Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Setting my sights Tri
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
I’m not a great swimmer but with practice and a few lessons my speed has improved and I genuinely believed that I could do a sub 1:30 swim. It’s a deep water start so I made my way over to the centre of the masses and felt my stroke was smooth and calm as I made my way over.
The gun went off with an incredible bang and there we were back in the washing machine. I actually quite enjoyed the cut and thrust of the pack and gave as good as I was getting. There are quite a few Japanese competitors here and they seemed very polite getting out of the way as they were bumped and pushed. Anyway about 400m out I started coughing. Everytime I put my head in the water I coughed instead of blowing out, each time taking in some water which didn’t bother me too much but I was struggling to take in air when I went up for a breath. So I switched to breaststroke and coughed up some lovely phlem. I felt a bit sorry for any of my fellow swimmers who collected it on their goggles…..The situation went from bad to worse and I stopped altogether. My chest seemed to have filled up with gunk, my chest was tight and I was feeling as sick as a dog. One of the rescue boats saw my plight and let me hang on for a second as I recovered.
Dunno Jaggy - just edit the post once it's up maybe.
Anyway - nail biting stuff - keep it coming please!
Got started and the same thing happened. Bizarrely, they had one of those endless pools at the expo and I had nipped in on Thursday to see what they were like. The lady who was selling the pools turned out to be one of the lifeguards and she came over to check on me. I could hardly breath, the field had disappeared in the distance and I was in trouble. We swum from buoy to buoy for a while with her just chatting to me trying to help me through the worsening situation and during one of the breaks she asked me about the wheezing she was hearing with every breath. I told her that I’d forgotten to take my inhaler and asked if the medical support boat had such a thing on board. She called for support and the boat arrived 5 minutes later. Doc gave me a couple of puffs of the inhaler, made me feel great by telling me that I sounded dreadful and offered me a hand onto the boat. It’s not a knitting club was my response which I don’t think he understood but let me give it another go. It took about 200m for the effects to kick in at which point I’d completed about 800m in just over 1 hour. My swimming support was replaced by 2 canoes who placed themselves on either side and I started swimming. My shoulder wasn’t allowing a full pull on the left hand side but I began to find my stroke. Having the canoes was brilliant cause I didn’t have to sight and was able to put my head down and get on with it. So I completed the final 3000m in 1:13 – which was pretty good for me.
I knew I was up against the clock but the guys in the canoe were great at giving me signals as to my progress. On reflection, completing the swim for me was the major achievement of the day and it’s hard to say or explain how I felt when I thought I was going to get hauled out but the organisers – they had said when I was getting treatment they would make the call at the turn, I was so relieved they let me continue. I’m still coughing up gunk as I write this and realise that I’m probably still carrying the chest infection.
As I was running the 400m from lake to transition I bumped into the lifeguard lady – she was absolutely gobsmacked that I’d finished. It was good to see her as I was able to say a big thanks for the support. When I reached transition I was just so delighted to be there that I took my time and chatted to everyone.
Message from Jaggy - his connection has gone down, so he can't post more at the moment. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!
Well done, all you amazing IMNZ people
lol @ telling the Doc it's not a knitting club!
Hope his connection gets back up quickly, we're waiting for the next instalment!
Noooo! I'm on tenterhooks and I've already heard parts of his story as we walked/shuffled around the lake!
Tell Jaggy I can bring my laptop to breakfast if he wants, or pop around to Debretts, cabin 31 (two doors down from Aanders).
I'll write my report up sometime today, still trying to get over the emotional side of it. I've been up for a couple of hours now and would you believe Casey is still snoozing! Anyone would think he had done Ironman!
tsk - I didn't know this thread was here! But I've just caught up and even knowing that people had finished I was still all 'cited reading it!! [sniffle]
A huge well done to you all.
Barley - Jen and Rich have both done Kona. They had an earthquake.
Thanks Jj, I sort of guessed they had but wasnt sure.
Quality
Well done Ally. Saw Oringa and Brian both finished, stonking time for Brian again, that Kona slot's got to happen next year
Bike
My legs felt like two big old lead things – I don’t normally kick in the wetsuit to save my legs but because I was making up time I kicking like a good un.
