IMOO Countdown - 7 days to go ...

Well its Sunday the week before the race and lots of things to do this week.

1. Pick up bike box
2. Pick up disc
3. Pick up 808's
4. Book car hire
5. Ignore sore throat

Taper madness is a common ailment in IM triathletes and I am no different, after doing so many you would think I would feel differently but I suppose one day the ailments you get in the week before will still be there when you wake up on race day, not this time please.

Did my last longish bike, quick 2 hours, felt like cheating really, even stopped off on the way home with Phil for a brew at a butty van, very un-athlete-like but I just need to cut down on fat so stopping off for a brew isn't going to do any harm.

Thought for today, its just as well I have 18kg allowance for my hand luggage, I will need to top up in WHSmith on the other side to get enough water to stay hydrated for the 8 hour flight. Its not like they are going to give me free reign to a drinking tap on the plane, will they ?

Just got a text from Phil, swim at 7.30, I need to buy that man plenty of drinks when I get back, he is the only reason I am swimming at the moment, good swim partner to have.

Aug 28th - Aug 30th - Trip to Slovenia

So smack in the middle of taper we were invited to one of Kellys good friends to attend their wedding in Slovenia, it gave me the chance to chill and have a couple of runs in nice surroundings, I would have managed a swim as well if I hadn't removed my goggles from the hand luggage whilst protesting to Kelly that it wasn't my wetsuit that was making her dress smell of rubber !

When we got there we found it was that nice I might as well have left in the goggles as you didn't need a wet suit.

We landed in Klagenfurt, home of IM Austria, after a quick hop across the border to Slovenia, I went out for a run round the lake, just the right size, 3.7miles around, did a couple of laps before we went to meet the others for a pre wedding drink.

Our hotel was superb, right on the side of the lake and under a lovely church



The wedding day was idyllic, weather fantastic, lots of lovely people, mininal drinking for me anyway, the couple had a great day, I have put a picture of them but as its not my wedding I can't really be pasting loads of their pictures over the net, maybe they have a deal with Hello and I could be costing them millions ;-)



To be honest nly being there for the short 3 days we decided to try to make the most of the last day which was travelling home so we drove early to Austria to have a lunch around the Maria Worth area of Klagenfurt which is on the lake they use for the event, shown below





Then Kel decided to get fancy with the camera and take us back to occupied Austria !



So short 3 day, 2 night trip, beautiful area, well worth visiting on bikes and using it for a base camp for a longer holiday but maybe next year.

Quelle Challenge Roth 2008

Well seeing as I have a blog and I look at others I thought I better start using it, bit late I know as most of the build up to the race should be logged here but I store info in so many places I am sometimes not able to keep up with myself !!

Anyway, below is a LONG race report for the Roth race.

Preamble

I have just finished reading Candy’s Arizona report for some inspiration but was crying so much that I couldn’t see so I had to stop, this one is more like Smiffy’s epic Norseman than one of Candy’s comedy’s but hey I have never been any different, so apologies once again in advance.

I’d been having nightmares about the hotel booking for months; firstly I had found an empty hotel in the centre of Roth, suspicious …. This was in October the year before the race when all others in a 10 mile radius of Roth were gone, seemed strange but grateful nonetheless. The email address I had for them was actually for another hotel in nearby Nurnberg still suspicious ….. There was nothing on the web to say this place existed, no pictures, no info, oh and they were Italian Germans which made conversations very difficult depending who you got on the phone each time I rang. Which I had to do a number of times to double check something or other. But I was desperate for a hotel so I had to go with it.

Eventually after lots of emails, babelfish translations, which only work in one direction, trying to untranslate the responses was a nightmare and finally a money transfer of just short of 1000 Euros I hoped that when we got there, we actually had a room to sleep in and this wasn’t a superb scam.

On arrival we found a large B&B - come Italian restaurant - with 7 rooms – excellent, we had managed to book the whole hotel just for our group…. Oh, hang on, we booked 8 rooms and paid deposits for 8 rooms – in fact the invoice I have says 8 rooms aswell !!
After a deflating conversation (our host decided he didn’t talk good English went things weren’t going well !) about the missing room and obviously realising there are NO rooms available in Roth at this late stage I decided that I sleeping on it was the best policy and see what happens in the morning! That night I shared a room with one of the single guys in a double room and wondered how I was going to break this to Kelly who arrived in 2 days.
In the morning the only offer available was a place 15 miles away in their sister hotel, thankfully one of the couples offered to move as they had a car! Thanks Mark and Sian.

Right, now I can concentrate on the race !

Pre race,

Pre taper training had been a bit rubbish as I had had to have 5 weeks reduced training volume after getting ill in Thailand in April. I still had a good base, so I stuck with it and decided that if I wasn’t 100% I could pull out of Roth at anytime. I would still go and support but it meant the pressure for my ‘A’ race in Wisconsin was reduced.

My main reason for doing Roth was time, plain and simple, for me that means going as far under 10 hours as I could, there was no point in wasting 2 weeks recovering after Roth if I didn’t believe I could do it.
As it turned out training was back on track and during June I raced a couple of ½ IM’s coming 17th and 3rd overall so racing was showing me the training was working. The main concern was the running, my cycling was strong and I had done more swimming this year than ever before. Still only about 1 or 2 sessions a week but more consistently and mainly due to having a swimming ‘buddy’, which is a great incentive at 7am and you know they are going to be there. The running was where I lost most of the time in the build up and I never really got more than a 15 mile run in all year in the end. Never mind. Fingers crossed I’ll be OK.
I decided around 3 weeks out I was definitely doing Roth so settled down for a good taper and mentally preparing to fight for my time.

Race week arrived and the journey to Roth was largely uneventful, Lufthansa really are superb but what is it about Manchester airport that makes them believe they should lump a £10 ‘handling charge’ to the bike carriage charge already imposed by the airline, robbing b*stards !!! And the airport at Frankfurt, which we transferred through, although a cool airport has so many gates that everytime we got through one and decided to buy some water you then find out you had to go through another checkpoint which means you cant carry any liquids again, RUBBISH !!

Anyway, arrived on time.

Friday morning with the room issue sorted we got down to checking out the expo, which is HUGE !!

and like being in a candy shop, purchases included a pair of compression socks,
compressed gas and some of the Sponsor race fuel. Registration was swift and painless. Then back to build the bikes.

Something that always happens to me in race week which through experience you find out how to deal with is that you start to get all sorts of aches and pains, I have a knee issue anyway so that starts to ache, my ankle was killing me, I had a sore throat for the whole week from the Monday before the race to the Saturday, which magically disappeared during racking, its all mind games and also down to the fact that you are tapering and the body is settling down. I think if this had been my first IM I would have been a right state worrying about it all, for those that have this yet to come, chill out, eat sensibly and cut out the hypochondriac symptoms, no one likes to hear a moaner, as everyone kept telling me !!! ;-)

Friday we arranged to drive round the course courtesy of Mike and Emma after a 30-45 mins cycle ride to check bikes. However, due to getting lost, not having a map and already being over an hour away from the hotel before we knew it, we proceeded to take 3 hours for our short, leg freshener ride, stupid, stupid, stupid !!!!!

So when we eventually got back, I got changed and put as many compression clothes on as possible to try to recover and set off for the course drive, the weather had been OK for most of the week, confirmed by my now comedy tan lines from the 3 hour epic ! but driving the course it started to rain and it was showing how bad it could get on race day if this continued as it was very exposed on large stretches. The highlight of the drive as a fast descender was to pinpoint the 3 switchbacks that could cause a few issues in the wet on race day, noted we headed back.

The Saturday saw pouring rain again, plenty of time to sort out the 3 transition bags as due to the rain we didn’t bother racking til about 3pm. We rode to T1 which was about 12km and then got a lift back by Mike and Emma again. The split transitions only have one knock on effect really, you had to hand in your run gear on the Saturday but everything else can be done on Sunday morning, so if you got this wrong you then couldn’t sort it out til you got to it on the race day. I must have double checked this 5 times and was sure I had left something out.
Then as we headed back the heavens opened even more and it binned it down all evening, a few prayers were said for the sun the next day.




Race Day.

