IronMan UK Race Report - 11 September 2007

IronMan UK Race Report
The swim was the best I have ever had in that I was relaxed and actually enjoyed it which is rare for me. By some fluke I managed to find 2 of my girlfriends at the start line which was great so we hung out treading water together. The gun went off and it was a little pushy but people were not being too aggressive, everyone knows they are out there for a while so didn't try and swim over the top of each other. I breathe on my left side and ended up stroke for stroke with this guy who was breathing on his right side and it was pretty funny when after about 8-10 strokes he gave me a little wave. It was comforting to have someone who wasn't taking it super seriously. We ended up losing each other but found each other again on one of the turnarounds and had a bit of a chat whilst getting around the buoy. Don't get that in Olympic distance racing!

I felt great the entire swim and pushed it a bit on the last 500m and was so pleased with myself to come out of the water in 1:14:40 which was over 5 minutes faster than my estimate. I was in 734th position out of 1575, 12th in my age group and 20 minutes behind the leader in my age group. It was also the first time I had swum the distance in open water :)

I was definitely on a high after coming out of the water in a great time for me and that spurred me on. I got into transition and started shouting for someone to help me get my wetsuit off. This lovely guy helped me out and got me into my cycling kit and picked up the mess afterwards taking my bag away. It was a bit of a free for all and modesty gets thrown out the window :) I did at one point have someone's rather hairy naked bottom pointing at me which gave me the hurry up to get out of the changing tent! I ran out into the transition area where some more of my mates were on the fence so was great to see them.

Got out on the bike and against all good advice just went for it knowing I had to catch the girls ahead of me who would probably be taking things easy for the first part of the bike. I hooked up with this Scottish bloke who was riding slightly faster than me so we rode side by side for about 30 mins and I was quietly checking off the girls we were passing and also ignoring the voice of reason telling me to slow down. I dropped the Scottish bloke when I think he realised he was going to hard which spurred me on even more. I got round to the first turn around after 60km and the crowd was really quiet as just before me a bloke had misjudged the corner and come off. I heard my mate Leanne before I could see her so we were shouting at each other like loons which got the whole crowd going. It was an incredible feeling having all those people shouting for me and it put me on a really high and I powered on that for about 40kms, still ignoring that irritating voice of reason telling me to slow down. By this stage I had passed around 20 women but knew that there were a couple from my age group still ahead of me. The weather was pretty good in that it was overcast, no rain as yet but the clouds were threatening.

The third lap the wind really started to pick up and lots of people were slowing down. We also had a couple of patches of rain which doesn't make for happy cycling. I had broken the ride down into 20km chunks and knew I had to average 40 mins per block to hit my 6 hour target. I was really pleased because I was only 2-3 minutes off each lap and given the wind it was tougher than I had anticipated. I did the fastest bike split in my age group by over 3 minutes and was now quite concerned that I had gone too hard on the bike and was going to be hurt on the run.

I was loving all the banter that goes back and forward when you are out there. I kept seeing the Scottish bloke every now and again and that was cool, we would have a chat and encourage each other. There was this other bloke who I kept catching and over taking so then he would chase me back down and get in front again. After this happening at least 2 or 3 times each lap he said to me that I reminded him of an ex girlfriend who used to stalk him. I couldn't help it and told him that this wasn't the case with us because he would now be following me and took off before he had a chance to respond. Knowing that I had been a complete smarty pants to him meant I had to pick up the pace so he couldn't catch me which got me out of there and refocused me on finishing the last 30km of the bike strong.

It was really exciting riding back towards the castle with everyone lining the road, I got to see Rich and Sam who were screaming for me which was brilliant. I came off the bike in 6:10:35 bike and had moved down to 329th position and 4th place in my age group. I was happy with transition and got going. First few steps, 2 things happened. I could feel a cramp starting under my rib cage, something that has bothered me all season coming off the bike, and a felt a twinge under my left kneecap, an old injury that hadn't come up at all this season.

Back at "HQ" Corinna's Mum, Marilyn, was tracking me online and phoning back the information to the support crew who were then passing the information out to whoever was near me on the course. As I was coming up the hill through the campsite on the first lap I could see this spectacle near the stone gates you pass through and my friends had set up a tent and decorated it with flowers. They were also dressed up in grass skirts, shell and coconut bras complete with Wellingtons because of all the mud. Corinna had me and everyone around us laughing at her when she started trying to run in her Wellingtons totallydecked out in her costume, grass skirt, shell bra, flowers all over her, yelling at me to run faster that I needed to win so she could have a holiday to Hawaii. :)

I was so happy to have them around because it took a good 5 miles for the cramp to pass and they were all over that first lap and screaming that I had almost caught one of the girls in my age group. That first 5 miles was a pretty dark place for me because I really didn't think it was going to be able to run any faster and the niggling feeling that I had smacked the bike too hard was back. Not really sure what happened but it went suddenly and I was able to pick up the pace which really lifted me mentally. I know knew it was going to have to be a PB run to catch and beat the 3 girls ahead of me and I was actually really excited about seeing what I could do. I caught 2 of the girls on the first half of the course...1 to go!

After the 2 laps around the castle and campsite you head through the town and out to the duel carriage way which is basically 3 big rolling hills that you go over 4 times. My knee was definitely letting me know there was a problem at this stage. As I was heading out for my first lap I saw Daz coming back in off his last lap and he was looking brilliant. I hooked up with this guy who again was going faster than me and I had to push to keep up with him but I knew I had to make up some time and still had 1 girl to hunt down. With him I got her on lap 1.

I got to the turnaround and Rich was waiting for me, there is a great photo of him running next to me shouting at me that I had to run faster that I was in first place and had 12 minutes on them but had to push it. Sam was also there and I stopped to give him a big sweaty kiss much to the delight of thecrowd! So now I knew I was in 1st, my knee was really hurting and I still had around 10kms to cover I decided to change strategy and just wind it up and try and put as much time between 2nd and 3rd so that if it did go wrong I could try and walk it home and still win. I had run almost 2 hours on the first half and was overtaking so many people who were now walking I couldn't really judge how fast I was going. I just kept telling myself I hadn't trained for 8 months to walk and that I was going to Hawaii. The wind was so bad! Climbing one of the hills the wind was pushing me back, I got gusted so badly at one point I took a step backwards!

Rich was waiting for me on the turnaround point about 1.5 miles from the end and told me I was in 12th overall, including pros. He also told me again to run faster or he would schedule more mile reps :) That was all the incentive I needed! After having so many people on the duel carriageway it was strange running parts of the course on my own back through the town. There weren't many spectators on this part either. Competitive as always I set myself the target of catching whoever was in front of me in order to take my mind off my now screaming knee. Lots of the towns people were around and I was getting lots of encouragement back towards the castle and that picked me up. I also knew exactly where I was so knew it wasn't far to get home.

All of my friends were there lining the finish chute and put a lei around my neck as I went past. When I crossed the line I burst into tears, after 8 long hard months I had achieved what I set out to do. I was handed a bottle of vintage champagne and proceeded to fall off the wagon! IMUK is definitely one of the biggest achievements in my sporting career and I have never worked as hard for anything. I wouldn't change a thing and now I am focusing on getting ready for the World Championships in Kona on 13th October.