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Ironman Wales 2013
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I felt pretty good going out on the run, using a run 4 walk 1 strategy, and walking the aid stations. I had to go for a pee at almost every aid station which slowed me down a little. But going through the town with the atmosphere meant that I couldn't stop and walk, especially when running past the pirate support and getting shouted at when I was going to slow down. First lap was about 1:15. The second lap was pretty much the same 1:15, the third lap was a little slower, at 1:20, but I was feeling good and would love to put in a sub 5 hour run, so I abandoned the walks and run the last lap, thanking all the volunteers at the aid stations which thankfully I would not see again. I ran down the finish shoot and finished the run in 04:59:36 just beating 5 hours, well chuffed and finishing in a total time of 14:08:49.
A great race with tremendous atmosphere and support.
I was absolutely freezing after finishing and luckily had an offer to stay in a warm caravan instead of the tent, so a huge thanks to Button Mushroom and Slagiatt.
At breakfast the next day I think I said that although it's a great event I didn't think that I would do this again, but know that the pain has died down there's a little but of me thinking just perhaps I will enter next year. So hopefully it will sell out before I make my mind up.
Nice one BBT, saw you in the back of the footage on the highlights programme this morning as well.
Although I think this needs a bit more explaining
To be honest .there wasn't a lot of women amongst the 1500 competitors........I seemed to be next to men all day....
FF - to be honest, that's quite normal for Seren
. What concerns me more is this....
Is this a strange Welsh code for something I'm too young to understand???
I did think that as Raf
I'll show you Raf if I see you down Tri20 before the end of the season
Well there's something to look forward to
Seen that too, wonder what made it harder this year then 2011?
I heard from several people that the swim was slower than everyone expected, tides/currents I guess?
can't believe it was considerd harder.must have been the different pros that turned up and all the mechanicals they had.most of them seemed to suffere somewhere........the swim was calmer this year but there must have been a strange current as i was 10 mins slower than in 2011 and it was definitely harder in the second lap this time.......
the bike was easier this time because of the lack of wind......and the run was easier as they took the silly loop out of the monument
Just caught up on all the reports - great stuff. Definitely not a course for the feint-hearted!!!
Having decided to do Lanza and Wales in the same year to decide which was hardest (in my opinion, I know it’s subjective) I was a little frustrated when I lost my mojo for training in the cut back week precisely before the hardest three weeks of training. It had been a long year, I’d trained hard through winter for Lanza, my job had changed and ‘life’ in 2013 had proved no easier than 2012 despite my attempting to make it so. Prior to losing my edge I had been fortunate enough to ride the course as part of the long course sportive (which is essentially the Wales bike course) with Seren on one of the hottest days of the year. Even more, Seren had done Outlaw just the week before. It was so hot, I thought I was going to barbeque myself. Still, it was done, at least I knew what was coming up. Just in case, I rode the bike course again during my hardest three weeks with my twitter pal Lowslice and it felt significantly better than the first go round.
Race weekend saw Meldy arrive on Thursday and I’d been having a crappy week at work so was very stressed, had packed nothing and not even made up Meldy’s bed. Fortunately I managed to get in the zone on Friday morning and we left on time. Arrived in Tenby, parked up, registered and ate our lunch overlooking the other beach (I get North and South mixed up). It was quite a nice day. Seren text to let us know that she had arrived so we made our way back to the car and walked our luggage over to the cottage. I remarked that I had a feeling that our cottage was on the run course. Saturday saw mucho faffage whilst trying to work out what to wear on the bike. I was worried that I was going to be cold and that the weather wasn’t going to be kind but then what if it was warm blah blah. It was hard to decide in advance and I welcomed Meldy’s calming advice. Racked, went for tea and cake (which saw Seren twist her ankle in the coffee shop and us all be very worried about her). Then went home for a nap. Early dinner and early to bed. I was very pleased to get 6 hours sleep, albeit broken every 2 hours. This is the most pre-race night sleep I’ve had since my first, Germany in 2010.
Race morning saw the usual rigmarole of sorting the bike out etc. I bumped into Min in transition, which was lovely. She had some pom poms to pass onto the support crew. The nice lady by the change tent let me put my sunglasses in my bag and then it was time to leg it down to the beach to avoid the procession in which I had no interest. I said my goodbyes to the support crew at the top of the cliff and made my way to the beach where I discovered that all the numbers 600 to 700 had no hooks for their trainers and because paranoid that mine would be lost. I hung them up anyway and went for my practice swim. Just before I got into the water I remembered I’d not plaited my hair up, not even brushed it, so did some hasty hair thing and then went for a paddle. I confirmed the water was still wet and salty, as it had been the day before. I then made my way to the back of the holding pen where I was chuffed to bits to bump into Slag, FlatFooted and Mushroom where we exchanged pre-race hugs and pleasantries before the gun went off. I suddenly realised I had not turned my Garmin on, nor set up race mode. Hastily did this and then the gun went off, at which point I pressed the wrong button on the Garmin. Buggerybum. Oh well. Into the water....