After a good nights sleep, all of the aches had gone and I felt like a coiled spring, got up at 3.20 as breakfast was at 3.30am, everyone else was there, people just being slightly more quiet than normal. I had my usual food of ham and jam baguette, banana, bottle of energy drink and 2 strong coffees. I think we must all be heathens too as no-one was listening last night to our prayers, we just sat there listening to the constant rain outside, this was going to be a very, very wet day, just kept thinking, deal with it and don’t moan, it won’t make it go away.

We arrived at transition which is a sprawling mess really, body marking in one field, racks in another, people everywhere sorting their bikes out, I just went into selfish mode and did my tyres, bottles, uncovered bike, set up transition area and then went off to get marked and put on wetsuit, one thing I loved was that there were toilets everywhere, great, no queues.

My wave was number 4 which went off at 7.05, Sian, Jill and Emma went in Wave 1 at 6.20 alongside the pros giving them a brief head start, this was followed by Wave 2 at 6.55 then loads more waves at 5 min interval. Shook hands with Mark, Steve and Jeff. Me and Jeff made our way into the water, exchanged pleasantries then swam to the start line about 80 metres down the massive canal, we split up as I like to just concentrate on me from that point and I couldn’t stand having someone around me that I knew if I started to get into a boxing match, mainly as Jeff could probably hit me harder than I could hit him lol !

Swim



The gun went off and immediately you could tell this was going to be a very easy start with none of the usual madness, there was only 400 of us and most split up reasonably well, I set off up the right hand side and then started to try to get across left which was the middle as I wanted to find a draft, however the plonker on my left decided to swim at exactly the same pace and push me towards the bank, so I nudged him, he sighted and then corrected himself, then proceeded to do the same again as soon as he took another 5 strokes, this went on for 500m before I had had enough and just cut him up and headed for the centre of the canal.
Then without warning I swam straight into someone, we had caught up the wave in front, gaining 5 mins in about 800metres, as I looked up there was now a multicoloured array of swim hats with a lot of yellow caps in amongst our green caps, I thought to myself these people really don’t need us to be climbing over them so I started adjusting my stroke to get round people, having to add extra distance instead of trying to ruin another persons race, I know from my connection to the pirates that as a group we have a few nervous swimmers and just tried to imagine the abject panic that someone climbing over them would have on their day and it wouldn’t be fair so I think I probably lost a minute or so over the total distance but felt good in myself, jesus what a martyr eh !!

The first turnaround at 1500m came soon enough and the 2000m back stretch was uneventful as I just kept trying to find someone slightly faster than me and latch on for a draft, I even tried to get on the legs of the first guy from the wave behind who came flying past me but that’s just plain silly, he was gone in seconds !
I did find this stretch a little choppy but the usual mind games that I am going backwards didn’t happen this time as I just wanted around the hour and if it was under great, over I would deal with at the end, as it turns out I had no idea what my time was cos there were no clocks at the exit.

Got to the last turnaround to return the last 390m which I found a pain in the ass, bodies everywhere, choppy water, fighting the stroke and trying to focus on the transition to come and what I was going to wear, I got out in 1.00 dead.


T1.

Bliddy hell, what a faff, for a transition as small as this I should be in and out in less than 2 mins. I had been toying with the idea of wearing compression socks in the week before for the bike and run, copying Bella ya’see. However, these things are meant to be tight and putting them on was like trying to pull a polo mint over your head!!!! trying to get them on over wet feet and legs wasn’t filling me with confidence over the time I might gain back but it was cold and wet and I was going to be making sure I was warm so why not a bit more time.
Grab bag, run in, can’t find a ‘helfer’ anywhere, tip my bag out, gilet on, pull arm warmers on, they were pre-rolled into doughnut shapes so they go on quicker on wet arms, 3 gels in back pocket, take off chip, put on socks, comedy rolling around on the floor trying to get the feckers on without getting cramp, put chip back on, put on shoes and stuff wetsuit in bag with goggles and hat, run to bike, put on helmet, glasses and go. All in 4.53. Still not happy as it felt like 7.

Bike.

It was absolutely heaving it down, my glasses were fogged up and I was now dancing with 5 or 6 guys trying to get into a rhythm before I settled into the first few rain soaked bends. I rolled the arm warmers up and started drinking. The course is a 2 lap affair that you cycle about 6km to start and then when you finish the 2nd lap you cycle about 10km extra to get to T2.

My feed strategy was simple, start with the race fuel, 2 bottles of it and some water in my aero bottle, each station pick up one energy and one water. This worked mostly, must learn not to grab a bottle and then hold it in my teeth while trying to get another one, the tops fall off !! I daren’t even look back at the carnage that could have caused.
Pace wise, I would stick to the well practised breaking the bike into 3 loops of 60km and keep to my heart rate zones for each one only using the hills to elevate it but not over 170.

I started to pass people regularly and getting into my stride set off for the first hill about 10km out, this was a sharp rise and fast descent followed by another one, then it was the fast stretch to the main climb at Greding.
I can’t remember exactly when it started but it was fairly soon and from the then on fairly constant, I normally have about 2 or 3 wee’s on the bike, I wasn’t sure if I was getting the nutrition wrong or it was the weather but I must have had pee’d enough to fill a roman baths !! about 10 or 11 goes during the bike, and we aren’t talking dribbles, we are talking 10 pints of beer and open the cork niagra-falls styley, needless to say my bikes shoes were minging after the race and had to be kept outside!!
I saw some of the TT’ers early on (Jorgan and Jimbo) and said hi. Then at about 45km I saw Jeff up ahead, he had had 2 mins on me out of the swim and was obviously going well as it had taken me a while to catch him, little did I know he was having a wee just as I caught him and as I overtook him he felt that this was bad sportsmanship to attack while he was otherwise occupied, so he chased me down the fast descents for the next 3km before settling down to his own pace, we had a few words of encouragement, swore about the weather, I told him he smelled of wee and I slowly pulled away. Next was Sian who I passed at a feed station looking very smiley and shouting support at me.
The rain was still coming down very heavily and every so often you would see the remnants of a crash being cleaned up, people walking with bikes, ambulances pulled over treating people, it wasn’t really the day to be doing anything stupid.
I was trying to keep the average speed up on the flats and descents to over 25mph as I knew the hills were taking the extra few mph off my aim of 22mph average, this was keeping my focus as the rain was just becoming annoying now and the comedy weeing was ruining my new socks, it was like being at home in North Wales on a Sunday ride in April only there were more people around and the road surfaces were better. At least I was warm, or was that just the wee.
The first lap passed without any issues, saw Kelly and the supporters



at Eckersmuhlen on the first lap and had an idea of pace as I got to 90km in 2.32.
The second lap much the same only the wind picked up, I wee’d some more and the guys I was dancing with were starting to thin out a little and it would only be 1 or 2 of the same names, I started to pass a few that had shot off earlier in the first lap too, its all about pacing !!
I passed Jill at 75 miles and said hello but the response was more due to the weather I think than my parentage lol !!! only joking but she wasn’t a happy chappy, and who could blame her, we had come all this way to be treated to a ride we could have done on our doorstep.
Did have one moment when I threw a bottle at a marshall to get rid off and as I let it go realised that we weren’t allowed to do that and this would result in a yellow card, damn, 2 more and you are out, never did find out if I was carded but it did add a little stress til I got off the bike.
The 2nd lap round I paid a little more attention to the Solarerberg which is the TdeF type climb with lots of people cheering you on very close to you and screaming all sorts of encouragement and generally making you feel very happy, very well supported and lots of cold and wet people prepared to take time out to be there, much appreciated !

The final 10k to T2 became a bit of a group ride much to my annoyance, lots of people started to tire and just sat in a group for the last 5 or 6 miles, a bit shite as if we had been followed by a race marshall they would have had no hesitation in carding the whole group but you just couldn’t get away from it towards the end, it was a fast finish and it was conserve energy now. Finished the bike in 5.05

T2

Lot quicker than T1, hand off bike, run to bag, it wasn’t there, ar$e ! its not where its supposed to be, 15 seconds seems like a lifetime, found it in the wrong pile but I was almost ready to launch a Ben Elton style rant by the time I found it, pick it up, run in to tent, superb, a helfer empties my bag for me, rip off the compression socks which when I started were white, now they were black and smelled like a gents urinal in a pub, then after letting her put my socks away for me ;-) I managed to cover her in talc from my dry socks by flicking them without thinking, oops, comedy coughing fit from her, hat and glasses on, shoes on, go. Time 2.51

Run

My aim was to forget the last 5 weeks of limited running as it’s just a damn excuse, I know I can run and my aim was 3.30 which meant start out at 5km/min and hold on. I normally don’t take anyone else into account in an IM, I do my own thing but I also use targets to play mental games, so I remembered CRAB’s 3.31 in Nice and RichM’s request for me not to return unless I beat 9.50, game on !

