Its fair to say I didn’t have a
particularly great autumn – as I rarely seem to do – but in April I cycled from
London to Paris for charity so this gave my cycling the much needed impetus for
my training I needed. I felt really
strong on my return – and even after 3 weeks off with Scarlett fever -didn’t
feel like I’d lost much of my new found cycling fitness. The only disappointment was that after 10
years I finally had a new ride – a Felt F75 – however after a couple of short
rides felt it was so different to my current bike it was too soon to risk it on
the technical course in Wimbleball so went with my old one.
UK70.3, wimbleball, exmoor
I entered this as my first middle distance
because a) its in the UK b) its renowned as the toughest half in the world so
wanted to challenge myself. The bike
course with nearly 5,000ft of ascents was the biggest challenge – fortunately a
couple of weeks before I rode the course with some guys who had raced it before
and I would thoroughly advise doing this as it helped me enormously.
I arrived at wimbleball early on Saturday
for registration and the race briefing.
My first impressions were how professional the whole Ironman set up is –
it is quite simply a slick, well oiled professional machine. People may whinge at their prices to enter –
but ultimately they are a commercial operation and they could have sold out
this event twice over so if anything they are under priced?
The whole Ironman ‘clean’ transition was
new to me - It was strange making calls on what to wear for the following day
and packing it into coloured bags to hang away the day before – so I erred on
the side of caution and packed several options.
The race briefing was thorough and very detailed – which it needed to be
as 1,100 out of 1,700 competitors were new to this distance. Meanwhile outside the heavens were opening –
an ominous sign. The key message from
the briefing was get your clothing right given the conditions. Anyway will all transition bags packs and
stored and my bike racked I headed off back to my hotel to rest up.
Race Day
Probably the most relaxed I’ve been pre
race given everything was already sorted for transition in the bags – all I had
to do was pump my tyres up, check them for stones etc; add the drinks bottles
and get into my wetsuit. Then we put all
our warm kit into a white bag, handed it over and headed down to the lake. The weather was overcast but still and no
rain – not bad for the race. My target
was sub-6.
Swim – 1.2Mi – 73rd in AG
All the talk pre race was of the
temperature, and on race day it was 13oC/14oC.
To be honest I have only done 1 open water swim this year but the temp
felt fine. It was the biggest field I
have ever raced in with 1,100 in my wave (1) at 0700 followed by another 600 in
wave 2 at 7:15. However given the wide
start it didn’t feel as crowded as some OLY races that I have done. After a quick rendition of God Save the queen
the horn went and we were off. I settled
into a rhythm quite quickly, and whilst my sighting was a little suspect felt
like I was going well. The first turn
was quite tasty as it pretty much comes back on yourself so everyone was
crowding together. I carried on to buoy
2 and finally turned into the final straight.
However every time I looked up it didn’t seem to be getting any closer –
the 3rd leg seemed to take ages.
My target was sub 38 so when I stood up and saw 36:11 on my Garmin I was
pretty pleased.
T1 – 7:58
On exit I started running up the long
steepish drag into T1, but was surprised to see most people walking? I ran up and into the tent, grabbed my blue
bag and ran into the main tent. I
emptied everything onto the floor. I
cramped slightly in my legs and a helper came and was an amazing help –
reminding me to breath, asking what I did/didn’t need and packed it away. I decided to go with my lightweight cycling gillet
and some newly purchased arm warmers I bought the day before (that I had worn
under my wetsuit) – rather than my heavy rain cycling jacket. I also wore calf guards for the first time
ever – mainly for the run. I put my
shoes on – rather than having them on my bike as normal – and ran out detouring
via the portaloos – collecting my bike and off I went.
Bike – 56Mi – 3:29:27 – 85th in
AG
I started out and knew the first couple of
miles were subtly ascending so span my legs out at 90-95RPM. Soon we were out onto the first loop and the
pace picked up substantially – I was overtaking quite a few people but likewise
some TT’rs were hammering past me. What
was noticeable was the amount of people dropping out with punctures – given the
nature of the country lanes I guess it’s inevitable. I also passed 1 guy who had come off his bike
and they were calling in an ambulance.
