Taupo 70.3 – can I go under 5-hours at Taupo?

Post the Tauranga Half Ironman in mid January the training had been good and consistent and the key word being consistent! As always arriving into Taupo gets the nerves up a little especially seeing everyone looking fit and fast.

I was pretty wound up on the Thursday (nerves / anxiety) but post a swim in the lake and a short run after the swim I was much more relaxed especially after the swim. The lake had chopped up and those that have read a few of these know mentally I’m a bit weak in the water when it is a bit choppy. Anyway, I got through 15mins, so box ticked!

Friday was an early morning swim followed by an easy 20-min spin on the bike. The lake temperature was ultra-comfy. In fact, it was warmer in the water than out of the water!

For this race Clare and girls stayed in Wellington due to school camps and swimming comps so it was pretty quiet few days before the Saturday event. I caught up with coach Dylan McNeice late Friday and Dylan nailed it.

He said there will be a head wind / cross wind back into Taupo on the bike so don’t burn all your matches in the first 45K. Save some legs for that leg back into Taupo as you will pick off plenty of people. Also save some legs for the last 10K, so keep your pace off the bike consistent and controlled, no spikes.

Make sure you get your food in on the bike and have some gels that you can digest on the run.

Race Morning

 The forecast was spot on with a clear, chilly morning but conditions looked good. Mum came up on Friday Afternoon so Mum and I were in the car about 6am (transition closed at 6.45am). The Ironman race started at 7am (pro’s off at 6.45am) and the ½ Ironman started at 8.10am.

Swim

 To be fair the lake was pretty calm with a small amount of chop. I started away from the main pack (I think there were maybe 350 people doing the ½ Ironman) to avoid arms and legs. I struggled to find any feet for the first 750m but found some feet for most a fair chunk of the leg home.

Out of the water in a really average 40min (in Tauranga in early Jan I was out in 35min – so still trying to work out what the hell happened). Swam an extra 80m by what my watch told me, but that is due to me starting wide.

Bike

Given my swim time I wasn’t in the mood to pussyfoot about on the bike. Out of Taupo there is a chunky-ish hill (road you drive to Napier) so I put some effort in and was passing a bundle of people. Biking is certainly my strength and it does give me confidence when I’m passing plenty of people and I’m not getting passed.

I was aware that the no drafting zone was 12m for this event, otherwise if you are caught closer than this to a rider in front, it is a 5min penalty so made a conscious effort to get around people quickly. It was probably the most I’ve yelled at other cyclists as many were riding way to wide and if you cross the centre line you can get automatically DQ. So, there was lots of “on your right”, “move to the left”. First 45K in around 1hour 15min (a little slower than I had hoped) but knew the way back into Taupo from Reparoa wasn’t going to be easy and it wasn’t. Head winds, cross winds, a mini dirt / sand storm made you concentrate.

In the morning I was saying “I wish I had a disc wheel on the back wheel”. On the way back on the bike I was saying “thank f*#k I don’t have a disc wheel” as those that had them would have had a hard time controlling the bike.

On the way back into Taupo the urge hit me that I needed to pee. Normally when I try and go for a pee on the bike I have to do it on a down hill part as my technique is to lift my bottom up from the seat and simply try and relax and hopefully pee! Many will know that there aren’t many down hills back into Taupo from Reparoa! Anyway I got the chance and I managed to relax and started to pee I realised I had half of my last energy bar tucked into my bike shorts (had planned to eat the other half with about 10K to go).

So I had the dilemma of throwing away a ‘damp’ energy bar or chewing through a wee ridden energy bar…………………….I chose the latter!!

Back into Taupo in 2hour 40min – not pleased but not upset. Once I knew a sub 5-hour time was out of the question it simply came down to me telling myself to focus on getting a Top 10 in my age group.

Run

The legs felt great off the bike with the first 3K being done at 4.47 / 4.33 / 4.46 per K and then got into a good rhythm. The Taupo run course is undulating but pretty manageable.

