Ok ok so here it is… my self indulgent race report from my 9hr 38min Melbourne Ironman… a time I didn’t think was possible, yet I will gladly take knowing it could have been a whole lot better and WILL be a whole lot better next year.
Normally I would start any report by dispensing small notations and anecdotes of the week / days leading up to the race, however quite simply I had a good week. It was stress free, incident free, the boys were great and Mandy was brilliant. We drove down to Melbourne over 2 days, stopping in beautiful Wagga Wagga overnight before heading down to St Kilda, where we stayed from Tuesday until the Monday after the race. Trusty steed and race companion for the season so far Brett “Zim” Isaac arrived Wednesday night, so team TSO went for a jog and swim on Thursday followed by a ride on Friday and for me, nothing on Saturday. Not 100% to the letter of the taper plan but not far from it.
I got most of my kit ready on the Friday night with the intention of making the drive to Frankston to check the bikes in on Saturday morning around 10am.
Mini drama in that I found my rear bottle cage holder had a snapped screw which I didn’t discover until it was too late to do much on Friday (as we were just about to head off for a 40min drive to Mandy’s cousin’s house)… I went straight back to the expo and purchased a new one on the way with the intention of installing that night…
It must be said here and now that I was reluctant to go and buy exactly the same holder (a Profile Design one) that I already had, as mine was fixable and I just didn’t have the time or inclination to go to a hardware store to find the right nuts and bolts…. So I bought a reputable XLAB one that they had on display… on display I might add, on a Giant Trinity with a Fizik Arione Tri2 saddle… perfect I thought... same as my set up! Why have 2 the same when I can get the XLAB and choose between the 2 in future?
It must also be acknowledged here and now that Zim did warn me about buying something new…
Can anyone see how this went wrong? Tough one… but lesson learned.
My saddle differed from the one on display in that I have the carbon railed version… which has thicker rails. My new XLAB holder was a no go... it just didn’t fit. Ok, mini panic… and slightly peeved at my stupidity.
All good though… back to the expo first thing Saturday to purchase a new one. XLAB did their best to meet my needs and even offered me petrol money to drive to their store 30mins away but in the end I opted for a refund and went and bought a matching Profile Design one as it involved much less effort on my part and I knew it fitted. Free PD t-shirt thrown in for my smile as well :-)
All set. Cage installed, time to go check the bikes in. All uneventful really, done and dusted in a matter of 30mins max and back home to Mandy and the boys who had spent the morning at Luna Park.
Transition seemed quite straight forward, the swim looked easy enough and the road surface for the ride and run looked good. All we had was fingers crossed for the same wind direction for the race, that being a slight tailwind toward St Kilda for the run… even if it did mean a headwind returning on the bike.
Saturday afternoon, feet up before heading down to Luna Park with Eli for an hour followed by my now ritual McDonalds for dinner… double the salt thanks champ! I jest of course on the salt, but I can’t see any issues with Maccas on race eve, it’s got all you want for an endurance event like an IM, and if KFC is good enough for Chris McDonald, and Nuggets are good enough for Usain Bolt… then Maccas nuggets and chips is good enough for me. Carbs, protein, fats, sodium… even some calcium and more fats with my thickshake :-)
Race brief on Friday night… a couple of videos shown were awesome… and Mr Ironman, Mike Riley was there as MC… which was good… all in all though, as per all race briefs, it went waaaay over the scheduled time and all the Central Coast boys left early. More important people at home than to hear all the same rules as every other Ironman event I have been in.
OK, race day. 6 hours sleep… slept solidly after taking a while to nod off. Tick. I expected less due to the early start that involved a 5am 45min bus trip to Frankston.
First question to answer… nutrition plan states breakfast is 2 hours prior to the race… this means breakfast on the bus or breakfast early... I am a rank amateur when it comes to nutrition so I stick to the 2hr plan. So be it. Not sure my fellow Ironman cohort next to me appreciated me scoffing down my jam pikelets, banana and Gatorade whilst next to him on the bus… but he dealt with it. I ate my breaky 5mins short of Frankston… exactly 2 hours prior to the race start. Tick.
