Birthday B-Fit Challenge

The B-Fit B-Day challenge is to swim the first number of your birthday age in miles, bike your age in miles and then run the second number of your age in miles. Being 42 this year it meant I had an easy run but a challenging swim. You can choose to do the challenge over the week (Bronze Medal), over 3 days (Silver) and in 24 hours (Gold). After some re-arrangements due to the Huntly Half M last week (and a misunderstanding over my birth date) I eventually settled on the Gold.

My taper for the event was fantastic. I hadn't swum for a week or ridden for 8 weeks and the last time I had run was the previous weekend's Half M. Great preperation!

The challenge started at 12:30pm on Friday in the swimming pool at work. Luckily I had read on a blog that a swimmer's mile was 1500m and so this reduced the distance a bit. It was still 6K though which meant 240 lengths of the 25m pool. My plan was to take it really easy with some T.I. type swimming mixed with conventional. However my muscle memory kept on reverting to the conventional stroke and within the first 10 lengths I gave up on the T.I. and just kept the same stroke.

My pace was consistently a few seconds over 5 mins for each 10 lengths and I was able to keep my effort fairly consistent. I did 'go for it' in the penultimate set of 10 and gave it everything I had ... only to manage a few seconds under 5 mins - totally not worth the effort. I used the last 10 lengths to warm down which added about 30 seconds to the time. Finished the 240 lengths in just over 2 hrs and 4 mins. Really pleased to get that out the way.

T1 was a little bit slow. It started at just after 2:30pm and included a bit of work (not much!), dinner with the family, TV watching, some T3 action (really fast time) and a really good overnight sleep. Alarm went off at 5am and I was up, dressed, fed and watered and out of the door ready to ride at 6am.

This was the bit I was looking forward to. The rain had held off so it was a ride over the Kaimais. Looking at mapmyrun the 42 miles I needed took me up over and just down the other side.

It was quite cold to start with but warmed up when the sun came up after about an hour.

Sunrise over the Kaimais

The climb up the Kaimais from home is quite gradual and includes some nice flats and even some downhills to rest the legs. Unfortunately these turned into enormous uphills on the way home!

Took about 2 hours to get to the top from home. More than I have expected but I wasn't really interested in time and speed today. I just wanted to enjoy it and get it done!

I stopped at the summit sign, took a pic and had some of the 4-square meal bar for breakfast.

Not sure how this can be the summit what with higher hills behind but ...

Just beyond this point at the side of the road is a water pipe with (apparently) crystal clear pure water running from the top of the Kaimais. You see people stopped in their cars filling up bottle after bottle. Some people swear by it, others say the stream is filled with rotting animals and so you should boil it first. We've drunk it a few times and not had any problems.

Chance for a natural water refill

Next came the easy bit. Down the other side. The height I had just taken 2 hours to climb disappeared in less than 5 minutes. I got to the bottom and had about 2K to go to halfway. Stopped at the sign below, had a leak, a bit more breakfast and prepared for the climb back up.

Halfway point

Getting back up the mountain was not easy. It was OK at the start and I was able to remain seated and keep the peddles turning over but at about the halfway point it got steeper and steeper and I had to stand up. My back wheel slipped a few times. Not on oil or a wet road but on sheep sh!t.

It was a long continuous climb. I started to time it from the bottom and at one point I had been going for 30 mins. I forgot to look at my watch at the top but I reckon it must have been another 10 or 15 mins. Very very slow climb!

I never felt that I had to stop but my calfs couldn't quite believe what I was asking them to do. They complained a few times but nothing serious. It made it worse that I couldn't drink on the climb. I would have never have been able to climb one-handed. It was a relief to get back to the top.

I stopped at the lookout and got talking to a bloke at the top. He was a fellow cyclist and said he had previously attempted to climb from Matamata but had only got halfway and turned back. I got him to take my picture.

Does my bike look small in this?

From this point on it was mainly downhill. There were a few uphills, especially towards the end of the ride and these hurt. It wasn't that they were steep, I think it was just that I was spent.

Leaving the lookout

I got into T2 (home) at 10:15. Three and three-quarter hours for 42 miles. Not exactly speedy but it did include lots of stops for pictures. The 24hrs would be up at 12:30 so I had plenty of time to get the run done. Decided to have breakfast with the family. Jo had just cooked bacon. How could I resist. Toasted bacon sandwiches with tomato sauce. Delicious!

An idea for T2 in Rotorua?

Quick change of clothes and I went for the run. Well ... when I say run. I decided that it would be more like a walk with the kids with a few running intervals. We went to the end of our road and down to the estuary.

Not exactly setting a blistering pace!

Having fun in the 'bush'

Adam clowning around :)

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The 'Little House on the Prairie' shot

Laura was there but she was official photographer.

It was a great end to the challenge. Got back home just after 11am. Twenty two hours and thirty minutes. I made the cut-off time and so claim my Gold Medal :)


... and thus ends my season. I suppose I'll run and swim a bit in the next few weeks but no more long rides. Got some DIY/garden stuff to do at the weekends before our trip back to the UK. When we get back it's Half Ironman training. Can't wait!