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| Finishing on the red carpet! |
Having failed abysmally to blog about anything for the last month I wanted to put together a pre/post Ironman blog. I'll have to write about the end of July/August some other time. I have some cool pictures of my trips to North Wales and Cornwall along with my outings at the Portishead and Cotswold tris.
I'd been feeling a bit craptastic during my taper. I'd decided my taper would begin on the 1st of September giving myself 18 days to get into racing shape. One week of that was at a conference in Porto, and while the trip was great, from a work perspective, it wasn't ideal for training as it really limited what I could do. I managed a couple of short runs and attempted a 5 minute swim in the hotel pool. I managed to get back having avoided drinking and catching any germs on the plane so I have to chalk that up as a success.
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| Working hard in Porto |
The final week before Tenby and pre-race prep was going too well. Kit was all sorted, nutrition sorted, meals planned, accommodation booked. Waking up earlier all going to plan. I was feeling a little anxious but that was normal nerves. Something had to go wrong, following a clean of my bike I noticed that the bottom bracket on my bike was squeaking like it had a mouse trapped in it. Not loud and not broken, but irritating as hell for eight hours. I stripped the left crank off but couldn't get the drive side-one off to grease it up. Hmm. Don't want to break something now. I tried lots of bike shops but nothing was available but eventually managed to get Taylored cycles to look at it on Friday morning. Not what I wanted, as I wanted to be away at 9:30. In the end, it didn't get fixed, but I did get the all clear for being mechanically sound and my gears adjusted so £10 well spent.
The drive across to Tenby was slow thanks to traffic on the M4 but Elisa kept me entertained encouraging me to sing in the car. My singing is a bit like a broken clock, it's mostly just wrong, but once or twice I'm accidentally in key. I also lost the horse spotting game, I need to pay more attention. Having left around lunch we managed to make it into town just before 5pm, fortunately this gave me enough time to run round to the expo tent to get signed in. The tent was full of the usual Iron-shite i've come to expect. There was some ok looking stuff in there but with a massive price premium for the Mdot logo being plastered on it. My favourite was the "recovery flip-flops" at £40 a pair. Still my journey in the end wasn't that bad, not compared to my spectators. John and his brother Brian who were coming over from London and things were dire - even Odysseus would have been impressed. They'd been sat for hours on the M25 car-park, crawled along the M4 and just about made it into Wales. They gave up trying to make it to Tenby somewhere past Cardiff and spent the night in a hotel. As John put it "the south of the UK is fucked", I can't really argue with that.
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| Pre-race outing to Tenby |
Saturday I got my bags ready and once John and Brian had arrived we headed from the Hostel into town where Neil arrived from Southampton. I'd planned to drive the bike course, but in the end I decided it wasn't worth it. All it was going to do was make me more nervous about what was going to come and whether I'd get round in reasonable shape. We had a carby dinner back at the hostel, pasta, and risotto and ended up chatting to a few others who were staying. One guy, Phil, was there with his wife and was in his 50s and was planning to go around in 12 hours - somewhere near the top of his age catagory. He was a bit of an Ironman regular, and although this was his first time at Tenby, he had a few useful tips - and the odd cliche.
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| Good weather on the day |
The night before I managed to get some sleep, despite aiming to sleep at 8pm I just couldn't switch off and kept thinking about what would happen on the run. I've run two marathons, well almost marathons - thanks to manchester being 1/4 miles short!, and both have been utterly horrific towards the end. The first I started to die at about mile 22, my legs were starting to cramp up on the final mile but managed to just scrape under 4:00. The second, I went out in 8 minute miles feeling good and then blew up spectacularly at 15 miles running the second half in 2:10, so much for negative splits. What would happen tomorrow? Ironman marathons start ugly, what chance have I got?!?....finally I fall asleep around midnight.
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| Sunrise on the beach. |
The alarm goes off at 4:15 am. Eugh, what the hell am I doing up at this time. I managed to stagger into the kitchen and get the coffee on. Priorities! How John races without coffee amazes me. Breakfast done it was time to prep the bottles and get off to the start. After a bit of faffing with the bike I was changed into my wetsuit and had done my final preparations to get to race weight. Lots of support from everyone before I headed off down with the crowds to the swim start. I'd pushed myself up to the 1:05 pace group as the 1:00 people looked a little too serious and I wanted to take the swim easy. When you get down on the beach and look up its an amazing sight as you see the crowds on the cliffs, its like one giant amphitheatre. The weather was perfect and the sea was as calm as you could ever get. There was a sense of anticipation in the crowd and a few of the locals were clearly enjoying shouting to their friends. When the gun finally went off all I was thinking was its a swim, a bike, and a run. I've done all of these before. Just get on with it.
