Hi, my name is Rod Allan. Given you’ve clicked on this tab I’m assuming you’re probably wanting to know a bit more about who I am, what makes me tick, and how I got here? Read on!
The Beginning
The exercise and fitness dream began from my younger years playing rugby, which took me overseas to Scotland and Canada. After enjoying some down-time in NZ following my return from Canada, I was somewhat ‘weight challenged’. At the time, my brother was into multi-sport and encouraged me to get fit again. I ended up crewing for him at the Coast to Coast in early 2003 and I remember him saying afterwards “you’ll do that one day”. My response was straight from the old Tui billboard from back in the day - “Yeah right!”.
But sure enough, the next year I competed in the teams category in what is a fantastic event. I was doing a fair bit of cycling post C2C, when one day a work colleague said to me “why don’t you throw in a swim and a run to mix up your training?” I gave that a go, and the triathlon dream was born. I started with the shorter distance Panasonic Tri series races, then did a few Half Ironman events, which really tested my limits and showed me how far the body can be pushed…
Inspiration
It was while I was sitting in the sun, drinking coffee (then beer) and supporting my brother and a few of his mates doing Ironman NZ 2006, I thought to myself "geez that doesn't look too hard!" So I ended up with a coach and competed in Ironman NZ 2007. It was a whole combo of emotions - fantastic, brutal, rewarding, painful but above all, it was a hugely inspirational day, seeing people of all ages, sizes, nationalities and abilities compete in such an epic event!
I then went through a rough time when my father passed away in July of that year, which devastated the family. I said to him I would do Ironman NZ 2008 in his memory. That challenge became much harder when I was hit by a car and broke my collarbone in late November. Everyone said that dad would have understood me not doing the event as a result of my injury, but I had made a promise at his bedside which I fully intended to keep. About 4 weeks after the accident, I was out with my coach being The Waterboy for other people in our group who were on a training ride. I wasn’t talking a lot, feeling sorry for myself in a sling, and my coach looked at me and said, “you’re gonna do it aren’t you?” I knew with his help I could, so right there and then, we mapped out a plan which involved a very intensive (but smart) block of training…
Achieving Goals
Longer story short, I finished Ironman NZ in 2008 with dad inspiring me the whole way. I knew he was looking down cheering me on, and it really made me believe that the mind is an amazingly powerful thing when you have the right motivation to do something, and really taught me that you never know your limits until you are pushed to the extreme. Fast forward to today after a few more events, and Ironman again in ’09 and ‘13, and the desire to help like minded people began to really play on my mind.
For me, there is huge reward in seeing people achieve their goals and the road they took to get there. Whether it be a 15 min walk geared towards a 5km walking/running event, your first half marathon or first Sprint triathlon, it motivates me to be a part of your journey. A lot of people I come across say things like “I’m only doing the 10km on Auckland Marathon day”. My response is that ANY distance is a massive achievement, if the journey to get there is totally foreign.
The Beginning
The exercise and fitness dream began from my younger years playing rugby, which took me overseas to Scotland and Canada. After enjoying some down-time in NZ following my return from Canada, I was somewhat ‘weight challenged’. At the time, my brother was into multi-sport and encouraged me to get fit again. I ended up crewing for him at the Coast to Coast in early 2003 and I remember him saying afterwards “you’ll do that one day”. My response was straight from the old Tui billboards - “yeah right”.
But sure enough, the next year I competed in the teams category in what is a fantastic event. I was doing a fair bit of cycling post C2C, when one day a work colleague said to me “why don’t you throw in a swim and a run to mix up your training?” I gave that a go, and the triathlon dream was born. I started with the shorter distance Panasonic Tri series races, then did a few Half Ironman events, which really tested my limits and showed me how far the body can be pushed.
Inspiration
It was while I was sitting in the sun, drinking coffee (then beer) and supporting my brother and a few of his mates doing Ironman NZ 2006, I thought to myself "geez that doesn't look toooooo hard!" So I ended up with a coach and competed in Ironman NZ 2007. It was a whole combo of emotions - fantastic, brutal, rewarding, painful but above all, it was a hugely inspirational day, seeing people of all ages, sizes, nationalities and abilities compete in such an epic event! I then went through a rough time when my father passed away in July of that year, which devastated the family. I said to him I would do Ironman NZ 2008 in his memory.
That challenge became much harder when I was hit by a car and badly broke my collarbone in late November. Everyone said that dad would have understood me not doing the event as a result of my injury, but I had made a promise at his bedside which I fully intended to keep. About 4 weeks after the accident, I recall I was out with my coach being The Waterboy for other people in our group who were on a training ride. I wasn’t talking a lot, feeling sorry for myself in a sling, and my coach looked at me and said, “you’re gonna do it aren’t you?” I knew with his help I could, so right there and then, we mapped out a plan which involved a very intensive (but smart) block of training.
Achievements
Longer story short, I finished Ironman NZ in 2008 with dad inspiring me the whole way. I knew he was looking down cheering me on, and it really made me believe that the mind is an amazingly powerful thing when you have the right motivation do something, and really taught me that you never know your limits until you are pushed to the extreme. Fast forward to today after a few more events, and Ironman again in ’09 and ‘13, and the desire to help like minded people began to really play on my mind, hence this website!
For me, there is huge reward in seeing people achieve their goals and the road they took to get there. Whether it be a 15 min walk geared towards a 5km walking/running event, your first half marathon or first Sprint triathlon, it motivates me to be a part of your journey. A lot of people I come across say things like “I’m only doing the 10km on Auckland Marathon day”. My response is that ANY distance is a massive achievement, if the journey to get there is totally foreign