Scott has been putting in the hard yards, swimming, pounding the roads and cycling 180km or more in the lead up to this Saturday's event.
"I'm definitely not a runner, but I can hold my ground in the water and on the bike and the bike is where you spend most of the race - well it is for me anyway."
Scott, coming up 67, has wound down his training sessions just days out from the race happy enough to keep loose with half hour bike rides and load up in carbohydrates.
"I've done enough I think, so I happy just just load up on my carbs between now and race time."
He is one of nine on the entry list from Whanganui and one of two serious contenders for a podium again in the 33rd running of the event this year.
The other is possibly Barb Carson who won her 60-64 women's division last year.
Fulfilling a vow she made to herself the year before, the then 60-year-old nurse went back to Kona, Hawaii for the world championships after winning a "hard fought" women's 60-64 race.
While that division was small among the nearly 1400 professional and age group competitors who took part in Taupo, the top three women were all very competitive with each other and Carson had to wait until 8km from the finish on the running leg before she passed runnerup Deborah Clark of Tauranga, ultimately winning by nine minutes in 12h 7m 9s.
That time took 21 minutes off her personal best - with Carson having been nine minutes behind Clark on the swim and closing the gap to seven minutes at the end of the bike leg.
"Huge improvement for me and really stoked," she said after last year's performance.
"Obviously having a different coach has made the difference. I was pushed the whole way."
Carson had come under the tutelage of Whanganui professional and former women's champion Gina Crawford.
Crawford stayed on board for Kona last year, but Carson has been self-coached from October until now.
Last year Kona was an absolute debacle under new ownership with support stations even running out of water.
"It was awful," Carson said.
"For the last 45km of my cycle leg there was not water at the stations, so going into the run I was pretty dehydrated."
Carson says she won't have to think about Kona this year because she doubts she will qualify in Taupo on Saturday.
"Apart from having bronchitis, I'm okay and have done the training for Taupo, but it's a far stronger field this year. It would be nice to make the podium, but I really don't think I will. I'll be content with a top five finish," Carson said.
Having come second at the NZ Ironman the year before last, Carson still qualified for Kona through winning the Australia Ironman, and before last season's Taupo event had hedged her bets again by booking a trip to Cairns for last year's race, alongside fellow Whanganui competitor Mike Hos.
"Gina told me to use it for a training run and that's just what I did. Mike (Hos) and I had a wine beforehand and afterwards as well," Carson said.
Hos is also competing in the NZ Ironman this Saturday and concedes he comes into the gruelling event on a limited preparation.
While it is his 16th NZ Ironman the 48-year-old is renown for unorthodox training regimes yet his times remain respectable for the self-confessed hobby athlete. His quickest time was around 11hrs 48m and his slowest 15hrs 09m.
Others from Whanganui competing include Laurika Hazelhurst fresh from her age group win in the BDO Wellington to Auckland Cycle Challenge completed a fortnight ago, her fellow challenge riders Clint Black and Craig Yorston and Bruce Harding, Craig Jackson and Graham Hart (Bulls).
