Well I just finished one of the most interesting and challenging races I have done in the world. The Zarautz International Half Ironman turned out to be one tough race. On a day where we started at 3 p.m.!! That's right, 3p.m. I still find it hard to believe, but that's Spain.

Prior to the race, I spent a week at the New Zealand Triathlon base camp for 1 week in the south of France. The weather was great, every day bringing blue skies and temperatures in the high 20's. Late June/July can bring the mercury into the 40's! Base camp is situated in the small village of Belveze du Raze, about an hour south of Toulouse (the home of Airbus) and five hours drive from Zarautz.

It's a fantastic area for cycling, probably the best I've ever seen. It's amazing how many roads there are, you could go on a new ride every single day. Only 40 km away are the Pyrenees mountains with some of the great Tour de France classic stages close by. Hopefully I'll get too do a few of these over the next few weeks as I lead up to Ironman Germany, the European Ironman Championships.

I was hoping to feel a little better at the race, after having a head cold. My last week in New Zealand was pretty tough, saying good bye to my wife and two boys for eight weeks and the day before flying out we had to put to sleep our dearest dog Levi (our Rhodesian ridgeback). His 11 years (100-plus in doggie years) had caught up with him.

I knew the Zarautz half would be tough with local stars, Felix Martinez and Eneko and Hector Llanos, showing me the way. On race day in Zarautz, I was sweating just sitting around waiting for the mid-afternoon start. Temperatures were hitting 33C by the time we hit the water. The great thing was that the water temperature was around 18C which provided a welcome relief. I had a good start, but by the mid-way stage of the 2.5 km swim, the athlete in front of me had lost the toes of the front group and by the time I came around the group had made its decisive break. I finished the swim about 1:30 min behind the leader and in about sixth position.

Zarautz is a holiday destination and there were thousands of people on the beach watching the race unfold. Once on the bike the easy part of the race was over. The 84 km bike was one of the toughest (or perhaps the toughest) I have ever done. The first part included 2 x 30 km loops each with a 4 km climb. The rest was all up and down. I managed to catch Eneko Llannos (Xterra world Champion) and Francisco Pontano (ninth place at Hawaii Ironman 2005) and quickly gapped them to be 40 seconds down on swim leader Fernando Saiz.

That's where things quickly went wrong. My leading motorbike took me off course and then my gear selection had the better of me. I was using a 39 x 23 gearing but I should have had a 39 x 27 as I was about to go up one of the toughest climbs I have ever done, gradients of 20% were placed at the 65 km mark and with a climb of 5 km my 1 min lead on Llannos and Pontano evaporated in only a few kilometers. I managed to pretty much blow my legs apart and I could only try and hang on to the finish of the bike.

I exited transition in fourth place, 1:50min behind the leading three. Somehow I still managed the fastest bike split, by just one second. The run was quite spectacular. The first 10 km (out and back) followed the coast line of Zarautz and then we had two laps around the city streets. Most of the spectators were ending their time at the beach to come and watch the triathlon so in some places it felt like you were running between thousands of people. I had managed to close the gap slightly on the leaders and picked up Saiz with 5 km to go, but poor gear selection on the bike had cost me any chance of being in contention for the win. At least I know what to expect next time I turn up, I'll be bringing the easiest gear I have!!!

I'm nearly back to my normal self (after a head cold), but still need a few more days to see me at 100%. Things are going well for the European Ironman Championships (Ironman Germany) in six weeks' time. This is my last race until then so it will be head down training my arse off until 23 July. You'll hear from me from my base camp in Limoux, France in a few weeks time to let you know how it's all going.

Take care Cameron Brown

Zarautz Internation Half Ironman, Zarautz, Spain. Temp:33c.
2.5km Swim, 84km bike, 20km run

1st Eneko Llanos 3:59:46 Spain
2nd Francisco Pontano 3:59:50 Portugal
3rd Cameron Brown 4:02:27 NZ
4th Fernando Saiz 4:03:16 Spain
5th Hektor Llanos 4:08:41 pain