Challenge Wanaka 2023 Race Report

Sunday 12 February 2023

Bad news. Less than one week out from Challenge Wanaka I found a small hole and some loose stitches in my trisuit. Not disastrous. It would probably make it through one more race at least, but this would be its final season. I had seen earlier that day that Swim T3 had a 50% off sale to celebrate Cyclone Gabrielle. I had a browse through their trisuit options and found something fast looking, affordable, and in my size. After much deliberation, I pulled the trigger. It probably wouldn’t arrive in time for my departure, but I would need it down the line anyway.

Tuesday 14 February 2023

I ticked off my last prerace workout, tearing up Old Tai Tapu Rd, ate a (probably) delicious dinner, and spent a good chunk of the evening explaining how the PTO ranking system works and why I was too slow to have a ranking to my flat mates. Race excitement was building. In a week’s time, I could have a ranking. Or I might still not have one.

Wednesday 15 February 2023

Sitting at my desk, working hard at whatever it is I do, I received an email telling me that Swim T3 and NZ Post had done the impossible. They had delivered my new trisuit from Auckland to Christchurch, in a little over two days, and amid one of New Zealand’s most significant ever weather events. My flat mate had signed for it with a fake name (you never know who’s watching) and it was waiting for me to get home.

I checked social media (on a break) to find the PTO had released a revised, fairer, and more complicated system ranking system. I wasn’t looking forward to explaining how this one worked. Out of curiosity, I checked my profile to see if I had been affected. Surprisingly, given my poor performances since joining the pro ranks, I had managed to scrape together enough points for a ranking of 749. There can’t be many more than 749 professional triathletes in the world, but just having a ranking is a good start. Plus, from here, the only way is up. Or down, but not as far, and then the only way would definitely be up. Buoyed by my newfound fame and fortune, I made it through a hectic day at work and returned home to begin packing for the subject of this Blog. Challenge Wānaka.

Thursday 16 February 2023

With Trev and all other race related paraphernalia packed into Otto the mighty Golf, we began the journey south. A slow first half of the drive, not helped by a burnt-out bus on the motorway and the Christchurch to Ashburton commuter traffic (not wanting to get sidetracked, but how good would commuter rail between Christchurch and Ashburton be? The infrastructure is mostly there already) was punctuated by an early lunch of a Steak and Cheese pie and a custard square in Fairlie. Back on the road, over two treacherous mountain passes, and three hours later we arrived in Wānaka. The main event of the afternoon was a pleasant swim in the lake, with the water pushing 20 degrees Celsius (that’s 68 degrees Fahrenheit for the almost 3% of you from the USA, who presumably use freedom units). After drying off in about 10 seconds, either due to Wānaka being 1.93e-7% closer to the sun than Christchurch or global warming, we headed back to the crib to fire up the (formerly woodfired, but recently converted to gas) BBQ. A classic afternoon/evening in Wānaka.

Friday 17 February 2023

Race day eve started with the pro briefing at the boujee Edgewater resort. It’s so flash we were told off for having bikes in the foyer. I’m not going to claim that this was my first pro race, having raced elite/pro at the Tauranga half twice before, but this felt like the real deal for the first time. An hour later, I had managed to take in most of the briefing, while attempting to absorb some watts from the legendary Sebastian Kienle two seats along. Confident I knew the course and any spots where flats were likely to occur (about half of the bike course), I thought I should ask the Race Ranger team if I could move the rear sensor up my seat post a touch so that I could access my spares. They kindly obliged, and I was on my way.

A light lunch, including some delicious Breadman Bread, provided by the Breadman himself, fellow pro, Jayden Kuijpers, and a quick spin (via the bike shop for bike safety check, passed with flying colours, although I heard a rumour that other people with similar vintage helmets had them rejected because of their age, so I may be in the market for a new lid. Maybe an opportunity for some DIY aero testing first if I can get my hands on a few different helmets to try out) and I was off to Glendhu bay to fulfill my obligations as a pro athlete; handing out medals at the kid’s race. I was concerned that I wasn’t much of a drawcard, and the kids wouldn’t know who I was or be excited to meet me, but in reality, they probably didn’t know who anyone was, and as it turned out, most of them were just happy to be done, collect their medal and get out of the sun. Some of them didn’t even seem to want the medal. The final finisher crossed the line, and I was out of there. Time to get out of the sun and finish preparing for the big day.

After a fair amount of toing and froing, I decided to shave my arms. I had done this at 70.3 Sunshine Coast, where I had the fastest AG bike split, so it must work. On the other hand, the regrowth phase was prickly and awkward. With arms and legs smooth, and bellies full, we headed into town to join the hordes watching the continental cup. With my swimming improving, I had been thinking it could be fun to dip my toes back into draft legal racing. I have now decided I am perfectly happy just racing non-drafting triathlon. That stuff is scary.

With some motivation gained for the following day, it was time for bed. Sleep tight, my little angel.

Saturday 18 February 2023

The day dawned cool and clear. Seriously, it was bloody freezing, and the forecasted cloud cover was nowhere to be seen. Transition setup went smoothly. I found the special nutrition table and offloaded my bottle of frozen water. I had neglected to calculate how cool it would be by the time I collected it again, on the second lap of the run, but had a feeling anything even remotely cool would be a godsend at that point of the race. I realised I had left my sunscreen in the car, so rudely sent my support person back to get it, while I put on my wetsuit on over my shorts, took my wetsuit off again, took my shorts off, and put my wetsuit on again. We meandered down to the lake to finish kitting up and dove in for a warmup.

