all engaging in sport at different levels.
"My mum's just turned 60 and she's still running around the netball courts refereeing and fighting fit."
Brother Paul, of Havelock North, is a former Napier City Rovers soccer player and their father, now living in Taupo, played a lot of sport when his knees were good.
A motivated Raewyn Calder has successfully organised three teams of teachers to compete in the Tremains-sponsored Corporate Triathlon on Sunday, March 18. The 500-team event, which incorporates the Friendly Dental Ironkids Triathlon earlier in the morning, will cover a 600m swim/1700m kayak, 20km cycle and a 5km run/walk in Napier.
"I've had just about every excuse under the sun. Teachers coming back to me saying 'Oh, I've hurt my calf (muscle) during the holidays and all sorts of things.' I told them they were worse than kids.
"I didn't have much interest in the start so I told them, 'listen, it's only a 600m swim, it's only a 20km bike ride and you can walk, instead of doing the run, because it's more about participation'," she says of the 30-member staff at the all-girls school.
While Calder's the youngest staff member by almost 15 years, she says the "older" staff members are keen. With school only four days old, she was going to put a notice at Sacred Heart to gauge pupil interest but is more optimistic about their response.
Having played netball, soccer, tennis and flirted with snowboarding in her school days, the former Twyford School pupil has no intentions of becoming a serious triathlete. "I'm quite happy to finish an event and better my time but I don't want to be the last one in, as organisers are gathering up gear and clearing the course," a laughing Calder says.