Set up bike, find the boys… Zim, the other Central Coast boys Tim “Skinny Wiggle” Fryirs and his brother and Haydon Cowan… stand around, drink some water after wasting a little time waiting for the insides to start moving I then head off to line up for T3. Tick. Pleased with what I accomplished… more so than the poor soul who walked into the stall next to me only to dry reach at the entity they had just walked into… gee I hope they got the race bib number of the person in front of them and had the nerve to report them to the race director for poor sportsmanship. Great race tactic though… an old fashioned smoke out! Glad I didn’t cop it.
Wetsuits on, post-race bags in the ute… walk down to the start line. Small warm up… water is flat as a tack and not that cold… 19 or 20 degrees I think?? Perfect.
The Swim (my hope: 59:59.99 or under… my prediction 1:02 – 1:03hrs)
Right from the outset… before the gun went; I knew I was too far forward on the start line. I said it to Haydo, I said it to Zim… and I convinced myself I was out of my league.
Lo and behold, the power of positive (or negative) thinking took hold and I got hammered… basically treated like a turning buoy that everyone must swim over just to start the race.
This carried on for about the first 800m by which time I think I was shunted almost to the back of the race. I made some good ground on the short top section as I swam wide and again on the 3rd stretch back towards the beach however I then had my goggles knocked off on the 3rd turn that took us parallel to shore… about the 2km mark? Not happy.
Smooth sailing after this as I continued swimming wide of the bunch... sighting was good, pace was good, sadly for me though, no drafting in the swim in this race as I sought refuge over speed. I was seriously miffed (to be polite) when the goggles were knocked off so I opted to stay out of the rumble and finished in a comfortable manner.
All in all, I was happy with the swim in the end… my time only ruined by self-doubt and the pummelling I got at the start as a result.
I exited the water thinking I had gone close to the 60min mark, only to be informed by Skinny Wiggle in the tent that it was a 1:05… oh well, I had heard my Garmin buzz a few times, so I guess in the rumble it had stopped and started a few times. All good, I will take a 1:05 after the poor start I had.
Official time – 1:06.51
The Ride (my hope: 5hrs even… my prediction: 5hrs even)
After negotiating my way out onto the Freeway I was in heaven. Fantastic road surface, smooth sailing at a good clip and feeling very comfortable riding to heart rate and watts. The road surface made it easy to keep a good economical cadence and my 65 or so cadence of Geelong and Canberra was now holding at 80rpm. Perfect. I had done some work on this immediately after Geelong and so far it was paying off.
I passed Tim at about 30km, and also one of my Big Sexy team mates Bryan Benshoof on the way out to the first turn point… both travelling comfortably and a few words spoken… but I was on my way and riding to the beat of my HR so I pressed on. Where on earth was this tunnel that had been mentioned is all I started thinking as I got to nearly 40km?
Pretty much right at the turn point you enter the freeway tunnel and basically just hang on at well over 70km/h as you descend sharply. There may have even been a little bit of a death wobble skateboard style as I momentarily looked over my shoulder before passing one rider :-) …lesson learned. Eyes ahead… those behind you will see you!
You then climb up out of the tunnel, turn and descend into the darkness again… and climb out again… Apart from that little bit of excitement I would go close to saying it’s a classic undulating ride from start to end. There’s some points you think the slight rise part is never going to end, but essentially it does and you flatten out and churn out some power on the slight decline.
I will give this course full credit on one aspect… it is VERY easy to ride to heart rate apart from the climb out of the tunnel. Even then, the road is so smooth you don’t have to exert too much strength to get out. I could have gotten out of the saddle and powered up quite easily but I was riding to my plan and was determined to stick to it.
The negatives? Slight headwind and more inclines than declines on the way back to town made it a tougher slog than on the way out… tons of drafting… and the TOs lack of action.
Drafting was rampant on the way back to town mainly and at times it was hard to escape even if you didn’t want to be part of it… which of course I didn’t.
The return leg of Lap 1 I found annoying. I was riding well, so naturally I was a target and blokes kept appearing on my wheel. Sure, they would put in the yards to catch up, but then they would just sit there and rest… before slowly going around my and pulling in right in front as though I was keen to be part of their new found draft train. Naturally me not wanting to be caught drafting, I then had to drop back my 12m out of the drafting zone… at which point another 2 or 3 more drafters would then slot in front of me behind the first guy… so I’d either have to drop back more or go around them. I opted to go around them most of the time which essentially was an exercise in futility as all and sundry would be right back on my wheel again and the process would start all over again… which it did, until there was about 30 riders and I’d be stuck waiting for 30 numpty cheats to slowly make their way around me while I lose time.
