Duncan's IMNZ Report

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Comments

  • Well done that man! Great report.
  • @ABB - Not that we were planning or anything, but 2010 with a week up in thge Bay of Islands pre race  and then a few days in the east cape is looking likely.  Probably just do a fortnight though due to time off work ;-(   South Island will have to wait until trip #3 and time it to fit in with Wanaka image  We still think that given the chance and the lack of a need to work then of all the places we saw then you'd be ending up with two English neighbours, or at least close neigbours as Jane has her eye on a specific section in Haihei.  Did you catch the Sky broadcast of the race on Saturday night?  Sadly we only saw the listings at the airport on Sunday night...

    For anybody else, I'll repeat the statement that this really is a race that you have to give serious thought to.  The logistics of getting there and staying there are arguably easier for most than the european ones, it's as cheap as  chips once you get there, and the town goes IM crazy unlike anything I've seen or known.  In fact the whole country does to a certain extent as throughout the trip we were getting asked about the Ironman in most places we went, or heard items on the news.  It's a great place for a holiday for any family that will come with you.

  • Didn't you find the course featureless? There's nothing to look at other than trees and fields. I found breaking it down into sections very difficult as there was nothing to mark a section break. There's also one logistic you've overlooked for anyone travelling in economy - 20 hours on a plane. It took me around 10 days to get over both trips and Michele is still coughing like mad from something she caught on the way back and it's 21 days since we landed.

    But don't get me wrong, it's certainly a race you should have high on your list of races to do and New Zealand is totally fabulous and worth the trip alone. But I can't see how it's logistically comparable to a Europe race and £2k on an airfair prices isn't really comparable to 100 euros for the drive to a Europe race.  

  • Not sure, I thought the course was good, but then I also see what you mean about the 'featureless'.  I perhaps was breaking it up into support stations / groups of supporters, and so it dodn't really bother me on the bike.  The run I thought there was plenty going on with the little detours off the side, but then perhaps it's just a rose tinted view.

     Really sorry to hear about Michelle.  She really didn't have a lot of luck with the flights did she ;-( 

    My point on the travel was more logistical than economic, and again perhaps slightly biased with the agro I had getting to austria and taking into account we went straight to Taupo and didn't have the agro with the transfer.  Point i was making is that the effort in getting to an airport and from an airport on the other end is the same.  Again, perhaps from a slightly different perspective of the in-flight experience.

  • Congratulations! Your report has made me homesick for good old NZ and determined to do this race in 2012 for my 40th. Yikes...Home here I come!
  • you want featureless??? try Florida - miles and miles of flat straight roads with just trees either side and bikes front and back........big dull

    I'm giving IMNZ a miss - when I get eventually to NZ (probably when I retire) I am going to do it justice with at least 3 months there.
  • Indeed, the petal droppers weren't around when we left the plane for the transit queue! image

    But as said, don't get me wrong here, I'm not bad mouthing the race at all and (leaving the illness aside) there was nothing wrong with the journey. I'd certainly go back and do it again and spend a lot more time touring around NZ. I didn't find the bike course boring, just featureless. The road surface was a lot better than I'd been lead to believe it would be. I like out and back courses as you get to see the elites, I even enjoyed the weather. That was pretty much what I've been after in an Ironman (just a shame I wasn't fit enough/at all to make the most of it).

    The race has a lot of really good points, such as the tour of transition when you rack, the 'get someone else to collect your bike' card in the pack, marshal's being able to stop traffic, the way the marshal's got you through the change tent and a whole load of other bits and bobs that all add up to make a well sorted race. It was all great. Just needs to be a bit closer. image

     

  • LOL Andy - No Petal droppers, although [name drop] we were sharing our cabin with Kiss who were on their way back from a gig, and Brendan and the little woman from strictly come dancing [/name drop] 

     There really are so many things to pick up on why it felt special, the More FM local radio station broadcasting live from teh site from 9-5 each day from the Wednesday through to race day getting the whole town in the mood, the adoptive businesses, the Flax Cafe french toast.

    I suppose the negatives were the mandatory weigh in (sure those scales were dodgy, no way did I put on 600g during the race), the 4km run between the swim and T1 and errrr.....

    Haile - image

  • were the mandatory weigh in

    I never say my weight!

    Well done dunc sounds a stoming race.

  • All sounds pretty to me.  Am dangerously close to signing up as soon as entries open rather than waiting till I've at least done an standard tri in May, or Vit in Septemberimage
  • Sign up, you know you want to. The first person to sign up when entry opens gets their fee refunded!

    My photo album: http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/7788798

    Mostly NZ shots, some of me pratting around. 

  • Great Report D74, see you at Bala..

