Ironman Wales September 16th 2012

The trouble with writing this blog entry is, where to begin. Such a big day, such a huge adventure. I guess the best place to start is at the begining which after all the build up of the days before was midnight on the 16th. My alarm woke me for my first breakfast. Now, if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t really do breakfast, you may find this all a little disturbing. First breakfast for me consisted of 500 ml of low fat evaporated milk made into a banana milkshake and 3 pouched eggs on a bagel, washed down with 500ml of water. Back to bed then until my 4 am alarm call. Second breakfast. Porridge with mixed dried fruit and flaked almonds with a huge spoonful of Nutella chocolate spread. This was followed by a can of low fat rice pudding with jam. I was stuffed, but by then it was still 2 hours until the race start at 7am.

Ironman goody bag with transition bags and numbers inside. Transition bags all packed up, ready for drop off.

My wife and the kids were all up and getting ready for what was going to be a long day in Tenby. 5.15 and we all headed off to race transition. When we reached Tenby I headed off to transition and the family went to get a space near the beach to watch the start, it was still pitch black. I got to transition and took off the bike cover, checked the tyres and changed into my wet suit. I then had to store my bag in registration. At 6.15 all the athletes walked together down through the town and to the beach.

The kids overlooking North beach on their arrival.

During an Ironman race you are allowed access to your special needs bags, one for the ride and one for the run. I was told on Fridays registration that we must take our bags to the swim start, there will be a van which you put the bags in. Special needs stations will be at kiln park for the ride and Crackwell hill for the run. The reason I’m telling you this now is this. As we walked down to the beach it soon became apparent to me that I seemed to be the only person carrying special needs bags. To be fair, there was over 1500 athletes there, so I couldn’t see everybody. I asked a marshal about the van, he knew nothing about a van. I asked another, again he knew nothing. By now I was almost on the beach, still with these two bags in my hands and nowhere to put them. I asked a third marshal, again he new nothing but he said that he would take them and get them to special needs. I had no choice other that to trust him. So we’re all stood at the shore line waiting for the gun, I’ve had a short warm up in the sea and it’s quite a good temperature (honest). The gun sounded and over 1500 athletes all entered the water and headed for the first turn. The Pros started in the water about 20 feet ahead of the rest of us. My aim was to go slow and steady for the first lap then check my time and make up any short falls on the second lap. I was looking for a swim time of around 1hr 10 min.

Copy and paist this link into your browser to see the race start. http://youtu.be/9DnTp6ILKhs

As we rounded the first buoy which was actually a small boat with a flag on it, it was chaos, there were bodies everywhere, if there wasn’t so much adrenalin flowing through our veins, it would have been scary. Things had thinned out a bit by the time we got to the second buoy and I had some open water to swim in. I completed the first lap of two in 33 minutes. Wow, and that was going easy. I thought then, ok let’s just do the same again only this time I’ll have more space. Things were far more relaxed on the second lap as everybody had settled into a speed and was swimming in their own space. I finally finished the swim in 1hr 1 min. Brilliant, that set me up for what promised to be a really good day for me. There was a 1 km run to 1st transition which took us through the streets of Tenby and the noise from the crowds at only eight o,clock in the morning was amazing, I couldn’t help but smile. I arrived in T1, grabbed my bike bag and began changing out of my wetsuit. Changed into my cycle clothes I headed out of the transition tent and off toward my bike. That’s when a great big smack in the mouth of reality hit me. I got hit by the, you stupid idiot branch of the tree. As soon as I left the tent I realised that when I was in transition earlier on that morning checking the bike, I had forgotten to put my drinks bottles on it. What a plonker. My entire nutrition strategy out the window before I had even started the ride. I couldn’t believe it. I went back into T1 to ask if I could get my day bag from registration as that is where by bottles were. “NO!” came the reply. They did give me a small bottle of water though. I took that and headed off on the bike.