About 5km from the half-way point and knowing the twists and turns coming up in town where the spectators were I put my riding boots on and went around them for the last time and didn’t let them back in… gone.
Heading out for the second time to the tunnel was akin to the first. Eventless and fast. I saw that both Zim and Haydo had taken some time off me and I was dropping back… nevertheless I pressed on with my race plan and didn’t chase. I put it down the drafting cr*p and delays of lap 1 and shrugged it off as soon as I saw it. Yes, I was surprised to have not taken time from Haydo, but gee he had put in some training miles leading into this race so all credit to him, he was having a great ride which I just wasn’t up to!
Tunnel and turn… let the drafting games begin again.
One, two, three, four… they kept coming and kept trying to draft me again. I abandoned my strict 75% or under heart rate plan and upped it a few percent to make sure I stayed ahead most of the time. Sure I got caught napping a few times and even got shunted to the back once or twice… once which took an eternity to get out of, but by and large I was happier with this part of the ride than the first lap as I had managed to stay clear MOST of the time. The notable faces from lap one were nowhere to be seen so I can only assume they burnt their candles trying to keep up and continually overtake on lap 1.
Yes, coming back to town the 2nd time was slower than the first, but unless you are a top-line pro I can’t expect anything less… fatigue, wind picking up (albeit not by much), and getting ready for the run all take their time for the common Age Grouper… all in all though my 2 stints riding out were nearly the same and my 2 stints riding back to town were almost the same. On average my Heart Rate was spot on and my Watts only slightly under what I thought they would be. Not bad at all.
Official time: 5:01.03
The Run (my hope: 3:17hrs / my prediction:3:23hrs)
Undoubtedly my best run ever. I hold a few runs in the top category… a 36:50 10km in Nepean in 2011, my 1:23 for the Canberra 70.3 etc… but this Marathon tops them all.
Why? It was a battle… it was a slog… it was a run I had to continually tell myself to press on and not give up (and slow down) just because I was feeling queasy or the Garmin was telling me I was running too fast. I literally talked to myself the whole way and I have now set the standard of effort that must be built on. I CAN run a strong marathon at the end of an IM… and now I MUST do what it takes to ensure I continue to do so. The time doesn’t matter as anything can happen on the day with the weather and courses can change, but I pretty much nailed my nutrition and I finished in strong shape.
Out of transition I headed out through the crowds. I saw Mandy and gave her a hand-grab high 5 which was a boost… a big boost. No boys, so I assume they were being a handful somewhere for my parents “nanny” and “poppy” who had also come down for the trip.
Out of the crowd and I don’t know why but my spirit dropped. It could very well have simply been the small amount of twists and turns trough beach going pathways… but I took a gel and for whatever reason my stomach or brain just wasn’t up for the taste of the Powerbar Hydrogels or the effort of4:45km pace running that I was hoping for… they were just a sickly sweet orange and weren’t sitting well. I was running slightly slower than I planned and it was starting to play on me... I thought about packing it in and just slowing to 5min pace and getting it done to be honest. An aid station came up so I downed some water to settle the stomach and let the gel kick in… that’s the ticket…the water works a treat on the taste but I still haven’t found my running legs… what to do?
In all honesty I am proud that at this point I went into problem solving mode and thought about what makes an easy run… efficiency, done… posture, done… a training run with mates! Interesting… I was struggling and I needed mates to run with… the only problem is that at this point in the Ironman run you are rarely running at the same pace as anyone else let alone around mates, so running with someone else can be difficult let alone striking up a conversation! So I picked a bloke that had just glided past me at approx. 4:30 pace and I latched onto his heels and just sat there copying his stride… basically not thinking about my own run. Yes… I drafted… Ironic I know… although it’s not against the rules in running! I held this line for about 3 or 4kms until he slowed for aid at a station around 8km and I went past him. Until this point he was my silent training partner but he did turn as I went past and said I was running great… Little did he know he had just saved my run. I urged him to take a turn however he was done. Quite possibly he spent his bikkies trying to shake me from his tail? Who knows; I didn’t think I was making it overly obvious, but you do know when someone is there don’t you!
