RAE
I had been volunteering at the event for several years with my boy’s school group & was always inspired by the stories of the athletes & how they seemed to come back year after year. Surely, I could achieve this too and living in Taupo, the home of IMNZ (Ironman NZ), I had an extra bonus of being able to train on the IMNZ course.
As a stay-at-home Mum & with my 2 boys now both off at Boarding School what was I going to do with all my time? I needed a new challenge, needed a goal, needed something just for me.
The first step was to find a coach, the next was to see if I could even swim a length of the 25m pool. The coach part was easy, swimming not so much. A lot of work was going to be needed!
In February 2021 I entered Ironman with 55 weeks of training in my sights – the journey had begun and what a journey it was. Day after day, week after week I began to start seeing and achieving little goals towards the big one. Tears, happiness, frustration, joy, loneliness, exhaustion and excitement are some of the words and feelings that sum up my journey.
Six months ago, I was on the biggest journey of my life - I am still buzzing thinking about it and it all seems a bit surreal…. Did I actually do that?
In 2016 I came across the Kim Beach Noexcuses program & loved it, especially the fitness side of the program. In 2020 when I saw that a Kim Beach retreat was going to be in New Zealand, I jumped at the chance to go – little did I know that I was about to commit myself to the toughest one-day endurance race in the world.
My journey started by saying my goal out load at the retreat & going home to tell my family and friends all about it and what I’d committed too – I was going to do Ironman New Zealand.
RAE ‘AKA’ IRONMUM
Days were long – physically, mentally & emotionally draining while trying to do the best I could in all the other parts of my life. Twelve weeks out & my eldest son got sick – he was in and out of hospital and it was a difficult time to keep getting myself back up to swim, bike, run after restless & sleepless nights spent in a lazy boy chair next to his hospital bed. Three weeks out from the race – Covid shut the event down, I would now have to endure another 40 weeks of training to complete this mission. Could I carry on? There was no way my husband & boys were going to let me quit now!
Finally in December 2022 I made the red carpet after 22 months of Ironman being at the forefront of my mind – it was DONE!!
To get to the start line I had swum 397km, biked 8691km, ran 2344km and then on race day I swam 3.8km, biked 180km, ran 42.2km.
A whopping 16:47hrs later I made it home – boy did it feel good mentally but physically not so much.
The weather on the day was atrocious but I had trained in those conditions, I knew the course and what I had to do plus I had the best crew of family & friends out on the course supporting me 110%.
Whatever your goal or dreams may be just take one day at a time, be consistent, chip away at it, learn from it, surround yourself with supportive people, you can’t control everything, but you can control how you react to it and that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
“WTF support crew - Where’s the Finish?”
As it’s my birthday coming up this week I bought some bubbles like the boys got me after IM and I think I’ll have to keep this tradition up now, hahaha.
“I am an IronMUM”
