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
