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Saturday, November 24, 2012

Radio Sport interview


Bit of a radio interview on Radiosport on Friday. Was quite fun really. Pretty cool to do a live national radio show, hoefully didn't waffle too much! If you want a listen click on the links below. Its kinda long, and the links are generic to 15min blocks on the station, so in three parts

Part one... starts about a minute in.
 

http://content.radionetwork.co.nz/weekondemand/radiosport/61515.mp3

Part two... maybe fast forward the section fom 8min - 12:30 (theres some golf news at that point).

Thursday, November 22, 2012

On the telly....

Current TV spot. Prime and Sky Sport apparently

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Lake Waikaremoana Challenge

Just back from a very cool weekend camped out on the rugby fields of Tuai, inland from Wairoa. Gateway to Lake Waikaremoana and some spectacular examples of the wild NZ back country landscapes that make our little corner of the world so special.
 
As nice of a getaway as it was, there was a purpose to the trip, as we towed the line at the reformed Lake Waikaremoana Challenge. A spectacular, and very testing 2 day multisport race attracting some of NZ's best talent. We were there to take on the teams category, full of assorted legends and Olympions; and partnered up with Nick Hirschfeld, and Andrew Newick. We enjoyed some fierce competition balanced with the great camraderie and spirit that these events generate.
 
In the final washup we finished second to "Busch roofing." A team comprising argueably NZ's best open water paddler Dan Busch,  and the amazing pig hunting/beard growing/dairy farming/mtn running phenomenon that is Sjors Corporaal. Unfortunately for us their "weak" link was anything but, as Karen Hanlen proceeded to outride the majority of male competitors on the MTB legs. Cycle Obsession was a close 3rd (Raewyn Morrison, Mike Walker, and Phil Costley). Highlights of the weekend? Too many to list, but they included...
  • Managing to smash Stage 1, breaking away from the start, and evidently getting Dougal worried that I might be racing individually (best compliment of the weekend).
  • An epic and very loose pursuit of Karen on the stage 4 MTB leg - 6km of gravel and steep rutted 4WD with 370m of elevation loss. High adrenaline knocked it out in a white knuckle 10min.
  • Seeing Nick H pull out some fantastic run legs. Can't wait to see what he does at Kepler.
  • Nic smashing the first MTB for us on day 2 and continuing on to easily win the one-day multisport race.
  • Semi-sleepless nights waiting for our tents to collapse in the wind
  • Sam Clarks spectacularly entusiastic support crewing. Including beating his athletes out of transition, and full frontal bear hugs of incoming paddlers. Quite the spectacle.
  • The evening entertainment featuring great kai, an Opera Singing MC, local kapa haka group, and a rather fearsome Haka on the final night. Certainly memorable.
 

Click here for results and the events facebook page for plenty of cool pics

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Garage Sale - need some bling wheels?

Due to Nic changing wheel sizes, we have some bling wheelsets that need new homes. If keen flick Nic an e-mail to discuss  nicleary@orcon.net.nz
 

The ultimate 26" XC wheelset. ENVE Carbon XC rims, laced to DT240 centrelock hubs, with DT bladed spokes. Super stiff, uber light, super strong. Were new in February this year. Minimal use. Excellent condition
 

There's a CRF150F moto too come to think of it. Make Nic an offer on that as well. Doesn't get ridden since the SX85 turned up



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Running out the frustration

 Just home from another great from Ra and his team at N-Duro - the 2012 Tikitapu Trail Runs. A variety of running events on some of the awesome trails we are priviliged to have on our doorstep. The feature race being the rather aptly named "adventure run". According to my Magellan ~19km and around 700m vert. But the kicker? 3 long sections of completely off trail scrambling through the undergrowth. Hugely fun and not something you'd normally do. So while it might have been just 6 days after Maui, but I had a bit of frustration to work out of the system!


Pleasingly I discovered my race legs that had been missing in action a few days again came back. Turns out they were waiting at home all the time! Was pushed pretty solidly early on by Dennis, and it was only here (around 3.5km - mainly uphill - in) that the elastic started to stretch. I attacked the next downhill and was soon solo.


I managed to keep running strong and stretched out a comfortable winning margin. The most pleasing aspect? I won this race back in 2010 in approx 1hr24 and that day ran the infamous Tuhoto Singletrack segment in just shy of 24min. Today, on a course with significantly more bush bashing, I clocked in at 1hr19, and ran Tuhoto in just a shade under 21min. Pretty happy with that.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

XTERRA Worlds 2012 - Dealing with the unexpected

As I type this 3 days after XTERRA worlds, and a 29th place finish in a very deep and high quality field of pros; I continue to feel the one emotion I didn't want to be reflecting on.... The frustrating feeling of "what if." It is the only thing I didn't want.
 
 I didn't race terribly. But unfortuantely on race day, the power just wasn't there. No excuses. It just didn't happen. After feeling awesome in preparation and having to hold myself back in course reccie, on race day I just felt empty. On the flip side I am proud I was able to keep my head in the game and continue to push to the end. Giving the best I had on the day, and continuing to move forward throughout the run.
 
 As an athlete it is not really the result that matters, but the performance. The world championships is a brutal test, and an amazing opportunity to test one self against some of the finest athletes on the planet. I didn't happen, and if anything it probably just fires the motivation to do more. Specifically I want to give a huge thanks to Magellan, VO2max, RATS, and Iconic Adventures for their generous assistance in making it possible. And I look forward to many more adventures to come.

 
 
When XTERRA say they have a rough water swim, they weren't joking. This is Saturday pre-race and the waves are breaking on the beach. I successfully body surfed a few in.... but after being unceremoniously dumped onto the beach and filling my suit with sand, I figured I'd try to avoid the wave come race day!
 
 
Some pre-ride action and you can see it was some very dry and dusty conditions we had to deal with. While not overly technical, the new bike course certainly has enough to catch up those less skilled, and enough physical demands to break you.
 
 
Magellan tells you a lot of very useful information. Some you perhaps don't want to know. Such as an average temperature on morning pre-ride of 32 degrees....
 
 
Saturday night, 11pm, and we are sitting in a carpark. Not the plan. But after an earthquake in Canada, Hawaii went on Tsunami alert and we were evacuated from our accomodation at 9pm. We loading up the rental car with gear and bikes and headed for higher ground. A bizzare and surreal experience and not the ideal race prep as we finally got to bed at 2am ahead of our 9am start. Olly still managed to win an age-group world title and beat me home so won't be using this as an excuse!
 
 
Race morning and the swim was pretty rough. I was prepared for a duathlon, so post tsunami it was almost a surprise we swam. Some unsettled water movements made for a very testing swim which really showed the strongest swimmers. Case in point Javier Gomez who made the other pro's look like rookies coming out in 19min while no one else broke 20 (including numerous ITU pro's). Phenomenal.
 

 Midpoint of the swim and I emerge amongst a few pro women and some faster age-groupers having already caught us. Not quite going to plan, but then again it wasn't a normal day!


Early in the bike, digging deep, and hoping that my "race legs" will re-appear any moment soon!


Last 500m and in typical XTERRA style they throw a deep sand beach at you. Kahuna, Janet and the rest of Team Unlimited could be accused of many things..... but making it easy isn't one of them. Theres a reason the medal you are given at the finish line reads "survivor"