The pursuit of happiness – from insurance adviser to ironman

There is some extent within the Ironman World Championship race, held every year in Kona, Hawaii, about midway into the marathon, which comes after the 4km swim and 180km bike experience, the place rivals enter “The Lab”. It’s a stretch of highway named for the literal US authorities laboratory there, the place scientists harness the world’s intense warmth to conduct ocean-associated analysis.

This is the half of the race that Peter Fitzweijers​ fears essentially the most. When you hear him describe its uniquely terrifying attributes, you perceive why. “It’s all through the lava fields,” he explains. “It’s in a bit of a dip, there’s not a lot of wind. And when there’s no wind and the sun and all the black rock, it’s just like an oven.”

The Hawaii ironman is a notoriously brutal race, but when there’s a single level inside it that athletes fear shall be their undoing, that is certainly it. “That’s the biggest fear here,” Fitzweijers says, “Getting too dehydrated [so] you can’t move.”

Fitzweijers, 41, will discover out on Sunday (NZT) how he fares in The Lab. Some time within the early afternoon, the previous monetary adviser from Christchurch will make the flip off Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway and into the lava fields. Even earlier than he enters the oven, the temperature will seemingly be approaching 30C.

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It’s a good distance from the chilly mid-spring of Canterbury the place Fitzweijers has ready for the triathlons and ironman races he has contested for the final 5 years. It began as a pastime, however has changed into one thing extra. As New Zealand descended into, after which emerged from, Covid-19 restrictions, Fitzweijers felt stressed.

“I wasn’t hating [work] but I wasn’t loving it,” he says, “Sometimes that motivation you had when you started, it just fades a little bit.”

“One day, I didn’t feel like going in to work. I came home and said to my wife, ‘What am I doing?’ You have those realisation moments. Am I carrying on with this? It was a hard decision. I spent a lot of years building that business. It was successful… Once we were out of lockdowns and were quite busy again, that’s when it came to a head. I thought ‘I can carry on for a few more years or start making the change now’.”

Fitzweijers bought his business and refocused his life on two issues: household and ironman coaching. He enlisted former skilled triathlete Dylan McNiece as his coach.

“When I started triathlon my swim was pretty much the worst swim you could ever see,” Fitzweijers says. “I struggled to get to the other side of the pool. So… I got some swim coaching lessons from [Dylan]… He writes my plan. It’s really good to have a coach simply [so] that you’re not doing too much but also… knowing you’re on the right track.”

Fitzweijers’ progress was hindered by Covid-cancelled occasions, however within the races he did make he saved enhancing his time. He certified for Hawaii by ending fifth in his age group on the Australian Ironman in May and shall be one of practically 600 registered starters within the males’s 40-44 class at Kona.

He decamped to Hawaii two weeks earlier than the race to put together. Sometimes his household travels with him, however not this time, principally as a result of of the fee (Fitzweijers is paying NZ$350 an evening to share a home in Kona with three different Kiwis and sleep on a settee mattress). “My boys are… very supportive,” he says, “They know I’m going out for races and… they always want to see the photos afterwards, and especially see the medals.”

His early departure is generally about acclimatising to the Hawaiian warmth. Fitzweijers has had one coaching run in The Lab, however his focus this week has been on truly fizzling out coaching forward of the occasion. On Tuesday he accomplished a mere 30-minute swim, 75-minute bike experience and 20-minute run which, he says, felt “super easy”.

He’s assured he can handle dehydration on race day and maintain an inexpensive tempo all through the run leg. “I’ll probably have to be quite conservative with my strategy just so I can keep going and not blow up,” he says. “I’ll probably go slightly into la-la land. You always do in these races. Towards the end you’re just completely empty.”

Why do it then? Surely there are much less debilitating methods to a way of fulfilment? Asked to clarify himself, Fitzweijers recollects the latest Australian Ironman, his ticket to Kona: “We made a plan, we did the training…and on the day it all fell into place. Sometimes in training you doubt yourself. How can I run a marathon after this bike ride? If you do the training, and you do a race plan, and you follow it to a tee you get a real sense of achievement.”

It’s the pursuit of happiness, simply not as most individuals realize it.