Wow, it had stopped raining as I came out of the tent.

My Garmin showed me I was on target heart rate of 155, use the 3 gels I had in my pocket at 4, 8 and 12 miles, take on the drinks including water, iso and coke at the feed stations and if I felt like I didn’t want something don’t take it, simple. The first 4km was undulating and after running down the steep hill at 1km there is a bit of a drag back up to the main canal, I had to stop for about 30 secs as my back was screaming due to being in the aero position for too long. Good stretch, felt a little better, set off and the aim was to hit the km markers on the correct 5 min intervals or just before. Previously at Germany 2006 I had run the first 21km before walking any feed stations and 26km at IM Lanzarote last year so I decided the aim was to run at least 30km without any walking and see what happened from there.
The much needed support was at 4km from Kelly and the Chester/Irish ‘sherpas’. First 10km came in 48 mins and knew I had a couple of minutes to play with. The run course meant you got to see everyone during the 2 out and back legs, it was good to have people coming the other way down the canal, a few shouts, Paul Hawkins looked fresh, Leanda Cave (name dropping) was also running well and my mate Mark was at least 10 mins ahead of me at the first turn. The bottom turnaround was a bit of a complex one way street thing, not one but 2 different out and back points. Once we got back onto the canal path returning to the halfway mark I expected to see a few of my friends coming the other way, saw Jill, happier on the run, Mark T, and a few other Brits. But no Jeff and no Emma, that meant Jeff had to be in the turnaround maze behind me and Emma was either having a really good day and in the same maze or a really bad day, I had seen her on the 2nd lap of the bike climbing Greding and she looked fine, I later found out it was a bad day she was having and was taken off the course after a few Km into the run with breathing difficulties, I missed my only other pirate mate all the way round the run expecting to see her too. Given the chance and speaking to her afterwards I know she would have battled to the end.



The run back in to the halfway point got me the next 10km in 50 mins with the heart rate not really moving too much and still holding those 2 mins in reserve, it was great to see the support from Kelly and the others at halfway again, plenty of noise and shouts of encouragement are never lost on me, love it !!
I needed a pee stop, I still haven’t perfected the art of weeing on the run and now wasn’t the time for showboating at oncoming pro’s, I was also wasting energy keeping at least a litre of pee warmed up so at 22km I had to stop, bliss !! wasted a good 90 secs or so but felt so much better, at least I wouldn’t need to stop again.
The next turnaround point is at 30km which I got to after another 51 mins, this was through a harder section of uphill tracks under a forest canopy, so much for thinking the course was flat but at least it was off road and soft ish under foot. Having not done the race before it was hard to visualise the terrain and course until the day and it does seem to go on for ever but at least you could see this turnaround coming.

Andy, one of the supporters, had run over from the 4km point to cheer us on and it was good to see a familiar face, however the next familiar face wasn’t quite so expected, I checked my watch at the turn so that I could see how far Jeff was behind me, I didn’t need to, I could see him straight away, around 45 secs from the turn, which mean under 90 secs behind me.
We train together, we egg each other on, we play the odd mind game but this one was unexpected, we had all talked before the race about expectations and its not unfair to Jeff to say that at this point I thought I might have 5 minutes or so on him, I still didn’t know my time as I couldn’t work it out but all I could think was I was going hard so he was having a stormer.

Apparently my face was a picture, what I didn’t know is he had gone all out to get to this point and was beginning to slow down but all I could think was I need to work harder, not much I could do if he was running faster than me but I would try.
So the only thing to do, kick for home, I was 8 miles out and I was already starting to slow down but the mind games started, we had both watched the IMNZ video the week before and there is a point in the race where on the last half of the run the 2nd woman catches the 1st woman but the lead girl responds to stay with her and eventually pushes on to win holding her off, that’s what I was going to do, if Jeff caught me, I was going to re kick and sit with him til the end and then get him at the end lol, amazing what you think about.
This is really where it started to hurt, and I mean pain in my quads that I had only really felt ‘after’ an IM on ‘silly walk Monday’ it was starting to give me doubts as to whether I could keep this up, all I could think was never look round, it shows weakness, failure, but I was also picturing Jeff 60 secs and closing, I pushed my heart rate up to around 160 to increase the pace. Each time I heard footsteps getting closer I thought it was him, the lactate in my quads was only being countered by trying to concentrate on nutrition and pace, I just kept taking Coke and Iso and forced another gel down me, that should last to the end. This was also the point my Garmin decided to stop working due to the tree canopy, GREAT ! 19.97 miles, so from now it was on heart rate and getting to 5km markers in time, distance was irrelevant on the watch.
It was also at about 34km that I started to try to work out what runs I did at home that reflected where I was on the course, 8km to go, that’s 0.6 x 8, so that’s 4.8 miles, ok, I can do that in my sleep, that’s the ‘so and so’ run I do on a Wednesday night, I wonder where Jeff is now, he must be hurting too, I started to try to work out my time, change the watch screen, right its ‘this’ o’clock, we started at 7.05am and I have been going for …. God I still couldn’t concentrate, all I could work out was I was still on for sub 10 if I didn’t stop.

Then at about 36km it was a weird change but the quad pain was the only thing that was keeping me going, oh, and not being caught by Jeff of course, it became quite sadistic really, it was like, ‘I can actually hurt myself like I have never before’ this is so gonna hurt but only for another 30 mins, COME ON, 30 mins that’s all.
The 39km mark was like an adrenalin shot, the pain was now numbing the tops of my legs, I had run through it and on the other side was just a feeling in my legs that told me when the feet hit the floor, under 2 miles to go and I knew at least most of it was downhill.
I was trying to stride out but I knew I wasn’t getting faster, just holding pace, I also knew I was pushing as the heart rate was now 165, the brain was ignoring the pain but I think the body has a natural defence mechanism that unless in mortal danger it protects itself, and Jeff catching me up didn’t signify mortal danger ! I still refused to look round. Just keep going, if he’s there he will have to kick harder, bring it on.

The final sting in the tail, the hill at 41km that you run down at the start, wow, what a killer but who cares with less than 4 mins to go, I could hear the final chute now, the mad euro trash, the clapping and the commentator, I still didn’t know what my time was as the watch was still stuck on 19.97 miles and I had lost count of where the last marker was, heart rate was 165 and rising and I could see the start of the chute.

This was the first time I looked round in 8 miles, partly as I wanted to see if Jeff was there and partly to check that my finisher photo wasn’t going to involve another sprint finish like last year, no-one in sight, the entry to the U shaped finish area was familiar from pictures, I scanned the crowds to find Kelly and the others, I found them at the top end, I am never sure how she manages to push in to the front of a 5 person deep crowd in the finish gantry – experienced Sherpa I guess – that means I am nearly there, the clock said 10.28, shite, heart stopped, where had I dropped 45 mins ? hang on, pro’s had a 45 min head start, I still had no idea on my time. I was sure it was 9.4x. Arms up in the air for the finisher photo, cross the line !!
Believe me, the second you cross the line the pain sensors all kick back to life but I really didn’t care, I was still trying to work out my time and turned to wait for Jeff as I was sure he was just behind me. I waited a minute or so and was then ushered out of the finish area.

I didn’t know until I had the certificate printed that I had done 9.42.25. The feeling was superb, I was lying on the massage bed when Jeff rolled in 5 minutes later, he had run a 3.29 to my 3.28, just as well I had kicked. I also know that I owe him at least 3 mins of that time as he pushed me harder than anyone has before.

Just a thanks to all the support, both forum based, friends at home and at the course, was very much appreciated. To have family and friends with you supporting lifts you at the most painful of moments and when you get back and read the support thread not only does it mirror thoughts in your head on the day about who is watching it also makes you feel REALLY good that people take time out of their day many miles away to watch a screen and get excited about it, wouldn’t trade that kind of support for anything, thanks.

I would love to do this race again but as there are so many to do I don’t when I will get the opportunity but I would definitely recommend it as a well organised, well supported and one to do at some point in IM/Challenge career.

Bala Middle Distance 2008

Last time I did this race was 2006, 21st then and because of the course change I have decided that the aim this time was to place higher as times are irrelevant.

