Ironman Malaysia - Febuary 24th 2007

After 6 weeks of focused training in my Home town of Christchurch I flew up to Auckland to meet my friend Treax Warn and head out to the Malaysian Island of Langkawi! I really felt like I was in the best shape I had been for Malaysia and wanted to race at my best so bad!

We got into Kula Lumpur and waited to board our flight to Langkawi and that's were the trouble started. Our plane headed down the runway and it shuddered and made a couple of loud noises as we struggled to get off the ground! An hour into the flight we should have been landing in Langkawi but instead we were circling the airport very low then after a few passes were directed to Penang Airport. The same went on there but made a landing with full emergency crews on the runway! We found out later 2 tires had blown on take off and there were problems with the landing gear. Now we were stuck in Penang for 10 1/2hrs waiting for a new plane with no food or good nutrition. I knew my race was getting harder! Finally we arrived in Langkawi at 8.30pm and they kept registration open until 9.30 so we could get checked in!

Friday was super rushed to get our Bikes & gear ready for the Saturday race a new date for the race. I was feeling ok race morning and hoped that I would be strong. The gun went off and I went straight to the front in the swim and hoped to drop the others but every time I did the paddler would lead me off course so they would get back on my feet. I managed to break away at the end to get a 20-30sec gap on 8 guys in the pack. My plan was to attack the bike and get a big lead but the 8 guys were working off each other and caught me at 70k on the bike. I rode strong and was angry as they were all waiting for the run! I then attacked at 140k on the bike and blew apart the group and only had 2 guys with me then leading into the Marathon I didn't feel that good and just hoped that things would come around!

I knew that I handle the heat well so just tried to keep smooth and the fluids going in. Then on the 3rd lap of the 4 lap run they ran out of water and it was a nightmare. I went through 3 aid stations with no water and had used all my nutrition on my fuel Belt and was tingling all over at the 4th aid station I stopped and still nothing I grabbed the bucket with sponge water and poured it over my head which was a huge mistake as my feet slipped around in my shoes and in no time I had huge blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet I was in 3rd and walking in pain! I couldn't go on and walked up to my hotel room in disbelief that they could run out of water it's so hot and no water is life threatening! I knew I should have turned around when the plane was over 10hr late.

Thanks for the continued support!

Cheers - Rhodsey