Iron women exceed own expectations

The news was as bittersweet as it gets.

After earning an automatic qualification slot for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, Rotorua triathlete Tanya Lee Parker had to turn down the invitation with other commitments taking priority.

Lee Parker gave a stunning performance to qualify outright for Kona - the Holy Grail of Ironman - after finishing second in her 40-44 age-group at the New Zealand Ironman in Taupo on Saturday. The Rotorua Girls' High School head of sport clocked a personal best time of 11 hours 12 minutes and 37 seconds and following her initial excitement was resolute in her decision to say "thanks, but no thanks".

"I've always thought I'd love to clock 11:15, but I never thought I'd get there. Now I've got older I thought I'd got slower, but obviously not," Lee Parker told the Daily Post.

"So I am stoked to get a straight out slot, but I can't go. I am moving to Vietnam to teach over there for two years. It was Kona or Vietnam and I decided about a month ago that no - to give Vietnam a fair shot I had to give up my Kona slot."

Lee Parker was one of 20 Rotorua athletes who lined up to complete the annual endurance race, which involves a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42km run. Despite being a "bit stressed out" before the swim leg after forgetting her asthma inhaler, Lee Parker came out of the water in 51st position in 54 minutes.

She went on to have an "average" bike before coming back from behind on the run to finish second in her age-group.

"I came off bike in second place, had a bad spell on run - essentially I hadn't eaten enough - then got passed," she reflected.

"And then I was like 'I don't want to be fifth' and sort of everything pulled together. The Coca Cola kicked in, which was the main thing, and then once that kicked in I just motored the run and got back into second."

Competing in her first ever Ironman, Rotorua Association of Triathletes' vice-president Katrin Walbert was "amazed" to come home in 11h 07m 53s - and recording a personal best marathon run time.

The PhD student praised her coach Scott Donaldson for his guidance in the build up to the race and said she was still waiting for the enormity of the day to sink in.

"I just had a good day, I really enjoyed it I and I didn't think about time. Scott did an amazing job preparing us mentally for the race - we talked about worst case scenarios and prepared for everything. I am just absolutely amazed ... it just hasn't set in yet," she said.

"I couldn't sleep much it was like my brain was so full on and reliving the race again ... it was just to painful to sleep."

Walbert said she would now have to face "reality" finishing off her PhD on fungi associated with the beneficial growth of pine trees, and might look ahead to tackling April's Xterra offroad triathlon at Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and completing another Ironman in her home country of Germany next year.

Other notable Rotorua performances during the Ironman on Saturday included: Rotorua physiotherapist Paul Westwood, who despite coming out of the water in 131st position finished 13th overall and 10th in the elite men's race in 9h 17m 16s; first timer Adam Marshment, who clocked an impressive 10h 01m 48s; Steve Gibling who came home in 10h 49m; Dale Cameron and Andrew Hiscoke who both looked comfortable on the course recording 10h 32m 21s and 10h 25m 39s respectively and Cormac Peirse, who in completing his second Ironman, knocked a staggering 1h 42m off his previous time to record 11h 15m 12s.