I've done it, lived up to the blog title that I named over 2 years ago and the race I have been preparing for for over a year. How does it feel? In a word, amazing! As far as personal achievements go this is right up there for me. I'ts a long story about a long day at the end of a very long journey. I've learned a lot, made a whole new circle of friends and had some great times along the way. So grab a beer (I have) put your feet up and get ready, I'll be reliving this in full over and again the next time I see you!
Arrived in the beautiful city of Zurich on Thursday with superstar supporter Ange. It's a stunning place but christ it is expensive.
I'm known as Brewster by some for my hobby of spending money but even I baulked at the prices. Every drink from water to coke is 5 Swiss franks (£3.50) or 7 Swiss franks at the expo. Didn't have one but a regular Big Mac meal would set you back £10. Yes you read that right! Lunch and breakfast weighed in at £50 for 2 people and dinner was anything from £100 to £150 in the gaff on the lake. Swiss people must come to Bond Street and think they've walked into Matalan.
I digress.
Walked to the Expo where they were setting up and took in Saffa Island. Place is off the hook (left). Had a good nose round and was a great atmosphere of everyone getting ready to compete. Was pretty hot already but I was prepared for the heat and wasn't overly concerned. Spent an hour or so taking the size of the event in then headed back to the Hotel.
Kitted up and went for a jog. Ran down to the park that was part of the run route and then along the Seastrasse past the start and further towards Heartbreak Hill before turning back. Really held myself back and felt good. Heat no issue at all. Cover maybe 4 miles and legs felt great after a cold shower.
Went for dinner in some weird Chineese/Sushi/Curry place and donated my kids college fund in the process. Early to bed and slept really well after a pretty long day.
Friday had a good breakfast in Starbucks then headed to where the swim start was. Forget what it's called but the gaff was blinding. Like an open air swimming pool part of the lake with food / showers and chilled out areas. Also had loads of floatys, jettys and diving boards. We could do with more public places like this at home. Had a good swim in my tri suit - maybe 600m and felt really easy in the water. Bit of sunbathing then off to register and hit the race briefing. The briefing was delayed because the German one over ran but boy it was hot in that tent. Left after the bit where they say you've finished but could have saved 10 mins of everyone's life if they'd have just ignored everything to do with 'drafting' and 'penalties'. First thing the race director said in the briefing was it's a non wetsuit swim. Groans throughout the room like people have just missed ball number 6 on the lottery. Second thing no compression socks over ankles. More groans #WTF (what the fudge) !!! Third thing it's going to be so hot you better tear up any race times and think about survival.
Got to say, no matter how bad I am at swimming and how much I hate racing in the heat I actually got more keyed up for the race when I saw the harsher conditions. When I first thought about doing Ironman 2 years ago it was all about going back to when I started running marathons - to finish is to achieve. When I started running more seriously the drive to get faster and faster took all the fun out of running for me. So I was back to the challenge, not to race but to survive and face my deepest mental demons.
Wanted a steak for dinner Friday night and hit the old town to get one. Was nice but boy it cost the earth. Washed down with about 15 litres of water and plenty of coke (to acclimatise should I feel a bonk coming on). Early to bed again and slept like a boss.
Saturday wanted to stay off my feet and out of the sun as much as possible. Drink plenty, get nutrition in and generally stay relaxed. Long story short. Breakfast in room (found supermarket), chilled in room on bed till 3pm. Picked up bike from Ship-My-Tri-Bike, went to expo, bought a Gorilla cage 2 bottle holder (£250) and set bike up ready to go. Queued for ages to get bike into transition and then loaded bike, run bag and bike bag up. Took air out of tyre. Wanted to go for a test ride but a welcome to the world of MDot racing - prepare to be treated like a sheep with millions of other people!
So stuff racked it was tram back to hotel and the pasta 'party' or as other people would call it spag bol, carbonara and some leaves. 35 Euro and you had to buy your own drinks. Imagine Turner in Switzerland? The kid would certainly loose that extra goo he gained in the states ;) - only joking son, no one reads this stuff anyways !!!
Bed at 8.30 alarm set for silly o'clock. No sleep till at least 1 but at least I was resting and didn't expect much anyways.
Race Day. Up 4.30am and down to breakfast. Felt good and ready to go. Ate well and was showered, sun screened, dressed and off by 5.30. Into transition 6am on the dot. Set bike up, loaded bike and run bag with nutrition and queued for the khazi. Headed to the swim start and settled far left (right hand turns) around swimmers I thought looked same / slower pace to me (mid pack).