The trick or challenge for me was to make sure I got some food / gels / carbs into the body on the run. I struggle to get in and hold down anything apart from fluids on the run. I got myself some SIS Electrolyte Gels which are a lot easier to take in than say a GU Gel. I got two into the body during the run (one at the 6K mark and the other at the 13K mark).

The sun was coming out, but conditions were great. My running leading into Taupo had been great with Coach, Dylan McNeice certainly making sure I was fit (sometimes having five runs in the weeks program with one of those being a long one on the weekend).

I got in at 1:44min which for me I was really, really pleased about as my last two runs (Harbour to Hills / Tauranga Half Ironman) weren’t ideal to say the least.

A big shout out to the Turner Family. Troy hurt his back a week out from Taupo meaning he couldn’t compete but him, Claire and the boys made the trip up and gave great support on the run. The Taupo run course is a special run course as there are hundreds of people spread out cheering you on (your name is on your race number meaning they are calling out your name while giving you encouragement while you are dying on the run)!!

Thanks to my Mum who made the journey up and as always gave me polite abuse on the run course “get going Nathan”!

What’s next? Toying with doing Harbour to Hills as I felt last year I let myself down with an average bike and a shit run (I was “coaching” myself for that event but realised I need a proper coach and have enjoyed having Dylan McNeice help me over the last 6-mths).

Tauranga 1/2 Ironman – JAN 2019

That final week leading into an event is a weird one as your training slows down while tapering and you start questioning yourself ‘have I done enough’. I knew I was ‘fit’ but didn’t think I was ‘fast’. My running was going good with probably 8 run sessions over 1 hour 45 min. My biking was solid, and I felt fit in the water but again those doubts set in.

I am fortunate to have Dylan McNeice helping me and writing my programmes so have been in good hands. Prior to the day I had a good build up albeit with some nagging calf issues early November but due to some top work by Tim Dalman @ Dalman Physio I was running freely for a good 8-week leading up to the event.

RACE DAY

Up at 4.15am shovelling Weetbix and Banana’s into the stomach. We were sharing a spot in the Mount with Troy Turner and his family and I remember looking over at Troy who was also having Weetbix and Bananas and I’m pretty sure like me he was struggling to eat such food so early on a Saturday Morning.

Leave the house at 5.15am for the short drive to the transition area and notice the wind had picked up from the night before. Oddly it really wasn’t till about 5.30am race morning where the nerves kicked in and kicked in hard. This wasn’t in the forecast and when we hit transition I quickly peak out to the sea and note that the wind was kicking up some waves which put me in a really negative frame of mind. For those that don’t me, I’m not a great swimmer so I like my sea swims flat and calm!

I probably have to apologise to a few people as I was probably a bit rude and short before race start but that was me stressing about the swim. To try and calm myself down I ‘snuck out’ onto the swim course and did ‘warm up swim’ before the warm up swim to try and tell myself “I’m OK in these conditions” and it worked. I calmed the F*%k down.

SWIM – I started wide as the category of Under 45 Males was huge so simply wanted to avoid arms and legs and getting knocked about. The wind had dropped and apart from getting one smack in the side of the head the swim was largely uneventful. When I started running out of the water I peaked at my watch and saw 35mins to my surprise as it felt like a lot longer.

NOTE – the day before when Troy and I did a swim on the course we saw a couple of Stingrays mulling around the beach!

BIKE – I won’t lie that the goal was to ride under 2hours 30mins for the bike and a bigger goal was to not get pinged with a penalty. Last time I did this race I got a 3-min penalty for ‘blocking’ which means not letting others come through. I thought this was utter bullshit at the time. Anyway in 2019 the goal was to ride cleanly.

The bike course was 3 x 30K loops and it is a flat and fast course. We were lucky that our accommodation was on the beach front so the families could see Troy and I whizz by up to six times.

