Ironman Wales Race Report

 
Ironman Wales is set in the stunning fishing town of Tenby.  Carl my friend and training partner set off on the 6 hour journey Friday morning.  The weather was grim and I hoped this wasn't what we had in stall for the weekend.  We arrived mid afternoon and the original plan was to register and get to the official swim practice session.  By the time we had collected our race numbers and transition bags we had decided not to have a mad panic and try to make the end of the swim session.  After a bit of retail therapy at the expo we made our way to the caravan park we were staying at.  I choose this site after watching Carl and my coach race the inaugural event back in 2011.  The caravan makes an excellent base and with my ever supportive Wife supplying the 'Team Dan' catering nothing could be better.  My mother in law, Wife and Daughter followed us down and arrived shortly after us.  Once we had unpacked the cars it was time to go to the official race briefing.

The purpose of the briefing is to inform competitors of the race day details covering the course and regulations and this is when the race nerves start to build, the atmosphere was amazing. 1700 athletes in one room of all abilities from first timers to seasoned professionals and not to mention the odd ex Tour De France cyclist (who just so happens to be in my age group!)

 

 Saturday morning dawned nice and sunny, had been raining quite heavily in the night but that was fine with me just as long as we had the same conditions the next day!  After breakfast Carl and I went down to the sea to do one loop of the swim course and a get a feel for the water temperature and conditions.  It couldn't have been better, really calm and surprisingly quite warm. After one loop I was very up beat to see 28 minutes and change for one loop if you add 30 seconds or so on for the run up the beach then I was looking at 29 minute laps, my watch confirmed the distance was correct so very happy.  My plan and previous swim training times had pointed towards a 1.03-1.04.

After a quick lunch we headed out on to the bike course for a quick easy 25 min spin just to check there were no problems with the bikes, it was then time to put my feet up for an hour or so before heading down to the transition area to rack my bike and drop of the transition bags.

Everything was now done so it was time to try and relax and get an early night.  I got a lovely surprise from my amazing wife who had designed 'Team Dan' supporters’ t - shirts, I actually got quite emotional but of course didn't show it... Ironmen don't do that sort of thing !  After having a good meal, if a little spicy (thanks Mazza) I went to bed around 9pm and actually slept quite well, again the heavens opened in the night so I was hoping the weather would repeat yesterdays forecast.  The alarm was set for 4am to allow me to wake, have breakfast and digest before heading down to meet Carl.  The full Team Dan crew were up and ready to rock. We headed down to transition to check everything was ok and put my drinks bottles on my bike.  There was the usual quietness about transition, mainly because most people probably didn't get much sleep and were no doubt starting to feel quite nervous.  I was strangely calm and quite relaxed.  I was reassured by how hard I had trained and had the confidence I had done everything possible to be ready.  It was basically a long training day and I’d done plenty of those over the last 9 months and more. We headed down to the beach for the swim start and as we were waiting to go down the steps on to the beach caught sight of my friend and coach Paul with his son Thomas.  They both looked white as a sheet having no doubt spend a sleepless night in a tent, that made me laugh as well as feel very grateful for making the long journey down to support me.  When we finally got down to the beach they were calling 2 minutes until swim warm up finishes,  I remember saying to Carl "Sod that I'm going in, they'll just have to wait" we managed to get a quick 50 meters out and back done, mainly to reduce the shock of diving in to cold water for the first time. We then lined up and readied ourselves for the starting siren and the mad dash to the water.

Swim 1:07

Position Overall - 258

Age Group Position - 37

Looking at the sea prior to the start the water looked nice and calm however as soon as the siren sounded it was chaos for the entire first lap, there was no clear water at all and was contently having so change my line to get round slower swimmers.  I don't claim to be the best swimmer in the world but some peoples version of a straight line differs from mine.  I new instantly that this was not going to be a fast swim (for me) so I just concentrated on being relaxed and not getting wound up by things I couldn't control.  I exited lap 1 in 32:45 nearly some 4 minutes slower than I was expecting but as I knew I was swimming slower than planned this didn't come as a shock or actually bother too much.  The second lap went pretty much the same as the first until half way round I started feeling a pain behind my left knee, I thought nothing of it and put it down to a bit of cramp and just kicked less and relaxed my legs hoping it would go away which seemed to work.  On exiting the swim there is a 100 meter run along the beach which then leads you to a series of zig zags that take you up to the road leading to transition this is quite a steep climb and when you've been lay horizontal for an hour it takes a while to find your feet.  I quickly took off my wetsuit, put on my trainers and ran the 1k or so to change and get out on to my bike.