The pic here is a section of the start I wasn't at that Ange took. This is probably 150 of the 2,222 swimmers that entered the water. Felt psyched up and ready. Nothing could have prepared me for the 90 mins that followed. The swim actually started well. I found clear water almost immediately and felt calm. Got into a rhythm and then started to look around for people to draft off. Found a guy within a minute or so and hit his shoulder, not text book but I was at least trying to put my Greenlight squad training into practice! 2/3 mins and all going well. Few slaps on the feet and few people going in funny directions but me and my leader were going well. Then 5 mins into the swim I hear someone say something behind me. They grab my leg, pull me back and dunk (and hold) my head under. Massive adrenaline rush and I'm shouting and kicking and ready for a tear up. Manage to calm myself down but seriously what sort of person does that in a non wetsuit swim. I'm not a bitter person but I seriously hope they melted on that course and DNF'd.
Fought to calm myself down but was now pretty worried about getting swum over. Got it back and found a swimmer to draft off, old fat guy in trollies. Seemed to have a good line but took and almighty wide turn at the first buoy. Drafted him until the next turn around and then made first mistake of the day cutting inside him to get a better line at the next turn buoy. Got that line but got beat up a fair bit. Struggled to draft on the way back to Saffa Island and got pretty badly beat up trying to find people and getting swam over and across.
Saffa Island is what they call an Australian exit. You swim around the island (it's tiny, maybe 20m across) and under a bridge before exiting a ramp and then run across the island over a chip mat and back into the water for next lap. In principle it sounds amazing. It must look a amazing to the spectators. To swimmers like me it's a fucking horror story. I'm swimming in between 800-1200th position which means I've got about 400 people all swimming around me at the same time. The Island bottle necks us and for the first time I started to realise that in Ironman racing, don't worry about what you read about it being one big happy family. It is every man for himself. I got hit, pulled, pushed - people did not care I was there, in fact they did I was just in their way and they would swim over my cold dead body to keep moving. No understatement that was a war for people out there.
Over the island and into the water again. No idea of time, just keep moving. Back in the water and quite a narrow start. Must have started too fast as I feel solid but I'm still getting overtaken. Latch on to a couple of people but mainly solo swim till the first turn. Start to bump into people who randomly breast stroke to sight.
Rest of the swim is more of the same, course narrows I get hit and just try to find the draft. Swim fairly strongly along the last straight into the Island - no-one seems to come past me but I don't hardly see anyone on my left for the entire swim. Out into transition with no idea of time but just fucking happy that ordeal is over!
See Ange running into transition and high-5 her, she'll never know how much a lift I got there. Takes a pic of my sweet arse! Grab my bike bag thinking to get a march on, still no idea of time but hoping for a 1.15 and hear the announcer say 'these people have been in the water for over an hour and a half' stop rushing when I hear that and realise today will most certainly be a day of survival! Find out later that swim was not only non-wetsuit but was way long. Anything between 2.6 and 2.7 miles from Strava. I'd hoped in my dream that they would bring the buoys closer on announcing the non wetsuit-ness of the swim but alais they made it longer!!
Get my St Neots CC shirt on, shoes, helmet and shades then make mistake number 2 - don't take solid nutrition onto the bike.
Grab Jezobel and see she has 2 tyres full of air (sounded like a firework display on way to the swim with all the tyres popping).
Onto the bike course.
Bike course. Almost immediately botle drops from my Gorilla cage nearly spilling a rider. Big apology and ride on. Bike course is basically 30km flat fast ride along the lake. 20km small hills and decents. 15km 2 serious climbs. 5km downhill FAST. 10km flat fast. 2km big uphill (Heartbreak hill). 8km flat and do it again.
First 30km section was 'interesting'. Baring in mind I had come out of the swim in 1.29:40 I expected all the serious riders behind me but I ended up loosing more places than I gained! I was getting sped past with me doing 25-26 mph! People were killing this section. I held back but still averaged 23.6 at the 30km marker. Next 40km I owned, I passed everyone that took me plus change, ripped the hills and was flying. Felt great to be in the race. Stopped at aid station at around 65km to grab a gel, fill up the speed fill and 2 extra water bottles. All good in the hood.
Took it comfortable on the decents and rode OK up to heartbreak hill and went up it well. Ange took a great pic here #epic !!
