IRONMAN AUSTRALIA 2012

Well... in the euphoria of having completed my first Ironman race, I completely lost all motivation to keep the blog up and running... well not really motivation to keep it up... just more motivation to get on with other things. I just never got around to it as the race was over and I had moved on to other focuses. Immediately after Ironman, Amanda and I took our long awaited Honeymoon to Vanuatu... it had been a month in coming after getting married on April 13th; nearly a month earlier... and since we got back, I have ripped into the second half of the local Football season and been training hard to adapt to that sport, while also keeping up a base for the next Tri season... and of course, we have our wonderful little prince, 17 month old Eli keeping us very busy :)

Anyhoo... I digress. Ironman.

Early on in the peace, we decided Thursday was the best day to head up there. 1 day to drive and settle in and go for a ride, Friday to relax and go check in, Saturday to do a pre-race set and get everything organised... then race day. Plenty of time!

The drive up done, we found our modest accommodation exactly as described... modest. Unpacked, quick sit down, then it was off for a ride to stretch the legs out and meet up with a couple of lads for a 20 - 30k ride including one run through of the fabled, and feared Matthew Flinders hill... to be honest, I dont get the fuss. Sure is a sharp stinger of a hill with some sort of crazy gradient... but its only about 50-70m long and is over in under a minute... in Ironman, we ride it twice for good measure to keep those who trained and those who have Ironman on their bucket list honest.
Ride over, it's back to the unit to collect the family and have lunch. Its been so long now I really cont recall if we had lunch at home or in town, however probably to save money it would have been bread, fruit, lollies and Pepsi... then into town for a short trip to check out IM head quarters and the expo briefly.
Done and dusted, the expo wasn't really anything special and the merchandise on offer wasn't that great either... the 2xu gear was expensive as always and there wasn't much on sale at the other stalls as well. I didn't need much, so money saved for us.
Following this little recon mission was a trip out to a strawberry picking place with the Isaac family... worth the bucket price entry fee just to see wee Eli fascinated with all the strawberry plants and to try anything put in front of his mouth :)

Thursday done.

Friday was parents arrival day and check in day.
My parent arrived around lunch time at the same complex we were staying at and found their modest accommodation to be the same as ours... modest :)
Nothing planned for this day so I really cant remember doing much apart from eating like a pig, knocking down an ice cream and checking in, before we had dinner with my parents at the local all-you-can-eat bowling club. Spag Bol, on Spag Bol, on Spag Bol... with a side of fries for me... how imaginative. That's me to a tea though :)

Saturday.
Pre race set fist thing in the morning with Zim. Met a couple of the boys for a swim first up, then a ride with a few lads as well... then a short run with Zim and Roo Mildren for good measure. Nothing long or strenuous... just enough to get the blood pumping and some of that food consumed during carbo-load week moving right along...
Done.
Go home and play with the bike time now... time to set up gear bags, special needs bags, and my race day bag... dot all my T's, cross all my I's and make sure I have absolutely everything covered so race morning and race day is 100% drama free.
All good intentions... there's a saying about that somewhere...
My first obstacle was the rear XLAB wing. Of course you leave it to race eve to decide you are going to add an X-Nut so you can carry Co2 and canisters on the back of your bike... of course you have never trained with this... and of course it isn't very easy to get on... and of course it doesn't really fit that well and you don't have much in the way of tools to fix it.
We plough on. I manage to jam a few washers in there to tighten it up but its still loose... so I wedge the spare tube bag on top of it finally and bingo... solid as a rock... well solid as a rock while sitting stationary in our modest accommodation anyway. Lets not think about how it will go on the road for now :)
Bike fixed, next step is to check it in.
This is a whole family trip... Amnda, Eli and I head down with mum and dad in tow, coming along to see what all the fuss is about. We get down there, park moderately close and in I go. I pass Zim on the way in... surprise surprise, he is having troubles with this bike again... actually, it is a surprise as this is his brand new bike. I offer encouragement before heading in with my own bike.
Largely a straight forward affair, I find my spot, then continue walking through the Transition compound and hand my Bike and Run transition bags in.... then its out for some family shots under the Swim exit archway.

A crucial error just occured at this point...

Anyhoo, its home time now after some light strolling.
At home, I set about quickly just going over my stuff and getting it all layed out for the morning. Tri suit ready... check, compression... check, race numbers are in my Transition bag with race belt, special needs packed... check check check... we are good to go... OH HANG ON. Where's my race timing chip?
Was I supposed to have one? I do in every other race... do I get it in the morning with 1700 other punters all trying to get ready... err... no. I confirm with Zim that I have had an epic fail and I contact race Admin. Get there early I am told and we will have some spares at the main front desk.
Queue worrying about it all night and dreaming of missing out on a spare chip... missing the start, sleeping in... in short; crappy sleep.
Next morning, very dusty, I head to the race start 15mins before gates open. I'm one of the first there. I get in, state my case, and get told a lady will be there shortly with a spare one... tick tick young man, how could you forget? Simple I said... there was no signs and nobody told me. Well, there wasnt!

45mins later, I'm in. I'm running to set up.

