Race Day - Report One

When you are going to race a 3.8km swim, followed by a 180km ride and then a 42km run, you tend to wake up early. I chose to wake up at 3:15, and then I followed a series of instructions that I had written the week before that led me to be swimming amongst the other competitors to a more central position when the gun went off at 6:15. I paused, started my stop watch, and then redirected myself towards the first buoy a couple of hundred metres away.

I was wearing a new wetsuit, one I had only worn once before in a swimming pool. Much literature makes recommendations against wearing new equipment in races, especially long ones, but I was confident I would not have any problems with this well fitted wetsuit. It had a lot more mobility in the arms, was on special when I bought it, and besides, my old one was show signs of age and had started to develop large holes.

With 1500 people all starting to swim at the same time, I did find it a bit crowded at times. But my strategy was to not be too concerned if hit by a fellow swimmer - I didn't want to waste any emotional energy so early in the race.

Most triathlon swims start to thin out after a couple of hundred metres, and then I have to make sure I find someone to sit behind, and thus conserve energy. I had no such problem in this race, even as I approached the swim finish. There were people everywhere all the time, and I found it quite hard to overtake. Recently, I have learnt to take the swim start more conservatively, usually resulting in a faster swim time overall, as I don't blow up. This was the case at Forster; however, it meant I had a harder time overtaking.

Swimming towards the finish, I poked my head up and saw 4 digits, meaning my time was under an hour - something I had hoped for. I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 57:22, as I was aiming for a 58 something swim.

Off with the wetsuit, and on with the cycle jersey, I set out on the 180km ride. I spent the first few kilometres settling down and drinking, but once settled, I started on my nutrition plan (basically something to eat every 20 minutes), and increased the pace a bit. I was feeling fantastic, and travelling according to plan, aiming to complete the first lap in 2:30. I was descending well, staying in the aero position, eating and drinking well, and overtaking people. At the first turn around, I saw one of my training partners, and calculated that he was about 5 minutes in front, which is about what I expected.

I continued feeling fine, and by the second turn around, I noted my mate had gained a few minutes, which wasn't surprising considering he is a better cyclist than me. As the course turned towards town, a tail wind picked up, and I felt like I was flying, as the return into town normally involves battling into a headwind. I was really looking forward to riding through Forster, as there is a fantastic crowd and you can really get some energy from them. I knew there were many supporters from my triathlon club, and I made sure they saw me.

Heading back out of town for the second lap, things started to feel pretty bad pretty quickly. Not good. A couple of cyclists overtook me, and I couldn't go with them. And to top it off, I was battling into the headwind. My pace had slowed dramatically, along with my energy. And I still had about 80km to go on the bike.

I was ready for a bad period, but not one so deep and so soon. I sat up, had something to eat, had a salt tablet, tasting the salt as I consumed it. But I still wasn't improving. My over confidence had pushed the pace too fast. The rest of the ride was a big struggle. I was no longer descending in an aero position, I was sitting up more, and I was basically going a lot slower than I wanted to. At one stage I even saw stars! I watched a few packs slowly overtake me, being unable to ride with them. I had bonked. Hit the wall. Gone pear shaped. Been hit by a ton of bricks. And I still had a marathon to run.

Towards the end of the ride, I managed to feel a little better, and was able to sit with a few others on the last 15km back into town. I was at least 15 minutes slower on the second lap, and I wasn't feeling particularly well.

At least now I had something different to do. It was now time to put on my $40 pair of socks, running shoes and singlet, before starting 42.2km of pain. The beginning of the run was slower than normal, as I took time to find my rhythm, and took a few Nurofen, to hopefully dull the pain in my back, and any other pain that would arise during the run. I was finally settled after I went to the toilet. At least I had been drinking enough.

The run course is 2 laps containing one small loop followed by one big loop, passing through town after each loop. I used each trip through town to gain energy from the crowd, and especially people I knew. I was concentrating fairly intensely on the run, but if someone mentioned my name loudly and clearly enough, I would turn to them and smile, pumping my fist as I continued. This was a huge help, emotionally. Most of the time you are running with no one around, so to have someone mention your name gives you a lift. I also got pumped up by some music being played, in particular "Land Down Under" (as I ate a vegemite sandwich during the ride and run), and a song that I associated with triathlons, as it was played at the Club Champs Awards Dinner the previous year. Yeah.

Approaching the final turnaround on the second lap, I once again saw my mate, who was not too far ahead. This gave me incentive to run harder, as soon as I had gone to the toilet one last time. Unfortunately, he also picked up the pace, and I spent the rest of the run looking ahead for him, whilst he was always looking over his shoulder. As a result of that, I crossed the line at pace, even though he had already finished 90 seconds ahead of me. Next time I will try to walk across the line, and soak up even more of the atmosphere.

Many people collapse when they cross the finish line. I felt OK, rejected a drink of water or sports drink, as I had been drinking that stuff all day, and went for a 20 minute massage, incredibly happy to have finished. My time was certainly not as fast as I had hoped, but I was happy to have beaten my previous time by about 10 minutes, especially after the way I had fallen into a deep hole on the 2nd lap of the bike. I knew I would have to work hard for a time better than the previous Ironman, and I got it. Overall, I was 13th in my age group (out of 165), and 98th overall. Conditions were not the best, with a little bit of rain, and a fair amount of wind eating into the times. I would love to put together a good Ironman race one day, but not next year. I still enjoy the shorter races too much.