Well, the course was tougher but just as enjoyable, well marshalled and a good challenge, as anyone who has raced here the run is a bitch and it never really gets any easier.


Swim 32.57 (inc T1) New wetsuit (2XU V1) was superb, felt comfy all the way round and only started to have issues at the end when I was fighting the water, should learn to relax into the final 400m

Bike 2.23.07 Found this tough but went all out as this is my strongest discipline at the moment, HR was just below 170 for the hills but still pushed for the rest of the flats and downhills

Run 1.35.21 (inc T2) This has been the hardest for me over the last 5 weeks as I have been ill after pushing too hard in a training 1/2 IM in April. The comparison shows in placings for the different disciplines, 7th fastest bike and 52nd fastest swim ;-(

Overall 13th MS 4.31.25

Ironman Lanzarote 2007

Ironman Lanzarote 2007

There are a couple of reasons for doing this race, its tough and it’s a pre cursor to finding out what Hawaii can be like etc but none of them were in my mindset. Mine were, this was the only European one I hadn’t done and it also gave me a good reason to have a 2 week holiday in a warm resort and thus for Kelly not to be using her holidays again following me around to do another IM.

What then made it a better race to do was a number of people I knew were also contemplating the same foolhardy race, pirates, Chester Tri members and training friends as well. And then to make it better, the support teams starting mounting up, more pirates, my parents, Chester members just wanting to come and watch and use it as a good reason to get a high volume of training in. I was really starting to look forward to the race.

My aims for an IM are never hidden, lots of people are coy about what they want for their times and their expectations based on the training they have done or are doing. I like to set the target and then train to achieve or better it, this is done in the most part by following a training plan that is set by my coach, the rest is up to me. This started to go a little pear-shaped in December when I missed 6 weeks of training but as it turns out not really something that made a lot of difference on the day.
So the aims this year, build on last years sub 10 and aim for Hawaii, after checking the results of the previous years and taking into account the possible conditions it was decided to aim at sub 10:30. Or better ….

Travelling out on the Monday, Gary, Malc, Jason and myself went to acclimatise to the weather and sample the famous wind. We weren’t disappointed; the wind for the first 4 days of us being in PdelC was around 25-30mph and the temperatures around 25 degs. Par for the course, however, we were constantly being told that this was to change for the weekend and that we could expect anything from 3mph to 20mph winds and temps from 17 degs to 30 degs. I slowly started to ignore all forecasts as on the day it wouldn’t matter, however, a quick phone call home to remind Kelly to bring out my low profile front wheel was made on the Wednesday as the gusts of wind on the training rides that week were getting a little hairy on the tri bars.

Thursday saw the arrival of my mum and Roger (the cabin boy), Kelly, Chester support, training mates doing the race and the pirate caravan rolling into town. It was now getting close and the resting hours getting shorter.

I have to say at this point that the organisation of the race was first class, the bike/run check in was painless, the transition areas are well set out, the helpers were all very attentive, answered questions regarding all IM related stuff and if they didn’t know they found out.
I was initially disappointed with the La Santa experience of having to trapse over to the other side of the island to register and the poor selection of IM goodies to buy. The less said about an expo the better, one bloody stall selling IM branded goods, not a first class experience IMHO but the volunteers made up for this hands down.

Sorry, to the race …..

Pre race night is always the same, make sure I have breakfast in, chill out with a few mates the night before, watching a DVD, reading the same cycling mag over and over and then going to bed early. Set alarm for 4am.

Race Day.

Get up, eat brekkie, bread and jam, ham and cheese sandwich, 2 strong coffees and a bottle of Powerbar drink, then settle in for the toilet fuel to work its way through. Apply the P20 in plenty of time for it to soak in and then chill reading for 30 mins or so.

By 5.30 we were ready to walk to transition to finish the set up of the bikes, in a race like this I still had to load up the drinks bottles, fill the bento box with Gels, deflate and inflate the tubs, fill the aero bottle and then get wet suit on and queue for toilet again.


At around 6.30am which is a record for me (too early) I was ready and on the way to the beach, passing through the roped off walkway from swim finish to T1 was great to soak up the atmosphere, not much music in the air but the supporters were already lining the walkway, I said hi to the pirates, parents etc, gave my shoes to Kelly (which I forgot I had on !!) and lined up 3 rows back from the fast swimmers start, I was joined by Chris/Gary/Jason and we casually chatted for around 10 mins while we all secretly peed ourselves in a pretty surreal setting in amongst rubber clad, lycra wearing triathletes wearing goggles and smiling at each other for what seemed an age.

Then for some reason as you do, I remembered what I had handily forgot 5 mins after finishing the last IM….

Why am I here ? I was never doing this again !!

Then the gun went off !!!!!!

IM Swim.

I started on the right hand side of the swim start, and as we broke through the inflatable overhead banner I moved about 5 yards further right, along with half the others with me, it was sort of a run but I was looking down and with one arm out in front of me pushing the person in front in a kind of hopping movement to make sure the person behind didn’t stand on my heel.
I ran in up to thigh depth and dived forward, then righted myself and pushed again from the bottom of the shallows to get another few yards on the people behind me still charging into the swell. It was still chocca out this far right but I didn’t want to be too far out and waste the drafting on offer. I got my head down and started the swim with my entry hand always going in palm forward and fingers up so they don’t get broken and I can fend people off with a firm push, it also prevents grabbing people by accident as you swim over them ;-). I also limited my kick to start with so I didn’t take someone out by the chin or mask. I constantly battled for around 500 metres to stay just outside the main channel but not too far right to lose the draft I wanted, I found this a little tiring at first so I just moved back towards the left and stayed there, protecting my clear water if I needed to. The clear sea makes it easy to see feet and bubbles and my own hand entry so I could concentrate on long calm strokes after the far turnaround buoy to eventually get my HR down. It took this long for me to see any wildlife as well or for that matter any buoys !!
I remember thinking ‘where the hell is the first buoy’, but totally missed that following others and saw the far end one first.
The way back to the start was slightly harder and it felt into the current so I concentrated on the bottom of the sea bed and picked up on the each person who came past me to draft until I couldn’t stay with them again. I got out the first lap in 30.18. I heard the supporters including pirates and family but kept head down and waved to concentrate on not standing on anything or anyone ;-)

Back in with a thump and this lap was easier to sight as less people but harder to keep concentration as I start to think of my times and what I had to do in my head in transition and why I hadn’t swum more, I ignored future thoughts and got back to swimming.

I think over the period of my training swimming was the hardest for me as I can’t get out of bed in the morning and then I have to do 2 sessions when I finish work so I find excuses not to swim, most people I train with know I use the excuse that I ‘hate’ swimming, I don’t hate it, I just never seem to get any better and the main reason for this is because I don’t do enough, it’s a vicious circle and one which you will find out later will have to be broken as 3 minutes would have made a real difference and all I could hope to improve in swimming is maybe 2 or 3 mins, well this as they say is the difference between the did and did nots !!!!

Anyway, the swim exit never seemed to get any closer but eventually I rounded the last buoy and could hear the cheering as people were exiting the water, got to a point where I could stand and immediately checked the watch, 1:01 superb, still on target. The run up the beach is only slightly longer than the Nice IM but across covered sand, plenty of time to recover out of the water but tiring, the supporters were making up for the drudge to the road level.



T1

OK, as most will know I like technology and this year was no different, I was going to use a Garmin 305 for the run, cue trying to work out how I was going to get it set up in T2 so it picked up the satellites quick enough to give me my pacing splits straight from the T2 bag, wasn’t going to happen as once you are moving it takes age to settle down, only thing for it, has to be on the bike first, right, that means I can use it as a speedo, cool, downside, it only has a 10 hour battery life and I am heading for 10:30. Bugger, that means I can’t switch it on until I get out of the water, which means waiting for it to pick up the satellites again, arrghhhhhhh !!!!
Anyway, I decided on the following and stuck to it.
I raced into T1, had a path from entry to tent worked out, that was fine, got into tent, took a few more seconds to get off the wetsuit than I planned, the helpers then started to put sun tan cream all over my neck and shoulders while I put my helmet on and the 4 gels in my tri suit, stuffed the wetsuit in the bag and exit the tent. Run to bike, switch on Garmin and then remove the shoes from the pedals and while the computer searches for the location put them on and exit. By the time I get to the mount point the computer is working and I am off. 5 mins in transition by my standards though take a bit to swallow so forget it and carry on.