Given my swimming is a bit shit I’m always chasing out of the water and it was no different as I was well back out of the water. At the end of the first 30K I had gone through in 48mins which was on track for a 2hour 24min Bike Leg. I told myself “Nath that is a bit quick, but let’s see where this goes”.  I was fortunate that during the ride I avoided any big bunches as in this type of event you cannot draft and cannot get any closer than 10metres to the rider ahead of you. When you do, you either need to pass them quickly or remain 10metres behind them. If you are caught drafting you get a 3-min penalty where you wait inside a Penalty Box on the side of the road.

I hit the 90K mark in 2hours 27minutes with the only scary point coming at 85K where my right quad locked up and cramped. I simply had to pull over, take my foot out of my pedal and stretch it out. I then rode in an easy gear for another 1K before feeling OK again. I thought my day was done at this stage as if I was cramping on the bike what were the shanks going to do on the run!

FYI – I got through 2 x High Five Energy Bars and 3 x GU Caffeine Gels on the Bike and probably had between 2.25 and 2.5 litres of fluid

RUN – The run course is a 2-loop course where you get to run around the Mount Maunganui Base track (this make up around 6K of the total 21K).

By mid-morning the sun was out, and it was getting hot. I never quite know how slow or fast the legs are moving once you start running off the bike as it is a funny sensation that requires lots of practice and training. Pleasantly at the end of 1K my watched dinged 4:47 per K and this felt pretty comfortable. I averaged 4.55min for the first 6K which felt comfortable.

I had Clare and the girls along with my Mum and the Turner family on course at about 3K mark so seeing and hearing the cheering always makes me feel good and run quicker (albeit I’m not much of a talker while running). So on the run I saw them four times and they saw me suffering four times!

Dylan my coach was racing in the Elite Men’s even and while I was on my first lap of the run course he was on his final lap but he shared some vital words as we crossed “take the first lap easy and get plenty of fluids on board”.

I knew as I hopped off the bike I was a chance of going under 5-hours but was aware that a lot of time can be lost in that last 5K of the run and especially when you hit the base track around the Mount as it is rather undulating and for the last two years they have had to use steep steps on the Pilot Bay side due to a large slip in 2017 that they haven’t got sorted yet.

I saw a video of these steps and the advice was ‘best to walk these steps’ and I thought “nah I will be able to run them”. Well these were steep, and I walked them on both occasions and going up them on the final lap was pretty exhausting given the heat and effort already expended!

I got around the first 10K in 51min 25 seconds meaning I had a little bit of buffer for the next 11K but I knew I would need all of it. I think on one my shoulder’s I had someone telling me it’s not a big deal if you don’t do sub-5-hours, it’s OK, you’ve had a good race and then on my other shoulder I had someone saying don’t be a f**ken pussy and push, you’ve spent hundreds of hours training for this so get your fat ass moving. I listened to the latter piece of advice!

Onto the second lap I could feel the legs slowing especially around the 13K / 14K mark. At each aid station it was case of getting plenty of fluid on board and pouring water over me to keep me cool. The support crew were amazing albeit they knew I was suffering.

From here on in it was a case of me telling myself “Nath stay tall and hold your form”, “Nath everyone is hurting so embrace the uncomfortableness”, “Nath this isn’t a sight-seeing event, you gotta wanna hurt”, “Nath work hard up the rises and work harder on the descents”..

In short, I got around the event in 4.58, placing 110^th out of 445 competitors doing the Half Ironman.  So it’s a day I’m proud of and a much better outing compared to my Harbour to Hills outing in April 2018. Next event is the 70.3 Ironman Event in Taupo early March

A big thanks to Clare for putting up with my early starts, sweaty stinky cycling clothing and my pre-race moods!!

Another shout out to Dylan McNeice for getting me in shape – https://dylanmcneice.com/ , Tim Dalman from Dalman Physio – https://dalmanphysiotherapy.com/ and Tane Tuipulotu for the punishment on the Massage Table! Tane can certainly get knots out of your ITB’s! If the body or legs need a massage he is your man –http://www.ttsportsmassage.co.nz/

Year 1 @ LPS

I thought I knew a little bit about the technology world coming into LPS! How wrong and what a year. I joined LPS for a number of reasons but mainly because I wanted to work within an IT Consulting / IT Services environment and to work within a company that had big growth plans.