I pressed on… form, cadence, pace, heart rate… always checking and monitoring. Ticking off the “I” category calves (tattoos given to the 35-39 AG’ers) as I passed them, guessing the age of those that had opted not to don the calf tattoo, trying to work out how I was going. I was passing “I’s” by the bucket load…
At about 16km-18km I passed Haydo, who was walking I think… I actually think he had only just made the decision to pull up stumps and walk as I went by him just as he was pulling to the side of the path. I gave him a holler which was acknowledged, but sadly, no time to talk for this man on a mission.
I’m really not certain of the distance but I started lagging again not long after and the legs were heavy and starting to hurt. I picked another sap to leech off… done. This fella was a 45-49’er and was doing around4:45 pace, so it was a relative rest for me at the time and having noticed, he wasn’t having a bar of it… but instead of pulling the pin and letting me go, he slowed ever so slightly and just dropped in alongside me and kept going… brilliant, another training run with “Zim” here! I cracked up a small conversation to tick the km away and the pace picked back up to 4:40-4:35ish pace… I knew I was pushing him though as every time traffic came up, he let me go first… and eventually I went first after a couple of km and he dropped back out of sight. I had made a point of taking any tailwind… lengthening the strides and building up speed before dropping back into high cadence small steps when the wind turned or there was an uphill… and eventually it was enough for the poor fella after one such burst. I should have gotten his number so I could see how he went… he just wanted to break 10hours. I hope I helped… at the time, we were on track for 9:45 and under.
30km and I’m on the charge. Feeling good, nutrition plan working (the queasiness from each gel still there but manageable), posture and strength great… just one issue… an increasing rubbing in the junk area. Running by the sea was clearly taking its toll I think... all that salt in the air, the cool breeze… it was starting to take a big toll. I had felt it coming for quite some miles and had made a few self-adjustments but enough was enough and on 31km or 32km I stopped at an aid station and demanded vaseline!
So many people at the station yet no one knew where the vaso was! I eventually found it on the end table and grabbed a fist full of lube and shoved it up the leg of the suit… a hit and miss expedition of application that would have to do… more adjusting if necessary would spread it around. I took off from this point, passing the 3 or 4 people that had gone back past me and I started my calculations… 4min pace from here will get me 9:30 odd… 4:15will get this… 4:30 will get that… c’mon prick, put it in… you have 10km of hurt left and you are done… @ 4min pace, that’s 40mins of inconvenience. I love the 10km mark in my long training runs… so why not love it here! 10km is just the distance where you can start to make a pretty tangible guess at your finish time (in training and racing) and you generally know if you are hurting… then you only have to hurt xx amount of minutes before you’re done and you can collapse!
2km down… 8km to go… another 2 done… 6km to go… ow ow ow… quads just going crunch crunch crunch… I was passing anybody and everybody still moving on the course… apart from one 40-44yo who put up some stubborn resistance obviously thinking I was in his age group until I passed him. At 3km to go the Giant team had a huge amount of support lining a small part of the course… I seriously thought I had hit the home stretch early and wondered if this is what it is going to be like for the final 3km. It only lasted about 100m or so but they had a coupla hundred people there all in blue and all going bananas and it was just the ticket needed.
Shot out of a cannon my last 3km were easily sub 4:10 pace along the beachfront esplanade all the way into the finishing shute. A few looks behind me let me know it was safe to walk and celebrate. I high fived as many of the kids that I could (without falling over) and very importantly I looked in earnest for my little family.
My final moment of energy included a very Lleyton Hewitt’esque “C’MON” (I think?) and then I staggered over the line… done. I had won the run.
Sadly, there was no family in the finishing shute. Mandy hadn’t been able to get back from Frankston on the bus in time to negotiate all the people and get to the fence at the finish. I don’t think they envisaged me running that fast... as I certainly didn’t predict it so why should they! If we had, then they probably would have been there I reckon… it was a bit sad, but they were all there waiting for me at the exit to the competitors enclosure and the hug was worth the wait. My lovely wife got my medal.
Official Run Time: 3:13.18
What else to report on?
MY RESULT – to complete this Ironman in 9:38.35 is amazing for me. My pre-race best scenario estimates were 9:42hrs… and that was being the perfect day. In 2013 the race was shortened due to adverse weather… in 2012 9:42hrs was good enough to go to Kona… so all I wanted to do was put myself in the shop window for a ticket to the big island.