Bike : 5:48

Position Overall - 63

Age Group Position - 10

I was fairly quick through transition and made up several positions, once out on to the bike course I tried to settle down and not push too hard, that proved quite difficult as there was a fairly stiff climb within the first few miles.  It was clearly going to be a blustery day and looking at the sky no doubt wet!  Having only driven part of the course on the Friday evening most of the route was unknown, this caused a few problems with pacing as I didn’t know where to hold back, I just tried to hold a comfortable pace and ride within myself.  The first half of the bike went with out any problems and I was passing people on a regular basis.  I knew I was holding a good pace as I was now catching some of the pro woman who had clearly had a good lead on me after the swim.  On the second loop I started feeling the pain again that had troubled me in the swim and now I was aware this wasn’t cramp but more of an issue with my hamstring so where ever possible I would stretch out my leg to help ease the pain but as the ride continued it started to pull on my lower back.  Not long after starting the second loop the heavens opened and at times was quite difficult to see where you were going.  The sound of ambulance sirens out on the course was a constant reminder that I had to be alert especially as I didn’t know the course and it would be all too easy to carry too much speed into a corner not knowing how tight it would be.  I had one scary moment where I did exactly that but luckily I didn’t panic and just let the bike run out across the road stopping just before the ditch on the other side of the road.  The pain in my leg and now back was not getting any better and in fact every hill was becoming very painful, so much so that I was now trying to put more force onto my other leg to help rest my injured leg, this initially helped but soon the over use of my good leg started to cause it to cramp, not a good sign.  I decided to back off and take it steady at this stage, after all I still had a marathon to run!  With 10 miles to go I was in agony and all down one side had now locked up including my neck which made cornering interesting!! at this stage I was all most certain I wouldn’t be able to continue after the bike.  I arrived gingerly to T2 and hobbled in to the tent. 

Run  4:01

Position Overall -  102

Age Group Position - 18

I sat myself down and one of the helpers said “oh dear you don’t look too good” I just laughed and said don’t worry it’s far worse than it looks. She encouraged me to at least try and run but one of the medical staff wasn’t too keen on my current condition, for some reason the thought that somebody was taking the decision away from me weather I could continue or not briefly frightened me.  I asked if I could at least try one lap and if I was in so much pain I would stop anyway.  She agreed and my IM shuffle began.  I slowly tried to jog but the pain would shoot down my neck and back, I simply couldn’t open my stride enough to run.  I saw my wife and coach who had managed to get me some pain killers, once I took them it was as if I was a new Man !  I went from struggling to hobble at 9.30 min/mile pace to a more respectable 7.15 – 7.30 pace.  I kept plugging away and was starting to find a rhythm, I could still feel the pain on the steep down hill sections but all too soon the pain killers wore off and the pain returned at this stage I was cramping in my leg which was obviously from the effort on the bike everything was pulling down my side.  It was just a case of getting to the finish.  I lost so many positions in the last 30 minutes but I couldn't do anything about it. A 4 hour marathon was not what I was expecting.  I had hoped to be running something around 3.15 but the course had changed from previous years so even if fully fit that would of been a tall ask on such a hilly course.  At the race briefing the organisers had said this was the toughest Ironman race in the world and it certainly lived up to its reputation.  Although disappointed I didn’t achieve the result I set out to, I have taken a great deal of confidence that I have the ability to succeed .  Even with a 4 hour marathon I was only around 30 minutes from my goal.

I just want to say a massive thank you to my amazing Wife and family for supporting me in what is a very selfish pursuit, my coach and very good friend Paul at thetrimarket.com and last but not least my colleagues at CPM International for putting up with my constant state of tiredness.

The Journey continues!