Double Ironman Race Report
Prep/Training
Training was going great until 6 weeks prior to the event. The bike was mostly spent on the turbo with the long weekend rides combining a few 100milers, two 120miles and one 150 mile ride and when the weather allowed a once a week 40mile round commute to work and back. Halfway through my training I decided to switch plans because it was becoming just too time consuming and I was struggling to handle the commitment with a fulltime job, family and training (the usual double ironman training issues!). The switching of the plan helped my mindset tremendously as now I at least had a day off a week with much less swimming YES!
Then I manage to tear my left calf, it was probably my own fault for pushing too hard on my Tuesday brick sessions. At the beginning I wasn’t too disheartened I had two other disciplines I could keep working on and I usually heal quickly. This was all true except for the healing, 3 weeks later and still no running; it was not getting better (you know how it is, in your mind you think it will be OK but deep down you know it isnt but you decide to try out a run anyway only to find 1mile down the road it isnt). The bad luck started rolling in; the famliy car I was going to use to get us down, a nice big people carrier decided to die on me, “sh1t” I have three weeks to find a car, not only that I now have to cycle to work with a dodgy calf every day, training was hard enough I didn’t want to have to ride a bike aswell! :-) Then the last week and on taper I started to get the horrible feeling I always get prior to a big race, cold/flu like symptoms but this time it wasn’t taper induced my lovely daughter decided to give me a cold, I doused myself with as much cold medicine as I could and slept as much as possible, luckily it didn’t get to my chest until after the event.
My original goal was to get 36hrs with an ideal of around 30, now it was to just complete.Swim 2:35:51
My ironman times have been between 1:09 and 1:20 so I thought 2:40 would be a reasonably time to aim for. Normally I go off too fast and for the remainder of the swim I am constantly trying to recover, fortunately from the off I seemed to find a nice relaxed rhythm which stayed for the entire swim. I hit a low point when a surge of cold water entered down the back of my wetsuit. I suffer terribly with the cold and often find that once I get cold I really struggle to get warm again. I remembered eddies advice from the briefing, if you get cold just push through which I did by having a pee to warm me up.
My crew were fantastic always there keeping an eye on me sat on the first pontoon from the swim start, I kept an eye on them to make sure they were still cheering me on and hadn't got bored already and I even managed a smile or a wave at them with each lap.
Cold set in again and my mind was desperate to ask how many laps I had left to go, I made it a couple more laps until I could wait no longer, I was convinced it was over halfway….it wasnt and I remember thinking to myself that that wasn’t a smart move.
The rest was just a dull blur until I what I thought was still three laps remaining they called out the last lap. What a wonderful feeling.
I took my time getting out having a chat with my crew as I walked up to the change tent, I was in no hurry because I knew I would not be able to eat anything despite being hungry because I was uncontrollably shaking by this point, once I was sat down and dried off I was able to eat the freshly cooked and still warm scrambled and bacon wrap yum. I was ready for the bike leg.
Bike 14:05:38
I took both my TT bike and my Road bike. My plan was to use the TT for as long as I could bare it and then switch over to the much comfier road bike for the remainder. I also use tubs on the TT bike and I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to mechanics, any issues and it would have been a swap rather than fiddling and making the situation worse.
At the start I decided to just go with the flow and go at what felt like a comfy pace but to take it easy up the hills. I had only been on the TT bike outside once just a week prior to the event to make sure the bike needed nothing fixing, it felt so good on the road it was a joy to just be riding!
The second or third lap I seen a guy that had had an accident, he didn’t look happy at all (unsurprisingly) and then he told me he couldn’t see! I stopped but he insisted I carried on after I made sure he had called Eddie to be picked up.
I purposely tried not to look at my watch, it was going to be a long enough day. The only time I looked was when I came in to see the crew to see how long each lap was taking this would allow me to consider how much food and water I should be taking on (my crew was new to this so I was giving the orders). After approximately 80 miles in I was still averaging 18mph, at this point I decided it was about time to start sticking to my original plan of 15/16mph before I blew my legs. I just couldnt go that slow I was finding the combination of the rolling roads and TT so enjoyable I only slowed down a little.
Not long afterwards I bumped into Grom so I introduced myself and we chatted for a while. Grom gave an invaluable tip which was to get as much of the bike done within daylight going slightly above what you should really be doing for this sort of distance to be able to cover as much as the bike leg in daylight. As soon as he mentioned it was like a light bulb switching on, it was so obvious! he may have even seen it in my face because soon afterwards he told me to get going which I did.
I didn’t really have a low point within this section apart from the obvious aches and pains of being in the aero position for as much of the 14 hours as I could handle, the rest again is a bit of a blur chatting to a few people asking how they are doing especially the triplers! I distinctly remember bumping into Claire a few times, each and every time she was smiling but I could tell she was having a hard time.
Run 09:55:10
I took my time getting changed perhaps too long I was seizing up and I didn't want to get off that comfy chair, right it was time to get going, mind over body (it wouldn't be the last time I needed to say this).
As soon as I started running I knew my calf was going to be fine, whether or not it was the calf guards (which I don't normally wear nowadays) giving me a false impression I didn't care; the fact that both my legs were doing as they were told for the first time in 6 weeks was a great feeling. The laps were ticking off well and I still didn't really know what position I was in, I knew I was doing well and then I was told I was in 2nd place…”what!” I was thinking around 10th how can this be? I also knew T_C was somehow still behind me so I knew 2nd would soon be gone and there was still the matter of getting through a double marathon. I got back to my crew and asked them to find out how far back 4th place was, I remember thinking it would be fantastic to get a 3rd place and knowing how far back 4th was would allow me to pace correctly without hurting myself, I never did get the answer (or I dont remember getting told). Not long after I went over on my ankle twice on the same spot on two consecutive laps, I wasn't concentrating enough on the technical root section so I told myself off after the pain had subsided, took some ibuprofen and cocodomal to help with the pain and soon forgot all about it.
I think it was T_C’s second lap when he came thundering past me on the downhill section down towards the lake, I blinked and he was out of site. I just stuck to my plan to be as consistent as possible I started to get a real good rhythm running most of the lap including the hills the only walk section was the small section up towards the tennis courts and the section going up to the lodge.
It was just after a marathon distance that I hit the lowest point of the whole event I started getting really dizzy and couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, I decided to eat some ‘real’ food again and asked for a pot noodle. I walked as I ate it for a small section passed it back and collected it again when I returned. After two or three laps of this I felt so much better in fact the best I had felt for a while so I got cracking, that was all I needed.
With about 4 laps left I got chatting with T_C while we walked the hills it was great to finally speak to the legend, he kindly said that he was now just going for the finish and for me to take no risks in getting to the finish...a gent. The last lap of Enduroman you do it in reverse so that you get to high five everyone else still on the course, T_C asked to go over the penultimate start/finish line with me, as we did he put my hand in the air and told me I was a great athlete. What a compliment! That last lap in reverse was fantastic not only was I becoming a double ironman ……I won!
None if it would have been possible without my crew, they are 80% of the team effort that it takes to get someone across that finish line.
Thank you to everyone cheering me on throughout the day there are so many new faces it was difficult to take it all in, even without the win it would have gone down as one of the best events I have done, everyone is so welcoming its like an extended family
The goal for me on this event was to see just how far I could push my body and I was convinced that this would be my limit….unfortunately for my wife and family it isnt……..