I’d say sadly, as Kona is a goal of mine… but I am not sad at all. My race was great… and I am very proud of the run I did and the plan I stuck to. It was formulated by Pete Mauro of TSO and it worked to the letter. It is unfortunate and nothing more that the rest of the 35-39 AG has progressed in the last 2 years and the best of the best now see this race as the big one to get to Kona. I came 43rd with the cut off to qualify for Kona being 9:14hrs.
I will be back…
ZIM – sensational race!!! Sub 9:30 and in with a solid shout at roll down… yes a long shot given the calibre of our race… but a shot none the less. Great swim as predicted, solid ride which I expected to lose more time on… but also a good solid run got him home. For sure, I was running 3hr 15 pace for most of the Marathon and I thought from time to time “I wonder if I will see the big fella”… or “wonder where he is?”… by about 25-30km though, that line had changed to “WOW… Zim has had a cracking race!!”. To clear one thing up to my mates though… no, I wasn’t out to beat the big guy. It would have been great to catch up to him and spur him on and finish together… and if I had caught up on the run it would have been his call to tell me to keep running, not mine to take off as I wouldn’t have been leaving without dragging him kicking and screaming to the finish.
To clear another thing up though… I am out to beat everyone else. Why wouldn’t I be? I don’t sign up to Ironman races to play cards and drink tea.
DRAFTING on the ride was terrible and the TECHNICAL OFFICIALS seemed powerless.
Penalise 30 people or penalise no one… that was the choice presented and they opted for no one… well, they opted for penalising 1 or 2 here and there… only when the rider they had spoken to has refused to comply or said something smart back.
I will give them their dues in that they were consistent in preferring to instruct rather than penalise but I think it was the wrong call and if they had started carding people from the off I have no doubt word would have got around that the TO’s were in charge.
I rode around a number of people that were openly laughing at the TO riding next to a group handing out instructions and accepting the pathetic attempts of riders to comply rather than penalising en masse. What can you do though, I understand this is the showpiece event in Australia now and they want the punters to keep signing up and handing over their entry fees so they are hardly going to make it unattractive... The threat of penalties might numbers in jeopardy.
NUTRITION was perfect. Breakfast was perfect, my ride nutrition hit the nail on the head and my run nutrition was great. To provide some insight into what I consumed I did learn you don’t cut open a Bonk Breaker bar and let the air out (to make the packet smaller) the night before the race… as it dries the bar out and makes it hard to swallow. 2 of these on the ride were great for energy… hard to get down though. No biggy. On the run, I ran with enough nutrition to get me to around 3hrs max… actually it was only enough to get me to 2hrs 40min. The plan was always to scrounge for Gatorade, lollies and coke after that… which I did. If I grabbed lollies I didn’t like, I just tossed them aside and held on to the next station… many thanks to the snakes I got at one aid station… delicious.. best ever! One station I grabbed all 3… as well as water finally to wash the coke off my chest after barely getting any in :-)
And finally… my infamous transitions and the new suit.
Amateur hour… blasé… new suit… headache… using the loos… sunscreen… all of the above cost me valuable minutes in T1 and T2.
17minutes over the two Transitions is not even close to good enough and realistically I have over 10 minutes to cut from this next time… putting me fair and squarely in the sub 9:30 range (given conditions are suitable) without doing any better on all 3 legs. Would I have ridden that well with the break though? Would I have run 3:13 without the long break?? Who knows… to be worked on though.
In short I was ill-prepared for transition with the new suit. I had a few days to get to know my new buddy and I didn’t. The suit was fantastic from a comfort point of view… I seriously had to feel my back at one stage on the run… I thought there must be a hole in the back as I just couldn’t feel it there! Super comfy piece of kit!!
The fail was on my behalf for wearing it without adequate testing… even just 2 transition sessions in the few days I had the suit prior to the race would have been better than just the couple of ride and runs that I did.
In the end, the pockets on the back are higher than last years BSR kit and they have little lids on them to make them more aero… I really struggled to get anything in and out of them… while on the ride and in transition. Again, not the fault of the suit… this was all my doing. I finished my ride with a dull headache… not from dehydration… not sure why to be honest… but it was there and I just couldn’t get the Panadol out of my back pocket to take them while riding and after having ridden 180km @ 75% it was very hard to get the co-ordination to get them out of my pocket in transition. I pull out my nasal spray… put that back… then I’d pull out the vaso I had… put that back… then I’d pull out the nasal spray again… amateur d*ckhead… why wouldn’t I just empty my pockets and be done with it instead of fiddling around with my arm halfway up my back like I am about to be frog marched out of a department store for stealing.