A special thanks to Paul Alexander and Doug Clarke for the opportunity to join their rocket ship.

I won’t lie, there were a couple of times early on where I was flying by the seat of my pants. I’ve had to learn, get comfortable and get educated on talking on about all things PMO, subjects such as P3M3, ICR’s, Project Governance through to PPM Tooling which to be honest I hadn’t done a lot of work in that world before.

I’ve got to see how tools like Clarizen, Planview, Primavera and Project Server / Project Online operate through to learning about the Agile and Scaled Agile worlds – Villages, Tribes, Retrospectives, Product Backlogs and Vertical Slicing!

I’ve been fortunate to work beside some super smart people whom I have learnt plenty from – Evan Belford, Ben Pitchforth, Mark Norwood, James Pratt, Kevin Maloney, Chris Hubmann, Jasim Adam, Nic Fitisemanu, Jade Kiel, Kelvin Russell, Venkat Raghaven, Lisa Gray and many others here at LPS

The internal Talent Management team is one of the best in Australasia with special thanks going to Arawa Manu and Amy Walker for providing such talent to us and to our customers.

It’s been great being back in the NZ Tech Marketplace after having been away in the UK for most of 2015, 2016 and 2017 so a big thank you to those customers whom have reengaged since I’ve been home.

What type of recruiter are you?

With that heading I’ve left myself open to a few lewd comments but am hoping there won’t be too many!!

In this little piece I’m going to ask you, if you are a “Marketer” or if you are a “Vacancy Filler” or whether you are a mix of both.

I’ve managed, worked with and seen all sorts of people. Those that simply will only work an approved, signed off roles, those that recruit in IT but dip their toes into whatever they can get their hands on, to those that have gone “this might be a long shot but I think he would be perfect for………………even if they aren’t hiring”.

It might be said that a “Marketer Recruiter” are those that are happy ‘opening doors’ and building new relationships that otherwise didn’t exist – the hunter of the group! On the flip side it could be said that the “Vacancy Recruiter” are those that are happy doing the farming, filling the roles as they come up and doing a good job doing that.

Is one better than the other in the current sourcing climate?

Come on, it has to be the “Marketer” Recruiter surely. We have seen internal recruitment teams get ultra-tooled up and smart about how they source their people so people on the agency side need to market talent (not sending unsolicited emails with candidates CV’s in the email). I used the word marketing as they need to be marketing themselves, marketing their employer brand, marketing their values through to marketing talent.

If you’ve got a star candidate that has approached you or you’ve found during a search and they are up for a new challenge, market them.

I remember in late 2015 here in the UK, I had a Salesforce CTA come to me wanting a change. Due to that individual I was able to jump on the phone and spoke to five companies that otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to me or had told me prior to “bugger off”.

Now that wasn’t hard, as if you are working with a Salesforce CTA most people will talk to you. The trick is finding those people who are on the way up in their career who are future rock stars and getting customers who aren’t looking for such talent wanting to chat to them.

I’ll be honest I really love marketing talent into organisations as typically:

• If you are up front and honest with candidates about what you are going to do, they will generally appreciate your effort
• you are “backing yourself” as if they are a dud the customer may not want to listen to you again!

FYI – I did some analysis on the last 40 placements I’ve made and it looks like the following:

• 43% of the roles filled by marketing candidates to employers whom didn’t have a “live role”
• 57% of the roles filled where there were open, live roles.

So I can’t call myself one or the other! I’m one of those Hybrid cats!

If I hadn’t sat down and did the analysis, I would have said I was a stronger “Marketer” than what the results have shown!

What are you?

Current Salesforce needs – London, Australia and New Zealand

It has been a busy start especially ‘down under’ – check out our latest Salesforce needs…..

London Opportunities

Salesforce Support Manager – £60,000 – £75,000

• End user environment with a global Salesforce footprint

Senior Salesforce Project Manager – £65,000 – £80,000 + Bonus

• Salesforce Partner – chance to join a European leader & work on unique and innovative Salesforce projects.