The lake was glorious. Not quite glassy, but approaching pancake flat, Crystal clear, but too deep to see the bottom, and as warm as bathwater after you fall asleep for 45 minutes. The event team had a hard time getting us out of the water for the briefing. It’s not that we didn’t want to hear the briefing again, we were just trying to stay warm. After a rousing rendition of God Defend New Zealand, followed by the Challenge song, it was go time.

I started at the back, expecting the start to be too fast for my little arms to keep up, but it was surprisingly leisurely, and the group split down the middle before it could get strung out. I went left, unsure who was in which group. The pace picked up and I started working hard to hang on. I dropped to the back of the group, and at about 400 m, got dropped altogether. Unsure how far back the next group was, I pushed on, trying to keep the gap in front to a minimum. I rounded the first of two turns, and still had some time on the group behind, so carried on at a wholly unsustainable pace, using the front group for sighting. My internal compass told me they had turned too far around the mark, so I swam head up for a few strokes while my eyes strained to find the second buoy. As I suspected, they were, by my estimates, 8 degrees off course. I recalibrated my bearing. At this point, I would have been breathing through my eyeballs, but as this was impossible due to the seal of my goggles, I continued to breathe through my mouth. I looked behind and saw the chase pack catching fast, so eased off and let them catch me. As they were passing, I breathed to my less stable side, and accidentally swam right over the top of a former world champion, got smacked below the belt by an anonymous swimmer, and slotted in second to the back of the group, where I stayed until the end of the swim. I came out of the water in my third swim PB of the season, and with the group that I wanted to be with prerace. So far so good.

The fast, long, and uphill run to transition had me feeling sick, but I found Trev, whipped my wetsuit off, jammed my helmet on, ears fully folded forwards, and bolted. The problem was, everyone else from the group had bolted faster. I mounted my noble stead and set off onto the bike course. We made it over the 200 m gravel, tyres and tubes intact. The first obstacle was conquered, but the rest of my group had disappeared over the first hill. Prepared to be solo for the full 90 km, I settled into my work. First order of business; bring my heart rate down. It had skyrocketed on the run to T1 and was sitting 20 bpm above target. I got to the fast descent into Wānaka, and found myself behind a string of traffic, rudely complying with the new 40 km/h speed limit. Without room to get past, I sat up and relaxed for a few minutes. Unfortunately, this was where the photographer was, so I didn’t get the super aero photos. I continued through town, navigated the Aubrey Rd roadworks, and made it into Albert Town. Crossed the sand/gravel pit and onto the bridge footpath, which shook out all of my teeth. Luckily, I had lost a bottle on a speed bump, so couldn’t lose it on the bridge. Over the two big climbs of the day, and on the approach to Hawea, I had my first target in sight. We crossed the dam, picked up a bottle of sports drink to replace the lost one, which turned out to just be water, rode through Hawea, and out to Hawea flat, for one of the only relatively flat parts of the course. I passed my target, got repassed, and settled in behind. Unfortunately, Race Ranger wasn’t working at this point, so I had to estimate the 20 m gap, but having spent many years playing cricket, I think I can eyeball that distance with some accuracy. I made a move on the next climb and was then in no man’s land again. The short out and back towards Tarras allowed a time check on the rest of the race. No time made up, but not too much lost. Across the red bridge, I chose to ride on the uncovered wooden section, dodging bolts rather than on the carpeted sealed section, which was marginally smoother, but the bumps were obscured. Through Luggate, I found myself in traffic again, but it left me behind up the steepest hill of the day up to the airport. At the Mt Barker Rd aid station, I picked up another bottle of sports drink, which was as advertised this time. The Mt Barker and Riverbank sections of the course passed smoothly, and I caught another athlete at the turn onto Cardrona Valley Rd (Race Ranger worked perfectly this time). That was about the last interesting thing that happened on the ride, other than the road out to Glendhu bay, which is always interesting. In different circumstances, I would have stopped for the view of Tititea/Mt Aspiring, but that wasn’t an option today.

In transition, I took the time to take off my calf sleeves, as I don’t run fast enough to benefit from the aero gains, and the temperature was rising faster than inflation. Out onto the run and I was feeling good. I exercised self-control to keep my pace sustainable on the flat(ish) section leading to the mountain bike park. I had been expecting trees on the climb from past experience, but it would seem that they had been felled since the last time I was here. With the lack of shade, I started the climb conservatively, aiming to run even splits. I was passed on the climb by two others, running very smoothly, and resisted the urge to chase them. I took on some water at two of the many, aid stations, utilizing the new eco-friendly reusable cup system, which worked very well. 

I got to the bottom of the descent, and things started going downhill. Energy levels dropped, my gut started complaining, and my temperature started to rise. Remember my frozen bottle from earlier? In a perfectly executed plan, I picked it up to find it still had ice in it. Alternating between sipping and tipping, I made my way back up the valley and started that damned climb again. I was really struggling by this point and being overtaken by numerous age groupers (although they were still on their first lap. Perhaps I should have warned them to slow down or end up like me). I crested the hill, hoping to make up some time going back down, but the gut really started playing up. At 18 km, it resolved itself in the usual way (orally) and suddenly I could run comfortably again. I cruised towards the finish and even managed to crack a smile when told to harden up. I crossed the line in 11^th place, about 15 minutes back from where I had hoped to be, but with plenty of positives from the day. I drank about 10 bottles of water, sculled a warm beer, and went down to the lake for a swim.

Dinner with the other pros rounded out an overall good day. It was great to get to know a few of the other athletes, particularly those who had come from overseas, and my food came quickly, so I was happier than some. No such thing as a bad time in Wānaka.

Thanks for getting to the end of this. You must be very committed to high-quality literature. Enjoy the rest of your day.