Then came the bags… fiddling around in them as well instead of just tipping them out like I have done in recent Ironman races?? Why?? No idea… fiddle fiddle fiddle fiddle… get the sh*ts, tip it all out. For anyone that has watched the Ironman dvd’s… think Chris McCormack trying to put his helmet on in 2007 and yelling at himself… that’s how frustrated I was getting with my bumbling. In future, consumables in pockets, sundries like Panadol etc in aero box on top tube.
In T1 I just wasn’t urgent enough and there was no assistance from volunteers in either getting the wetsuit off or packing the bag up again. I was too blasé about the whole thing and just strolled out to my bike after struggling to get stuff in my pockets thinking thank fck that swim is over… time to do some work.
In T2 it was a combo of the headache, busting to p*ss and more bumbling trying to figure out what I could and couldn’t fit in my pocket. I even rearranged a few times not really realising how much time I was taking… all the while, sitting down and tapping my toes to the beat you find when you are really about to p*ss your pants… I got up to exit, put on my sunscreen and vaso and went to the loo… after waiting almost a minute for a vacant stall.
Why didn’t I go on the bike?? Normally I would… but I just lost my nerve with so many people riding so close together let alone having someone sitting on your rear wheel drafting. I just couldn’t let fly morally with everyone so close together… so lost time it was.
The suit… as mentioned above was super comfortable. Not as much quad compression as the TSO or Endurance Junkie suits I own so I wore my Compressport quads which I prefer anyway but apart from that it was brilliant. I did wear BSR tri shorts over the top of the suit on the ride for extra padding but that was mainly a precaution due to me being a bit sore from recent weeks training. No issues at all on the day. Yes, the pockets were high and hard to get to… it’s all technique though and I will definitely practice it some more over winter to get it right. They seem small, but they do stretch enough. The upper body and arms were a perfect fit... as close to a 2ndskin as you can get. You’ve all seen Luke McKenzie in his suit by now? Same brand.
The goal? I had said it to anyone that my perfect race would be close to 9:42… that would only be reached by doing an x swim, an xx ride and an xxx run… turns out only the bike was close to what I predicted and my transition times were awful. So with a 9:38under my belt it is very comforting to know that I achieved my goal yet I still have plenty of room for improvement next year. Satisfied with the race?…
ABSOLUTELY! Satisfied going forward?… absofckinglutely not!
Massive shout out to my beautiful wife Mandy who puts herself out in order to accommodate all my training and racing and my 2 lovely wee men who although they probably don’t understand what’s going on just yet certainly lift my spirits right when I need it… in training, racing and life.
My parents who also made the trek down to the race… long drive for them, their help with the boys all year round is very much appreciated.
Zim and Pete… team TSO. Team mate and Coach respectively. Pete has taught me a lot in the small time I have been in his stable and credit where credit is due; I have improved my results dramatically since I started. You tell me in May last year (when I signed up for Melbourne) that I would do a9:38 and I would have told you to stop being ridiculous. Pete was charged with getting me under 10hrs and he delivered in spectacular fashion. Thanks Pete, the nutrition plans have also been perfect. Zim… forever just ahead of me and pushing me along. Fantastic to talk it over with, discuss progress and race with. Hopefully my run will inspire you that it can be done just as much as your swim and ride pushes me to improve mate. It’s been a pleasure.
Last but not least, Big Sexy Racing. I think I’ve mentioned them enough in other reports but it really is great to be part of the team. Not necessarily for the discounts on gear, but for the camaraderie, humour and advice dispensed throughout the year.
Shout out to the Big Sexy Racing sponsors that were also part of my day... Champion System for the serious kit, Rubys Lube, Bonk Breaker, SPY+ for the amazing DAFT sunnies... and Newton. I may not have raced in Newtons this time around but they have played an enormous part in my prep.
I leave this with Team BSR's man of the hour, pro triathlete Chris McDonald’s short but sage advice pre-race: “Patience is rewarded in Ironman.. but don’t be afraid to believe in yourself."
Done. There were a few more words but this is the part I took with me and delivered on, especially in the run. Next year I will go even better and dispense ALL his advice as I go all out… “Suck the life out of your competition… don’t let them suck it out of you! Put it in the big ring and don’t look back brother!”
Will do Chris.
Onward. I’ve already signed up to do it all again!
