First Ironman exciting entrant | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua
First Ironman exciting entrant
Warwick Hall reckons waiting for Ironman day is like waiting for Christmas - the present just takes a bit longer to open.
Not that he's been waiting as long as some. It's just over three months since Warwick, pictured, started training for the gruelling 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run.
And when he lines up at the start of the 25th anniversary of the New Zealand event, considered the pinnacle of the sport, it'll be the first time he's fronted up to do a triathlon.
But the 46-year-old events manager isn't new to Ironman. He's spent the past 10 years behind the scenes helping to make the event synonymous with Taupo. After hearing year after year about what a special atmosphere Taupo turns on for athletes, and the huge impact volunteers have, he's set to experience it first hand.
He admits the first time he saw athletes lining up for the event he never dreamt he'd be among them a decade later. "I thought they were 'the crazies', that they were superhuman and I was in awe of their achievements."
But, like so many others, spending time at the finish line both here in Taupo and at overseas versions of the event and watching the huge array of people take part was all that it took for Warwick to catch the bug. "I thought if I don't do this then I'm pretty damn lazy."
After only deciding to do the Ironman at the beginning of December, Warwick has had to pack in the training over the summer months - fuelled by a diet including "kumara sammies" and snake lollies.
"Before you know it its taken over your life."
Nevertheless, he says he's enjoyed the training with dream weather and a "good crew to train with".
He's managed to take a day off a week from his job to focus on putting in the hard yards, and says being single has taken away the pressure off.
It's all made it much more manageable to put in the 25+ hour weeks of training over the three disciplines. "For me the hardest discipline is actually the easiest - the swim."
He says despite spending summers in the water swimming around all day when he lived on the East Coast, when it actually came to swimming in a straight line he was "pathetic". '
Now days out from the big event he says he doesn't know how to feel but is pretty sure the reality will kick in when he tries to get some much-needed rest the night before the big day.
"The night before I'll be lying in bed with my eyes wide open like a morepork. It's like Christmas but the present takes a whole lot longer to open."
Not that he's been waiting as long as some. It's just over three months since Warwick, pictured, started training for the gruelling 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run.
And when he lines up at the start of the 25th anniversary of the New Zealand event, considered the pinnacle of the sport, it'll be the first time he's fronted up to do a triathlon.
But the 46-year-old events manager isn't new to Ironman. He's spent the past 10 years behind the scenes helping to make the event synonymous with Taupo. After hearing year after year about what a special atmosphere Taupo turns on for athletes, and the huge impact volunteers have, he's set to experience it first hand.
He admits the first time he saw athletes lining up for the event he never dreamt he'd be among them a decade later. "I thought they were 'the crazies', that they were superhuman and I was in awe of their achievements."
But, like so many others, spending time at the finish line both here in Taupo and at overseas versions of the event and watching the huge array of people take part was all that it took for Warwick to catch the bug. "I thought if I don't do this then I'm pretty damn lazy."
After only deciding to do the Ironman at the beginning of December, Warwick has had to pack in the training over the summer months - fuelled by a diet including "kumara sammies" and snake lollies.
"Before you know it its taken over your life."
Nevertheless, he says he's enjoyed the training with dream weather and a "good crew to train with".
He's managed to take a day off a week from his job to focus on putting in the hard yards, and says being single has taken away the pressure off.
It's all made it much more manageable to put in the 25+ hour weeks of training over the three disciplines. "For me the hardest discipline is actually the easiest - the swim."
He says despite spending summers in the water swimming around all day when he lived on the East Coast, when it actually came to swimming in a straight line he was "pathetic". '
Now days out from the big event he says he doesn't know how to feel but is pretty sure the reality will kick in when he tries to get some much-needed rest the night before the big day.
"The night before I'll be lying in bed with my eyes wide open like a morepork. It's like Christmas but the present takes a whole lot longer to open."
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