KEY POINTS:
Richard Ussher savoured one of his biggest adventures at Ironman New Zealand and reckons he might develop a hunger for more.
The world class multisport athlete surpassed expectations by finishing seventh in a surprisingly strong performance here yesterday.
Widely acknowledged as the world's premier adventure racer, Ussher's Ironman debut was all the remarkable as he had just three weeks to recover from the Coast to Coast, which he won for a third time.
The Nelsonian was easily under his stated goal of nine hours yesterday, completing the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run in eight hours, 48 minutes, 10 seconds.
That was 23min behind seven-time champion Cameron Brown but placed him ahead of a multitude of more experienced Ironman athletes.
Ussher could see the bright side of his effort after coming to terms with the physical pain he had endured.
"It's such a different fatigue," he said.
"In Coast (to Coast), especially with the paddle, it's tough on your shoulders and your torso whereas this is all just hammering your legs. Definitely a learning experience.
"I'm very, very happy with how I've gone considering I didn't really do much training."
Ussher said he had now ticked a big box in his list of major events to contest and wouldn't rule out another crack.
The biggest challenge would be finding time to train and compete as adventure racing isn't lucrative so a busy calendar of racing was needed to make ends meet.
"My background is in the off-road stuff but Ironman is a huge event and you really want to test yourself against some of the best," he said.
"You always think never again but in three or four days I'm sure once my legs are feeling better I'll be ready to go for another one."
Ussher was expected to struggle in the swim yesterday but 25km worth of training in the final week saw him 41st out of the water.
He clocked the fifth-quickest cycle of the day to climb to seventh and was able to hold that with a marathon time of just over three hours.
All three legs were the longest he had ever raced in each discipline.
- NZPA
