09/03/2026
IMNZ done for another year. After a summer that was really quite hard to train through for most, I was really grateful for a race with good conditions. It was a full on day for me tracking 18 athletes, and by the end of it all I felt my head might explode! Very stressful as I care so much about these people. So thankful at the end that all got through safely, always such a relief. So many good things, but also so many stories that show just how hard it is to get onto that start line in good shape, there really is no one that had the perfect build up, but it's staying calm and playing the cards you are dealt to the best of your ability on the day, and no one showed that better than Aimee. Aimee was battling a likely virus in the days prior, so she did have to change her plan somewhat, she is experienced so she knew to just rein things in and be as sensible as possible for as long as possible out there. So knowing that, her result is even more staggering. 1st place Female 60-64 in 12 hr 20, in fact 1st place any female 55+. Some may have seen that IM puts out a list of age graded times post race, Aimee is 7th place on the list of females. Her age graded time is 9 hr 55. Just so impressive. Jeremy completed his first full distance in 16 years, finishing 8th place (45-49) in 10 hr 14.The first timers in the full distance all did me proud, Jon (35-39) finished in 10 hr 2 min!, Andy (30-34) in 10 hr 38 min, Tom (45-49) 11 hr 4 min, Allan who obviously loves to challenge himself training for IM with a newborn in the family born just before Christmas finished in 14 hr 23, Amy (30-34) who never told me she was racing on her birthday finished in 15 hr 8 min. Then Hamish another amazing story (coming back from knee surgery from a bad ski accident) just amazed me with a 12 hr 44 min race. Then special mention to Christine and Kirstin who both unfortunately came down ill on race week, both battled through to get to that finish line. In the half distance again the first timers all did me proud. Anna, Dylan, Jack, Ross and Evie all racing strong, alongside Chris, Hamish and Karen. Special mention to Ross who had an incident with a sheep the week prior, badly damaged glute, but managed things well and got through his first half ironman in 6 hr 14. I also want to mention Logan who had been training for his first half IM. On Tuesday of race week, he came down very ill and made the sensible decision not to travel to the race. I know how hard that is to make that decision having travelled many times to race and not being able to start, but even worse when you are training for your very first half ironman. I also have experience of making the wrong decision of trying to race when very ill. In 2009 I raced the swim and bike portion of Challenge Roth when I was very ill with the flu. I just couldn't give up on my ambition to race. I collapsed after the bike and I did damage to my heart from trying to race. As hard as it is at the time, when you are very ill, you do need to make that decision and always put your long term health first. When Logan does cross the half ironman finish line when in good health it will be all the more sweet.
