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Terenzo Bozzone Port of Tauranga Half 2nd

January 2013

Hi all,

So I kicked off the year with not quite the result I would have liked but none the less a pretty good performance given the preparation over the past 10 days.  The Port of Tauranga Half brought several top New Zealeanders out, including Cam Brown, Graham O'Grady and James Bowstead, was a stunner of a day and just like I remembered it, a great race!

O'Grady kicked off the swim with a lot of pace and unfortunately swimming into the sun strike at the end of lap one I lost his feet and a bit of a gap formed and I ended up coming out of the swim 40seconds down. I thought I would have been able to bridge across during the bike but the deficit hovered between 30-40seconds then going into the last 20 kms somehow he increased his lead to over 1 minute. James Bowstead caught up with 5kms to go and picked the pace right up. I couldn't believe how fast he was riding! The new Argon 18 bike rode great, but I was suffering from stomach reflux and couldn't take in any calories during the bike. I didn't notice it too much then but I was going to pay for it in a big way come the last 10kms of the run.

Off the bike and onto the run… "Hold on a minute" back to the dismount line to pick up my Sidi bike shoe that had unclicked during my fabulous dismount. Now I could start running! The legs felt great and I found my rhythm pretty quick. After about 4kms I had made up the 75second gap and was soon in first place over O'Grady. I was sure I had dropped him and he was done and then all of a sudden running onto the round the mount track he was back on my heels. I knew he must have been hurting so I kept the gas on trying to break him. This was a big mistake. I knew O'Grady was strong over the hills and working this section was just working myself over. I did however form a small gap coming off the track and again, thought I had it sown up, but again he was back on my heels. This time my muscles were starting to pay for the lack of calories. I swallowed down a Clif Shot I had been holding in my hand for the last 12km but unfortunately it was too little too late and I soon found myself hanging off the back of O'Grady trying not to loose too much time. Hoping I would miraculously come right and power home was a little too optimistic but I still gave it my all and kept pushing over the hilly gravel track for the second time just in case.

O'Grady is having a great NZ season and ended up tying the course record that has been in the books for a few years, last broken by Nathan Richmond, I was a further 50seconds back, followed by Brownie and James Bowstead.

We had a couple days road tripping around the beautiful Coromandel peninsula to finish off our "Honeymoon" and now it is time to get ready for the Auckland 70.3 in a couple weeks and Nutri-Grain IM NZ in March which I am really looking forward to.

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