Rotorua's Kerris Browne enjoying eating her pie midway through the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman 70.3 on Saturday. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Rotorua's Kerris Browne enjoying eating her pie midway through the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman 70.3 on Saturday. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
"A mince and cheese pie really saved us."
That tasty pastry was the claim to fame for married couple - Rotorua's Kerris and Chris Browne, who were the only pair to stop and eat a pie midway through the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman 70.3 in Taupo.
The competitive local pair took part in the triathlon event; a 1.9km swim, 90km bike ride, and finished with a 21.1km run, for the first time on Saturday.
And finding it difficult riding into a headwind during the bike section of the race both decided to tuck into a pie at the turn around point in Reporoa.
"It was a real struggle riding into that headwind the whole time," said Chris. "I was finding it hard and just had to have that stop. And that pie was a real savour."
Kerris, 47, added: "Chris had been far ahead of me on the bike but I pulled in at the stop and just had to get a pie too. We really were the only ones stopping like that but I just needed to sit down for 20 minutes and have that tasty mince and cheese pie. It really hit the spot.
"As soon as we both got back on our bikes - we had the wind behind us and just flew down. It definitely helped and I've found that mixing in real food with energy boost liquids and things similar really aids in a race like this."
Rotorua's Kerris Browne enjoying eating her pie midway through the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman 70.3 on Saturday. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Chris, 46, finished first out of the couple in a time of 06h 27m 54s with split times of 49m 22s in the swim, 03h 16m 06s on the bike finishing with a 02h 13m 18s run leaving him 76th in his division rank and 672th overall.
But Kerris who finished in an overall time of 07h 20m 32s [division rank 37 and overall rank 672] said she was "delighted" with her personal best time in a triathlon and was nearly 3 minutes quicker in the water than Chris.
"I would have been very unhappy if Kerris had beat me. But my first thought was what a great achievement to cross over the finish line," said Chris. "The swim is definitely my Achilles heel but the bike then made up for it."
Kerris interjected: "I'll take that as a win in the water over Chris. I was very happy about that but then he smashed me on the bike. I was most disappointed with the run - it surprised me because that was meant to be my strong point but the bike just took it out of me. Overall I'm really happy though - I beat my Rotorua time by an hour."
There were more than 1200 competitors from 30 countries competing on Saturday with age groupers chasing qualifying spots for the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in USA.
There were 19 entries from Rotorua, and the best local finishing time was from female runner Carol Harwood in an impressive time of 05h 54m 26s, leaving her 16th in her division and 495th overall.
