Kiwi Pro Gina Crawford had quite a bit going on in the last year but not much evolved around triathlon. Crawford gave birth to a baby boy a couple months ago and her world was shaken by the Christchurch earthquakes. Kiwi freelance writer Naomi F had a few words with the new mum.

Slowtwitch: So how is it being a new mum?

Gina: It’s great! Benji is 8 weeks old and keeping me really busy – you definitely have to be organized and flexible. But it is such a great time – he’s changing so quickly. Right now he has heaps of spiky hair that sticks straight up and he’s always smiling.

ST: I hear you have been back out training again already?

Gina: Yeah Brett (husband) is working on the house doing renovations so he’s been able to watch Benji so I can train for a couple of hours a day. It’s the only reason I can fit it in – if he wasn’t at home working I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

ST: Now last we saw you racing was at Kona – did you know you were pregnant at the time?

Gina: No – we’re not sure if I was but it was certainly a real chance, it would have been very, very early on. I overheated on the bike. When I got back to transition I spent 30mins covered in wet towels trying to cool down before I headed out onto the run. After 10km I had to stop, which is just as well because maybe Benji wouldn’t be here! I think doing IM Wisconsin 4 weeks before hand and then travelling straight to Hawaii to train in the heat just took too much out of me.

ST: So is Kona on the cards again?

Gina: My goal right now is just to get back racing. I’ll be choosing races close to home to start with because I can’t travel too much with Benji, but I just really want to get back racing because I have missed it. I won’t be aiming for Kona in my first year back because with the new points system for qualifying I can’t travel the world chasing races with high points.

ST: But this year has been pretty challenging for other reasons – you lived in Christchurch when the big quake hit?

Gina: Yeah that was pretty scary – the house was moving so much and Brett could see out the window and the other houses where literally jumping nearly a meter up in the air.

ST: Did your house suffer any major damage?

Gina: No just minor damage of cracks in walls, ceiling etc. Our street with about 30 houses was fine but all around us we were surrounded by liquefaction where the land just turned to liquid and then resettled, many of those houses had huge damage and there were cars and buses down liquefaction holes. These people are still waiting to find out if they are able to rebuild their homes, or if the suburb will be abandoned. One of our neighbors, who has lived in the street since the house was built, told us we were built on a natural sand dune while everyone around us was built on swampy land, so we were extremely lucky.

ST: How did your friends and family in the area get through? All safe we hope.

Gina: My Mum and Dad just had minor damage and liquefaction in the street, which has been cleared up, they were also lucky. My brother and his fiancée were in the Christchurch quake and then 2 days later they left for their new jobs in Japan, then they had to have the Japan quakes and tsunami too.

ST: Word has it you spent a month in your tent after?

Gina: Yeah after the quake we just didn’t feel safe in the house, and with constant aftershocks all night we wanted to get some sleep, so we camped in the garden for two weeks, and then after that we tripped around camping for a break away. It’s really hard on your nerves because every quake starts the same so you’re not sure if it is going to be a big one or not. And the houses have all weakened and rattle a lot more. A truck goes past and the house shakes like it’s a quake.

ST: Now you have shifted to the North Island?

Gina: We had actually put our house on the market four days prior to the quake. The real estate agent wanted to do an open home after it had only been on the internet one day and we actually got 20 groups through and two offers. After the quake one of the parties still wanted to go through with the offer.

ST: That must have been a huge relief?

Gina: Yes it was but because the earthquake was so bad, we had to get the house checked by an engineer for the insurance and a new valuation to make sure it was still structurally sound and worth the same money. That was a really stressful time but thankfully it all went through.

ST: And now you live on a lifestyle block in Tararua, in the Central North Island. Were you trying to get as far away from Christchurch as possible?

Gina: Ha actually no – we had been reading about lifestyle blocks and had actually already planted a huge vegetable garden on our 600m section, and also a few chickens. But when we looked at buying a lifestyle block this was the only place we could afford one. We have four acres, which we share with 11 chickens and our 2 dogs. We wanted some lambs but the lamb price is so good we can’t afford to buy any just now!

ST: It seems to me that every time I drive through that area it’s raining!

Gina: It does seem to rain a lot – we really don’t like the weather here. But we’re not planning on staying here long term, as we are quite homesick. This will be the third property we’ve done up and sold. It’s a lot more work than we imagined and with a new baby we would prefer to have less work and more time!

ST: And of course at the end of all this you still had a birth to get through – how did it go?

Gina: Well it didn’t go anything like I expected! I was in labor for 48 hours before they did an emergency c-section. I had wanted to have a totally natural birth but his head was really big and in a bad position that he just couldn’t seem to move it from, so they had to intervene. He was 8 pounds 7 ounces and his head was in the 98th percentile, and I’m not exactly big.

ST: You’d think being so fit and used to enduring pain through ironman racing that it would have been easier!

Gina: Ironman is NOTHING compared to labor! I did everything they said to make the birth easier like relaxation/breathing techniques and drinking raspberry leaf tea but that obviously didn’t work! Honestly after that nothing will seem painful. It was really hard on Brett to see me going through it. I was yelling at him to just kill me! Poor Brett!

ST: And you were actually training the whole way through, around 15 hours a week!

Gina: Oh it wasn’t training – just exercise. I stopped running after 4 months and walked about an hour a day. I swam right through and I was also riding my bike on the wind trainer for an hour most days. I was doing about 2 ½ hours a day.

ST: So how do you feel now?

Gina: I feel really good actually – I feel fit and well, but just not quite as strong.

ST: What’s on the race card then?

Gina: My aim is to race Challenge Wanaka in January 2012. It will be 6 months since Benji was born. But I’m not aiming to win, I just want to get back to racing as I have missed it so much. I can’t train too hard because I will still be breastfeeding and having the bike endurance will be the toughest challenge for me. Challenge Wanaka is my favorite race and I love the course, plus all my family can be there. My aim is to be back to my pre pregnancy form by June 2012.

Good luck with your training and we look forward to seeing you back racing!
You can follow her progress on twitter (@gina_crawford) and on facebook.