She's competed in exotic Hawaii but Lynette Warn reckons you can't beat Taupo for scenery.
Warn is gearing up for this weekend's Taupo Half Ironman - a 2km swim, 90km cycle, 21km run - and she says her home town is "a little package of everything we need".
About
300 individuals and 50 teams are entered.
Warn, 44, has just returned from Hawaii, where she took part in the World Ironman Championships in Kona. She completed it in 11 hours 51 min.
"After Hawaii I came back and thought, 'I've forgotten how beautiful it is'."
She reckons Taupo is the perfect place to prepare for a triathlon - there are both hilly and flat areas, busy and not-so-busy roads and of course, the lake.
In Taupo, taking part in sporting events is infectious.
Warn moved to Taupo from Auckland seven years ago and it was seeing friend Sue Jones complete the New Zealand Ironman in Taupo that inspired her to do the same.
"I thought, if she can do it, I can do it."
Warn, a skydiving instructor for the past 16 years, is New Zealand's national long-distance triathlon champ in the 40-49 year age group. She has completed the Taupo Ironman event twice and said the half was "a psychological and physical must".
"You're always doing a build-up until you get to the Ironman - training, the half and then the Ironman. You have to have small goals to build up."
She said anyone could finish an Ironman event as long as everything was ticked off. That's how she approached her training programme with coach Greg Fraine - she ticked off tasks every day: "It's not all about the race, it's about the year's build-up."
She said the best thing about having a half Ironman in Taupo was getting to practise on the course used for the full event in March.
"You get to feel what it's like to push yourself at race pace on the course. It's psychological."
This year Warn is doing the Taupo Half as part of a team - Belinda Harper is doing the swim, Lucy Williams the cycle leg and Warn the run.
Last year Warn was part of a mixed team which came second in their category and featured triathlon star Bryan Rhodes and her biggest fan, her husband Treacle Warn.
She is confident about her team's chances tomorrow: "We're a really strong girls' team."
The Taupo Half starts from the Taupo Yacht Club with individuals heading off on the swim at 6.30am, followed by teams five minutes later.
She's competed in exotic Hawaii but Lynette Warn reckons you can't beat Taupo for scenery.
Warn is gearing up for this weekend's Taupo Half Ironman - a 2km swim, 90km cycle, 21km run - and she says her home town is "a little package of everything we need".
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