GO FAST! NEW ZEALAND ::

Dear Sponsors and friends

I arrived in Pentiction, B.C Canada on Wednesday the 20th of August and it felt like I had come home. It has been 5 years since I had raced Ironman Canada and I was looking forward to it.

The media focused on the Canadians and few others that had won Ironman races so I was pretty relaxed going into the race with number 9.-

Race day came quick and I was up at 4am for breakfast that is always hard to eat that early in the morning with a couple of strong cups of coffee I was feeling ready. Heading down to transition and marking I got through with great ease and had my bike set up very early with lots of time to get ready for the 6.45am start.

The Pro’s were let into the water at 6.30am and I got out doing a good warm up as the water had been pretty cold leading up to the race. My stroke felt great so was looking forward to a great day, the cannon went off and we were away. There were 3 other really great swimmers in the field they were Jan Sibberson , Mark Van Akkren and Matt Clarke I had a bad start and after 600mts they got a break on me and I was left to swim the last 3200mts on my own at the turn I was 50mts behind but on the way back the sun gear on the water was hard to sight into and ended up going off course a bit and losing 2mins 30seconds to the lead 3 guys.

My transition to the bike was fast and I jumped onto the Cervelo and felt great and could push the pace straight away. I had chosen to use the Hed 3 spoke carbon wheels as it will be a set up I may run in Hawaii. I caught Jan and Matt at 30k on the bike and dropped them straight away so thought I would catch Mark in the next few miles but got a split that I was 2mins back and the gap never got any smaller I felt strong but gave up chasing him at 150k and he put another 2 ½ minutes into me.
I still felt very strong but was preparing myself for the Marathon and wanted to save my energy as the wind was really pick up and I knew Mark was a 3.30 marathoner!

Coming back along Main Street the crowd was huge and I kept taking in gels and water shaking out the legs after a tough ride. I headed to transition 4m.15sec down and changed put on compression socks to race in for the 1st time, they slowed my usually slick transition time down but hoped they will keep my calf’s from any injury problems again.
I was eating into Marks lead very quickly but the threat was going to come from behind me in the runners of Jasper Blake and Jason Shortis so need time splits on them.

I caught Mark and mile 5 and was feeling good but the wind was really blowing hard into our face so was working hard I knew if I got to the turn around with a 3-4mins then I would be blown back home.
Jasper was on the charge and eating away at my lead every mile and really didn’t think I could win but I was going to keep fighting as I felt strong then as mile 16 the motor bike came up to me and said you just gain 30seconds back off Jasper and it lifted me.
Seeing Peter Reid commentating he was yelling at me also gave me a huge boost and I gave him the thumbs up!
I ticked off the miles and new once I hit town the crowd would bring me to the finish line as it was packed with supporters and you know where you have to go! The motor bike came up the last time with 3k to go and said that I had 4.30 on Austrian, Bernhard Hiebl. I knew then the race was mine and started to celebrate the moment.
Heading along lakeshore drive in first for the last out and back was awesome I had dreamt about this moment for a long time and getting to the finish carpet I walked it in and high 5 everyone the clock ticked over 8.30 for my finish time of 8.30.11.
2008 Ironman Canada Champion!!

Thank you for all your support over the tough last year I’m hoping that my result in Hawaii will be as memorable.
Kind Regards
Bryan Rhodes