The Swim
After the quickest race prep ever I am off to the swim start. I've lost all the people I know and I'm dodging and weving through competitor traffic trying to catch up to anyone.
I briefly catch Zim, but all is lost in the entry to the water and I start the race solo.
the Swim start was actually a bit of a shambles with the tide the way it was... hundreds started well in front of the start line, leaving rookies like me scrambling back at the starting buoys... I'm a fair way behind already right from the get go!
The swim, although pretty uneventful did provide me with some lessons learnt for next year. a) if people are going to start way in front of the starting buoys... then I am too. Some may say it is cheating, but my stars there were plenty of people in front of me that really shouldnt have been. Overtaking in this scenario isnt the easiest thing and I got pushed and buffeted all over the place just trying to get through the pack. b) get away from the inside ropes!!! While it may be the shortest route around the course, it was also quite uncomfortable to be getting shoved onto the ropes constantly and the rope burn accross the top of my foot wasnt that awesome despite what you may think...
Apart from that, uneventful. I swam, I got out. I didnt swim quite as fast as I wanted, but it wasnt too bad either... only a couple of minutes down on predictions.

Transition was a bit of a nightmare. No seats, all volunteers taken up elsewhere and no sunscreen person... so I was pretty much left to my own devices to get in and out quick as I could... which wasnt all that quick in the end.

Onto the Bike.
I actually had a really good ride but my pre race prediction standards :) There were a few club mates out in front of me they proved good targets to chase, and some behind that I was trying to stay ahead of. I didnt ride above myself as I was concious of going too hard and bonking later on, so I just kept a steady working pace. Along the way I passed the Cobra who was fixing a flat, then I got passed by Fresh Legs Greg Sewell, who I then re-passed as he went into the penalty box, and I went past the Maddog Steve MacKellar himself... all mates of mine from the club. Roo was behind in hot pursuit as well as some others I am sure.
5:20 for the ride... I had predicted maybe a 5:40-45 ride, but the weather was perfect I thought and I made the most of any tailwind that came my way and stayed solid when heading into it.

The Run...
My strength,
My saviour,
My crowning glory...
The icing on the cake if you will...

My failure.
I felt AWESOME when I started the run and I headed out at what I think was about 4:25min per km pace? I thought this would be fine as most runs I do off the bike start off quite fast before I slow down to the tempo I am supposed to be running at eventually... in this race, that would be about 4:45 - 4:59 pace.

Fail... I got excited didnt I, and I kept that pace up for as long as I could... and I was happy to be doing so as I passed many people I know from the Club, including the superfish and bike Animal, Zim.
I pressed on even though I could feel myself tiring.
I pressed on even though I could feel my back tightening.
I pressed on as I could see some, that I had passed earlier, coming up from behind...
I passed on the offer of my special needs bag after the 2nd lap (about 20km in) which contained panadol thinking I could keep this pace up for at least the 3rd lap before I would finally take the pills... how wrong I was.

By about 23km my back was killing me and I had started to walk in patches.... slowly.
I went for the nutrition and salt tablets... Fail again. Nutrition was fine, but the salt tablets has desintegrated in my pockets... leaving nothing but a plastic gel-like substance and some clumps of dirty salt.
Next time... put them in a sweat proof container!!!
Anyhoo, trudging along I was met by Club member, Tim "Skinny wiggle" Fryirs who proceeded to slow down from his current pace and to encourage me to press on as best I could. Wiggle was a saviour. What an inspiring fellow he is in pumping me up but also having fun going round the course hollaring at the crowd and encouraging many many others... Wiggle finally got me to Special Needs... and Panadol! Along the way, Zim had also caught up and we were running as three.

Eventually I got my legs back and my back subsided and I found I was able to run properly again... too late for that awesome time, but just enough time to round up some stragglers and finish the race in good spirits and looking good for the crowd at the finish line.
Cheeky Amanda had moved a few times during the race and I struggled at first to find her in the finish chute, but I finally found her, gave a hug and kiss and went for the line... crossing the exact same time as Zim... poor Wiggle still had 2 laps to go!!

Hindsight is a beautiful thing isnt it. While I did feel awesome in the run at first, ALL my training told me I wasnt going to be running a Marathon @ 4:25min pace... so why did I set out that way??? I have no answer other than that I was excited!!
Plans are already in place for next year and training is already focussed on fixing this anomaly up... my run is my strength... and while I am hammering the bike for more time, the goal is to be the strong runner I know I can be. 3hr 50mins is not good enough... I didnt run that slow in any of my training runs, so I shouldnt be doing it in this race.
I expect nothing less than a sub 3:30 next year, but I will be hoping for even more savings. Training is going well.

All in all, I have the bug. This was a fantastic day, despite the hurt, and I want more of it! Best parts of the day (in no particular order) were:
Skinny Wiggle's generosity in helping me on the run... what a bloke!
Finishing with an identical time to Zim after so much training together.
Sharing the moment with my family... we shared acramped little motel room, but I wouldnt have it any other way... well, we will next year :)
My bike ride was fantastic.
I learnt frommy run.
I have knowledge of my potential...


(pictures to come)