Ironman UK

Deciding that I would never be at the level of fitness I would be happy with to properly race Olympic distance races, I decided to do IRONMAN UK with the only intention of finishing. With this in mind I started to train properly in April. 

The training was at first fun, breaking boundaries and then breaking them again, gives you a great sense of achievement, but after a while one gets a bit bored of having to sit on a bike for 5-6hours. When it came to the race, it turned into quite an enjoyable day.

Wake up was at 4am for a 6am start. I stupidly had not brought any cold-weather clothing, and guess what, race day was not warm. The sun did make odd appearances, but most of the race was done under dark clouds. I got into the water among the first, which proved a good decision, as it took a full 10 minutes for everyone to get in, which game me plenty of time to warm-up. I elected to position myself in the first row of swimmers, but at the opposite side of where the best swimmers would be. Although a confident swimmer, my only aim was to finish, so I wanted clear water. By doing this, I was easily able to out-start everyone around me, and for the first 200m until the first buoy had clear water, which allowed me to get into my rhythm. By the first buoy, the field (of 1500) swimmers had become spread out, so I was able to slot in without too much difficulty. The rest of the first lap consisted of me forcing myself to slow down and over-taking swimmers who had gone out too fast. On the second lap, things settled down, I over-took fewer people, and except for a quick exchange of views with a swimmer who wouldn’t get out of the way, was uneventful. In the end, I came out of the water in 55mins42seconds, faster than my target time of 60mins to 70mins and 67th out 1500! 

Running into T1, the helper remarked that I looked too relaxed to be doing an IRONMAN! To which I remarked that for once I had no intention of rushing through transition (normally my strongest part of a triathlon). 

Onto the bike course and wet roads, I set out at my relaxed pace and was wondering if I wasn’t going too slowly because of the numbers of people over-taking me. (At this stage I didn’t realise how high up I had come out of the water). Punctures were a real curse, but not for me. I counted 35 people who punctured on the first of the three lap course. Once again, my Latin side showed itself, when a rider over-took me in the non-overtaking part of the bike course (a 200yard narrow bike lane). I verbally let loose, with the rider saying that she wasn’t English and pointing to a flag on her top. Realising it was a Belgium flag, she was rather surprised when she suddenly faced an angry Frenchman!!! On the whole people were respectful of the drafting rules, but on the second half of each lap, people were cheating a little bit. The headwind was awful here, on top of that, this is where the tough climbs and horrible roads were. This is what I am going to remember the most of my IRONMAN experience. Climbing up the hardest hill of the bike course, with 30 bikes in front and behind you, and not a single sound, except for the chains going round – all at walking pace (roughly 6mph), is something extremely powerful. Half way round the third lap, I started to think of the marathon and started eating in preparation. One thought about the bike leg, and my one major mistake of the IRONMAN was not trusting the aid stations. I loaded up my bike with 3 litres of fluid (in 4 bottle spots), which was too much. In future, I will keep the four spots, but only start the bike course with 2 (750ml) bottles and then use the aid stations. Overall the bike will be lighter as you use and dump water bottles around the course. 

Into T2 and if I was slow into T1, I was positively snail pace in T2! With the marathon, I saw little point of rushing, preferring to get ready, and with my only stated aim of finishing (I had little interest in overall positioning), I watched in amazement people rush through T2 who could barely move after the bike leg. 

Starting the marathon, I quickly realised that I wasn’t enjoying myself! After 3 miles I really wondered if I would finish. So after a quick mental argument, I decided to stick to the game-plan, run to 15 miles and then allow yourself to walk. Every aid station, I drank a little, and alternated between gels and energy bars. By 7 miles I was fine, and started to enjoy myself. Leaving Sherborne castle grounds, into Sherborne itself, the memories came flooding back. I did my A-levels boarding at Sherborne school, so until we hit the dual carriageway on 11miles, I was running on memories as I went past the diner, boarding houses and through the girl’s school (nice to be running there legally, as opposed to being chased away by an teacher for being out-of-bounds!). Reaching the dual carriageway was daunting. One could see runners as far as the eye could see, and on top of that cars next to you, not particularly a nice sight, and a real mental test. The wind, from which we had been shielded from, re-made its appearances, and I was glad I had elected to wear a jacket. Reaching 13 miles, I felt OK, but knew I would not be able to run the full 26 miles. I knew I had to walk, but wasn’t sure where, and if I did, would I re-start running? Here my decision was helped by the course, which is up and down non-stop. On 14.5 miles, I finally starting walking, but decided to only do it up the hills. This worked really well for me, by walking up the hills; I recovered, and was then able to run downhill and on the flats. My farther who had been following around the run course on his bike, was relieved to hear me say to him on 17 miles, “don’t worry I’ll finish.. but it will take me another hour or two!”. Running back towards Sherborne castle, I was horrified to see people going in the opposite direction to me, and hearing a marshall saying to me “only 1 mile to go” and then turning around and saying to someone “come on 17 miles to go!”. Running into the finishing straight was, well, odd, you’ve been use to being alone in your thoughts for 12 bit hours and then suddenly everyone is screaming you name in encouragement, and you realise you are not alone!!

I enjoyed my IRONMAN experience, and will definitely do one again, but not for another 5 years. I would like to do my first marathon by then and would prefer to concentrate on Olympic-distance triathlon, where in the next 2-3 years I should become increasingly competitive in the overall standings. After all, at 23, I have time on my side!!!

I finished in 12hours32mins58seconds.

Swim 55:42 T1 6:30 bike 6:27:09 T2 10:12 run 4:53:30

I came in 580th out of 1133 who finished (over 1500 started), as 14 out of roughly 40 in my age-group. 

Article by Louis Holding-Parsons
Page created: 2nd September 2007.