IM Bike

I use the same strategy again this year as last, I have used a power meter all year kindly lent to me by Ken Davenport, cheers mate, but decide the race needs to be done on HR due to the possible heat and climbing affecting my efforts so I remove the power cranks and rebuilt bike with standard cranks.
The aim is to break the race into 3 x 60km chunks and do heart rate ranges of 140-145, 145-150 and 150-155 for the 3 chunks but on the climbs use perceived effort but never go over 170 which is my threshold limit. It works for me and keeps the pace even as the race goes on my heart rate rises for the same sort of speeds. Feeding wise, take a gel every 30 minutes and take a water and energy bottle at each feed station and mix them to taste in my aero bottle, easy !

I pass Gary within a mile, find out later that he was haemorrhaging bike spares on the beach road and had to stop to pick them up, he was out before me by 2 mins as well but I made a minute on him in T1. I wasn’t to see TC again in the race as I found out he was forced off the road by an opened car door after the Timanfaya climb into the lave field which damaged his bike. He was still only 2 mins behind me at that point so I am sure would have gone on to have a good race. He has a place for next year though, good man !

The bonus for race day was the change in weather, the winds had dropped to around 10-15mph and they were SouthWesterly (I think) so the complete course changed because of it, the climb out of Puerto Calero wasn’t too bad, and waiting at the top for us was the Chester boys who were to pop up all over the place while out on their bikes supporting, the run to the El Golfo peninsula was very fast even into the wind as it was downhill which meant the climb to Timanfaya came round very quickly.
Normally this climb would have had wind against but today we had it in our favour and slightly across, what wasn’t helping however was the stream of coaches thundering up the left hand side of the road punctuating the cyclists and slowing others up, nearing the top though my thoughts were interrupted by rain !!! RAIN !!! in Lanzarote !!!

Forget the cold I told myself, concentrate on not getting blown off the road and get your head down, this part from the back of Fire Mountain to the new section at Tiagua was superb, I had to push as I knew I had to take advantage of the wind behind but also keep the HR down

Up to Tiagua I saw Debbo and Bryan which was a shock as I forgot they were on the island for some reason, then the new part of the course which after riding the old part was actually a good change, superb roads, few climbs and one part of shite road but in all kept the interest high. I went through the first 60km in 1:50 which was surprising at first glance but when you think we had had the wind behind for the majority of the way and had only done 1 major climb it was about right. The middle part of the course along the LZ-30 road when the wind is blowing the other direction can be a right b*stard but today I was trying to keep the speeds in check with the HR and pushing out 30-35 mph on the flats, I knew it wasn’t going to last so I pushed a little harder than I should right up the rise into Teguise. The Chester guys were here at the monumento de Campesino which was good to see and I remember JB and Dave around this point as well.
This was about the halfway point, I have no idea what time this was but I went thru 60 miles in 2.52 so I know the second half was slower. The second 60km is the climbing third, the climb up to Los Valles is the hardest I found and was a slow drag, this was where the heat was felt the most, wind on your back but travelling slowly meant that heat build up pushed the HR up but I know I needed to save more for the last 3rd and the Mirador was looming up next. After the LV climb comes the ‘dreaded’ switchbacks of Haria, so instead of doing my usual of descending like a loon I had a pee, all the way down, that kept the lunatic at bay and meant that the bit I could really push on after the switchbacks to Haria town I managed to top out at 49mph, racing a police bike for the best line. I managed to keep him behind me for about a mile and a half ;-).

Haria is a lovely town only spoiled by a left/right chicane at the bottom of the descent meaning I couldn’t carry the speed through to the next climb, this was a bit of a bugger as well, and not long afterwards was a little bit of pave as well to shake the fillings out of you.
All this was doing was prolonging the inevitable climb up to Mirador, to be honest, if the wind was the other way this would have been a lot harder but today it was just a climb with a kick at the end and spectacular scenery, to look over the wall on the left as you crest the last main bit of climb and see the top for the first time is breathtaking and worth the trip on its own. The support here is very good though and a pleasant reward for toughing it out.

Just after here is the 120km point which I got to in 3.42, still on track for a decent time but I could sense it wouldn’t last, couldn’t put my finger on it but it was there in the background, and then it hit me, the wind, what we hadn’t really experienced up to this point was now in my face and at around 15mph it wasn’t as bad as it could have been but I seem to remember us studying the race profile and thought the first 20km of the last 40km was uphill, how wrong can you be ………. It was further than that !

The descent down to Arrieta is the last time on the bike I actually felt comfortable, apart from some Slovakian tw*t trying to draft me all the way down the Mirador descent (cue T de F styley road swerving to lose him on the way down !) it was very pleasant, once we got across the roundabout though at the bottom it became a very different course, from here to Tahiche was all up hill and into the wind, I was concentrating on pushing a solid gear while trying to maintain around 17mph but my HR wouldn’t climb as my quads were hurting so I wasn’t able to raise the power levels enough to balance the both out. So I just went on perceived effort for my legs and tried to keep the speed constant. One other thing now bothering me, which it shouldn’t as I have raced for many years was a pack of guys about 200m in front of me blatantly drafting like a damn chain gang, and I know at least 2 of them were in my age group who by now I was starting to think about for qualifying. I needed to keep them in sight but I just couldn’t get near them and I was pushing too hard to try, so I just went back to slogging it out, getting out of the saddle and then resting the quads in the saddle and slowly they all disappeared.

Tahiche was good place for a welcome cheer as my support crew had met up with the pirates and a few others and were busy discussing when I would be through when I breezed past them all and blew Kel a kiss, was good to see all and get a boost.

This was just at the right time as the next bit of road was the worst, Tahiche to Nazaret and up to the main road again was uphill and the road surface was terrible, the bike was shaking so much I thought the carbon wheels would snap and I was doing well to keep both bottles in the cages. This part took forever but led out on to the main road to be greeted by JB and Dave again, cue more climbing up the monumento de campesino against the wind, more support here again as the Chester guys had camped here all day to make sure they saw all of the Chester entrants and cheers everyone else on too.

I really hadn’t seen the extent of climbing we still had to do, I had 20km in my head but it just went on forever and ever and by the time I had worked out when it would end I could already see the point of the hill rise that we had to get to and it was about 23 miles covered. I was aching all across my quads but I was going to reward myself with a good pee at the top of the hill just you wait lol !!
Well all good plans etc, I just couldn’t pee and wasted about a minute or so pedalling and then slowing to try and then again and again so I just gave up and enjoyed the ride home. The descent onto the beach road was great and we had done it a few times that week. I managed the last 3rd of the bike in 1.59 and felt I had worked harder than at any point so far to get that so getting off the bike would be interesting.

I had to fumble around to get the Garmin upclipped, change watches and then undo shoes and stand on them as I came into T2. Time was 5.41 for bike split. Still on target.

T2

As I approached the transition I could hear a few shouts of support from the Chester girls which was a good lift, I stepped off the pedals and shoes and handed my bike over, I ran for my bag, into the tent and dumped everything on the floor, this is a technique I gained from many years of IM lol !!! Just dump it and sort it out around you. I always put talc in my run socks and then flick them to coat the insides with powder so they go on easier, this also happens to cover everything and everyone within 5 foot of me but they didn’t mind. Put more gels in back and hat on, glasses on, shoes on, more sun tan cream and then off. T2 took about 3 mins which was a bit better but can be improved.

IM Run

I knew what I had to do to break 10 ½ hours as I was coming out of T2 at 6:50 on the clock, I need to get under 3:40. However, this year I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as last year and just go for what I needed, I was going to get the best time I could as I knew every minute would count.

Last year I had got to 2 laps on the run at Germany and with 7:58 on the clock I knew all I needed to do to break 10 hours was to do 2 x 59 minute laps, which is what I did, however I missed out on a slot by 2 minutes and 2 places as I went for time and not to do the best I could. Not this time.
The Garmin was set to give me a readout of pace/distance/HR and time. I needed to average around 8 minute pace for the run to get a chance of the split I needed, so as last year I set off how I felt and the pace settled about 7:30’s.

Feeding again was gel overy 30 mins and then take what I wanted or could stomach from the feedstations, they were by the way SUPERB !!! well organized, only one or two drinks were warm, the people on them were friendly, always had a smile and a load of them were Scots and English which was good to hear on the day.