Swim
It was at this point that I realised that as part of my piss poor preparation not only had I failed to set up and check my Garmin properly I had not looked at where the first buoy was and had no idea where I was swimming. Nevermind, I simply followed the other 1000 other people floundering around in the water and eventually found what I was looking for. When I reached the first turn buoy it was chaos. Swimmers at a complete standstill as it was so congested. (I’m not a particularly fast swimmer either so I was surprised by this.) I was really p*ssed off with those who were doing breast stroke in such a constricted space and I took two kicks to the gut. I was even more p*ssed off with the idiots who were determinedly trying to swim over everybody else. It really was far too congested for this and so I gave one bloke a gob full of abuse and enquired exactly what he thought he was going to achieve. Eventually we made it around the turn. The next buoy was easy to sight as you simply went for the old lifeboat station. The rest of the swim was uneventful, I thought the second lap was harder, not sure if the tide changed or the wind got up but when I chatted to FlatFooted later in the day he said the same, so did Seren.
Coming out of the swim the support was immense and I marched up the path, took of my wetsuit and got my running shoes on to attempt to run the 1k back to T1. Usually when I get out of the swim I’m a little dizzy so I was worried about this, I was quite pleased to find I was able to do it though. I saw the pirate support crew on the way back in and revelled in their yells of support, then I saw Lowslice and waved to her as well. Transition felt smooth enough to me, I know I’m slow. Then (after some readjustment from referee Min because I’d put my jersey on over my number) I was off. I saw the fantastic support team a-yelling and a-screaming again on the way out and then it was just me, the other squillion athletes (well the few who swam slower than me) and the elements for 112 miles.
Bike
Wales is the first bike course I’ve done that I’ve been able to recce in advance and I think this gave me a huge mental advantage. I’d split the course down into three sections, the Angle loop, the Narbeth loop 1 and Narbeth loop 2. I’m quite glad I had this knowledge because whatever I’d managed to do to the Garmin, it was wrong, so had no mile markers to go by at all. All I had that was correct was total time for the day and HR. So I set out for part 1. Approximately 2/8ths of a mile down the road I realised I’d played it wrong with clothing, I was cold. So I stopped to put my arm warmers on. Approximately 3/8ths of a mile further down the road I realised I was still cold and my Monaco, jersey and arm warmers were not going to be enough. I had to hope it warmed up. It didn’t. Somewhere on the first loop it started raining so I put my rain jacket on and actually felt a bit warmer. Not much mind. As I progressed I saw a lot of athletes with mechanical issues and a lot of other athletes wrapped up in foil blankets. I was really surprised by the number of people out there in just tri suits. The weather was very changeable, so I ended up warm and damp on the inside of the rain jacket, or cold and damp. I also had cold feet and cold hands.
Apart from temperature issues and intermittent downpours, the bike section was fine. I chatted briefly with Seren when she came past which was lovely. She was looking happy and comfortable and I knew she was going to make the cut so that pleased me. I chatted to a few other athletes as they went past but generally just made my way forward eating as prescribed and singing, chatting and swearing to myself, as I normally do. I made it up the hill ok into Narbeth and on to Wisemans (some were walking already) and Saundersfoot. The pirate massive told me that they were going to be in Saundersfoot and thanks to them having a huge pirate flag, I saw them long before they saw me. Their cheers gave me a superb lift of the spirits before doing the Saundersfoot climb. I stopped at the feedstation in New Hedges for a pee and to redistribute my nutrition (change from solids to gels) and proceeded onto the second loop. This loop went reasonably well. I tend to lose the will to live during the bike course, it’s always on the bike when I want to give up so I was pleased that these feelings came quite late this time around. It was only coming towards Narbeth when I was losing it, so I was ticking off the landmarks. Oakwood (Seren had told me you could see the roller coaster), Molleston (Seren and I had discussed if it was ‘Molly’s Town’ or where the molesters live, which had amused us no end on the Long Course Sportive) and finally, finally Narbeth, Princes Gate and onto the two big hills. I was really pleased that I managed to ride up both Wisemans and Saundersfoot for lap two, in spite of many people around me walking them. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that I’m a strong cyclist but a slow cyclist. I must work on this! I knew that I wouldn’t see the pirate crew on Saundersfoot for lap two but hoped that I’d see them again soon on the run. So I passed through Saundersfoot, did the climb and rolled back into town. Overall, in spite of feeling cold for most of the bike course, I was pleased with it. I ate well but didn’t drink enough and I kept my HR in check throughout.
Coming into T2 I saw Min again so I asked after Slag and BM, she’d not seen them but she did say that Seren wasn’t too far in front. I went and got my bag and, because I was so cold and damp, I opted for a full kit change including longer run tights to try and get warm. When I came back out of the changing area I was chuffed to bits to see Slag but when he explained to me that he’d got there via the broom wagon I was so upset for him. Then I saw Mushroom who had been getting his bags and offered my commiserations to him too. I thanked the volunteer who had been helping me and trotted out of the tent. Two things spring to mind here, the first was that I was able to run straight away (in Lanza I was dead on my feet!) and secondly, having seen my splits that my transition time was ‘only’ 8 mins considering I went for a full change of clothes and stopped for a chat with the boys. Anyway, onto the run.
