Ian’s Journey to Ironman World Champs 2023, Nice, France

Thank you everyone for your support and comments throughout this race week. It all meant a lot to my whanau and I.
Kelly you have done an amazing job in communicating to everyone in updates and live stream videos. Thank you for your love and support in what has been a very busy week for you in behind the scenes as well as the log organising the logistics of this whole trip ❤
Thank you to the amazing support crew here representing on the day in your supporters t shirts. Amazing support for what would have been a very long day out from 4am - 12am ❤
The whole journey to get here from start of training 24 weeks ago has been challenging at times due to the weather and the cold back in NZ. To come here a week before the race to try and aclimatise and then race in hot conditions was a totally new experience. It was awesome to push the boundaries of the body. End of the day we did it and accomplished our goal!!
This is our last day in Nice. We are sad to leave tommoro but what an epic week has been. We are off to Paris tommoro for a few days then fly to Kelly's home town of Bristol for a week to visit family then fly back to NZ to arrive back on the 23rd.
Its great to be switching to holiday mode now to enjoy some whanau time.
Look forward to catching up with yous when we can.
Arohanui whanau and friends ❤❤❤

Ian’s just getting into bed. 2 ice creams and 2 ice blocks down so far 😂. Thanks for all of your support from far and wide. Ian felt your support and love throughout and we know many of u would of been here cheering if you could of been. We love you and thanks for being part of this epic journey!

4km to go! Woop woop!

Waiting for the start!

Its race day whanau! Were on our way into town. Just had notification that water temp is 24.8 degrees so wetsuits are not permitted. Ian not to worried. He’s been swimming with no wetsuit this week as water so warm. The sea gives u a lot of buoyancy. He’s got this!

Saturday was bike check in and drop bag drop off! Sue asked Ian how nervous he was out of ten? He replied “10”!.

Tomorrow, a new IRONMAN World Champion will be crowned at the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship, Nice 🏆

Catch it LIVE on IRONMAN.com/live from 5am CET.

Friday was a bit of a rest and recharge day. We spent the day at the pool and Ian did a 20 min run to get the legs going. Last night Ian, Te Aroha and Ivy-Rose and Kelly went to the athletes welcome dinner and the rest of the whanau went to the pizzeria up the road. We won’t mention the All blacks game 🙈