Well, its been 5 weeks since Ironman and I've finally finished processing my thoughts and put pen to paper. I've never experienced anything like the weekend of the 27/28 March 2010 - Ironman Port Macquarie.
I traveled up on the Friday morning in convoy with the Doctor (Phil) and his family. Not the greatest of starts getting to registration 10 minutes before it closed, having just ripped half my toe nail off my small toe. Ouch! Stayed in Lake Cathie about 20kms from Port on the bike course, in a beach house right on the beach! Beautiful spot! Went for a run on the Sunday and encountered all sorts of problems running on a manky toe. Bit concerned about this but figured that i would be hurting alot more in other places on race day! With a little help from Sleep Train, i managed to bandage it up and hope for the best.
And so to race day. I had a general plan, which was mainly to finish! In terms of time i was looking at about 10hrs 30mins, but in reality had no idea and no experience of such an generating such a target. What a beautiful morning though! With the sun rising over the inlet where the swim was to take place, i made myself down to the mass start and soaked in the national anthem. Although not Australian it was a poignant moment and was followed by a hooter set off in the crowd which ignited a mass start prematurely of the official cannon start! Found myself heading off in the middle of the crowd mainly by accident due to the massive amounts of people bobbing in the water and lack of ability to orientate myself - I didn't really have any idea where the start line was! Managed to get out to the side, find my rhythm and start feeling comfortable! Nothing of note on the swim except a terrible start for the foot with swimmers hitting my toes with their hands leaving me in great pain and kicking out at those behind who would have had no idea how much pain they were inflicting on my weeping toe! Out of the water in 59.14 just under the 1 hour target and proceeded through the fantastic support of 5 or 6 people deep crowd either side of the swim exit shoot! Managed to get through transition without too many problems although for some random reason found it hard to actually get on my bike and then 500m later dropped my sunglasses which had been wedged between my bottle and holder. A quick turn around and i was back on my way! 5:49.51 later after three laps of 60km and i only had a marathon left! Happy enough with the ride although lost some time late on as the body tired, but happy to have got around without too much incident on my weakest leg inside the 6hr target!
I've run more kms in the last 4 months than ever before, and had been feeling really strong and positive about this leg! The Thursday before the race was the NSW Police Games where a PB 18.29 5km run helped me to a 4th place finish in a race in which i had taken easy, and so running out of the tent onto the run course i was looking forward to making up some time! Very difficult to explain how hard that run leg was! 42.2km of pain! The foot held up fine which was a positive, but i may have been just numb to the pain due to the mess the rest of the body was in! Three laps of 14km. 1st lap was spent trying to feel comfortable and get into a rhthym. Never really found it, and became more of a mental battle setting small targets to get to! 2nd lap and the stomach cramps set in! Had to stop at the toilets twice and sit down to try and relieve the pain! I then ditched the food and electrolyte for simply water in an attempt to feel better! The sun was hot by this time, but the head wind out to Settlement Point helped keep the body temperature down! The last lap was the hardest ever but with the finish line in sight was mentally alot easier! With 5km and the finish in sight i decided to switch to electrolyte again and decided that i may as well give everthing. As the legs started to move a bit quicker and the heart rate increased, the stomach cramps went and i started to feel as good as i did at the beginning to complete a sub 20mins final 5km, a 4:15.19 marathon and a total time of 11:04.25 for my first ever Ironman. The feeling coming down the finish shoot was incredible and finally in a race i let out some emotion punching the air in acknowledgement of what i had achieved! There was much discussion after to how people react to finishing races, triathlon or other, and levels of self satisfaction and/or achievement. Personally, i am often a little disappointed if i'm not seeing improvement but love racing and competing because i enjoy the experience, the atmosphere and the motivation behind training for something! Even though i was 35mins behind my target and well behind good training buddies, i can't deny that i loved the feeling of completing the race and joining an awesome club of athletes. Any possible disappointment was by far outweighed by being an Ironman. It will be something that will be etched into the memory!
And to the support! It was a great week spent up there with Scam and SWMBO and the Docs family! I have to give it to the Doc for doing so well after being disturbed from his much needed sleep by two young restless children! Don't think it will be much easier next year Phil! Was also great to have the Prince and Sleep Train with us briefly who were also of great support and a reliable source of advice from a vast locker of experience! Was also fantastic to have Dylan & Alisha and Jez & Elise up there supporting us. For me, its not just about the day but the months building up to the day! Had some great sessions training with BMMC (Upper and lower chapters), and especially the Animal, Scam, Sleep Train and Dr Phil, whether doing the bridges swim on a hot summer Saturday afternoon in our wetsuits, or being dragged around Bells by the Dr, or drinking soft drink at the Ori with ST, or running to the Cox's River or out Narrow Neck with Scam, 2010 has been a truly great year for training with quality athletes and an experience that is a rarity. I have enjoyed it thoroughly and tried not to take a moment of it for granted, although easier said than done when trying to drag myself out of bed at 5am for 7 hours of riding in the rain! The advice from various sources has also been invaluable, with particular note to 20mins of advice provided by cedric on a chilly night in March the evening after the Six Foot track marathon! Many thanks!
Anyway, apologies for not getting this blog done earlier and for whoever gets this far thanks for persevering with my waffling's! Ironman 2010 done..... next North Face 100!
No comments:
Post a Comment