As Hard As Iron

CAROLINE HALSE SAYS:

March last year - the start of Autumn in New Zealand – a time to reflect on a summer passed, an off road marathon complete and another winter in Queenstown. And for the first time in my history of life in New Zealand – no season pass to keep me entertained all winter! Was I not one of those people who had previously mocked other locals for not having a season pass? Those people that don’t make use of the two ski fields right on our door step? Had I not sneered at them? Wondered what they did on those long, dark winter weekends? Yes. That was me. So now, as the last of the summer BBQs came around, I was at a slight loss with myself. Not only having no ski pass, but having completed the marathon that had seemed so impossible the year before, I was at a loose end. I needed a goal! And so it unfolded…

At one of these last summer BBQs I came across a conversation about the famous Wanaka Challenge – the Ironman Triathlon of the South. "Hmmm..." I thought. ABSOLUTE UTTER MAD PEOPLE! I was just about to wander off in search of more chips and dips when I heard mention of the Half Iron Man distance, and how two lovely caring young men had entered their girlfriends as their birthday presents! All of a sudden I was sucked into talk of training sessions, road bikes, new wetsuits, open water swimming and endurance – could I do this? Surely not. That was for OTHER people. But then…. These guys were doing it… Were they not the same age? Same size (ish!)? Same fitness… as me? The thought stayed with me and when they had left to go home I approached my laptop, typed in the web address and found the page on the race site that said ‘Enter Here’. And I did! Then I downloaded a training program and I was away. My weeks became full of training, the winter went by way too quickly and by spring it was time to start open water swimming. This is not as easy as you’d think. I considered myself a total water baby, but leaping into a murky lake gave me a feeling of panic and exposure that I had never experienced! This was supposed to be my best discipline. And it rapidly became my worst fear. Starting at the edge of a lake and swimming straight out into the middle is actually pretty scary.

Time has a habit of speeding up when you want it to slow down and by the time Christmas rolled around it seemed like we were on fast track to race day. Two weeks later I stood on the start line. The water was 13 degrees (not the 16 – 20 degrees we had been expecting!), there was snow on the mountains and Lake Wanaka glistened mystically in the early morning light. I was going to be half an iron woman by the end of the day! First things first though…. We plunged in to the icy water to warm up and in no time at all it was time to get on the start line. Numb feet, chattering teeth, all the normal signs of pre-race jitters! Then the hooter blared into the sky – we were off. I swam, it was like being in a blender, arms, legs, hands, faces everywhere. Just keep swimming, breathe, swim, breathe, look up for the buoy, swim, breathe… and so it continued. After 37 mins and 1.9kms under my belt I dragged my numb feet out of the water, stripped off my wetsuit, ran over the bridge and onto my bike. 90kms, endless hills, never ending roads and 3.5 hours later and it was back to the transition to dump the bike and start running. The feeling of overwhelming tiredness was unreal – but this was no time to think about that. All I had to do was follow the river, the sun was pounding down, my stomach was churning and my legs were like lead - the aid stations with cheering supporters every 3kms were a life saver – as were the few trees I stopped to have a little lean on once in a while… Finally, I was on the home straight. Hearing the loud speaker at the finish line kept me going that last few hundred metres and having friends cheering me down the finishing chute was magical. It turns out I managed to put on weight on the way round according to the scales at the end. This would only happen to me - typical! A medal was placed around my neck and I was off to the recovery tent to reflect on my day before facing my public – and of course I had to collect the all important 'FINISHER' t-shirt! I was Half an Iron Woman and I had done it in 6.45 hours.

So, that was my big change for the year. Making something that was for ‘other people’ into something that was for me. Who knows what the next year will bring! And no, I don’t think I’ll take on the full Iron Man. I think I’ll definitely leave that to the ‘other people’ for now… :)