Salesforce Technical Lead – £70,000 + Benefits

• Bring your technical skills and help shape / train lesser experienced Developers while working on some cool Salesforce projects.

FinancialForce Consultant / Implementation Consultant – Contract – £500 per day

• Our customer needs a proven FinancialForce consultant to help them through the implementation / training phase

Junior Salesforce Developer – £40,000 – £45,000 + 20% Bonus

• Chance to join a specialist in the Wealth Management arena. Get involved in Salesforce Lightning projects.

Salesforce Technical Architect – £90,000 – £100,000 + Bonus

• Opportunity to play a key role in all things Salesforce Architecture for this growing Salesforce Partner

Contract Salesforce Developer – 6mths – £475 per day

• A chance to work on a Sales Cloud initiative. We expect strong Apex and any Lightning experience would be a bonus

Australian based opportunities

Lead Salesforce Functional Consultant – Sydney – $150,000

• In this role you will work closely with external customers in leading them through the requirements gathering phase.

Salesforce Developer – Melbourne – $110,000 – $130,000

• An opportunity to join one of Australia’s most talented technical Salesforce environments

Marketing Cloud Developer (AMP Script / Email Studio)- Sydney – $120,000 – $140,000

• You will have the chance to lead Marketing Cloud technical initiatives and conversations. Growing Marketing Cloud team

New Zealand based opportunities

Salesforce Solution Architect – Auckland – $130,000 – $140,000 + Bonus

• This Salesforce Partner continues to win work and now needs an Architect to help them shape solutions for Salesforce enterprise projects

Up & Coming Salesforce Developer – Auckland – $70,000 – $90,0000

• This nimble, growing Salesforce Consultancy seeks talented Salesforce Developers on their way up in their career.

Lead Functional Consultant – Auckland – $90,000 – $120,000 + Bonus

• An opp. to lead a small team of other Salesforce Functional / Salesforce BA’s on a number of projects.

Senior Salesforce Developer – Perm / Contract opportunity – Auckland

• For this role we are open whether you are a contractor or seek permanent employment. Lots of project variety.

For more info get in touch with Nathan on nathan@technologypeople.co.uk

What are you doing here??

I reckon I get asked this once a week. This time it was out on Saturday Night where I was asked…. “you lived in this beautiful country and you’ve come to England, why?”.

I think the person in question was enjoying themselves and had a few Prosecco’s as I don’t know them that well but they were amazed we left New Zealand for England.

Firstly, New Zealand is a pretty special spot and I have been lucky to be brought up in a safe-ish, clean country where there are plenty of opportunities.

What I will say though, there are many things the UK / Europe has to offer that New Zealand simply can’t provide:

• You can’t pop on a plane and be in Paris or Dubrovnik in a matter of two / three hours!

• There are wonderful work opportunities in this part of the world where people can work on truly enterprise projects or within well backed / VC funded start-ups.
• The cycling in France, Italy or Spain is simply the best in the world!!

• We think the education system is very, very good here – our girls are certainly learning and being pushed.
• The sporting opportunities for the kids are superb. I think the kids get pushed and challenged much more here than back home (some may see that as a negative – me being me, I love seeing the girls being pushed)
• The castles and place that are hundreds and hundreds of years old (like Stonehenge or spots like Chepstow Castle) and the stories that go with them – trust me I didn’t think that would be a ‘topic of interest’ for me!

Now there are plenty of issues the UK is dealing with now such as its:

• A NHS in crisis

• Brexit – if you check Twitter, it’s most probably trending topic in the UK and Europe (especially after Theresa May’s speech today)
• A huge gap between the rich and the poor
• The power of the Trade Unions – when they want to stop a city like London, they can by having a Tube Strike – what chaos!

Being here has certainly opened my eyes to many things and I have learnt plenty BUT I will be back in New Zealand one day, as it is home, but at the moment I and the family are enjoying this part of the world

Adios / Au Revoir / Dovidenja / Tchau

 

Is LinkedIn really that bad of a tool / platform?

