After my last couple of races, I’d more or less decided to write the rest of this season off - at least as far as heading out to race well was concerned. After all, my training for the last eight or ten months had been focussed on IMWA, and I’d raced that better than I’d thought I would. So with that rationalisation for not training under my belt, I lined up for the last Gatorade race of the season.
Similarly to the last race at Elwood, I didn’t feel too bad (maybe a bit sluggish, as you’d expect) until I hit the run.
As I mentioned earlier I’m going to focus on shorter races next season - and not race any half-iron distance races, either - which means I need to get way better at running off the bike. As part of this, I’m going have a go at a few duathlons over the winter. Should be interesting (and painful, especially when I decide to try and get myself properly fit again).
Despite the realisation from my last race that I needed to do some training, I still hadn’t managed to get back into a solid routine and it showed (again!). I felt pretty good for most of the race, but the run really hurt, and running 24-and-a-half minutes for 5km - even off the bike - is pretty crap.
Update (07/03): I just had a look, and to my surprise, found that this was actually a sprint PB for me by 13 seconds. I have no idea how this happened.
My return to “racing” two months after Ironman WA, and my times reflect the amount of training (or lack of) I’ve done since then. On top of an almost-zero training load, some heavy rain meant that the water quality was too poor to stage a swim, turning the race into a duathlon (which I’d never done before).
The big takeaway from this race? In order to perform well, one must train. I still had a lot of fun, though - and it was nice to be back out competing participating.
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In racing terms, 2010 has been my biggest year yet. I took on my first (and second) Olympic and half Ironman races and my first Ironman, as well as setting new PBs over 14km and half and full marathon distances. I also raced in my first ever open water swim earlier this year… 12 months ago, if someone had told me I’d be entering a swimming race, I’d have thought they were a bit mental.
All up, in the 51 weeks since my first triathlon, I’ve racked up:
As well as pushing further than I’d have thought possible this year, I’ve also set new PBs over every distance I’ve raced - the 40-odd minutes I cut off my marathon time being the most satisfying. And when you add finishing IMWA well under the time I had set for myself into the mix, you’d have to chalk this year’s racing up as being a bit of a success.
For next year, I’m winding back the distances a little; so no Ironman racing for me. I’ll be concentrating on sprint and Olympic distance racing and probably chucking a couple of half Ironman events in there, just for fun. I’ll also be lining up for the usual suspects like the Gold Coast half marathon and City2Surf again.
Here’s hoping I can keep the results ticking over in 2011.
Finished!
Now that I’ve had a week or so to recover from my first Ironman experience, I think it’s probably time to jot down a few thoughts before I start forgetting the details.
I arrived in Busselton on the Tuesday before the race, and apart from the big billboard as you turn off the highway and the banners on the streetlights, there wasn’t much of an indication of what was about to happen. Come Wednesday morning, however, the main street of town was closed down and construction of the finish line and grandstands really kicked off the Ironman buzz. And as the week moved on and more and more athletes started to arrive, the atmosphere in town really started to build. It was pretty intimidating to be walking down the street and seeing all these incredibly fit-looking people everywhere.
For the first few days, we had Scott Neyedli, a pro triathlete and the second placed finisher from IMWA 2009 stay with us and I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time with him. He’s a genuinely nice guy and was happy enough to talk triathlon with me and I managed to pick up a few valuable little tips and tricks from him.
On the training front, I was feeling a bit sluggish after a week of tapering, but a couple of rides and solid swim and run sessions over the course had me feeling pretty good. The course reconnaissance gave me a bit of a confidence boost as well – having seen it, I was pretty happy with it all and knew there weren’t going to be any hidden surprises.
Things started to get real after registering on Thursday… packing my race gear seemed to be a lot harder, despite the fact that I was really only using the same stuff as for a normal race. The nerves didn’t truly kick in until Saturday as I was checking my bike and transition bags in, though.
After a moderately sleepless night Saturday, we headed down to transition just after 4am on Sunday to prep the bikes and sort out special needs bags for the bike and run. After that, it was on with the wetsuit and down to the swim start.
The swim start at an Ironman is completely different to anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s hard to describe… there’s a lot of pent up energy and expectation. When the gun went off, there was none of the usual argy bargy that happens in a sprint or Olympic race. Most people seemed happy enough to try and settle into a rhythm and less interested in jockeying for position.
