Bozzone Third at IM Asia Pacific Championships

I have to be pleased with another podium performance at the IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Champs in Cairns.

Of course, I would have liked to have been on top of the podium, but credit to Braden who was phenomenal today. It was a good day for the Kiwis and I am so proud of Teresa Adams in winning the women’s race. I’ve known her for a long time and always encouraged her to move to the longer distance and just look how she has developed.

I came off a pretty good block of training in Hawaii, where we mixed some good training with testing in the heat. I was probably carrying a little more fatigue than would have been ideal going into this weekend, but I am playing the long game with all sights set on Kona in October, and this was the perfect time to get the hard work in. 

It was an unusual race because we caught the lead group around the 70km mark and from that point we had a big group and no-one could get clear. I really wanted to push it on the bike, but every time I made a push, it would be closed down by the others.

I did manage to edge away late in the bike-stage, which gave me a small break onto the run. I had a bad patch in the middle part of the run – not quite sure why – but Javier, Braden and then Tim O’Donnell went past. Although, I my legs felt better late in the race which was a good signal of my strength and I managed to run back past Tim for third.

Now I get a decent break after a really busy first half of the year. It will be good to get home to spend time with the family before I plot my course towards Hawaii in October, where we will have a good group of Kiwis now racing.

This year has seen me complete three IRONMAN races in seven months, with two of those wins clocked in under eight-hours and third in eight hours flat. I can’t sneeze at that!