I hear it and see it often “I’ve just removed myself from LinkedIn as it is getting like Facebook”. And at times it is getting a little ‘Facebook like’ so can understand people getting frustrated.

But where does that leave them when someone wants to tap them on the shoulder?

Firstly, let me get this out the way…Yes, I agree there is nothing better than getting referrals from people when it comes to finding great talent whether that is for your own company or as a recruiter trying to find ‘that unicorn’ for a customer.

I will get another quick disclaimer in also. I use LinkedIn a lot differently to others that are on LinkedIn so I don’t get the “10 inmails a day” from agencies who ‘spell may name wrong’ or promote a job ‘that I did 15 years ago’.

I get people’s frustation with LinkedIn, but as a tool for Recruiters and Inhouse Recruiters it really has changed the landscape on how we do things. It has been said many times before, that if it wasn’t for LinkedIn a lot of agency recruiters / in-house recruiters wouldn’t have the success they do.

I just did a quick exercise where I looked back on my last 10 placements. 5 of them were via referrals, 4 via headhunting / approaching them once I identified them via LinkedIn and 1 via a Job Board.

When I go deeper and look back on the last 20 placements it reads:

• 8 via referrals
• 8 via headhunting / approaching them once I identified them via LinkedIn
• 2 via job boards
• 2 via headhunting / approaching them via other Social Media channels (Twitter / User Groups)

So as you can see I am a bit of fan of it (yes I have spent a lot of time searching on it and it does get a touch tedious but it gets results).

It is a chicken and egg scenario. LinkedIn would be a waste of space for Agency Recruiters / Inhouse Recruiters if ‘users’ walked away from it in droves so LinkedIn need to be careful it doesn’t get ‘overly social’.

On the other side of the coin, if LinkedIn made it to difficult or expensive (some might say it is now) for Agency Recruiters / Inhouse Recruiters and they stopped utilising it to find potential candidates, people (users) will…

1. have to go searching for their own job versus being approached
2. potentially be stuck in a job they dislike longer than they would otherwise
3. spend hours searching through job boards

And one last thought.  A carefully, well thought out, well positioned ‘message’ to a prospective customer / client can lead to doors being opened. At times it is hard to connect with a person of importance via the phone, but as stated above a targeted message with some unique detail can work wonders via LinkedIn.

Call me naïve or maybe I have been drinking too much LinkedIn Kool Aid but I am a bit of a fan and I suspect LinkedIn has helped many people one way or another!

And no, I don’t have any family / friends that work for LinkedIn and I’m not gunning for a job at LinkedIn – just sharing my opinion!!

Is New Zealand the attractive place to live,work and play as many of us think it is?

I write this having moved to the UK from New Zealand over 15-months ago thinking “I can’t wait to tap into the UK market and send a huge amounts of Brits / Europeans and their families to New Zealand”.

Well 15-months on I can give you an update on my “ambitious thinking”….

Firstly what we do at Technology People UK is reasonably niche so we aren’t going to be hatting to hundreds of people each week about a move.

In saying that the London / European market for Salesforce / .NET talent is significant so there are still enough people to approach (as well as targeting Kiwis who here at the moment) who have some links or ties back to the Southern Hemisphere.

In short it has been hard work getting people interested and then getting them “across the line”. So why? Below are my observations and what I have been told by candidates

• The London marketplace for Salesforce / .NET and tech roles in general is extremely buoyant. There are some great salaries being paid and an extremely mature contracting marketplace where some of the amounts being paid makes you want to be a “Salesforce Developer”.
• People with kids in good UK schools are nervous about leaving the UK schooling system due to the competitive nature of ‘getting back into the school if things don’t work out’.
• Just recently a Senior Salesforce Developer / Salesforce Solution Architect was put off making a move to Auckland as felt they wouldn’t be able to afford a ‘like for like’ house in Auckland due to the boom that is occurring.
• “It doesn’t have a big enough or mature enough Salesforce contracting market for me”. This was from someone who has holidayed in New Zealand and loves New Zealand, but likes the flexibility and income they can earn being a contractor.