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| Off with the gun! |
The first lap of the swim was choppy out to the first buoy, and there was a bit of a ruck at the first turn. I managed to steer clear of the worse of it. I was taking things easy and felt like I was swimming slower than I should be, I was passing a few people but also felt like I'd lost the group I'd started with. I figured I was on for about 1:05-1:10 swim. No problem. Better to take it easy and keep energy in the bag for the rest of the race. I was shocked when I exited the water in 28 mins expecting it to be around 35. The second lap required a bit of tactical dodging of the slower swimmers doing breaststroke but I hung with the group around me. As we crossed the bay towards the lifeboat station I saw a huge jellyfish, I'm guessing these are the ones John likes. The final leg back into shore felt good and I was planning T1. First things first though - get out the water and a 1k jog to transition running past the support crew in town. My T1 was fairly slow, I really don't like all the pissing about with bags, but sure enough I was away on the bike without too much fuss. Much better than Wimbleball.
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| Run to T1 - too fast for the camera! |
The first part of the bike was flat and fast in comparison to the rest of the course. The first, big loop, goes out to Angle and through the firing range before heading back towards Carew and the hills. I was looking at my heart rate and focused on keeping it low. I felt good, really good, I wanted to go harder, but as I kept saying to myself, there is time to suffer later, keep it easy now. I felt like I was flying averaging close to 30 kmph without having to push. Neil reminds me off the filthy head-winds he had to contend with on his race, fortunately none of that for me! As we headed back East things started to get harder, with more climbing, my pace began to drop, but I wasn't suffering anywhere near the same as Wimbleball. The climbs are still to come, I knew there was still a nasty sting in the tail so not to get too complacent!
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| Away on the bike. |
My support crew had told me they would try and make it to Carew, but this depended on getting out of Tenby, back to the YHA in Manorbier and making the 10 mile bike ride. As I got a view of the castle I was expecting to see them at the spot I went when spectating John. They weren't there, ah well I'll see them at Saundersfoot, but they were waiting for me on the climb. Loads of encouragement and I was accelerating up the hill! That's not like me at all! Brilliant. Elisa lost the bet on when I'd get there and had to buy supporter ice-creams (subsidised by Neil). While the support crew were playing the "horse" game, the undulations continued for me. A big climb from the beachfront in Sumerhill was the worst of it. Plenty of shouts from the crowds who were brilliant. I made it to the top and started to stuff a gel down my face but before I knew it I was into Saundersfoot. John had told me about the crowds, but they were amazing. You slalom up the hill to begin with but then you hit the last part of the crowds and its like being in the Tour de France. People literally centimetres from your bike shouting encouragement, in fancy dress, devils, grim-reapers, all cheering you on. This has to be one of the highlights of Tenby such amazing support. I got to the top of the hill and my own personal support crew were there again. It was brilliant and another boost as I headed into the decent to Tenby. Dilly ding - dilly dong and burgers for the support crew.
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| Support crew with Elisa behind the camera at Carew |
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| Dilly-Ding-Dilly-Dong! |
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| The feeding begins - jealous of their foods. |
I think I just avoided being lapped as the quickest bike split was around 4:45. The second lap was shorter cutting off the undulating part out to Angle and heading north at Manorbier for the hilly part again. I treated myself to a chocolate bar as a reward. Even though the first lap is much bigger ~115 km of 180 km, you feel like you're only half way. I was expecting to feel a bit crap but the chocolately boost was good. I was getting pretty sick of eating energy bars by this point and I was glad for the change. Unfortunately, while I was drinking I managed to somehow get stung by a wasp/bee flying evil bastard type thing inside my top lip. How the hell did that happen? As my lip started to swell up, I was not impressed. Good thing I'm not allergic. I saw my support crew at Carew again, I managed to shout some random words about a bee that was confusing, but they gave me a cracking boost again. See them on the run! I held off thinking about the run that was to come, focusing on getting water gels and food down me. My arse and back were starting to hurt in the final hour and I was standing up a lot trying to get the feeling back into my toes. I guess that's what happens when you sit on a bike for hours. I came in at just under 7:20, meaning I'd averaged a faster pace than at Wimbleball. Perfect! I also felt fresher in a weird way. Though I'm in absolute awe of the people who got round in 5-6 hours!