My strategy was to run non stop for at least 2 laps and then if I felt OK to keep running through all aid stations until I felt I need a walk, so at the first toilet stop I decided to have a pee !!! Well I actually turned in where the portaloos were and instead of using one, didn’t quite make it and used a bush. Immediately there was a marshall next to me giving it large in Spanish about what a tit I was and how could I have missed the 5 portaloos standing 4 yards away from me and if I didn’t move along there was a yellow card in it for me, so I just kept peeing and saying ‘Lo Sciento’ (sp) and expecting him to go away, which he didn’t until I stopped peeing and carried on my merry way. This kept me entertained for at least ooooohh, 3 mins when the pain settled in again ;-)

I was maintaining a reasonable pace for the most part but the rises in the road were starting to slow me down so I used the pace guide on the watch every time I slowed to get me back to speed which made me concentrate on running upright and falling forward to let gravity do its job.
The turnaround, which we hadn’t been to in warm up was MILES away it seemed but in reality just the longest 5.25km ever !! I now had a time for the first turnaround and the idea was to try to keep it consistent, I knew this would hurt but just kept thinking, put one foot in front of the other and don’t look at peoples armbands.

On the way back I started to see familiar faces coming towards me, Cman/Cmans friend/Malcolm and then the supporters, the pirate suit is a great eye catching garment but after a while I couldn’t respond to everyone vocally so had to resort to waving a pathetic kind of ‘I’m free’ sort of hello sailor effort just without the conviction !!
The turnaround near the finisher chute was electric, I wanted so much to be finishing but 3 more to go, more cheering from the crowds, first lap in 51 mins, happy with that.

The second and third laps are the hardest but this is where the supporters come into their own, even if you don’t get a response the lift it gives you to hear your team or name called out is beyond description, any ‘pirate’ shout or ‘Rosey’ ‘go Nick’ from friends or strangers is superb. I reached the halfway point in about 1.46 which I knew was slowing but within the limits I set in my head.

It was at the end of the second lap that the now infamous telling my supporters to ‘f’ off incident happened. I was on my way to the turnaround, about 300 metres out when I heard ‘hi honey, Jeff says to keep your nutrition up’ so I stuck up the V’s. It was the first thing that came into my head, what does he mean keep my nutrition up, what do they think I am doing here ..!!!!!

However, by the time I had got the turnaround and then back to the place where they were waiting again on the 3rd lap I had recovered my sense of humour and apologized by blowing kisses, only to then have the response ‘Is this your last lap honey ??? How many more to go ??!! Bloody hell, what race were they watching, I later found out that they didn’t know if it was a 3 lap or 4 lap run. So they set off for the stands to make sure they got me at the finish. A sherpas lot is never an easy one, shout encouragement and helpful hints only to be given short shrift back, sorry, I really am, and not enough can be said for them on the day and leading up to the event that the family and supporters give, so thanks.



I also think the issue here is nothing more than what I call ‘externalising’ This basically means that someone (ME) will do absolutely anything to remove pain from my mind by blaming everyone else for what I am going through, I was in a lot of pain in my quads and I was hot and bothered but to remain calm I was removing the thoughts of anything that could get in my way by putting them onto others, either that or I am a miserable git during the race !!!! ;-) which I know I am not.
Lap 3 was also when I started seeing all of the others, Lewis, Alyn, Sarah, Nick (although to be fair he was lying on his back in the middle of the road !!!), and Alan. I also realized that age groupers around me where competing for my slots and I had to stay focused, the cheering never abated which was superb and I completed the lap in 55 mins, at the turnaround I got a huge cheers from my supporters and others who couldn’t make their mind up whether I was finishing or not but had pretty much worked it out from the time. Then they sat there trying to work out what I needed to get back before 10:30.

The last lap is where I think racing previous events helps and also managing to push harder and think of anything to help you mentally, ‘its only 6 miles, that’s a walk in the park’, ‘ come on, you do this for fun and you know the distance !’, my aim was to pick the person in front of me and chase them down, I was getting faster (so I thought) and I knew that once at the turnaround I had a 3 mile jog to the finish, I also started looking at race numbers and Age Groups, I picked off one more at the turnaround and set off to find anyone with 3 bands.
The last leg was the hardest, I knew it wouldn’t last long and I could stop in about 20 mins or so, I ran through the aid stations grabbing coke, last sugar rush to get to the end.

I was seeing all my mates on the last lap, all giving me encouragement as I was finishing, at this point I was passed by Simon coming in to finish on the bike, who hurled abuse at me ‘Come on Rosey, I thought you would have been finished by now’ classic line and great timing but he didn’t get too much of a response either because at that point I saw my next target.

I was about 1km out and there was someone in front of me in my age group with 3 bands, his number had turned in the wind so I knew he was a Hawaii target, so I turned mine to the front so he couldn’t see it and moved my bands down my arm to my hand so he couldn’t see me as a threat.
As we went through the last aid station I decided that was it, head down, I ignored the last aid station completely and set off as if it was the first lap again, I passed the Chester supporters who later said I looked in a little pain, I didn’t look back until I was halfway down the chute, I could see the time was 10.27 something, I was going to make the sub 10:30 and I had seen off another 35-39’er, superb …..
My supporters starting yelling at me as I was milking the finish, someone was racing me, I panicked as I thought he was my age group and set off in a sprint with him, we covered the whole finisher chute together with him just having the momentum to get there a split second sooner. It turns out he was a different age group but I was spent, I didn’t care now, nothing I could do. Run time was 3:36, ecstatic, I couldn’t have done more on the day.




Aftermath

Bryan was there at the finish to pick me up, I wasn’t feeling too cool but mixed emotions about the time and how I felt along with thinking did I do enough to mmmmm, I fancy a drip, never had one, yep, gonna have one of them ;-)
Got into the tent and actually had 2 drips. Meanwhile Bryan had got me the provisional results in my age group which put me in 12th with 10 slots and one of the people had said no.
The next 16 hours or so was a roller coaster of will I/won’t I, people texting and ringing to see if I had done it, they were checking the results and my placing kept changing from 11th to 13th and the slots were 11 etc etc.

It all comes down to this, if you want to qualify you have to finish in the slots, there were 10, I was 13th in my AG. Its not enough, the next stage is a lottery to see if others claim the slots.

Anyway, I missed it, by one slot, it rolled down one place as well but in the end it was 3 minutes, 2 in the swim and 1 in T1. Or anywhere else you want to add it or take it away. I recovered pretty well though and am already planning the race for next year to try again.

Just a quick thanks to all of the supporters from Chester, pirates, family, on the course and at home here in the UK that either knew us or didn’t, it made a hell of a difference. Thanks. Rosey

Ironman Germany 2006

IM Germany 2006
Frankfurt – European Championships.

The journey to Frankfurt started many moons ago with entry, hotels, flight booking and forum threads but the ‘keeping it real’ journey was on the Wednesday before the race, I was travelling with Kelly and 3 guys from Chester Tri to Cologne by airline and catching 3 trains to Frankfurt. To know how much time I spend trying to find the best routes, cheapest ‘good’ hotels etc means that to have discarded everything in favour of travelling Easyjet because of the great bike carriage deal is to know how much of a let down it was to me 2 minutes after we arrived at the check in desk. The problems started as we approached the astoundingly unhappy check in girl, who was purposely put there to make our lives hell and had obviously got out of the bed the wrong side and inserted her monthly self help tubes in the wrong hole.
Easyjet had apparently changed their allowance for sports baggage on May 1st to 32kg total including your own bag, we had booked a week later and they couldn’t confirm or deny that the internet had been updated at that time. So we argued, and argued and argued!!! The argument for an hour and a half after we got to the desk was sometimes heated, often frustrating and mildly amusing as Julian, our local wine rep and frequent business class traveller first tried to bribe the staff with cases of wine and then tried the charm, this might work on business class but the ‘keeping it real’ element of our journey had kicked in and they weren’t budging. He was then told to remove 17kg of excess items from his hard case to reduce the weight to a manageable amount for the baggage handlers before they would even take it, let alone charge the extra. This didn’t turn out to be quite as bad as we thought as he was carrying over 15kg of nutrition with him !!! I sh1t you not !! This meant that he was now carrying around 12kg in a rucksack that they didn’t know about and trying not to look like he was transporting another person onto the flight slung over his back.
Kelly was doing her usual, ‘will you stop getting so ratty and let me deal with this, I’m a travel agent’ But by then I had pi$$ed off so many people that it didn’t matter if you were Stelios’s brother, we were gonna pay excess.