Don’t get me wrong we have successfully moved candidates from the UK to New Zealand and Australia and we will continue to market New Zealand as a sweet destination to live and work. BUT if I were honest I thought it would have had a far greater appeal!

We have certainly narrowed out target demographic when it comes to approaching people about a move to New Zealand.

I love New Zealand and know how much of a special place it is to live and bring up a family so if you are .NET Developer or Salesforce Consultant or Salesforce Architect and want to live the “kiwi lifestyle” yell out

Race update – “Cotswold 113”

The day started with a bowl of porridge and a banana at 3.30am with the rain falling. I haven’t really done an event where it has rained and rained but I experienced one today!

Unfortunately the rain hung around and we swam and biked in pretty wet conditions.

I had probably had my best swim for a ½ Ironman and got out in 33mins. I think following feet and pushing myself more than normal certainly helped.

For a 10-min period on the bike it just absolutely poured and I thought they would cancel the event, as it was touch and go whether it was safe. I ended taking a corner to quick and with wet brakes I ended up in the grass, luckily upright!

The bike course was relatively flat with only one real hill but there were plenty of corners and in the wet it meant just taking your time around them.

Off the bike in 2.31 which I was stoked about given the weather and my time in the grass. After my incident on the bike I was probably a touch conservative but got the mind back on the job and tried to push the pedals hard.

Leaving transition and onto the run, I peaked at my watch and noted the ‘race time’ was 3 hours 10mins, meaning if I held it together I could sneak under 5-hours again. The question was how long could I hold it together before the engine and legs gave up. As always the first 1K (4min 30) and 2K (4min 35) was way to quick but pegged it back. Thankfully the legs and engine never gave up til the 18K mark.

What made the run extra hard was that half of it was on roads and the other half was on “packed trials”. But those packed trials ended up being muddy, slippery trails, which meant lots of slipping and your shoes getting clogged up with mud. I ended up doing a 1.46min ½ marathon, which was better than I thought I would do when hopping off the bike.

On the run I made a concerted effort to “jump on some feet”. Basically if someone flew by I would let them by but if they were a touch quicker than me I just got in behind and focused on their feet and tried to hold on as long as I could without nailing myself to much.

Total time 4 hours 55mins and 125^th overall so happy with that. Next goal is to try and get down into the 4-hour 40’s – need to work on run to do that!

A big thanks to Clare for putting up with my hobby.

A big thanks to Keegan Williams – NZ’s only “Trisutto” coach – he seems to perform miracles on me!

Tomorrow that “feeling” returns!

This weekend I race my first ½ Ironman for coming up 16 months up in the Cotswold (north of Bristol). The body and mind is in reasonably nick but I haven’t experienced that last hour of a ½ Ironman for a little while.

Doing these races is tough but certainly not in the league of nailing a full distance Ironman. You can’t sprint an Ironman but you can push pretty hard in a ½ Ironman and get through without the wheels falling off (famous last words, as I do tend to push hard on the bike and hope my running legs survive).

Having done two Standard Distance races in the last month, the routine’s in and around transitions are coming back (still haven’t mastered how to get the wetsuit off ultra quick), the mass swim starts where arms and legs are in your face and eating and drinking while biking have been practised.

For me the focus in the last two / three years has been “going sub-5 hours” in a ½ Ironman. I’ve done it once (4.57), come close twice (5.01 and a 5.04) and would love to do this weekend but I’m not sure I will (hopefully will do it in August when I do another ½ Ironman). Having not done the course before it is difficult to know what the bike leg is like and am not sure I have the speed in my legs quite yet. Trust me I will be giving it my best shot.

The aim will be to try and make it into the top 15%. I think there is over 1000 people doing the race on the weekend so being able to sneak into the top 150 will be the aim while keeping an eye on my times just in case I can get close to that 5-hour mark.

Those that know me, will have heard the following phrases before and I will be repeating them to myself on Sunday Morning…the quote Craig Alexander yelled out doing Kona..”You Gotta Wanna Hurt” and the famous Chris McCormack quote “embrace the suck”!