Run
I have to say I felt bloody excellent coming out of T2. I don’t think I’ve even felt that strong and was fair bounding along the road with Mr Stoat trotting along the other side of the fence asking how I was doing and then taking the p*ss out of me for putting lipstick on (it was lipbalm!!) The run was a bit of an unknown quantity for me as I’d heard it was hilly and I wasn’t quite sure how I would tackle it. I normally do a fairly rigid 8 mins walk to 2 mins run but here I was aiming for the walk the ups and run the rest strategy. I went out through town and saw Lowslice and family cheering away which gave me a lift and then settled down for the first uphill. The hill wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. Nutrition wise I got straight into my strategy of a gel every 30 mins and some salt tabs once an hour for the first couple of hours but then didn’t bother any more with the salt as it wasn’t hot. I had water at every aid station and a Ritz cracker if I felt like it (they were yummy). The first people I saw on the run course were FlatFooted and Broke. I was hoping to catch Seren so that I could run walk with her but she must have been on one of the spurs because I didn’t see her for ages and she must have been further ahead than I thought. Anyway, I plodded on round the first lap, saw Seren coming out of town as I was going in. I was chuffed to bits when I came into town and saw that the run course went along our street and right past our cottage. It hadn’t been a very nice day so I was pleased that we had a Pirate Central for the massive to have food and drink and warm up as necessary. Had a brief exchange of words with them on the first lap and set out on the second. I caught up with FlatFooted on this lap (well sort of, he was a lap ahead if you see what I mean) and ran with him for a while but it became obvious that we were at different speeds so I ran on. Carried on with the walking the ups and running the rest strategy, still having a gel every 30 mins, water at every aid station and it was all looking good. Got to Pirate Central and decided to stop for a pee, which was lush in our bathroom, had another quick chat and found out that Seren was only a few minutes ahead so set off to try and catch her for company. For lap three I swapped to my trusty bottle of coke and put on my winter cycling jacket, just as it started to rain.
There’s probably not much more to say now, fatigue had set in, it was chucking it down with rain and it was getting dark. Fortunately there was still lots of support on course and a big enough crowd of athletes to banter with. There was one chap who I cat and moused with for the remaining two laps and a woman with a plait and a red top who was having trouble with her maths and I had to tell her she would finish (I must attract these as I had one on the bike too!) Made it around lap 3 without incident (this is the misery lap for me normally), stopped for another pee at Pirate Central and went off to do the glory lap. By now it was full dark, raining and I was starting to get cold so I was going to be glad to get this over with. That said, I was still in ever such good spirits I thought I was on for a sub 16 which was my A target. Finally caught up with Seren on the first uphill section but, as with FlatFooted we were at different paces so we probably only stayed together for about a kilometre before she sent me on my way to chase my sub 16. On one of the spurs my little toe blister burst (it does at every race) so I had to wait for the pain to die and force myself to run on it. I chatted again to the chap I’d been passing back and forth with and set off to do the last 5k. Coming back through town I was overwhelmed by the support that was still out on the streets of Tenby in spite of the grim conditions and charged off with 5 mins to go and no idea how far around to the left of the finish/laps split point the finish actually was. It turned out it wasn’t that far at all so I was able to showboat a little, do some high 5s and clap the supporters (Meldy, Slag and Mr Stoat) who were still outside in the cold and filthy conditions. Crossed the line and got my foil blanket (oh and my medal!)
Overall, an excellent race. Another tough one for sure, that bike course is relentless with no time to get into a rhythm as you are always either going up or down and sometimes with a nice sidewind to help you.
Thanks to everyone who has put up with me this season. Quite how I went from having a year off to doing two of the toughest IM races I’m not sure. Particularly thanks, as ever, to Flyaway for her teaching me the most important triathlon secret and her ongoing encouragement and support. Thanks to Meldy for her calming influence and sage advice. Thanks (I think) to both of them for their swim banter. Thanks also to the pirate massive who braved the conditions to support us on a cold and filthy day. I’ve said I won’t train at all during September for a rest but, must confess, after almost two weeks I am starting to get a bit twitchy.
Go pirates. You rock.
So when is this fabled 'year off' going to happen??
Nice report pardner x
Re the swim, lap 2 was slower marginally for me, there was a bigger swell on lap 2, I assumed boats were manouevering and this was caused by their bow waves. But having looked at tide times and heights for Tenby on 8 September it seems we were swimming 1hr & 40 mins before high tide at 0840. I also looked at a chart for Carmarthen Bay, leg 1 out to the first turn under the cliffs is all into the current, the leg to the lifeboat is down current & back to the beach is across what there is in this part of the bay.
Yay - good jawb, mentee!!
Brilliant reading more reports. Got the call from Macmillan today to tell me I've got one of their places, so the nerves have started to kick in along with the feeling of "what the hell have I let myself in for?!".
you'll just love it
a well paced race Mouse...........great achievement to do the double