Probably around half way round the course you get to the first of 3
steep climbs – and my strategy was to climb all 3 sitting down to save my ;legs
for the 2nd lap and run. I survived those pretty well and at the top
of the 3rd one was a big crowd of supporters with cow bells – they gave
me a massive lift. Soon I was out onto
the 2nd lap and the drizzle on lap 1 had turned into heavy
rain. On the steep descent (no
overtaking zone) I was near the bottom and saw a marshall rather close waving
at me, I braked hard, locked up and almost came off veering into the other side
of the road and missing a cone by inches.
A guy in front had obviously fallen off and was nursing his collarbone -
again I heard an ambulance being called.
In light of the conditions I definitely eased off slightly from here –
the roads had become really greasy. The
3 climbs came and went fine and my legs were feeling fine, soon I was
descending into T2. I was hoping for
around 3:15, I was nearer 3:30 but given the conditions I wasn’t too
disappointed.
T2 – 4:42
I ran into T2, racked my bag, had another
quick detour via the portaloos and into the marquee to collect my run bag. A tip in the race briefing was to have a
fresh 2nd pair of dry socks for the run and I was glad I’d
listened. Fresh socks on soaking wet feet
were heavenly! As were the 5 jelly
babies I shoved in my mouth lol Soon I
was off onto the run course munching a banana – my watch was showing 4:20 so
was comfortable I could go sub-6. As a
1:21 half mara runner and someone whose running in triathlons tends to be
similar to running ‘fresh’ I expected to be no worse than 1:40 – in hindsight
this was probably where my pre-race research had a gap given only 4 people in
my AG broke 1:30…
Run – 13.1Mi – 1:54:20 – 82nd in
AG
‘A relatively flat run course with 1 steep
ascent mostly on tarmac’ was how someone described it to me. I started off running well – c.7 min km’s –
although the course was less tarmac and more cross country deep mud and tracks. Soon we ran up ‘the’ ascent up the side of
the hill, then a few mins later ran up another steep ascent and then a third –
not really flattish. The first lap
seemed to drag out as I didn’t know where the turns were. Towards the end of my first lap my pace had
dropped to 8< min kms, and I was having serious stomach issues. Early into lap 2 I dived into a portaloo on
the course and according to Garmin (sorry if too much info lol) I lost 6 mins in there. However I felt it was time worth spending as
it sorted my stomach out and my pace upped itself again. However into the second half of the lap my
pace dipped again, I was just willing myself onto the 3rd lap hoping
the adrenaline would push me round that final lap. I was determined however not to stop running
at any point and didn’t. I kept thinking
of seeing my kids later - who hadn’t been able to come and watch - for fathers
day and reciting ‘Hog Roast Roll’ that would be awaiting my finish. Finally I was into the third lap and as I
crossed the dam saw a mate Stu going the other way and we exchanged words of
encouragement, I decided to try and catch him.
Whilst I didn’t catch up it kept me going and soon I was running into
the finishing chute. As the commentator
called out my name I raised my arms up for the classic finish pose and some guy
came crashing through my arms to break 6 hours (obvs in wave 2) lol I didn’t have the emotion of when I finished
the London triathlon – my first Olympic – I was just thoroughly exhausted and
needed a drink. Anyway job done in 6:13.
Post-Race Reflections
Total 6:13:12
82nd in AG / 230 finishers
354th overall / 1,666 finishers
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I am delighted to have completed a half
ironman and in particular that one.
Whilst I am disappointed not to break 6 everyone has spoken about how
tough the conditions were yesterday and you can’t ignore that. Compared to most triathlons my run and bike
were in line – but I am normally in the top 10% of runners so I was well down
on that.
I am clear what I need to do to have a
strong Vitruvian
1.
Build more bricks into my
training – to help my legs work better post a long bike ride
2.
Get used to my Felt which is
considerably lighter and also using my aerobars which I didn’t really do at
wimbleball given its technical nature
3.
Get some cycling TT’s under my
belt – including a 50Mi if possible
4.
Look at my nutrition – which
worked well in terms of energy but with 4 gels and a powerbar maybe it was too
much resulting in my stomach issues on the run.
5.
Recce the course thoroughly –
although having done the Dambuster triathlon I know this area fairly well
So going forwards I will be training for
Vitruvian, mainly hoping to get in some bike TT’s and running races, and I may
also race the Vachery OLY triathlon in July too.
Thanks for taking the time to read this
(slightly) long blog :)
