Crazyman 2015 Race Report

Crazyman 2015 Race Report

12 May 2015, 3:34PM
Ailsa Rollinson

What an awesome race! Last weekend saw Wellington turn on a stunning day for
the 25th Anniversary of the Crazyman Multisport and Duathlon race. For me
Crazyman would be my first individual multisport race in 18 months following
injury and a bit of overseas travel and after six solid weeks of training I was
pretty excited to see how I was going!

Firstly huge thanks must go to Trevor and Rachel Voyce for providing me with a
sweet surf ski for the kayak section and for ensuring I made it to the start line!
Cheers guys, much appreciated. We kicked off on the beach at Day’s Bay with a
brisk 300m run to our boats. It was a bit of a scramble getting in to our kayaks,
lucky for me Trev’s crewman Simon was on the spot to hold me steady and he
gave me pretty good push off to get me going, nice work Simon! It was cool to be
hitting the water with so many other eager, excited and still probably a bit
nervous people. Plenty of boat tag followed as we all tried to find a good strong
paddler to settle in behind for a ride to Petone!

Borrowing a boat you are not used to is always a bit of a gamble! Lucky for me it
was a pretty calm day by Wellington standards so staying upright wasn’t an issue
but I did struggle to find my rhythm. I managed to tuck in behind Naomi
Whitehead for most of the way and got off the water about 100m back. Young
Wellingtonian girl Lizzy Bunckenburg had a super strong paddle five minutes up
the field and Elina Ussher was no where to be seen having smoked us all putting
a massive eight minutes on me! Off the water and Richard Ussher called me over
to my bike having volunteered his support crew services literally five minutes
before the race! What a legend, thanks so much Rich!

Out on the bike felt great, I caught up with Naomi and yelled ‘Come on, let’s go!’
and together we set about catching the field one by one. Onto the first climb and I
quickly settled in to a good rhythm. I’d heard parts of the 30km ride were quite
steep with a section named Granny Gear Ally, sounded ominous but I was happy
as spinning past riders, in my zone and loving being out there! The downhill was
equally as awesome with some pretty rough, bone shaking sections that claimed
my bike tool and nutrition reasonably early on, bugger! In case anyone else had
suffered the same misfortune I kept my eyes peeled for a stray gel or muesli bar
but luckily Angus Watson came to my rescue. His bike had been misbehaving and
he was trying to get it back in line when I came past. He jumped back on and
joined me for a yarn, fed me a gel and sent me on my way as his bike started to
protest again.

Into TA, I piled a lunchbox worth of food and drink into my back pockets, left
Rich with my cowpat covered bike gear and galloped off. Straight into a decent
climb, I debated the merits of walking, deciding that it was probably the faster
more efficient option and so strode it out to the start of the single track. The bush
trail was beautiful and provided good shade from what was turning into a pretty
warm day compared to the chilly, autumn days of Wanaka! After some good,
rugged and in parts, off trail climbing and creek bed running we popped out into
a beautiful gorge for the last gradual downhill to the finish at Petone Beach.
Across the finish line in second place, ten minutes behind Elina and five in front
of Naomi, was great to have you girls out there! Aside from my kayak I had a
really good race, particularly my bike where I managed to post the fastest
individual time (even if only by a matter of seconds). Crazyman is an awesome
course, I had a heap of fun out there and I’ll definitely go back! Now my focus is
on the 3D Rotorua National Multisport Champs in a couple of week’s time. I am
really excited to race again, I love the Rotorua single track and it will be another
good opportunity to test myself.

A lot of awesome people helped me get through Crazyman before, during and
after the race as I completely underestimated the importance of a support crew
having not competed as an individual in ages! So thanks once again to Trev, Rach
and Simon, Rich, Angus and Michael Jacques organiser of Crazyman. You think
you are heading away to a race on your own but get there and are quickly
reminded that multisporters are a pretty friendly, lack back bunch, happy to
help. Cheers everyone. I am also stoked to be back on board with Matty Graham
from Exponential Performance Coaching, in six short weeks I made some pretty
good progress and I am loving training! And lastly thanks Torpedo 7, was cool
seeing so many of us out there in T7 kit looking sharp!

See you in Rotorua!


Ailsa Rollinson Zrazyman


Ailsa Rollinson Crazyman


Ailsa Rollinson Crazyman

Search