Multi-sporters (from left) Jan-Maree Brown, Mike Ball, Nathamian Taru and Lisa Horn are preparing to represent New Zealand.
Multi-sporters (from left) Jan-Maree Brown, Mike Ball, Nathamian Taru and Lisa Horn are preparing to represent New Zealand.
Training for multi-sport endurance events can be a lonely endeavour, but a group of Levin athletes chosen to represent New Zealand are fast becoming friends through their chosen sport.
Nathamian Taru, Lisa Horn, Jan-Maree Brown and Mike Ball are busy training and preparing for different events over the world, all representing their country in their age category and donning the Silver Fern.
Despite all having their own thing going on, their paths keep crossing. It might be a friendly nod while running or cycling on a lonely rural road, or a wave while doing lengths at the pool.
They’re all on a first-name basis now. It’s like a secret society. They are all conscious of just how much effort each other is putting in. There’s a mutual respect.
It takes commitment and courage to train and compete in long-distance multi-sport events such as triathlons and Ironmans. You have to devote hour upon hour to train and prepare. There are no shortcuts.
Since then, triathlons have taken the 66-year-old retired retailer all over the world.
Jan-Maree Brown
Brown has also competed in four Coast to Coast multi-sport events - twice as an individual and twice in a team - and did her first Ironman in 2007 when she was 48.
Now she has done 12 full Ironman events and 21 half-Ironmans. She has represented NZ on six occasions in places like Germany, Spain and China, winning gold in Spain in 2012.
Brown will again represent New Zealand in her age division at the Half-Ironman World Champs, a 1.9km swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km run, in Taupō in December.
She admitted to “losing her mojo” during the Covid-19 pandemic when events were cancelled but was now well and truly back on the horse. She knows the drill and likes to prepare well.
“If you don’t do the training, you don’t recover as well and you don’t perform as well,” she said.
“I’m not fast. I’m just consistent.”
Lisa Horn
What started with a dabble has turned into a passion for the owner of the MyRide bike shop in Levin.
The 49-year-old got a taste of multi-sport when competing in the Kāpiti women’s triathlon a few years ago and steadily built up her fitness to compete in Ironman events.
Horn has now taken it a step further, representing New Zealand at the Xterra World Championship off-road triathlon at Lake Molveno, Italy, in September.
The event consists of a 1.5km swim, a 32km uphill mountain bike ride and a 10km uphill offroad run.
“It’s empowering. You push through barriers to get to where you want to go to achieve your goals,” she said.
”It’s my life right now. It’s given me life. There’s something about it. I would love to see more people get into it, especially women.”
Mike Ball
The 61-year-old plasterer had competed in four Coast to Coast events in the past but didn’t think of competing in triathlons until 2015 when he saw on television a friend competing in a Taupō triathlon.
He was inspired to give it a go. But there was one problem. He would have to teach himself to swim. So he did.
“I didn’t learn to swim until I was 52,” he said.
Mike Ball
Six months later he competed in his first half-Ironman event and in 2016 completed his first full Ironman - 2.4km swim, 180km bike and 42.2 run.
Recently he finished 15th in his age division at an Ironman event in Cairns.
Ball will represent New Zealand in the 60-64 age group at the Ironman World Champs at Kona in Hawaii in October. He contested the same event last year when it was held in Nice, France.
The 50-year-old educator said he got into the sport while working as a PE teacher.
“The kids were doing it so I wanted to do it too. I got the bug,” he said.
Taru said fitness levels he hadn’t felt since working on a milk run in his early teens started to return, and he began to enjoy the buzz of training.
Nathamian Taru
“That’s what I like about it. You get to the start line and you’ve either done the work or you haven’t,” he said.
“And I like the wellbeing aspect of it and what it does for your mental health, too. It builds discipline and confidence and you are around like-minded people. I love the kaupapa.”
Taru will compete in a long-distance triathlon - a 3km swim, 120km bike and 30km run - in the 50-54 age division in Townsville next month. It will double as a family holiday.
