Tim's Le Race 2007 Site

Kelvin after the first leg

Tim coming up to the finish line

Le Race Website

Google Earth File (kml) of the race (Google Earth required to view)

******** UPDATE - Race Completed ********

Kelvin and I successfully completed Le Race in a time of 4:17:20. This placed us 44th out of 97 teams. The fastest individual was 2:48:07.

For the full results see the Le Race website - Our team number was 2005. Our team name "The Big Bad Wolves". Our team is also under "Kevin Morton" not Tim Brown.

We were pretty happy with the result. It was a very hot day - about 20°C at the start (8am) and close to 30° at the end. I was hoping to do under 2 hours for my leg but think the heat may have been a factor as I took a long time to cool down and a lot of hydrating after the race before I felt like normal. A lot of people were cramping up on the hills.

Kelvin managed to get through the first leg without incident although did have the masses to dodge at the start line and the odd crazy person in the bunch ride. Our transition was pretty quick with Kelvin arriving ahead of a lot of the other teams. The ride up to hill top went well and the ride across the summit road was going to plan until a spoke broke on my back wheel about 20km from the end as I was straining up one of the hills. A quick repair job and loosening of the brakes as the wheel was now slightly buckled and rubbing on the brakes resolved the problem. About 7km later another spoke broke on the back wheel. Again it could be bent out of the way - the wheel still seem to turn OK although was still rubbing on the brakes. This does not help when you are struggling uphill. About this stage I was wondering whether I would have to carry my bike over the line. I managed to get to the top of long bays road and just had to hope my wheel did not fold up on my on the fast ride down to the finish (about 65km/h). Thankfully the wheel held together and I made it to the finish without further drama.

We did GPS the course (being GPS geeks we couldn't help ourselves). I'll post a Google Earth track when I have a chance to compile the data.

Photos of the race will also be posted on the Le Race website in due course.

Thanks for everyones support.

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18 months ago Liz and I decided we had spent too much time sitting on our butts. It was time to start eating sensibly and getting some exercise. Together we have managed stop the waistline getting bigger and reversed the trend.

I like a challenge and to keep me motivated with the exercise and eating thing I have entered Le Race in a team of two with Kelvin. Our team is named "The Big Bad Wolves" - we are expecting to do a lot of huffing and puffing. This race goes from Christchurch to Akaroa - the hard way. See http://www.lerace.co.nz for details of the hills. Since I'm not really a road cyclist and have never cycled in a bunch it is going to be an interesting experience.

Liz has kindly volunteered to be the support crew and will double as a cycling training buddy.

Anyway since a large part of doing Le Race is to stop myself from having a heart attack before I turned 40 - which is pretty much where I was heading - I thought I might see if I could raise some money for the heart foundation in the process.

The following is a bit of information from the heart foundation:

Each day 16 New Zealanders die as a result of coronary heart disease. That’s one person every 90 minutes. And many of these deaths are premature and preventable.

The nature of who is affected by it is changing. New research shows that young adults in their 20s and 30s are being admitted to hospital for heart attacks than ever before, and that this age group is dying at a faster rate than people of the same age in previous generations. Much of this change is due to unhealthy lifestyles - poor eating habits, lack of physical activity and being a smoker.

But the good news is that many risk factors for heart disease are preventable, if people make healthy lifestyle choices.

I’ve signed up as a Heart Racer to raise money to support The National Heart Foundation of New Zealand. By donating through my webpage you will be helping the Heart Foundation continue its vital work in research, cardiac rehabilitation, education programmes and resources.

Select the "Make a donation" button below. It’s simple, fast and totally secure and the money goes directly to the Heart Foundation’s bank account.

If you live in New Zealand your donation is tax deductible and a receipt will be issued.

Many thanks for your support