    How about Andy posts his report here too... come on Andy image

  • Pebble 2Pebble 2 ✭✭✭

    Good effort Duncan, hmm pirate outing No2 2009 on the horizon me thinks.

  • You thinking of NZ as well as Lanza Pebble? image
  • I'm doing IMNZ 2009 too (I have a score to settle, yet again). A friend of mine here has also decided to do it (possible pirate material too, first IM).

    PS If anyone wants any holiday ideas while they're here just shout (and I'm sure Duncan can add his ten cents'  worth).

  • We used New Zealand In Depth to sort our trip (excluding the flights and the bit in Taupo but he'd have done that to if I hadn't already booked it). You tell him what sort of holiday you want and he sorts it out for you, all custom built for you and reasonable prices as well.

    http://www.newzealand-indepth.co.uk/

    I couldn't possibly post my report in here, this is Duncan't thread! But I'll post a link. image

    http://www.mile141.co.uk/triathlon/imnz08.aspx

  • I used Ally Bally Bee and TRoT (from Tri-talk) to arrange my trip.   Seriously, then we used the top 30 must see list in the Rough Guide, identified the things from that we wanted to see, got a few ideas from the people above and then just winged it as we went.  The campervan meant we had total freedom to go where we wanted, and using the TomTom satnav which has all the campsites in it with their phone numbers and a free 'Jason's campsite guide' then we jsut booked the sites on a lunchtime as we toured around.  Worked really well as we spent a bit more time in some places than we thought we would, and a bit less in others.

    Flights get released around April-May I think, and it pays to book early if you can.  Don't believe the April race entry date as that drifted back ages.  100% definately talk to Roger at Gateway Campers as they worked out a lot cheaper than the big names that pop up on a google search, mainly as you don't get stung by all the extras that the other companies add in. 

    And Andy, do I still need to play admin on your posts?  Link to Andy's Report  image

  • Oh, and some of my piccies are HERE .  I'll probably get around to adding a few more at the weekend.
  • We didn't listen to MoreFM, I wouldn't let Michele move the dial from Rockin Radio, The Radio That Rocks. Do you think we should go back and listen to MoreFM? If you say so then, I'll book the flight. image
  • Depends.  If you already have the one best of the 90s CD and the last James Blunt single then you have their play list, but really it's the totally inapropriate DJs that make it.  Especially Douglas that was in Plateau when we went back on the Monday night.  You can't beat a drunk kiwi version of Chris Moyles staggering around, with 8 thirty year old women doing '11 year old girl in bedroom smash hits' line dancing whilst being hit on by the Taupo Divorced mens society on their monthy outing.  Class night outimage

  • Duncan - great work. Glad you had a good time. Hope your feet recover soon. Some lovely pictures too.

    FB - you never miss an opportunity to remind us that Florida is the hardest IM image It's a sentiment expressed with a frequencey matched only by: "It's mainly muscle..." image

    Andy S - great photos!

    Was Pirates of the Carribean flimed in NZ? 

  • For anyone who has not seen it yet, my finish video (filmed by the great director Casey King) is on youtube. Type in Ironman New Zealand and Alison Fraser and you will see me.

    It feels like a holiday every day here, even if I do have to 'work' 40 hours a week.

  • I've been lucky enough to visit NZ twice before so while there are lots of places I've not seen yet or would like to go back to, suspect I shall end up splitting this visit between friends in Auckland and Palmerston N plus the potential week in Taupo.

    Still not seen anything in all your race reports to bring me to my senses - though some of the bike/run pics look pretty miserable weatherwise.

  • Out of the two types of weather they have (hot and sunny or warm and raining), the raining option was the better one for me. I ran out to the turn point and back a couple of days before and totally melted, it wasn't that hot but the strong sun got to me. Coming out of the UK winter into the NZ summer is a difficult transition to make, rain on raceday made it much easier to handle.
  • Is this the funniest finsh line photo you've ever seen? image

    http://www.asiphoto.net/fileadmin/data/images/0238/0238_07328.JPG

  • do you mean this one???

    http://www.asiphoto.net/fileadmin/data/images/0238/0238_07328.JPG

    hmm pirate outing No2 2009 on the horizon me thinks says the man who retired after Florida - LOL!!

    "It's mainly muscle..." - well it is isn't it!! *cough*
  • A great report and I like the race photo. It reminds me of those news pictures of people being hustled out of courtrooms with blankets over their heads.
  • Hmmmmimage

    Last time I held the flag up above my head, hence hiding the time (which that time I didn't need to do).  So this time then I   thoguht, go low, bgut then of course covererd my number and so the 'proper' ones are lost and even having waded through 1700 'lost and found' couldn't get the ones that I know he took (based on flashes going off). 

     I can't believe that I'm going to have to do another one just to get a decent sodding finish photo.

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