Race Report - Ironman Austria June 2008
I'd painstakingly stuck to the training plan for the past 6 months, 10 sessions a week, 6 days a week. It practically ruled my life. If I had to miss a session I got the "hump" thinking I wouldn't get as fit as I needed to be. It seems hard to believe that the first few weeks of training were either week day turbo sessions in the dark or weekend rides in the frost with a wind chill below zero. Thanks to Lisa & Jim for keeping the Saturday rides going throughout the winter, I know I wouldn't have ventured out on many occasions had it meant going out solo.
The last few weeks of training were the most difficult. I'd had enough of the 5am starts and the long weekend rides in the wind and rain. Any longer and I'm sure the quality of the sessions would have dropped dramatically.
Arrived in Klagenfurt on Thursday, put the bike together and went out for a 45min spin, couldn't believe the average speed for what felt like so little effort. A quick check of the heart rate showed I was working reasonably hard, it just didn't feel like it. The taper must have had an effect. I felt good and wanted to start the race immediately, Sunday couldn't come quickly enough.
Up at 3:30am on Sunday, didn't feel like anything to eat but forced down
some porridge and a banana. Arrived in transition and bumped into Keith
and Glynne, they were all set and ready to go. We wished each other good
luck, I put some air in the tyres, double checked everything and made my
way to the side of the lake.
I owe a big thanks to Keith & Glynne for all their help and willingly
sharing all their experience. When it comes to wanting information about
Ironman racing I don't use Google, I use Keith Greenough, far better!
The reality of it all suddenly became really apparent, thousands of people were lining the lake shore and the three jetties, two helicopters were buzzing overhead. Hundreds of athletes already had their wetsuits on and were standing at the waters edge in almost complete silence, no nervous banter which seemed kind of strange! There was still 25 minutes to go. We had been told in the race brief that it was a deep water start but with 5 minutes to go we were still being held at the waters edge. Then the countdown started. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest at some ridiculous rate. I assumed we'd have to swim out to the start line and wait for the gun, but the countdown just continued, the gun went and everyone ran into the water and began swimming. I looked up to check and make sure we weren't all going to come to an abrupt stop at the start line but by then the leaders were well past the start. Apart from the two turns where there was a little pushing a shoving, the lake part of the swim was comfortable. However the last part of the swim is 900m up a canal. What I hadn't realized was that Ironman Austria is a 4 discipline event, swim, Thai boxing, bike and run. The whole of the canal section was a nasty fight. I did as much as I could to hold position, but took a few good whacks in doing so. As I exited the swim and looked at the clock I was amazed, it was by far my best swim ever.
Transition went very smoothly even if a little slow. I must have either been very well hydrated or dank half of the canal, but what ever the reason I had to get rid of it.
Every article I'd read or recommendation I'd been given said watch your
heart rate on the bike, so I did as I exited transition and was shocked
to see just how high it was. I new I wouldn't last long at that rate so
I took the first few miles of the bike very steadily until it came down
to an acceptable level. Hundreds were passing me but I managed to resist
the temptation to join them. By now it was dull, grey and raining, the
fantastic scenery had become invisible.
I reached the turn around at the end of the first lap quicker than
expected and was still feeling really good. The atmosphere was
unbelievable with thousands of people screaming and shouting.
Half way through the second lap whilst climbing the biggest hill on the
course a tremendous storm took hold, fork lightning, thunder, wind and
torrential rain. There was no option but to slow right down on the
decent or risk coming off. The roads were like a river and the
temperature had dropped significantly. I was actually beginning to feel
cold. Nothing new, just like all the long bike sessions at home in May &
June!
It was still hammering it down by the time I got into transition. Dried
my feet off and put on some clean dry running socks. 3 steps out of
transition and I had wet feet again, 6 steps and my feet were
squelching. Much of the first part of the run was spent weaving between
large deep puddles. However I felt like I was running smoothly, no heavy
legs. About half way around the rain stopped and the sun came out and
the temperature began to rise. I took a cola at an aid station and
couldn't quite believe the impact. From then on I stopped the gels and
relied solely on cola and water. The km's seemed to fly by. I was still
running (not sure that's a good description? ) reasonably comfortably and
was now passing many who had resorted to walking. At the 30km mark I
began trying to estimate my finishing time and kept redoing the
calculation (everything was in km's only, which means nothing to me, I
still work in miles!!) and double checking the time as I was sure I was
miscalculating but I always got the same answer. Provided I could keep
going I was going to finish in a far better time than I ever expected.
At the turnaround point with 5km's to go I new I was going to be able to
keep running to the end so I up'd the pace. That was fine until about
the last mile or so when it suddenly became really tough. But as I'd run
every single step of the way to that point there was no way I was going
to start walking now. Had it been much further, I don't think I would
have had any option.
I crossed the line in 11:12:09 hammering my most optimistic prediction. Apart from that last mile or so I never really had a bad spell and looking back now I don't think there is anything I could have done differently on the day, by luck more than judgement I'd paced it almost perfectly.
If I'm honest, there is no way I would have achieved anywhere near this had it not been for Simon's help. Not only did he provide the training plan and share his experience, he also set-up some fantastic training sessions (although that's not what I called them at the time!) and in some cases compromised his own training waiting around for me. Thanks Simon, I owe you a few beers, and congratulations on an amazing 10:13 at Ironman Switzerland.
Cheers
Ian
posted by Ian on 8th Aug, 2008