Romain Guillaume’s first full distance Ironman of the year ended in disappointment today as the Uplace-BMC athlete had to retire from the Ironman New Zealand halfway into the marathon.
To counter the loss of energy he typically suffers in Ironman races, Romain followed an optimized nutritional plan and a race strategy that focused on a move later in the bike leg. It all seemed to go according to plan, until he encountered the man with the hammer 10k into the marathon.
After the race, Romain struggled to make sense of what had happened. "I really stuck to the race strategy and my new nutritional plan. I stayed with the lead group in the swim, paced myself on the bike and made my move around 130k into the bike leg. The fact that Brown, Bozzone and Docherty passed me early in the run didn't worry me. They were just too fast. I kept my own pace, but between kilometer 10 and 12 I ran out of gas completely. I tried stopping at an aid station to eat, but it didn't make a difference. I am disappointed. This was my first full distance race of the season and I wanted to do well. Now we just need to figure out what happened and get ready for Ironman Lanzarote in 10 weeks."
Marko Albert from Estonia won the race in 8:17:33. Local favorites Cameron Brown (8:21:55) and Terenzo Bozzone (8:28:56) completed the podium. Meredith Kessler (USA; 09:08:46) won the women’s title for the third year in a row. Gina Crawford (09:15:53) and Candice Hammond (09:30:04), both from New Zealand, came in second and third.