Multisport: Harvey shakes off less-than-ideal build up

Brad Harvey was in Taupo for yesterday's Ironman New Zealand after working in a USAR team in Christchurch last week. Photo / The Daily Post

Auckland firefighter Brad Harvey is almost apologetic about his preparation for this year's Ironman New Zealand, held in heavy rain in and around Lake Taupo yesterday.

"I haven't really had a chance to do any training preparation this week, or to have any good sleep, and my eating has been all over the place," he told NZPA shortly after completing the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run multi-discipline event.

The race was won for the 10th time in 11 years by 38-year-old ironman maestro Cameron Brown, who splashed around the sodden course in eight hours 31 minutes 07 seconds.

Harvey, coincidentally completing his 10th Taupo ironman, was a little off that daunting pace, eventually clocking 12hr 26min 28sec to finish in 73rd place in the men's 25-29 division as dusk, along with the rain, fell.

Yet Harvey's achievement is as worthy of note as Brown's - the 27-year-old arrived in Taupo on Friday after spending the previous 11 days scouring the earthquake-stricken city of Christchurch as part of Auckland's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team.

"We headed down to Christchurch on Tuesday after the earthquake," Harvey said. "We probably started working at midnight that night, and for the first two or three days we were really full on."

The urgency which sparked that initial 30-hour shift eased only slightly, and for a few days after the magnitude 6.3 earthquake which has left 166 people confirmed dead, Harvey held no thought of contesting the ironman event he has turned out for every year since his first competition as an 18-year-old in 2002.

"A few days after the quake, I didn't think I'd get here," he said. "I waited from that Tuesday until Saturday or Sunday, and then I started to have a word."

Harvey's USAR bosses turned a sympathetic ear to his request - "it was a bit of a mission, but we got there in the end" - and he arrived in Taupo barely 24 hours before the race was due to start.

After days on end with minimal sleep, Harvey's system wasn't too impressed with the 10 solid hours it got before race start at 7am on Saturday.

"I woke up, and I was quite tired," he said. "I felt quite drained - my mind was probably still a little bit on what's going on down there."

Harvey began his multisport involvement in secondary school, and has an Ironman New Zealand best of a shade over 11hr 30min at Taupo. Saturday's effort, however, may well be his most impressive achievement yet, given the physical and emotional toll over the last week and a half.

"It has been really stressful for everyone, actually. But the stress has been pretty minor compared to what the people of Christchurch have been through," Harvey said.

"It's been a really tough time for them - it's hard work, but it's good to be able to do something to help."

Harvey also worked in Christchurch after September's original 7.1-magnitude shock, and is in for the long haul, heading back again on Monday to kick on with the recovery work.

He's looking forward to getting back to work, with one proviso: "I may be not too flash on stairs..."

- NZPA