Onto the plane and we arrived at Frankfurt on time, which I had allowed 2 hours of messing about in case EJ delayed us, we got our first train to Koln main and then the waiting for the usually on time German public transport started. Some kind soul had managed to set light to the tracks a few miles from Mainz so the next train was delayed for over an hour, in the oppressive 36 deg heat under train station glass this was slowly getting to be a bad day. 2 more trains later through wonderful countryside we did however arrive in Frankfurt at 11pm after setting off at 10am that day.
The rest of Chester had taken one plane straight to Frankfurt from Manchester, never had a bag weighed and had now effectively paid less, and we were doing the sightseeing route to SAVE money !!!!! All this time Jules’ new mantra of ‘keeping it real’ was beginning to prove why going cheap wasn’t always the best way ! The best was to come for our business travelling guru, he had left his hotel booking so late that the only thing left was just outside the train station in a local hotel of pot smoking, reggae playing laid back dudes with no concept of bedtime and propensity for loud music in time to the trains leaving and arriving across the street, once again he had been brought back to street level.

Thursday and Friday was spent checking out the lake area and the city, which was beautiful, great setting for a race. My mum and her partner arrived Friday and Team Rose was assembled, I meantime set off to meet the rest of PSOF at the race brief.
I don’t know where the clapping came from after the no neoprene announcement but the German commentator might have missed the sarcasm involved. When he said he thought they might be lynched and not applauded he didn’t know how close to getting out of there with his life intact he was.
When the clapping did die down you could sense the differing reactions, some disbelief, others pensive but dealing with it, myself, well I was hoping to wear mine but it had been a close thing in IMCH a few years ago and I knew it could happen, it was just I had to hear it to actually believe they had really made the final decision. At this point the ‘sub 10’ was walking slowly out of the door, for no reason other than I intended to beat the time but minutes were vital and this would put me back a few, possibly up to 10.
The group assembled for photo opportunity and we had a bit of a laugh meeting others we hadn’t seen before, when the pirates did the Aaaarrrgggghhhh on one of the photos I just thought, Frankfurt are not gonna know what hit them Sunday, fantastic.

Saturday I tried to relax with the other Chester guys while the sherpas went out and did a dry run of Heartbreak Hill using the public transport.

Putting the bikes together ....



We made up the transition bags, tied all the tubs and bottles etc to the bike and then at 4pm we started the queuing for the buses, it wasn’t too much of an issue regarding time waiting but having one transition is so much easier. ;-)
Anyway, while we were down at the lake the rain that had been promising all week decided to break, the wind came first and as I was running back to the entrance with my ‘helfer’ the wind caught one of the gazebo’s and lifted it clean off the ground and took about 4 of the fence panels with it, we had just got out before they decided to close transition, then the rain came and hammered down for the next few hours to clear the sticky air that had built for the last week. God knows what state transition was going to be in the next day.
The bus back wasn’t too painful until a German guy opposite me decided to open a sachet of Ralgex and smear it all over his legs; my eyes had stopped streaming by the time we got back to town. I then spent the rest of the evening breaking the whole race down into the manageable chunks I was going to use to set times by, decide what I was wearing and then got to bed around 9ish.

Race Day.

Got up at 4, sorted out breakfast made sure I hadn’t missed anything and got in the queue for the 5am bus, which was just as well because the queuing again at the lake was beginning to get tiresome, I’m just gald we weren’t standing, we didn’t actually get to the drop off til 6, the only annoying thing for some was the fact that non competitors were on the bus and were never removed even though the queues were quite long, I had long since got into race mood and it didn’t bother me. I had been in such a rush the day before that I forgot to let the air out of my tubs, so checked them, still OK, loaded the full drinks bottles, filled the bento and aero bottle and snapped on bike shoes. Sorted helmet, glasses and race belt and then decided I needed to go wee ! That done, saw a few more pirates, kept chatting, more shaking hands and somehow managed to get to the water about 10 mins before the start.



Swim

I had decided to race in the pirate skin suit so I didn’t have to faff in T1. The bit I was looking forward to least tho was the wait and ‘float’ at the start of the swim, the only thing I could think of was to go to the front and hanging onto the rope over the start line. We kept getting told to leave it but as soon as the canoe went by we all grabbed it again, I was being constantly kicked from underneath and had to re do my chip strap which was a bit unnerving in case I lost it in the depths of the lake. Eventually the rope was pulled away and I started my watch, I was trying to avoid waiting til the horn went off for fear of being dunked in the rush to get going. We then had to tread water for another 2 minutes before they let us go, as soon as the horn went I dove straight for the inside line and the buoys.
It has to be said, apart from the turnarounds, this was the easiest swim in terms of fighting, there was clear water in front of me most of the way round, which didn’t help my drafting but was keeping my heart rate down I am sure. I had to detour a little on the first lap as I started to head out of the final exit ramp instead of the turnaround exit, a kind canoeist pointed me in the right direction.
I got out in 29 mins, heard a few shouts and got back in, the mind games on finish times started at this point, I know that was the short lap so how much longer is it, I decided to forget it when I got to the top of the lake again and started to really kick for the last 800 metres home.

Exited in 1.05, surprised and pleased.

T1 was a ball ache, it was sooooo long, everything was on my bike, so I ran up the hill, with encouragement from the pirate support, blew a kiss at Jj and hi5’d FB as he was taking piccies at the top. Straight through the bag area, past the tents, got to the bike, the glasses were wet and steamed up so they went in the back pocket, I put on my race number, then helmet, took a glug of drink I had left on the floor and left. 3.22 for T1.

Bike

I always had a plan of following HR for the 3 60k’s and breaking it down to 140-145 for the first and then upping by 5 each time. On the hills I would push harder but stay under my lactate levels and if I was cruising at a fast speed and the HR was low, use it as a brief rest. The first 12k to town was a fast pace but the HR was low so I used it to recover the extra exertion in the swim. I was cheered by Chris, Jan, Nigel and Julie with my family by T2 and then the pirates a few hundred metres after that.
The smile on my face was shortly removed when I reached back to get one of my power bar bottles for a drink when I realised I had ejected both of them somewhere on the bad roads, not a show stopper as I had the aero bottle still but I had to drink slowly to conserve liquid until I got a chance to top up. The first aid station came and I was surprised at the initial ‘EEESO’ shout instead of ‘energy!!’ so I only got one bottle of isotonic but used it sparingly and decided to take an extra gel with water to compensate. That was about the last time I had any concerns regarding nutrition, the aid stations were slick and if you shouted what you wanted they stepped forward. The ‘Beast’ and ‘Hell’ both crept up on me as I hadn’t ridden the course previously, a few had said there weren’t any hills to speak of but just watch the 90 degree turn into the cobbles, well before I saw the cobbles I saw the hay bales so slowed down and by the time it registered that this was the infamous cobbled part I was already halfway up, wasn’t as bad as I imagined but I need a few fillings replaced. I finished the first 60k in 1.40 and thought this was on good pace for 5.15 with a little drift later.
The course wasn’t too bad at this point but it was still very wet and drizzling constantly so I had to keep concentrating, the last thing I needed was to come off, I assumed the rain was kicking up all sorts of crap as people were puncturing all around me, I was trying to ignore it, oh and praying to anyone that would listen so I didn’t get one. There were also a lot of accidents and a stretch just before town of mini roundabouts was slowly becoming a cyclist scrap yard, I weaved in and out of a few and tried to keep away from the draft cheats who seemed intent on going into tight bends in groups and taking each other out, more fool them.

Heartbreak Hill was where my supporters were based, I passed the main pirate support at the bottom as they were making their way up for the rest of the group to come through and Bryan and a few of the others gave some great encouragement.

Supporters at the top of Heartbreak Hill..



