This has been a long time coming, but I wanted to share about my experience traveling to New Zealand for the Half Ironman World Championships from my perspective as a mom, athlete and dietitian! Kevin and I both qualified which was a dream in itself. We honestly held the whole thing pretty loosely, knowing we REALLY wanted to go, but that we also had a 14 month old, which would make it challenging. We knew if we went, we wanted to experience the country and be there for a while and we couldn’t fathom leaving Keely at home for an extended amount of time, so… we decided to bring her!!
Between the logistics of both of us racing, bringing our racing gear, flying that far with a 14 month old, bringing all her gear and traveling the whole length of New Zealand, I really started to believe we might be insane for trying to make it all happen!! Turns out… we were, but it was SO worth it!
Getting There:
Logistically, for how far you travel, it is pretty easy travel with one long overnight flight. The time difference is 21 hrs, so it only feels like 3. Which for all of our rhythms, it was pretty manageable. The hardest part was the amount of stuff we had to bring. We had 3 carry ons, 2 bikes, 1 extra checked bag, a stroller, plus 2 backpacks. You should have seen how ridiculous we were walking through the airports!!
Our flight path way Spokane -> San Francisco -> Auckland.
We then rented a camper van (basically just to carry all of our stuff). We stay in Auckland for a few days, and then traveled to Waiheki Island, then Coromandel area, then to Hahei, then to Taupo (where the race was). We were in Taupo for 5 days and then drove to the South Island. We stayed in Kaikoura, then Mt Cook, then Te Anau, vistited Milford Sound and then stayed in Queenstown.
We flew from Queenstown -> Auckland -> San Francisco -> Spokane.
The landscape seriously started like Hawaii and ended like Alaska and included everything in between! People are so kind and the culture is so welcoming. New Zealand cares a lot about their country and it shows! The parks and facilities were spotless. The playgrounds were epic. The food was (mostly) great. And, everything was very family friendly!
In the three weeks, we were in 9 different beds, camped 2 nights and were totally over keeping Keely entertained while driving and loading and unloading baby gear and bikes!
Prepping for the Race in another country:
One of the best things we did, was buy a cheap bike trainer off Facebook Marketplace to use before the race. Between being in new places, and having to ride on the opposite side of the road, we used this A LOT in the days leading up to the race. I always forget how much extra effort goes into planning logistics around workouts and racing in a new place. Luckily, the final weeks before racing is all about staying fresh with shorter workouts, so we were able to stay up on running and biking easily and got a few swims in before the race.
Carboloading:
Despite New Zealand being an english speaking country, carb-loading was kind of hard!! Food labels are slightly different in most other countries and it took a bit to get used to reading New Zealand food labels because all serving sizes are based off of weight. It was very challenging to try to understand what a serving was and the servings didn’t necessarily match was the US serving size is. Also, things like bagels were kind of hard to find! We did our best, but I cannot imagine trying to figure this out in a non-english speaking country!! We did get to try some new and fun things for our carb-load including Gingernut Cookies and Sherbert Fizz Candy (both of which may be things we order for future carb-loading).
The race:
What a cool event! This was my 3rd 70.3 World Championship race and by far the most relaxed (as were most things in New Zealand). In other events, you generally have to line up for the swim at least an hour before you start. We were literally playing in the park up to 20 minutes before Kevin started. It helped the whole day start right!
The swim was BEAUTIFUL! Lake Taupo is gorgeous, the water was clear and fairly calm. I PR’d my swim, I think mostly because of the perfect conditions!
The bike was tougher than I expected! The first half was fast (I honestly thought I was in store for another PR). The second half was a slow steady climb that lasted WAY TOO LONG! There was a headwind, and the surface was chipseal, so everything felt slow and hard.
The run was also tougher than I expected! It was advertised as flat, but was way hillier than I anticipated. It was also really hot- New Zealand’s ozone layer is super thin, so 75 degrees seriously felt like 90 degrees! I had to have a strong mental game and was able to pull out a run PR.
Overall, I was really pleased with the day. It is so fun to race with that caliber of athletes from all over the world and to hear families cheering for their loved ones in different languages. I am also stoked to have pulled out a strong race 14 months postpartum. The human body is really cool and it was fun to test that.
The hardest part… waking up early the next day to support Kevin in his race while carting Keely around the whole time!
What I learned:
Do the thing, even if it seems crazy
Babies change things in really hard ways, but also put new life and perspective to many situations
Carb-loading in another country is hard
Figuring out logistics around racing in someplace really new takes a lot of extra mental energy
I could have spent another 4 months in New Zealand and still not felt like I saw it all!!
I hope reading through this inspires you to do something you’ve been dreaming about for a long time too!!