The bike course is pretty fair, couple of climbs at the start and end of each of the 2 laps but not much more. The wind was easing as well and once I got moving things I got into a good rhythm. I was second last out of the water to make the cut off and my nearest person was 1k ahead. I decided to go for it and see how many I could pass. My energy strategy was to pour 6 gels into a water bottle mix it up and take some every hour along with mums cake and peanut butter sandwiches – I have to say it worked pretty well as I felt strong for most of the bike. The lack of a number of 100 milers in training began to tell after the 80 mile mark and I probably dropped quite a bit of time of the way back as I tired. Had to stop for the loo a couple of time and I was still coughing.
The course was exceptionally well marshalled. They were all very encouraging, the stations well stocked and efficient in sorting out requests. The leaders went past me towards the end of my first lap – they were flying.
excellent work jaggy, or as you'd say it:
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w
unctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w
aveIfXMLInvalid>false</w
aveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w
napToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w
ontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:Laten
Well done Pirates - and great work on toughing out the swim there Jaggy. Impressive !
I caught up with Trog a bit into the second lap and had a chat with her. She seemed cheery and focussed which was good to see.
The support round the course is amazing as well. The locals come out and stay out to support. They were great fun shouting at the jock and I shared a few laughs particularly at the turn point when I lost my back wheel and had a major correction.
Back into Taupo whipping up the crowds as I went and getting a good mention from the speaker guy and IM live turned the cameras on me so I gave them a good wave.
Second transition was ok – again loads of support people checking on you and asking what you needed.
RUN (Well walk / run)
I started the run with the plan to run a k walk a k. This was ok until 5k when I bumped into a lady (Vickie) I been chatting to prior to the stat standing by the path looking really sorry for herself. I asked her if she was ok and she started bubbling – now being an old softie I hate to see someone in trouble. She had been going for a PB and blown up and was contemplating packing in so I suggested that she walked with me to the next aid station and made a decision there. Just at that point it absolutely tipped it down and we got soaked. So we walked and chatted for the next 15k. My run walk became a walk walk – after 15k she told me she needed to lie down and I felt I should carry on – to be honest she was probably sick of the chat!
So I marched, in clan tradition was the next 10k – at the turn I thought I would try to go back to my run walk strategy. Just after the turn I bumped into Ally which was good and was able to run walk with her for the next 5 or 6 k – as it turned out Ally was running at points I could only walk and vice versa so eventually we split up. At this point the blisters I picked up were becoming an issue so I decided to march/hobble the last 10k.
I was pleased to finish – the crowds down the chute were immense and the atmosphere just great.
So that was my IM, not the sub 14 hours I’d planned but one of the best experiences I’ve been privileged to enjoy. I enjoyed a post race massage and today I’ll be hobbling around on my blistered feet. My second toe is really bruised and looks a bit sorry for itself!
It was difficult to train for this race effectively but I’m so chuffed to have done it. The locals are fantastic and they make you feel very special regardless of time. The race is really well planned and organised and gave me a day to remember.
I decided to soldier on with the nonsense and finish the report now my email is working again....
Thanks for the support - the biggest thing that kept me going was the abuse I was going to get from Debs if I bailed out on the swim! Thanks Deb!
Great report Jaggy and well done again. Hope your pore feet feel better soon.
D74 - I'm coming round to the argument of NZ rather than Oz. Did you say 2012?
hi all from the other side of the world.
had great fun yesterday supporting the 4 pirates and brekkie together this morning
we must be the furthers travelled supportser who arent actually supporting anyone in particular
good to meet up with everyone and yes me and dave did go skydiving after we left
15000ft the most amazing and scariest thing i have ever done
catch up with this thread when we get home
Jaggy, what a great report! Your determination is inspiring and I love the way your sense of humour shines all the way through your report.
Superb achievement, well done - and to all the others who did this. Much respect.
Waffe, yep, hope so.
Jaggy. True IM spirit and seems like you had a simmilar race and experience overall to me last year. It really is a bit of a special race isn't it.
An amazing acheivment Jaggy,
A real rollercoaster, thank you for sharing.
Well done!