I saw the Chester gang, my mum, Roger and Kelly before they saw me, it was probably the yellow straw hats, yellow straw skirts, pirate tops and superb cheering that did it, it was a great boost just before town. Coming into town I saw another load of Brits and pirates together with lots of great cheering.
I had got into a good frame of mind now as well as the day was warming up and I now knew the course now so I decided to stop the high 5’s for the kids, which was hard and try to concentrate, might seem harsh but I was still sticking thumbs up at anyone who cheered but as I was doing well the veering across the road to slap 8 year old kids hands was beginning to seem like a waste of energy. I did the next 60 k in 1.39 and settled in for the road home. I passed a few of the back marking pirates in the last 12km into town including IW, Plum and KK and shouted a few words of encouragement but as I didn’t know what actual time it was and I was trying to concentrate on catching the guy in front of me I didn’t know they were facing the cut-off on their return to town. I recognised the last few roundabouts and reduced the gearing to start spinning more and ease off the pedal to slip out of the bike shoes ready to get off.

Bike time was 5.06.



Run.

I can’t remember the exact time I came into T2 but I knew that I had to be in and out of transition without messing around, a ‘helfer’ ran in front of me shouting my number and then it took what seemed like 60 secs to find my bag but no harm done, into the tent and took off bike gear and cleaned feet, put on new glasses, socks and hat and off taking 1:49.

I knew Kelly and Team Rose would be at the first aid station as I had asked her to pass me my Garmin and my Camelbak. It didn’t seem too hot at the time but I suppose that’s because I had just thrown cold water all over me but I ignored the camelback and grabbed the Garmin and set the pace timer. It was good to see them at the start and the support here and all over the course was to be a pleasant part of what was to be the hardest marathon I have ever done.



I set off at a comfy pace with the GPS telling me I was doing 7.15 pace, I had to look twice but it was right. The thoughts that followed were along the lines of, ‘that’s too fast’ ‘but I feel OK?’ ‘If I slow to 8’s I know I will only get slower’, ‘sod it, just keep going and if you slow down later fine !’ So I did.
About 2 miles later I was running along the top bank and heard a shout below me going the other way, ‘come on Rosey, looking good !’ well to look up and find Cougie bouncing down the riverbank in front of me was a bit of a shock. In the time it took me to catch him I was analysing my reaction, was it fair on Cougs to be thinking, ‘how the hell did you get here ?’ or had he just had a storming swim, I knew he was a good biker so it must have been the swim. As I got level, I said, ‘nice swim and bike Cougs’, the reply started with ‘well there’s a story behind that ….’ Lol !!! We jogged for a while as he explained the nightmare of the day and we chatted for around a mile, he also asked me if I needed anything so I told him I was getting hot and wished I had some salt, before I had finished he produced 3 saltstick capsules, cheers mate. (I managed to use one before losing the others while taking a gel out of my back pocket) Then he told me he needed to walk for a bit and dropped back so I carried on.

The next shock was the pirate ‘aid’ station, how cool was that, I could see it a bliddy mile off, yellow everywhere, spotters pointing and letting others know a pirate was coming and the cheer was great, I may not have waved very enthusiastically every time but it was a real lift, and what you probably didn’t realise was that for me, I had Team Rose on one side, pirate aid station on the other and the Chester guys moving all round the course. It was something that you could also look forward to all down each side of the river before you ever got sight of it.

I completed the first 10.5k in 46 mins and secretly hoped I could keep this going but knew that I would drift later so I concentrated on keeping strong and keeping my form. I was also using a good nutrition plan that was changing every aid station. I am normally able to eat anything while training so I decided to go with stomach feel and taste. If I needed a gel which I was taking every 35 mins I would only touch water but otherwise if I fancied isotonic I would have it and if not I would concentrate on loads of water on me and in me. I had ignored the ice after the first aid station as it was burning my head but did foolishly once throw it down my front and spent the next 400m picking bits of ice out of the undercarriage as it was cooling me down far too quickly and I was in danger of going inverted !!!
I saw the family again out of T2 and a few more of the Chester supporters giving some great encouragement. What was also fun to hear was random ‘pirate’ shouts, a few times I was going under bridges and Mrs G-Sport would shout as she was pushing the pram back and forwards over the river, others were up at far reaches of the course, JC’s(tritalk) family were up at the opposite end to the pirate camp, Brits were giving us total support as well as a load of the Irish just before the T2 entrance.
The second lap I still hadn’t walked but kept running through all the aid stations and I was now starting to feel the heat at the far end of the course, the trees were giving a little shade but as you came out on that rise before the last bridge it was getting stupidly hot, just keep throwing water everywhere was the aim.
This was also the lap that I first heard Rich, a few of the pirates were abusing me verbally to run faster (which was actually working as in these moments anything shouted at you personally helps ) across the trees either side of the far turnaround and Rich was right behind them, he spotted me and shouted something like ‘I’m coming for you Rosey’, well it sounded like that, but I am sure afterwards he said it was something encouraging !

Completed the ½ marathon in 1.40 and started to work out the maths again. I had come out of T2 on my 3rd lap with 7.58 on the clock, I knew I had 2 hours to do 2 laps, I also knew my pace was slowing but if I could keep 9 minute miles I had it in the bag. This meant I could now start to walk the aid stations, something my legs had been asking for for the last mile or two.
By now the GPS was screwed as I was seeking as much shade as possible and it was struggling to read the satellites so I ignored it and started using the km markers and staying at 5.30’s.

So out on lap 3 it was much the same only slower, aid station, fast walk, water, more water, gel, and at this point. Coke. I had left it til now as I knew it was fizzy and trying to run and drink fizzy coke isn’t pleasant. It was working for me now though.
I was now concentrating on more things than I could shake a stick at, I was searching for familiar faces, responding to shouts to pirates, working out how far RichM was behind me as he is a better runner and trying not to walk inbetween the aid stations.
I also started to see more pirates on the course and tried to shout something more than ‘hello’ as I went past but it was difficult, the sun was starting to affect my eyesight as every time I stopped concentrating I got stars in my peripheral vision so I had to refocus, I am sure it looked like I was being miserable as on completing the 3rd lap the Irish lot told me to smile lol !!!

My legs hurt from my knees up to my neck lol !! and it wasn’t getting better, the only thing taking my mind off it was keeping to pace and dreaming of crossing the line with 9. something showing. I got to T2 for last time with just over an hour to go.

As I went out on lap 4, Kelly shouted that she would see me in the stands, I think I responded but can’t remember, the next hour was just painful, all I wanted to do was walk, if it had been looking like I was going to not break 10 hours then I probably would have, the rollercoaster of seeing people I knew and them shouting encouragement was matched by knowing I was weakening and my legs could stop at any moment.
I concentrated on making the aid stations fast and efficient and also thought it was the right time to start on the Red Bull, the race pack had some gumpf about how it was to be used for the last 20 mins of the race but I thought I could really do with a lift, that and coke and I was buzzing all the way round the last lap. Passing the pirates for the last time at the aid station was great, nearly in tears was a mix of emotion and pain and it started to dawn on me how many hadn’t finished as they were all there cheering me on, I really appreciated that too.
By now I had forgotten about RichM as I didn’t care if he overtook me I just wanted to beat 10 hours, I ignored the last aid station and as I got to the point when you separate from the course and go right instead of onto another loop the elation started from my feet and kept going until my ears were tingling, Nigel and Chris were yelling at me to keep going, I was going to do it but the 2 minutes I had extra on my watch from the swim start meant I didn’t know by how much.
The finish chute was amazing, lots of noise, I just focused on the clock in front of me and heard Kelly and my mum shouting from the stands, check behind me so I got a clean photo and crossed the line in 9.56.04. As I roared and put my head back screaming I saw FB above me taking pictures so I hope one of them came out cos a lot of emotion was vented at that moment.



I then spent 2 ½ hours in the athletes village, I had to refuse the drip as I wanted a massage straight away and I have never had one yet, I think I will save that experience for Lanzarote when I might need one.

Mission accomplished.

Team Rose



A lot of people helped me for that result, Kelly, my wonderful sherpa joined by my mum and Roger made for a great family weekend but the support from all the pirates and Chester tri contingent was huge. I have to say I already had great respect for all of the competitors that I knew but to see the pirates that DNF’d on the run course cheering with everyone else was testament to their attitude and to the whole experience.

Just been made Admiral Rosey



The party the next day was one of the funniest awards ceremonies I think I have been to and to be made an admiral, well what more could a pirate ask for. I rolled into my bed that night, very drunk and feeling very warm, and no, I hadn’t wee’d myself again ;-)

Thanks.

Right, thought I would start one of these as although I have my own training log and diary some of the guys I train with ask what sort of training I do. This would be easier, plus its an easier place to link back to old files and compare my times. The odd photo would probably appear here as well.