2nd at Ironman New Zealand

Well that was one tough day at the office. I Couldn't quite pull off the win but I got close!

Race morning dawned and the wind was already blowing strong at 5am! 1200 very nervous Ironman athletes awaited the start on lake Taupo which was getting rougher and rougher by the minute. I was worried there might not be a swim but the wind didn't turn the lake into a surf beach thankfully. Still this was one of the hardest swims ever here with a very nasty chop hitting the lake and it was hard to navigate your way around the course. I was swimming with Marino Vanhoenacker and Cyril Viennot in a bunch of five athletes but we came out of the water 5 minutes down on the main group of Marko Albert, Terenzo Bozzone, Clayton Fettell and Braden Currie. 

Onto the bike and my legs weren't quite there and felt like I couldn't push as hard as I wanted. I knew the bike was going to be extremely tough as the wind was still building, we were sitting on 50km/hr on the way out to Reporoa but coming back into Taupo and speeds were only hitting 30-35km/hr and the 2nd lap was even harder. The lead to Terenzo was increasing as every kilometer passed by and when it hit 15minutes I thought that was the end of my day. Around 130km the gap finally started to turn back in my favour but only a little. As we reached T2 the time to Terenzo was now 11:30 minutes and 9:30 to Braden. I was off the bike in 9th and started the run with Cyril who is a great runner.

I felt more in control running than I did on the bike and felt like I had more power and immediately started gaining back time on the leaders. The run leg is not flat and has rolling undulations the entire course with a few steep pitches on some of the hills. We managed to take 2mins off the lead in the first 14km(lap) but it was going to take some of the athletes in front to start blowing up and that's exactly what started to happen on the 2nd and 3rd run laps. I was now in 4th with 14km to go and had 6mins to chase down, you can never give up in an Ironman as you never know what can happen just around the corner. Suddenly I had Terenzo Bozzone and Marko Albert in my sights and passed them with 10km to go, there was only now one more athlete in front of me but I was running out of space to catch him in time. Not even my fastest ever marathon(2:42:30) here in Taupo was enough to stop Braden Currie from winning. I was happy to see the finish line as my legs were absolutely smashed at the finish along with everyone's!  

I'll take a short break to let my body recover and then begin training for my next race on April 23rd in Miyakojima, Japan and then the Asia-Pacific Ironman Championships on June 11th in Cairns, Australia.

Thanks again for your support. Kind Regards Cameron Brown

Ironman New Zealand | Men

2nd at NZ Half Ironman Championships

My 19th Port of Tauranga Half Ironman turned out to be a solid day at the office. With the race starting at 6:15am I was hopeful of a calm swim but it was quite the opposite with very strong winds churning up the Tauranga harbour. I even had to swap out my front wheel due to the winds being that strong. The swim start was the only bad part of my race as I struggled to get my arms turning over, once I got going I was fine but the front group was gone and I exited the water 1:50min down on the leader Eddie Rawles.

Onto the bike and I went about trying to catch the guys in front, the 90km course is dead flat but still a hard ride with half of the course on a very rough chip surface. I reeled in the main group to be in 3rd at the 45km mark with Braden Currie the defending champion and Eddie Rawles 2mins up the road, in the final 5km I caught Eddie but still had the pack just behind me. I was off the bike 2:10 down on Braden but still had company, Hayden Wilde took off like it was a 5km race so I just settled into a pace I could control for the entire 21km's as I knew the 4km trail section around the Mount Maunganui base track is a killer in the final part of the race. I eventually caught Hayden with 6km to go and was able to drop him around the base track to finish in 2nd place. It's only 8 weeks until Ironman New Zealand where I'll be racing in my 20th IMNZ! My form is right on track so I'll be getting stuck into the big mileage until March 4th.

I'll be in touch soon, Cameron Brown

TV news coverage

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2017/01/braden-currie-and-amelia-wilkinson-blitz-fields-at-port-of-tauranga-half.html

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503345&objectid=11778400

 

Port Of Tauranga Half Ironman, New Zealand Championships, 2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run

Elite men
1 Braden Currie 3:45:38
2 Cameron Brown 3:47:55
3 Hayden Wilde 3:48:33

Elite women
1 Amelia Rose Watkinson 4:16:30
2 Julia Grant 4:19:04
3 Teresa Adam 4:20:08