'As soon as I found out I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer'
That was multi-event athlete Mike Phillips' first reaction to the news last weekend that Ironman New Zealand had been postponed because of the increase in Covid-19 alert levels.
Hannah Wells wins Ironman 70.3 in Taupo in 2019 Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The iconic Taupo event was scheduled for this weekend, but organisers were forced to put it on hold following the Covid announcement from the government.
For Phillips, who won in 2019 and finished second last year, it was a bit of a shock when the news came through last Saturday night.
"Wasn't really expecting there to be a one week lockdown, so I was pretty disappointed.:"
"You put a lot of work in for just this one day with several months of sacrifice set to count for nothing, as I didn't expect them to be able to reschedule it."
"I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer straightaway and let the hair down for a day or two."
"The motivation took a bit of a hit as it's hard to set the alarm clock for an early Sunday morning and go and spend six hours on your bike when it looked like the event wasn't going to go ahead."
The news of the postponement was also a shock for Tauranga's Dr Hannah Wells who was set to compete in her first Ironman.
Wells, who has become prominent in the 70.3 (half-Ironman) distance since 2017, had decided to step up to Ironman this year and was set to make her debut in Taupo over the full distance of 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run.
"There were obviously a lot of unknowns for the first couple of days and it was pretty unsettling, but I just had to go with the flow as there's not a lot you can do about it other than hold onto hope."
Ironman start Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Both Wells and Phillips went through the next couple of days unsure of what may happen and whether their seasons were over.
"I didn't think they'd be able to reschedule it as there are so many moving parts to an Ironman with the staff and volunteers and all the extras," said Phillips.
Wells was a bit more confident and admits having two days of light training planned, did help her cope with the situation.
"I did feel a bit tired on the Monday because it was a little bit stressful not knowing what was going on, but I carried on with training in the hope that we would be racing eventually."
The 28 year old says having a couple of light days training did allow her to get her body and mind adjusted.
"Obviously if you've got some mental stress it also affects physical training so having those couple of easy days was well planned and even if I didn't have them planned I would have taken them anyway and now I'm back into training I'm feeling refreshed."
30 year old Phillips is a full-time athlete, who while well supported, did think he might have to start looking for a "proper" job.
"A lot of my sponsorship is based on bonuses as well from race performances, so the races are really where I make my money and so without races its really hard to make it a viable career."
Fortunately Ironman organisers indicated early that they were still trying to make the 2021 event happen and by midweek they'd confirmed the new date of March 27th.
It had been a taper week for the athletes, but Phillips and Wells were soon back into a "build" week.
"We were just starting to ease off in the training, but now that we've got another three weeks, it means another two weeks of some quite big volume training and then winding down again to try and freshen up for the race, "said Phillips.
"I think it's going to be quite hard getting that right as I've never been in this situation before where an event has been called off (and then rescheduled), but I guess we're all in the same boat trying to work out how to tackle it."
Mike Phillips at Ironman 2020 Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Phillips doesn't think the delay will make too much different to performances on race day.
"There are just a couple of things with the later date and the prospect of an hours less daylight and a slightly colder swim, but it should be fine."
Phillips admits he has his fingers crossed for the country for the next three weeks.
"I could put in another big three weeks of training and we could be in the same situation so I guess we just hope nothing happens and that everyone behaves themselves up in Auckland."
Ironically the delay has worked out well for Wells who feels a couple of extra weeks training will help her in her debut in the race.
