He's Back! Terenzo Wins Ironman Western Sydney

“What a way to kick off my comeback! Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney was this past weekend in Penrith and I cannot be happier with how it all unfolded. It has been a tough five months and I have never taken my eyes off my comeback. A lot of work, patience and emotional resilience went into my rehabilitation and to come out on top at my first race back is just unbelievable. I have been so fortunate to have such phenomenal support, encouragement and love from everyone. THANK YOU!”
 
“A good swim here meant a small group formed ahead of some of the main favorites in Tim Reed and Tim Van Berkel, but Sam “Appo” Appleton (who is having a great season) was right in the mix alongside me. I really wanted to shake the guys on the bike and work on developing a lead over the 90km bike-leg. With only having two weeks of running under my belt, I knew the run had big question marks over how I would perform. I could not shake Appo, but the other three guys including Casey Munroe, who would later finish in 3rd place, were soon off the back and Appo and I pushed hard to build a 10minute lead by T2. Our bike split for the 90km was 2hrs 1min.” 
 
“In the closing kilometers of the bike-leg, Appo started to get a bloody nose and may have been concerning to him, but I know in the past when I have had two of my best races I had actually got a bloody nose. With that said, I was prepared for him to unleash absolute mayhem when we started running.”
 
“I was not expecting my legs to feel responsive on the run, but when I started seeing my km splits ticking by at around 3:30 I was very surprised. I did some 1km repeats on Thursday and I was only just able to dip under this pace. I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but I did feel comfortable and in control. At 4km mark, I started seeing signs of Appo struggling so I moved to the front and kept the pressure on. Soon the rubber banding snapped and I was opening up a good gap. Again, who knew how long this was going to last... would he get a second wind? Would I blow up? Would my achilles give me grief? I just kept doing what I could and the gap kept opening. It felt very sweet to get into the closing kilometers with a 2min buffer and breaking the tape in 1st place. Hopefully this is the start of many more exciting things to come!”
 
“I was very lucky to have my wife Kelly over here with me who has been my rock during the past 5 months and given me every opportunity to make this possible.”
 
“I’ll be making a quick trip back to NZ before jumping back over to Ironman Western Australia to maybe defend my title or maybe just get an Ironman in before the year is out. If all goes well, Ironman 70.3 Bahrain will be the following weekend to close out the season.”