The swim itself was pretty straightforward, starting on the right hand side of Busselton Jetty, following it out to the end (actually, just past the end… I was a bit unhappy that we had to swim that extra 100m or so past the buildings at the end of the jetty), and then back down the left hand side to the swim exit. There was a bit of chop on the return swim, but nothing too bad. I actually had a much better swim than I expected, coming out of the water in 1:09:54, about 10 minutes faster than I’d planned on.
From there into T1 and out on to the bike. I took off a bit faster than I had planned on, but was feeling pretty good and still riding within myself. The bike course at Busselton is pretty flat, with only a few little undulations on the outbound leg. I had to consciously wind myself back a bit on the second and third laps just to make sure I didn’t cook myself on the bike. The last 10km on the way in on lap 3 were pretty brutal, riding into town into a brisk headwind, but I managed to get myself off the bike in just over five and a half hours (5:31:28), about 15 minutes quicker than I thought I’d be.
A (relatively) quick change, drink and top up of the Vaseline in T2 had me out on to the run. This was always going to be the make or break part of the day, and I didn’t do myself (or the support crew following my times online) any favours by smashing through the first kilometre in 3:53. In my defence, I really needed a bathroom stop.
That taken care of, I settled in and just tried to keep the legs ticking over. The course was almost billiard table flat, but running a marathon off the bike was always going to be hard work. Luckily there was an incredible amount of support on course, from the volunteers at the aid stations to the locals on deck chairs out in their front yards, to (most importantly) the friends and family around the course. I can’t explain how much it meant to see a familiar face and get a few words of encouragement.
I managed to get through the first couple of laps in OK shape, but fell into a pretty deep hole on lap three. After a couple of run/shuffle/walk efforts and a couple of cups of Coke, I got myself through the lap and started off the fourth and final lap feeling not too bad, all things considered. But things started to go south again at about the 38km mark and I was back to the alternating run/walk for a couple of kilometres. After taking on some more fluids at the aid station at about 40km, I started to feel a bit better and with a sniff of the finish line, took off at a run again.
Those last couple of kilometres seemed so very long, but after collecting the coveted red band just after the last aid station, I was running tall again and back into town for the last time.
The finishing chute of an Ironman is an incredible place to be. The crowd was going nuts for everyone coming through and Mike Reilly – the voice of Ironman – was calling finishers through with those four words that every starter wants to hear: “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I’m not even going to try and describe the feeling of crossing the line… words just can’t do it justice.
I went in with the goal of finishing under 12 hours, and (despite a slower than hoped for run of 4:22:08) came away very happy with an 11:14:55.
There’s still a lot of stuff missing from this report – the carbo and awards dinners, the multitude of conversations about the weather (seriously… I think that after farmers, triathletes are probably the second most obsessive people about weather) and a heap of other details, but this pretty much covers off the things that stood out for me.
My friend Rob has a write up on the race from his point of view, which is worth checking out. And I can’t finish up without saying a huge thank you to Ollie and the other coaches for getting me in shape to race; the rest of the Tri-Alliance crew for being a source of motivation and great company during those long rides and runs; the volunteers who went out of their way to make the race as easy as they could (as much as you can make an Ironman easy, anyway); the support crew who made the trip over and were everywhere on the course, cheering us on; and most of all, Belinda, who - despite being a triathlete herself - was a bit of a triathlon widow for quite a while and put up with me obsessing about this race for so long.
For me, the Ironman journey was a long one, but very much worth it. If you’ve ever thought about it and are willing and able to commit the time, I highly recommend you get on board.
I won’t go into too much detail about the race just yet - I’m working on a longer race report - but overall, my first Ironman was an amazing experience and one that I’ll never forget.
The last real hit out before Busselton; one more week of proper training, then the taper. I raced this at the paces I’m expecting to race in IMWA, so was very happy to come away with a new half iron PB (and sub 5 hours… just!).
All up, I’m feeling pretty good about racing over the Ironman distance. I tuned my race nutrition a little for this race and it all seemed to work well, so all that’s left to do now is start to rest up and prepare mentally. I’m confident in the training I’ve done, but it is a freakin’ long way to race.
A new Olympic distance PB for me, which I’m pretty pleased with, given that I didn’t really prepare to race this one - my training has really been around timing to peak in December for IMWA and there was no taper leading into this race. Despite all that, I was very happy with my swim in particular - I knocked 5 minutes off my previous Olympic best, and this was a non-wetsuit swim.
The one thing that really came out of this race was my need to practice transitions; I had an absolute shocker in T2, leaving both my Garmin and race number in transition and having to backtrack a bit to collect them. What an idiot.