Ironman Austria 2007

Having finally broken the 12 hours barrier at IM Germany last year, I had high hopes for this one. It wasn't that the race was a complete disaster, but it was disappointing not to go under 11 as was the initial plan.

Deciding to try and cut costs for this one, myself and a friend decided to hire a transit van and take bikes across with us. Demand was high and we had to limit the number to 18 bikes to avoid having to leave some behind. It must have taken us about 2 hours to work out exactly how to pack the van, but pack it we did, and I swear if we had had one more water bottle even it wouldn't have gone in. So, with £30k's worth of carbon and aluminium in the back, we set off at 4am for the ferry. I won't bore you with the details, but the drive down was crazy. It took us 21 hours to do the 1100 miles to Klagenfurt as opposed to the planned 14-15. Storms, traffic jams, getting lost in Brussels etc etc etc...

Anyway, we got there and unloaded. I had done the race before in 2002, and the sleepy town hadn't changed much. Everything was still where I remembered it, except for the fact that the town centre was being dug up. There was to be no running around the Lindtwurm this year as it looked like they were trying to build a moat around the thing! The next few days passed pretty uneventfully. Laughed at Carl, slept, laughed at Carl some more, slept-the usual build up to any Ironman where the pirates had been involved...

Race morning rolled around, and after managing to get a bit of sleep the night before, I was up and down at breakfast. I don't really have any pre-race rituals, so just had some rolls and a bit of cereal. The youth hostel put on a great spread every morning, but pre Ironman isn't the time to go over the top on eating! We walked down to transition and I then went through all the usual pre race things such as checking tyres, taping gels to my frame, checking the tyres again, taping a spare tub on the frame, checking tyres again-I'm paranoid about flats in T1!!

Got down to the lake and got into my wetsuit. Headed to the right side of the lake for the sub 70 minute swimmers, and just soaked up the atmosphere. I tell you, there is nothing like the start of an Ironman. All the excitement of race week, all the people buzzing around, a small town's population swollen to tens of thousands more than usual. Then you get in the lake and look around. It is you and 2000 others. All the noise just dies out. I remember floating in the lake and looking at the sky. Everything was quiet and the adrenaline was surging. This is what its about. This is what living is. I'm not really a spiritual person, but I can't really adequately explain that feeling I had just before the start.

And then we were off. I missed the gun going off and was doing breastroke for about a minute as I thought we were still wading out to the start line. Suddenly realising I was getting swum over at a rate of knots, I reckoned I had better join in and off I went.

The Swim
For me is a nice little warm up. I know most triathletes hate it, but its my background and I find it easy. I had taken a gamble this year with the volume. I had been doing a few km's a week until about May and then put in two months of one 2km swim and one 4km swim a week. I had decided to focus more of my efforts on the bike. The gamble paid off and I had one of the quietest swims I have ever had. Coming out into T1 in just over 57 mins, I was right up the business end of the field, and feeling pretty good. I managed to find my bag in the end and got my assorted bike stuff out. Away we go on the bike-the day is off to a great start.

The Bike
Was the area this year that I had worked on the most. From March onwards I had been averaging over 200 miles a week, and I was strong. I decided that I was going to make hay whilst the sun was shining, and away I went. I passed the pirate support crew about two miles out of transition, and they were in fine spirits. Took on some food and drink and got settled into a nice rhythm. I was hoping to do the first 90km in around 2h30-2h45, and then repeat this for the second. After about 20km the first hills start to appear, and I was feeling great on them. I was up in a pack with the elite women, and was tailing Wendy Ingraham for most of the first lap. It was an incredible feeling to actually be up at the front of the pack as opposed to being an also ran like usual. I got round the first 90km in about 2h35, so was well on target for a fast split.

At the start of the second lap, fellow serpie Richard Melik caught and passed me. I hung onto his tail for a bit, but he was looking strong, so I had to let him go. It was fantastic seeing all the pirates out on the course, and on the out and back sections, it was great having people to wave and shout at as we went in opposite directions. Around about 160km I started to feel the pace a bit, but easing off I was still within my comfort zone. The last 20km or so is pretty much flat and downhill, so just span the legs and rolled where I could. I got into T2 with a split of 5h19 and a massive grin on my face. That was without a doubt the best bike leg I have ever ridden, and if I could hold the marathon together, a significant pb was definitely on the cards.

The Run
Has always been my achilles heel. I just don't seem to be able to hold on. I was determined that this year was going to be different. I had put my money on doing more high end miles and less volume in the hope that this would help my running economy and speed. It did to an extent, but the problem was that I just ran out of gas on about 20km. I think it was a combination of poor nutrition and pushing too hard for the first half. My right leg just locked up with cramp. This was possibly the most evil cramp I had ever experienced. Calf, hamstring and quad were jammed, and I had to sit down. After a few minutes of stretching, I managed to get up and hobble to the next aid station. Once there, I drank and ate as much as I could, but unfortunately by the time you realise you are de-hydrated, its too late. I was sick about 30 secs later, and knew from this point it was going to be a long walk in.

I passed a lot of people who were suffering. A number of the pirates were hospitalised due to heat exhaustion, low blood pressure etc. It was very hot out there-in the mid 30's, and we just don't get that here in the UK. It was like a death march, but I have never DNF'd anything, and this certainly wasn't going to be the first time. It took me about 2h45 to do the second half marathon. To give you an idea of how bad it gets, I can quite comfortably run 1h30 pace from fresh for a half. This is the Ironman though, and it doesn't have favourites. It was depressing to watch my sub 11 target slip slowly by with every passing minute. Slip by it did though and I came home in 11h18. This was still a pb, but I was disappointed as I felt I had trained hard enough to get under 11 at the very least.

The finish and lessons learned
The finish line was as great a spectacle as always. Whether its your first or 101st Ironman, I don't think you will ever get bored of that buzz. Even though I was a bit disappointed, its hard to sulk when you are going up that finish chute. I pretty much fell into the arms of the support crew and got golf buggied off for some pizza and soup. After a bit of a shower, some food and a chat to other club members, it was back to the pirate encampment on the run course to cheer on the rest of the crew who were still out there. Realising that some were still to finish the first 21km of the marathon, it kinda put my day into perspective and I was no longer quite so critical of myself.

What I am going to be taking into my training for 2008 is that I have to push the run volumes up. I did double the volume on the bike and guess what? My bike split was fantastic. Swimming I know is a banker, although now that I am fulltime, I am going to be doing more volume with this to try and break 55 mins. I just don't get along with running though. I don't know what it is, but I sometimes struggle to get out of the door. So, for 08 I am adopting a no excuses policy. I am going to run at least 4 times a week in base and then build that to 5 or 6 times. I want to be able to put out a sub 4 hour marathon in my sleep, so that when it comes to the day, there is no way I am going to falter again at 20km. The goal is to get to around the 60 miles a week mark by the time May rocks around, and hopefully this will give me the strength that I need to finally crack this marathon lark.

My goal for IM Germany in 2008 is quite simply to go under 10 hours. No excuses, no ifs, no buts, no regrets. Stay tuned!