I was now going to have to cope with just the course supplies, Gatorade and water until I got to the special needs station, where I had another bottle of Carbohydrate formula waiting for me. Assuming that my special needs bag got to special needs, I wasn’t counting on it. First feed station was in Angle about an hr away so I just supped water from the bottle I was given until then. On the bike things were going really well, I was carrying good speed and my legs felt great. I was being very conservative with my energy and trying to keep the peddling light and it was all working. I went through the first two feed stations, picking up bottles as I went and was doing just great until 40 miles. Cruising along around 15 mph suddenly my chain jerked and I had no drive. The chains slipped off was my first thought. Then I noticed my rear derailleur was hanging off the bike. Oh no, this was serious, race ending serious. I leaned the bike up against the hedge and nearly cried, it was looking so over for me. The derailleur hanger had snapped. A support motor cyclist pulled up and after I had told him what happened he asked if I wanted him to ring for the sweeper van to come and collect me. I thought about it for a few seconds. This can’t be it, it can’t be over now, I’ve put too much in for it to be over now. I asked him if he could give me a few minutes to try and fix it, “Sure” he said. I looked at the damage and thought, how the hell am I going to fix this. Then a calm and logical side of me kicked in. If I shorten the chain and put it around just one cog I can still peddle the bike in one gear. So I set about taking the derailleur off the chain taking the correct amount of links out of the chain and putting it all back together in 4th gear. I then strapped the derailleur to the back of the frame as it was still hanging because of the cable attachment. I chose 4th gear because I thought I could spin out on the flats at around 14-15 mph and I should be able to make most of the hills in 4th as well, although there was going to be at least one which would be a walker. So within the first 3.5 hours my Ironman nutrition plan was useless and now so was my pacing plan. In the back of my mind I kept saying to myself, “finish at all costs. After ten to fifteen minutes of cursing, a smile appeared on my face as it dawned on me what I had just done, I had snatched a potential victory out of the jaws of certain defeat. I tell you, one year ago I would have thrown the bike in a hedge and called for the van myself, but this day I was stronger, and that filled me with pride, so I smiled. I finished the first lap and as I headed out of Tenby I saw the family and shouted to them that I was stuck in one gear. At least special needs was just up the road and I could get some carbohydrate fluid into my body, but it wasn’t. I found out after the race that they had moved the Special needs station to Saundersfoot, a town which I had passed 4 miles ago. Still I rode on with 40 miles to go, smiling to myself. I was beating this demon which was determined to stop me finishing. I think I smiled for the remainder of the bike leg, all eight hours of it. I was slow on the flats and the hills hurt like hell and I wasn’t sure if I would have anything left in the legs for the marathon. I was using 4th gear on hills where usually 1st would be a struggle.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finally reached T2 not before showing off my handy work repairs to the transition referee and he was quite impressed with my efforts I can tell you. A quick change from cycle jersey to T shirt and a pair of running shoes and I was out onto the run. I passed the family just outside transition and stopped to give my wife a hug, then set about the run at hand. Although all other plans had fallen quite early on I still had a plan for the run. It was quite simple. The run was four laps of 6.5 miles and my plan was to run the first lap before even looking up and thinking about what I was doing. That way, if it suddenly dawned on me that this is insane, at least I would only have 3 more to do. There’s logic in there somewhere. I knew after that bike leg that I was going to find it harder than I had previously expected so I set a pace a little slower than usual. After 58 minutes I had completed the first lap, that was awesome, I felt pretty good as well, considering. I’m gonna try and do that again for the second lap, and I did, 59 minutes. The crowds in Tenby were immense and making so much noise that they could have inspired the dead. Each time I came into Tenby for the next lap, it lifted me. As I headed out for the third, things started to hurt, I needed to keep something back so I walked the main hill heading out of the town, did a little running when I could and walked through the feed stations. Third lap completed in 1hr 10 min. Still not bad going. I was in a lot of pain now so even though it was starting to get dark I kept my sun glasses on in the hope that it would mask the pain. As I passed the family at the end of the third, I told them that this last one may take some time and off I went on my final voyage out of the town. Again I found myself walking up the main hill but I did start to run sooner on this lap. At the half way point of each lap we received a coloured band which represented how many laps we had to do. I could see people with all four bands Yellow, Green, Blue and Pink heading back to Tenby. You lucky people I thought. I already had the Yellow, Green and Blue and I was on my way to get the Pink. I only needed the Pink then I could head home, what a lift that gave me especially when I looked at people with only Green. Those poor souls. I did a little walking before I picked up my final band but once I had the pink beauty on my arm I was running all the way to the finish. Now don’t get me wrong, there was no sudden burst of energy, there was no sprint. I just had it in me to put one foot in front of another for another 3.5 miles, and although at times there was now gap between my feet from front to back, I was still running. I came into Tenby for the final time and the crowds were electric, they could see that I had all four bands and were cheering me home. This was a very emotional time. As well as your race number the crowds can also see your name, and they use it, and by god it helps, even though you know that they don’t know you, they’re calling you on by your name. I was close to tears as I ran through the town partly because of emotion and partly because of the pain I was in. I can’t describe the pain in my quads it was like the muscles had been replaced with blocks of metal that were rubbing against every other part of my legs. Unfortunately it was now too dark for the sun glasses so the pain on my face was there for everyone to see. As I ran through the town I applauded the crowds who had been fantastic, this seemed to provoke them and made them cheer and clap even more. I got to the point in the course where you turn right to start another lap or left to go to the finish. This time I was turning left. I had put in an astounding 4:14 marathon. About 200 metres stood between me and my finishers medal. As I rounded the corner I saw the red carpet, which looked blue in the light and the cheering crowds were going absolutely nuts, banging on the side walling of the chute. I blew kisses at the carpet as I ran onto it then started weaving left and right giving high fives to all the hands that were waiting. There was the finish, I straightened up my direction and headed for the finish line. Just in time out of the corner of my eye I spotted my kids just behind the finish clock arch and I briefly stopped to touch hands before crossing the line. Wow, I’d done it. 62 weeks of training came down to 13:40:09 hrs. What a day, what an adventure. I fell into my wife’s arms before going to collect my medal.

Copy and paste this link into your browser to see my finish,( sligthtly edited) https://www.dropbox.com/s/4w0swp7w1pzblu1/Ironman2012.mov

That was it, I’d got what I came there to collect and against a lot of odds. In some respects I’m glad it all happened the way it did, what with the bike incident and the bottles and special needs because it proved that I did it mentally as well as physically. I now believe that Ironman is 40% physical fitness and 60% mental strength. The cut off times are generous enough to give most people with a reasonable level of fitness a good chance of making them. It comes down to whether you have the mental strength to make yourself go on, to make your self start a marathon which could take you 6-7 hrs, to make yourself begin the third lap even though it’s already dark and you may be the only one left on the course. To make yourself carry on on a bike that now has only one gear, knowing that you are basically a dead man walking and you’ll have nothing left for the run. I hope that my kids will look at what I have done and know that it’s ok to try your hardest and it’s ok to get knocked down, just don’t ever give up, because to carry on is so worth it!

Hundreds of volunteers helped to make Ironman run smoothly; they did everything from picking your bags up in transition to giving you food and water at feed stations. Making sure you got to the start, and every road junction on the bike course had volunteers keeping the traffic at bay. Throughout Pembrokeshire people lined the route, from the swim at 7 in the morning to the roads on the cycle route and the streets of Tenby and New Hedges for the Marathon. All in all I paid just under £400 to enter Ironman Wales 2012. Thousands of people gave up at least 1 day of their lives to ensure that my £400 was money well spent.

Thank you