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Ironman Regensburg 7th August 2011 - entries open 5th July
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Looking forward to the next wave of reports from people who will be back from holiday soon. Hint hint...
There's an IMR finisher shirt being flogged on Ebay - wtf????
Hi all, finally back from my European road trip so thought I'd add my race report to the throng.
Firstly just to set the seen ... last year I had the worst Ironman race ever taking over 14:51 and just making the cut off, this year i was out to banish these demons once and for all (plus Mrs WildWill said i wouldn't be allowed to play anymore unless i had a PB type outing this time)
SWIM
The day didn't start well for me, considering how well i had been swimming i was expecting to do around the 1:05 mark to give me a decent start on the bike (where I am crap, i may have mentioned this before).
I placed myself in a good racing line ... the gun went off and in i went .. within a couple of minutes, i had my goggles kicked off ... quickly replaced ... then a took a smack in the nose and blood was everywhere, i pulled up to clear the flow and promptly got swam over ... lots ... to a point i couldn't get up for air ,.. i finally managed to break surface, gasping for air ... finding myself in a panic attack ... i couldn't calm my breathing and thought my race may be over 10mins after the start.
I decided to swim out towards the side of the lake where i found others in the same situation as me and i tread water for a while focusing my attention on someone doing the same finally bringing myself under control.
By now i had been in the water 10-15mins and had only reached the 2nd marker buoy and been passed by most the field, i tuned my hearing in to the steady beep of my tempo trainer and sett off to pick my where through the field
As i progressed my rhythm quickly returned and i started passing people, and by the midway i was feeling quite good
I exited the water an was totally shocked that my time was not as bad as i thought it would be...
SWIM TIME = 1:14:58 (last year 1:25:08)
BIKE
The bike has always been a struggle for me, i get out the water and then 90% of the field that exit behind me seem to pass me on the bike ... this is an are where i had focused a large chunk of training .. so i hoped not to die en-route
I also had a new TT bike, this was both good and bad as On the hand full of occurrences i had rode the bike i had suffered from cables jamming and not been able to shift gears (not good if it happened early in the race) ... but it did look nice.
As we hit the rather wet roads i tried to control my pace, as i normally shoot off to quickly and burn out.
As we hit the first main climb i was in a bit of a shock, although a fair number of people were passing me as usual, it was not as rapid as normal and i was even passing other riders, even on the climbs (SHOCK!) i had took a risk in moving from my normal triple chain set to a 53/39 double and this was paying off, i spent most of the ride (apart from the climbs) in the areas had hit some good speeds, especially down hill in 53:11. on the 2nd lap I even yelled at a guy that i had been locked in a battle with for sometime "BREAKS ARE FOR WIMPS!" and screamed passed him .. it almost ended in tears though is a just missed the curb at the bottom of the hill with my @rse rapidly going 50pence/ 20pence /50pence (if you know what i mean)
It was about now my front shifter started to stiffen up ... please hold together, i thought to my self ... but it continued to stiffen as i racked up the miles, climbing the slight rises in a 53, then not been able to get back into 53 was proving a pain but i just focused on turning the cranks
With about 45miles to go Cougie passed me, then i passed him, the he passed me and so on ... we hit the 30miles to go point and i was feeling good so i yelled and off i shot feeling the best i had ever felt coming into T2 (with gears jammed on the 53)
BIKE TIME = 6:34:17 (last year 7:08:40)
RUN
Getting off the bike feeling so good paid dividends, i was able to run the run .. my plan had been originally to run 9mins/ walk 1 min but i adapted this when i spotted there were to be 6 aid stations on the loop to run between then walk the aid stations.
I also took the plunge to dump my normal cushioned runners to a pair of (loud) lightweight racing shoes ... i had tried them out before hand tho in a 5k training run
I stock to water for the first 2 laps with just a hand full of jelly beans but is i started the 3rd of 4 laps i started to struggle a bit so switched to coke and other goodies (read cake) at the aid stations ... but i struggled ... but then i started counting running 100 steps walking 10, running 200 and so on until within a couple of aid stations i was back on plan. seeing my wife and dog at the end of each lap helped loads
Even though i was running slower i felt good on the last lap and manage to stick to my plan ... a couple of miles from the finish i looked at my watch and noted that to make my target time i need to significantly up the pace ... i was currently running at 11:30(ish) per mile but needed to be at 9:00s for the last 2 miles
Off i set ignoring the pain ... ignoring every thin but maintaining 9:00s for these lat 2miles.
I rounded the last corner i spotted MrWildWill with the dog, she looked at the clock and screamed RUN! and i picked up the pace again not knowing how close i would be to my target and crossed the line with tears of joy in my eyes ... the pain forgotten
RUN TIME = 4:57:07 (last year 6:07:37)
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TOTAL TIME = 12:58:25 (last year 14:51:08) ... almost 2 hrs faster than last year ... plus a PB by almost 40mins
SUB 13
... a very happy WW (and i can play again next year)
"making buttons" is the phrase I believe you are looking for
awesome PB WW, well done.
really enjoying the race reports, well done everyone
was sad to hear about your DNF LTP - the tracker wasn't working on my phone so was questioning viking on facebook to find out what was happening. sounds like you have got a fantastic attitude towards it and just look where you've come since you started - roll on Outlaw!
Great report WW; glad you didn't come a-cropper on that curb!!! You see that's why people shouldn't be allowed to wear white cycling shorts, just in case
Thanks Witchy! I have come a long way from where I started, but i've definitely got loads of room for improvement which is good. Definitely up for more of this IM malarkey! Not long until you're up now!!! How are you feeling about it all?
An ecclectic mixture of feelings/thoughts! Here goes: I'm fairly certain I'm going to have a good swim, I'm faster this year, in a better fitting wetsuit with more bouyancy on the legs. However, this just means more people to overtake me on the bike!
I should get round the bike in under 8hrs, after saturdays ride over similiar climbing/distance, though that was three main climbs rather than the 9 climbs/9 descents/no flat of Henley. Wasn't able to unleash any good speed on two of the descents on Saturday though due to technical corners/rain etc so there may be some more time to be made up there.
Still banging out 9:20s on my long runs the day after long hard rides so confident that, nutrition being good, I should have a muuuuch better run than last year. So hopefully I'll be able to end on a high!
Awww will great report and great peebee. Although I will never be able to look at small change again!
perhaps it's an age thing, but it used to be "half a crown and sixpence" .
;o)
I've been too busy to read these so have finally caught up with everyone's report (that was written after Aitch's). They are all so great, so many parts that resonate. I found myself welling up more than once.
Pirates rock!
See you all at Outlaw.