Half Way There!

Big news since the last blog...I am now a half ironman! 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run.

The night before the race I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. I hadn’t done a great deal of training in the weeks building up to it as I’d had exams and was resting me knee (I’d injured it going too hard on the bike a couple of weeks before). I knew I could do each discipline individually but was starting to doubt whether I’d have the endurance to do all three. If I couldn’t I’d need to seriously rethink the full ironman.

In the week building up to the race I was stretching regularly, laying off the training and trying to eat as much as possible. Sounds easy- doing less and eating more, but it feels counter-productive. Although I know resting is key to racing and training well, you can’t help but feel like time not training is wasted. Also, as I was exercising less my appetite wasn’t as big and the more I thought about ‘I should be eating’, the less I wanted to do it.

The race was in Weymouth (South coast) and the weather had been really good on the days building up to it....thunder and heavy rain forecast for race day though! Excellent. If I hadn’t had paid £80 to enter, I would have seriously considered giving it a miss! Anyway, my money was paid so I got an early night (ish) the night before, hoping to be fresh for race day.

5:15 am. I woke up 15 minutes before my alarm having had about 5 hours of intermittent sleep. I decided to get up and get moving early rather than fester in bed asking myself why I was doing this. I forced down a big bowl of porridge and mixed up 4 big bottles of energy drink. Two for the bike. One for the car. One for transition. Luckily the race was close to my mate’s place (where I was staying) so I left the house at 6 and got to the venue by 6:15. The swim didn’t start til 7, so I figured I’d have enough time to set up and get ready. As I drove into the car park I was again greeted by what looked like some serious athletes with some serious gear. I guess as the distance goes up, the number of novices goes down. All I was thinking was- don’t be last.

6:50 am. On the beach in Weymouth Bay.  It’s cold, the winds up and cross shore, it’s raining, overcast and the water looks anything but inviting. It’s lumpy; very lumpy and I’m being sent off in ‘wave 1’. Had I filled out my predicted time wrong?! Had they made a mistake?...surely I can’t be in wave 1?! I still have no idea whether that number had any relevance...but it didn’t fill me with confidence!...don’t be last. Do not be last.

Anyway, we had our race briefing and were sent into the water from the shore. I must admit that I largely ignore the ‘directions’ aspect of the briefing on the basis that I’m never going to be out front and can just follow the guys in front. It’s a tactic that’s worked so far.

In my head this moment was going to be Baywatch-esque. I was going to Hasslehoff my way into the surf and glide off into the turquoise waters. As it happened, I stumbled my way over the pebble beach, my feet numb from the cold, and sheepishly entered the freezing sea. It was so cold it took my breath away and my swim stroke that I’d worked on for months in training-the smooth, efficient, breathe both sides stroke, became a breathe every 2 strokes flailing paddle! As it turned out it was no use breathing both sides anyway (unless I fancied a face full of salt water) and I settled into a reasonable rhythm relatively quickly. The swim felt pretty fast heading down wind with the current behind us, but I felt like I was dropping down the field. I started to come past people as we turned and came back up the beach though (against the wind). I’m pretty sure my route wasn’t the most direct between the buoys but I came out of the water behind the lead pack with a time around the 23 minute mark so I was pleased with that. I hobbled back up the beach into transition and slowly sorted myself for the bike.

On the bike I’d planned to eat a high carb bar and drink about 500ml of energy drink every hour. I was trying some new bars out and they tasted like...high carb bars.  A generic, homogenised blend of food. The flavour vaguely resembles the description but I wasn’t looking forward to eating them. It was more a case of ‘I need to eat these’. I think for the full ironman I’m going to mix up the specialist bars with some snickers or something with a bit of taste! I definitely drank enough though. I needed two pees on the bike which threw up a bit of a dilemma. You have to battle with the voice that says ’if you stop you’ll lose at least 3 minutes’ and the voice that says ‘what are you thinking-you can’t piss yourself’...I was however, already wet....

....I didn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t. It was a bit of a faff to stop, but actually quite a nice break from the saddle. Most importantly I maintained my dignity (as much as pissing by the side of the road is ‘maintaining dignity’). Anyway, most of the people that passed me when I was relieving myself I passed again later on as they stopped to drain the lizard! The rest of the bike was relatively unremarkable. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time I was out of the water and it was largely only the guys on bikes that appeared to be ready to go into outer space that came passed me. I was hoping for a time of around 3.5 hours on the bike and it took me about 3 so all was going well. It was a good good feeling not being sat on a saddle any longer.

I decided to run the race as I’m going to do the ironman. A walk-run strategy. Run for 9 minutes. Walk for 1 whilst taking on gels and fluid. The transition from bike to run was fine and my legs felt pretty fresh still. My first few 1 minute walks didn’t feel necessary and it was frustrating letting people go past me. I’d catch most of them during my run though which was a good feeling- knowing that my strategy was letting me run a quicker time. I also felt like I should explain to the crowd that I wasn’t stopping because I was knackered....it’s all part of the plan! After about 8 miles the 1 minute walks were more than welcome. I was checking my watch after about 4 minutes of running to see how much longer I had to go! As well as being a much needed physical break, it was also a good way to break up the mental monotony of the whole thing. It’s easy to keep going when you’ve only got to run for 9 minutes....not so easy when you’ve got to run for another hour!

My run time was about 1:48 and I was expecting somewhere around the 2 hour mark. So another good performance.

My finishing time was 5:16 and I’m really chuffed with that. I’m not convinced I could hold that bike pace for 112 miles and obviously the ironman bike course will be different to the one I’ve just done. Maybe a 7 hour bike, a 4ish hour marathon and a 1 hour swim. I’d be over the moon with those times. I need to be careful not to lose perspective though. The ironman’s about completion for me.