Erik Blomberg (left) and Brendon Vesty are trying not to get too swept away in tide of euphoria the Kona Hawaii Ironman can cause in a fortnight. Photo/Paul Taylor
Erik Blomberg (left) and Brendon Vesty are trying not to get too swept away in tide of euphoria the Kona Hawaii Ironman can cause in a fortnight. Photo/Paul Taylor
Singer Doris Day beat them to it in the film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, in 1956 but that isn't stopping Brendon Vesty and Erik Blomberg from humming the tune all the way to Kona Hawaii Ironman this month.
Averse to crunching numbers willy-nilly, Vesty and Blomberg are opting for the Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) chorus.
"Results wise I can't control the competitors but, in my head, I'd like to do a PB on the ironman so, for me, anything around 9h 40m [he established 9h 44m 20s in Santa Rosa Ironman in May last year] I will probably be happy with," says Vesty, who is competing in his second event on Sunday, October 13.
The 46-year-olds agrees this time last year he had grappled with his share of the demons in the build up to the event.
"It wasn't the best way for me but this year I've trained a little later so I feel like I'm little ahead volume-wise," he recalls, waking up with excruciating abdominal pains due to a bowel infection days before jetting off to Hawaii.
Vesty had finished 108th in a field of 291 in the 45-49 age group and 800th overall in the entire field of 2384 in an event he considers to be the Tour de France of triathlons.
The co-director of Stortford Auto Sales in Hastings clocked 10h 10m 39s after a 3.84km loop swim out of Kailua Bay, 180.2km bike ride and a 42.2km run.
"Look, it's the world championship so there'll be some quality athletes there," he says.
"Last year I was second off the bike and I was still only 15th overall going into the run so it just shows you there are some pretty strong athletes all round."
He is simply seeking a sense of accomplishment that he can be proud of and "the result will be where it is".
While spring has been frigid for the best part Vesty caught his flight with son Karsen, 15, on Sunday hopeful it'll be ample time to acclimatise but he reconciles that with a relatively mild winter so he's not going to be battling with extreme fluctuations.
However, he has taken a bout of influenza in his stride just before he began his training regime in July, starting four weeks later, after a month's hiatus from becoming the 45-49 age-group aqua bike world champion at the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championship in Pontevedra, Spain, in May.
The former professional cyclist juxtaposes that with an almost six-month slow but steady build up last year.
Brendon Vesty, 46, of Hastings, has been putting in the hard yards at the Onekawa pools in Napier a little later this year. Photo/Paul Taylor
Vesty suspects perhaps he had dragged his training out too long last year with the "unknown" elements of a maiden foray playing on his mind.
He's happy with his constitution now but hastens to add it's not getting any easier with father time maintaining his pace regardless of individual variables.
"I'm not at the top and I don't think I'm at 100 but I think I'm at 90 which is better to be at this stage rather than be 100 and ill."
On the flip side, Vesty has got his shin splints on a leash to keep tendonitis in check with decent runs recently.
"Basically my experience from last year tells me to get there early and get used to it," he says, mindful he didn't have that choice last year with a family holiday book-ending the trip.
Vesty says it's hotter than usual there for this time of the year, with temperatures soaring to at least 34C and rain punctuating nights to add to the humidity.
He echoes a collective sentiment in counting his blessings with no volcano ash fallout for easier breathing.
Vesty will support son Karsen, a year 10 Havelock North High School student, in a 5km run before his race.
"He's a good long distance runner who's won the East Coast and Hawke's Bay champs in his age group and was fourth in New Zealand.
"It's motivating to try to be a good role model," he says, thanking wife Jess, for making countless sacrifices for his training.
Vesty has found a training buddy in Blomberg, of Sweden, who has been living here for the past nine months with wife Pernilla and their children, son Carl, 14, attending William Colenso College, and daughter Ebba, 11, at Napier Intermediate.
"He's had a super build up and he's a very good runner in clocking 2h 50m in the Hawke's Bay Marathon ... and I've been helping him with the bike so he can get up to scratch."
Vesty has enjoyed teeing off on the 45-year-old lawyer from Stockholm who had studied at Canterbury University in Christchurch about two decades ago in an exchange programme.
Erik Blomberg, 45, always had the Kona Ironman in Hawaii on his radar on the way back to "cold, dark" Stockholm, Sweden, later this year. Photo/Paul Taylor
Blomberg, who will jet off on Monday next week, says he's been putting in a lot of hours for the past two months for his maiden outing there.
"We both need time to do the actual training but we also need proper time for recovery, cooking so you need a really good environment to do that," he says, preferring to avoid "cold, dark Sweden " before Kona.
"You also don't have much of a time difference from here — only two hours with Kona — otherwise it's like 11 hours from Sweden."
Blomberg has been triathlon training for almost a decade but zeroing in on a front-pack position for five years. He is in his first year in the 45-49 category.
"That's the good thing about triathlons because every few years you become the youngest."
He has relished training with Vesty, both competing in the Ironman Taupo. He recalls hearing about "this guy from Hawke's Bay is a cyclist" and seeing him on raceday.
"He passed me on the bike and then on the run he was almost one lap ahead of me but I caught him on the run and passed him," he says with a chuckle. "After that I reached out to him to ask if we could train together."
The pair have established a kinship outside sport with their respective families.
While he's in good shape, Blomberg is aware many athletes have high expectations at Kona.
"They don't realise how hard the course is or the conditions so I'm trying to convince myself that the important thing is to just stand there on the starting line, feeling free and happy to be part of that world championship phenomenon."