Since the crash a couple of weeks ago my back hasn't been right. Felt it at the start of the ride but it felt pretty OK from about 50km, once I got to the top of the climb I started to feel it again, rolled round past transition for lap 2. Mentally tough now but know every peddle stroke is getting closer to home.
For me the first 30km is the toughest. It's the fastest but I quite like the hills to break rides up a bit. Long (30km) straight roads are like time trials and you have to keep peddling to keep moving.
First lap was 2.40 (20.8 mph Garmin) which is a great split and had me just about on my fairly ambitious target pace of 5.15 - 5.20. First 30km was mentally tough but speed crept up to 21mph. Started to feel much more like a sportive here with drafting galore going on. No matter how many times I sat up and dropped 10m a group would sit about a gnats cock in front of my wheel. Draft busters would ride next to groups of 15-20 riders without so much as batting an eyelid.
Hit the roundabout at 30km and the road goes up a bit. Noticed here a lack of watts in the legs and struggled to the top. For the last 45 mins or so the heat had crept up (lap 1 was fairly overcast). By the time I hit 40km it had reached unbearable. Worse than that I was hungry - proper hungry. Stopped at next aid station to take a gel, banana, fill speedfill and grab 2 water bottles. Went OK on the first smallish hill but changed up to big ring and crack chain had dropped. Quick stop and put it back on. Onto the beast. I beasted it on lap 1, it ruined me on lap 2. I was cooking fast and was concious of the tougher climb (for me) from Egg to Froch. Got to the top then it's some good rolling road. Crack chain dropped again. Now I've worked out big ring / little ring changes are not happening. Not a good section for this to happen! Back is also really aching now but it's all about getting the job done. Not staying aero as much as I'd like to and pretty much rolling down the descents.
On a monster fast decent as a mountain biker joins the course, I back off but as we make a turn I almost miss it and he cuts across me. That was close, 30 mph at least and I'm almost over the bars. Jesus the heart rate creeps up - seriously didn't need that little wake up call. The climb from Egg to Froch is long and hard and on the other side the chain drops yet again. Free wheel down the hill until the speed runs out then pull over and stick the chain on for the 3rd time. Stop at the aid station for gel, banana and more water. Take coke this time. Messes the guts up a bit.
Beast down the super fast decent on the brakes pulling 49 mph! Brakes are screaming like they are about to fail, have a panic up about coming off at these kinds of speeds. Back on the straight and up towards Heartbreak hill, try to big ring it before a chance at dropping it to the small ring. Success ! Get up the hill and see Ange! Shout love you and feel all emotional and HOT and tired! Down the other side and onto the flat, last couple of miles into transition, test my luck changing up to big ring but epic fail and have to stop just 1 mile from transition to put chain back on!
Coast in for a 5.43 bike split which considering the stops and the heat is not too bad.
The run. God knows how I got through it. Started bad and pretty early realised I couldn't breath properly. Lungs ached, possibly the heat ? God knows. Stuffed in nutrition when I could. Isostar is god awful, wanted water but knew I needed something carby. Lap 1 was all about getting the first one on the board. Saw Ronnie S come the other way and just about stopped him triple lapping me before he won. Lap 2 all I could think about was getting on to lap 3. Passed the half way marker in 2 hours. Jeez this is hard work!! Now I am purely in survival mode, forget time, respect anything this was a battle of forward momentum against mother nature.
I'm cooking, on fire. I can't breath and my legs are in pure agony. The course is horrible but I have superstar Ange supporting me and she even manages to take pictures that make me look the part! Lap 3 done really slow, I'm walking all the aid stations plus a little here and there. In my head just trying to get a km done and push on. Cannot believe I've run this far. This is mental!
Last lap, in my head I say goodbye to all the landmarks. I'll never see them again! Big section up to the park to get my red arm band. Fuck I was glad to see that guy! See Ange and she heads to the finish. Long drag out to the 2nd turnaround point. See people with 1 armband and think how hard that would be, I'm shot and I know it. All I can think about is dragging my arse forward! See a few Riverside boys and girl on the course and know they must be my new NiceTri team mates getting it done. Dig in deep in the last mile determined to run it all.
See Ange at just before the finish line and pull the #crazyplane™ for Ange and the #stIvesElite back home. Know the boys will all love that one!
Hit the finish straight on my own and I own it! I pull the crazy plane and go mental high 5ing anyone within arms reach. They must think I'm a loon. Didn't see the time didn't even care, was just so happy to finish. Nearly cry I'm so tired.