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| About to climb at Summerhill. |
So the run... What would happen this was the big unknown. I took my time in T2 getting ready and left with enough gels to give me diabetes. I was running from the start and although not fast I was definitely moving. In comparison to my marathons it felt like about halfway through. This was not good, as if this was the starting point where would it end? Nothing I could do now just get on with it and keep going as long as I can. I made it through town before hitting the start of the big hill. Eugh. No way I'm going to get up this so power walk. I made it to the false flat and got running again. As you reach the hairpin to come back down the hill you're relieved to have broken the back but at this point you also realise you have to do this three more times....Crap! I picked up my first arm-band and headed back into town. I felt good on the downhill. It helps not having to haul my fat gut upwards. I did the first lap in around 1:10, a little on the slow side but I'd take that. Just try and hold onto it.
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| Start of the marathon. |
My support crew had arrived in Tenby and were cheering me on again. They made such a huge difference. Every time I saw them I was given a massive boost. In the end I don't think I'd have kept going on the run as well without them. Everyone else in town was also cheering you on and I was getting loads of "Go BADTri" now I'd swapped to club kit. I managed a few high-fives and cheers myself to the other club runners. The people in Tenby are just brilliant, its the best spectated race I've ever participated in and for me this is probably the closest I'd ever get to knowing what its like to be a proper athlete and having a huge crowd support you. I'll also admit, I was getting a bit emotional on the run for no real reason, I think Ironman can mess with your head a bit.
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| Local support! |
For the second lap I told myself. Its just a half marathon, you've run loads of these, no bother, just keep going. I did and I wasn't feeling any worse than I did at the start. That's good. The walk run was paying off. The third lap was the hardest and it was on this lap that my support crew made all the difference. I think had they not been out there watching I might have slowed down a lot more. I was also chasing down one of the BADTri-ers and at some point I must have passed him. I was tired and my feet were sore, but I wasn't feeling horrific. I could keep this going. I saw people coming in off the bike after 10:30 and was thinking they must be knackered and they've still got the run to go. Fair play to them. You need some pretty intense determination to keep going and get round in that sort of time.
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| Got to keep going! |
The final lap I knew I was almost there. I was half expecting this lap to be the one I blew up. My stomach was starting to let me know it wasn't happy. I'd tried to eat a few mouthfuls of tortilla chips in the aid station to get something salty, but my mouth was dry and they were hard to get down. I swapped to coke and water on the final lap not able to stomach any more gels. I got to the top of the hill and picked up the final band! I was so happy to get this, I knew at this point I was going to get round and well under 14 hours - Brilliant! But I looked at my watch and knew if I could run hard to the finish I might make it sub 13:30. One last push. Now is the time to go hard. As I ran down the hill and past the 24 mile marker I was overtaking so many people. This never happens! My stomach was complaining and I was just thinking, don't vomit, not now, just get to the end!
I ran through town at a good pace, it felt like this was the fastest I'd run all day. I don't remember much of the finish line, or the red carpet, I don't know if they shouted "You are an Ironman" but I don't care! I was just so happy I'd finished!! 13:26! Well under 14 hours and I didn't destroy myself on the run. I think I paced it perfectly for a conservative race which is exactly what I wanted. Yes there might be scope for going faster, (there's always next time :D ) but the biggest thing for me was that I held it together, consistently, through the run. That in itself is a massive achievement for me.
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| Finish line! |
I can't finish without saying again how grateful I am to everyone who came to watch me race. It made such a huge difference having them there cheering. I really appreciated it. It gave me such a boost and I think that's what made it such a great race. Elisa was the "official photographer" so I have her to thank for loads of cool pictures I have here.
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| Post race yawns. |
The big question now is what next :)
SWIM DETAILS | Division Rank: 38
| Split Name | Distance | Split Time | Race Time | Pace | Division Rank | Gender Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 3.9 km | 00:58:39 | 00:58:39 | 01:31/100m | 38 | 207 | 228 |
BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 147
| Split Name | Distance | Split Time | Race Time | Pace | Division Rank | Gender Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 180.2 km | 07:19:17 | 08:31:09 | 24.62 kph | 147 | 913 | 983 |
RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 143
| Split Name | Distance | Split Time | Race Time | Pace | Division Rank | Gender Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 42.2 km | 04:46:39 | 13:26:25 | 06:47/km | 143 | 836 | 904 |
Transition Details
| T1: Swim-to-bike | 00:13:13 |
| T2: Bike-to-run | 00:08:37 |
