March 10th to the 14th were some of the the craziest five days of my life. It started with traveling down to Mount Maunganui to compete in the National Surf Life Saving Champs. Friday was the first day of competition. I was able to compete in three board races and one ski race before I had to run off and catch a flight for the Elite U19 Triathlon in Wellington. I arrived in time for the race briefing and to check out the course.
Early Saturday morning I woke up to Dad telling me that a tsunami had hit Japan overnight. It was really sad to hear that the death toll was really high and was expected to rise. It also meant the Surf Life Saving Nationals had a delayed start and there was the possibility of me competing in the U19 Iron Woman race. Luckily the triathlon race still went ahead in Wellington.
I had an awesome swim coming out front bunch and then had an awesome ride also coming into transition in the front bunch. I got the stitch quite bad on the run and unfortunately ended up finishing as the seventh New Zealander in the U19 woman’s elite race. Although I finished seventh I was still very happy with my race as I qualified for the World Age Group Champs held in Beijing later in the year.
Soon after the race finished I was back on my feet and driving to Wellington Airport to catch another flight back to Tauranga to compete in the Surf Life Saving Nationals. Luckily Subway was handy both in Wellington and Mount Maunganui to keep me going throughout the day. As we got to the airport I had a text from my surf life saving coach saying all the events had been postponed till 3pm. I was so relieved as I knew that I would just make it to the beach by 3pm.
Back in Tauranga I arrived at Mount Maunganui Beach to find that the day of competition had been postponed till Sunday and that they would run double the number of events.
Again, I woke up early on Sunday morning for the Mairangi Bay team warm up. We were running along the sand in the dark and as soon as it was light enough we hit the water with our knee boards. My first event was the Open Woman’s Board Relay which all of us three girls (myself, Maddie Boon and Bailey Elliott) pulled out an awesome effort to win the race. I also had the U19 Iron Woman heat which I easily won to make it to the final. Next the U19 ski race final which I came in seventh after an unexpected strong wave tipped me off my ski. Straight after the ski race I lined up for the U19 board race final which I smoked to finish more than a wave in front of the next girls. Then I raced the U19 iron woman’s final taking out third place. Lastly, the Open Woman’s Taplin relay, board was the last leg and I entered the water sixth. I managed to pull a beautiful wave right from the back bouy and sprinted along the sand to finish in third place.
Overall it was a successful weekend as I came away with two Open Woman National team medals and two U19 individual national medals. I also made the New Zealand Development Surf Life Saving squad and the Age Group World Champs team for triathlon.
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