If you’d told Alexandra “Lana” Bartlett 10 years ago that she’d spend a gruelling 18 hours running, swimming and cycling in a world-first event, she’d have laughed you out the door.
She hated long-distance running, had never owned a bike and didn’t even really know how to swim properly. But in December last year, the 51-year-old competed in the world’s first indigenous full-distance triathlon event, the IronMāori TOA.
She completed a 3.8km ocean swim, 180km cycle and a 42.2km run (the distance of a full marathon) in 17 hours and 56 minutes.
“You want to give up when you’re out there that long,” she admits. “I didn’t do it in the 17 hours – I was waiting for someone to come and pull me off the course, but they let us go for some reason. Coming to the finish line was very, very emotional. I just burst into tears.”
It wasn’t just the emotion of completing such a feat, but Lana had also run the race in honour of her sister Lynne, who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2021.
Lana’s inspiration: sister Lynne competing before she passed away.
On top of that, it’s no over-exaggeration to say that IronMāori both changed and saved Lana’s life.
Born and raised in Hawke’s Bay, Lana comes from a prestigious touch rugby whānau and the sport was her absolute passion until, in 2011, she tore her Achilles so badly, she got the devastating news she couldn’t play any more.
“It was heartbreaking,” she recalls. “I went into depression and didn’t know what I was going to do. I couldn’t find anything else that interested me.”
That was, until she discovered IronMāori. At first, Lana was skeptical, if for no other reason than “I didn’t even know Māori did triathlons”!
But in 2013, she went to her first event to support two of her siblings, Verdon and Vanessa, who were participating, and she was immediately won over by the “electric” atmosphere.
“There was so much support and aroha for the competitors, and I was blown away,” she enthuses. “I was thinking, if my siblings – who have their own health issues – can do it and I’m younger than them, then I might just give it a try.”
Her brother Verdon has a condition in his leg, which is so severe that he even faced amputation at one point, and is now largely restricted to cycling and swimming. Her sister Vanessa has a heart condition and also suffers from seizures, yet both of them pushed on regardless.
Lana’s inspiration and sister Vanessa.
“I thought, ‘There’s really nothing wrong with me other than I tore my Achilles. I can still walk and run, and there’s nothing stopping me from doing this other than myself.'”
So she did. The following year, Lana started entering events and she’s since done an impressive 13 IronMāori events, with no plans of slowing down.
Triathlons have had such an impact on her life that Lana, who is of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngaāti Porou descent, now wants to spread the word to others.
Lana works at the environmental and Māori community development unit at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, and before that was at the Hawke’s Bay DHB in Māori Health Services for 22 years. She likens it to going from being the “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” to being in a position to “engage our people before it gets to that point”. That’s where initiatives like IronMāori come in.
Knowing how heart disease and diabetes disproportionately affect our indigenous population, Lana quickly recognised IronMāori’s whānau-first approach as an effective way to address those things.
“If I could get one person – or better yet, a handful of our people – to just try IronMa¯ori and come see what it’s like, and believe in themselves and to feel good about themselves again, I’d be stoked.”
If anyone knows how hard it is to do something new, it’s Lana – she had to learn to swim in her late thirties in order to compete. But her advice is simple: “Don’t sell yourself short.”
She’s seen first-hand the beneficial effects IronMāori can have and has even brought her loved ones on board.
One year, 11 family members participated at her side and even her grandkids have done an IronMāori Tamariki event.
“When I wasn’t healthy, there weren’t many things in life that I felt good about,” tells Lana. “But when I started my IronMāori journey, because I started to feel good about myself, proud of myself and love myself again, everything changed.
Lana and her mokopuna crossing the finish line.
“My grandkids are very sporty and I want to make sure they pass that on to their kids – that Māori were a strong and healthy people. We need to go back to how we used to be. I also wanted them to see
that yep, things will be hard sometimes, but you can’t let it rule your life. You’ve gotta get up, get out there and do things that make you feel good about yourself and bring you happiness. That’s what IronMāori brought me – happiness.”
