Motu Challenge 2007

Congratulations to Lea who completed her first ever solo Motu coming in comfortably under 11 hours. There, that's out of the way, now it's about me!

There will be more to follow, especially when I upload the photos, so this is just a short post. I'm off to Aussie tomorrow so there might be a little wait before the next exciting post.

I had never trained better and more consistently (181 days in a row yesterday) and was certain that I would go close to my PB of 10hrs 18 set when I was a much younger early 40s! The MTB was going really well and seemed quite effortless. It took me just under 32 mins to climb Meremere which is my fastest ever and I was in a good group with Dr Kerr and Trevor Standen. Then I got a puncture and the bloody rims on my bike (ask Hedley) meant it took 12 minutes to change the tyre. Huge thanks to Ross Steele who interrupted his race to help. Thanks mate. It was heartbreaking to see Lea and Tina and other superstars go past. I biked in a pretty grumpy fashion to Motu in about 3 19. I was aiming for 3.10 and honestly felt that without the puncture I could have gone quite close to 3 hrs.

The run was agony. The only highlight was finally catching Lea at the Falls Bridge and then picking up Kelvin Harford who was in one of the school teams. Took about 1 40 on the run plus a few minutes in the transition. My support crew of Leigh, Lucy and Kurt were awesome because I was a bit low at the end of the run. I knew that despite the puncture I still could have had a shot at my PB if it wasn't for the wind that I knew was waiting for me at Matawai.

I biked quite strongly (despite cramp kicking in a few times) but found the wind very tough and a bit scary in places - actually getting blown off the tarmac at one stage and almost coming to a halt 3/4 way up Traffords. I picked up Trevor Standen again and we completed the stage together. The full leg took 1.59 so I suppose with transition time I was in the low 1.50s.

Into the waka. The river was great and some of the rapids were quite gnarley. Lots of people in fast boats were tipping out. I caught Trevor after he tipped and he went past again and then had another swim. Fortunately for me while he was chasing me he hit a rock and tipped again. Kurt had to haul me out of the waka at the end and I had a strong cycle and run to hit about 10.24 which is 6 minutes outside my best!!!!!****&&&%%$

Big thanks to Kurt, Leigh and Lucy who kept me going. Thanks again to Ross and to the many locals who took part. It was great seeing everyone congratulating each other etc.

Jan and his crew came from Hamilton and did quite well, though I didn't get much of a chance to catch up with them later. Jan about 3.30 on MTB, Tasha about 1.40 on the run and Ross abou 1.35 on bike (then he rode to end of kayak). I didn't catch Richard's kayak time but I think he smoked it.

Photos to come.

Oh yeah. Well done again, Lea. I might let you put your own posting on.