IMUK Race Report
A brief summary of my day yesterday for those interested.
Swim: 1:32:29
Tried to seed myself in the 1hr20 group but couldn’t get further forward in the queue than the 1hr30 group. Ended up stood next to Rick Turner so had a good chat before-hand to help reduce any pre-race nerves. Kept myself quite wide for the whole first loop to avoid the crowds, realised this was a bit of a mistake when running through the Aussie exit to see almost 45 mins on my watch. Probably touched every buoy on the 2nd loop I was that tight to them. Fatigue obviously kicking in slightly a bit as another 45min swim for loop 2 also.
Bike: 7:05:42
T1 no major dramas, apart from being crowded at the benches – one of the pitfalls of exiting the water amongst the masses. Onto the bike and away we go. Went to take a sip from my hydration system and realised I’d bloody forgotten to fill up my torpedo bottle in between my aero bars with my carb mix! Had to fill it quickly with my reserve bottle but effectively meant I was a bottle down and had to stop and use my personal needs bottles a lap early. Nutrition strategy well and truly messed up early into the ride. Had to top up with Gatorade from the aid stations in the last lap. Apart from that, the bike route was as expected, hilly, windy, with some decent flat and downhill sections also. The eastern section of the route is definitely the more challenging.
Run: 4:46:36
T2 I felt like a broken man. Dismounted my bike and as soon as my right foot touched the ground a shooting pain was felt on the outside edge. I must have fastened my shoe too tight in T1 and after 7hrs of bike with over 9000ft of elevation the outside edge of my foot had definitely been under a lot of pressure. Couldn’t even run from my bike to the bag tent. Had a word with myself. Put my trainers on and started running. Pain in foot getting worse then all that Gatorade needed to leave my body! Stopped at the first portaloo I could find and all of a sudden my first km on the marathon has taken me 9mins. What followed was almost 5hrs of the most stereotypical IronMan Marathon shuffle/death march mixing it up between slow ”jog” and walking every aid station. I almost quit at the half marathon stage. I probably would have done if it wasn’t for Rachel Orton telling me that I’d have to do everything again to get my medal the next time, “you can’t quit with 21k to go!” Some dark places were visited during that marathon.
Amazingly I made it to the finish line in 13hrs 40mins. That feeling of getting to turn right from the run route rather than head left for another loop is something I won’t forget in a hurry.
The support on the sidelines from the TP’ers on the route was invaluable. Annie, Mark, Rachel, Dave, Anita, Jamie, Trevor. Any words of encouragement were definitely well received. Thanks to you all and for the photos you’ve all sent.
Onto the next one now!
