Jan-Maree Brown competing at the Taupō Ironman in March.
Jan-Maree Brown competing at the Taupō Ironman in March.
Beginning in 1983 with the aim of encouraging women and girls to get out and have a go, focusing on fun, fitness and health, the Kāpiti Women's Triathlon has inspired many people into exercise.
For Jan-Maree Brown, now 62, the event did just that.
Wanting to change her lifestyle buthaving never done much exercise, Jan-Maree was also a heavy smoker and struggled to breathe when exercising.
At the age of 36, Brown decided to give up smoking and at 37 she signed up for her first Kāpiti Women's Triathlon.
Starting out on her back doing backstroke and alternating between running and walking to each lamppost, signing up proved a complete lifestyle transformation for Brown.
"I had never owned a bike so I went to The Warehouse and brought a cheap, heavy old thing and started out on that.
"While I knew how to swim I couldn't swim properly because I couldn't breathe from all the smoking.
"So I started out with backstroke in the pool until I could freestyle."
Brown slowly built up her training despite not knowing how much she needed to do in preparation for the triathlon.
"I built it up until I did the Kāpiti Women's Triathlon, which was the most nervous day of my life."
And the rest is history.
Brown then started looking into other events, despite being ill-equipped with gear.
In one such cycle race she recalls wearing her father's oilskin jacket on her heavy bike in pouring rain while everyone else was in the lycra and on "fancy" bikes.
Now, years later, she has completed around 50 half marathons, done the Coast to Coast, 17 half ironmans, 11 full ironmans and represented New Zealand in triathlon at age group level.
