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HäkinakinaMass start IronMäori 2011Tängata MaitaiIronMäori winner two years running Kevin Nicholson.PHOTO CREDIT: HAWKES BAY TODAY.A hauora initiative, which began toencourage people to adopt healthierlifestyles and to establish goals towardsthat, has morphed into a huge one-dayevent in Hawkes Bay.Iron Mäori – where people swimtwo kilometres, cycle 90kms and run21.1kms – was established in 2009 andattracted fewer than 300 participants.That number doubled in 2010 and on 3December last year 1550 people tookpart in Iron Mäori number three.While the event itself is important,and a huge crowd of supporters andparticipants gather at the start/finishline at Ahuriri in Napier, the goalsetting and the preparation is wherethe real work is done.Organiser Heather Skipworth talks aboutpeople turning round their lives whiletraining for the event, and achievingmajor health gains along the way.“Two of the men who took part weighedover 200-kilogrammes before theyentered. One of them Harley Thompsonweighed 240kgs and in the course ofhis training and adopting a healthierlifestyle he dropped to 170kgs.”“Of the 1550 people who took part,only a handful didn’t complete theirevent. Those who did now know that ifthey set goals and achieve their aims,they can take on anything. They canapply this to anything in life.”The overall winner of Iron Mäori 2011was Kevin Nicholson who hails fromWairoa but lives in Wellington. He wonin 2010 too. Kevin’s winning time wasfour hours and forty-four minutes.The first woman home was AliHollington from Hawkes Bay and hertime was within ten minutes of Kevin’s.Race Director Jeanette Cooper wasparticularly impressed with the effortsof Agnes Allen from Kaitaia.“She came from a position of completeinactivity prior to training for IronMäori and competing in all threeevents; the swim, bike ride and run.”“It took her 12-hours 32-minutes and54-seconds to finish.”“We had packed up and most peoplehad gone off to the prize-giving whenshe was coming in to the finish, but shekept going because she really wanted toget her finishing medal; and she did.”42T E P U N I K ö K I R I | K ö K I R I | H u i - t a n g u r u — P o u t ü - t e - r a n g i 2 0 1 2