The Wanaka Challenge race is now only 36 hours away, and I’m entered as part of a team with my lovely colleague Kellie Bailey. I’m the cyclist, so that wonderful bike has definitely got some pretty good use of late.

I’ve never actually cycled the 180km distance in one effort so I’m pretty understandably nervous about how I’m going to go on that day. Thankfully my teammate, Kellie, is a rock of a woman and isn’t putting any pressure on me at all, except to say that she doesn’t want me going too fast on the bike so she can get a decent rest between the swim and the marathon she has to run.

I didn’t manage to be ready for the whole thing due to a combination of having been quite sick for a couple of long periods when I should have been training, pressure from work and the fact that I hadn’t really understood just exactly what sort of commitment it was going to take to get here. I’m in awe of every one of the individual competitors.

I’m happy to be doing the ride, though, and I think I’ll have another go at the Tauranga Half Ironman next summer and take things a bit more stepwise in future.

Nikki and I did have a good laugh when we passed a point on the road to Makarora that was where I had gone on an apparent ‘massive mission’ bike ride one time. She came and picked me up in her car. We’ve actually come a hell of a long way in the last year or so, and that’s got to be recognised.

The short course triathlons I’ve done as part of the prep for this have been a fantastic time, as was the Mountain to Mountain race.. so there’s been a lot of good times in the sport, and plenty more to come. The main trick is to not invest too much into the actual race day and enjoy the training, and on the whole I’m getting a lot better at both of those things.

So, wish me luck!