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Ironman New Zealand celebrates its 25th anniversary in a fortnight. Michael Brown looks back to where it all started.
Minutes after completing her first victory, Erin Baker could be found necking a beer and chomping down an ice-cream.
"Bet Scott Tinley didn't eat this stuff," she quipped at the time in reference to the winner of the 1986 men's race.
Baker was a different kind of athlete but she was also in a different class. She won four Ironman New Zealand titles and nine in all, including twice at Hawaii, as well as 104 of the 121 triathlons in which she competed. The crazy thing was Baker could have been so much more successful and richer.
She was opposed to Apartheid in South Africa and refused to race against South Africans unless they were prepared to dissociate themselves from their government's policies. She withdrew from others because of unequal prizemoney for men and women. She also copped a conviction for protesting during the 1981 Springbok tour, which prevented her from racing on the lucrative US circuit for many years.
A former swimmer and runner, Baker stumbled across the sport in 1985 when living in Australia but had little idea how to prepare for it.
"I knew there was a 180km bike, so I would do two of them each week in training, and there was a marathon run, so I would do that each week," Baker said. "I knew nothing better."
What she discovered, however, was a natural talent for ironman. She won her first event by 40 minutes and returned to Christchurch to team up with well-respected coach John Hellemans.
It still didn't mean she saw Ironman New Zealand as a natural event to contest, even though it was in her own backyard.
"Honestly, over the years, I never fell in love with ironman [but] it was my profession. At that time, to me it made no difference that it was in New Zealand. I did it because I had a good chance of doing well."
She did so well, she was in a league of her own and won it all four times she entered (1986, 1987, 1990 and 1994). In 1986, she even finished an impressive 11th overall.
No wonder she treated herself to a beer and ice-cream.
