I arrived in good spirits and the flights down there had been trouble free. Once in Port Elizabeth on the Wednesday I took the opportunity to ride the course, it seemed a good course a few little hills but mainly rolling. The worst aspect was the road surface, and the vibrations that just shook you and the bike to bits. I had a feeling it was going to be a toughish bike leg, especially if it was an easterly wind as there was just no shelter coming back towards Port Elizabeth.
Thursday I decided to do the official swim practise, now I was warned about sharks, and the pier is called Shark Rock Pier, probably for an obvious reason ;), what I wasn't expecting though was to actually see a shark just 50m from the beach. Now it was probably only a very small one, but the sight of a fin slowly moving along the shore doesn't really fill you with pleasure. We did eventually get to swim on a very shortened course, but I felt OK, the water was warm and it ended up being a nice swim.
The weather had been clear and hot the 2 days I had been there, Friday wasn't so nice, still warm compared to UK weather, but also very typical UK weather of rain and very heavy at times. Not that it worried me too much as I only had an early morning swim and a short run planned, the rest of the day was spent watching TV and lying down. I did go down to the expo late in the day for the athletes briefing, but didn't hang around for the pasta party, no point really when you don't eat pasta. Friday had been a tough day mentally as well, I was missing my family a lot and was probably putting too much pressure on myself. I guess when you are sitting around not doing anything you mind has plenty of chance to play havoc with all your previous preparations. It felt odd to be doing an important race without my family being around, Heather and Killian have played such a huge part in supporting me in my cycling and triathlon in the last 5 years, it just seemed as though them not being there was a huge hole.
Saturday came and all seemed ok, I felt much better and my pre race spin felt very good, I do like it when you have no fatigue when cycling, even powers that become a challenge when fatigued from training seem to be produced so easy when fresh. With bike racking not being until late afternoon for me, it gave me the chance to watch some of the IronKids racing, if I felt a bit unhappy the day before, seeing the children racing for pure fun changed my outlook totally. It is always so pleasing to see others racing for pure fun with no pressures of a performance outcome, I sometimes wish I could be like that and just enjoy the whole experience. I did have a slight issue before racking, my tub on my disc wheel seemed to have a slow puncture, not something I had back in the UK a week previous, but hey ho what can you do. I did have a spare tub which I considered getting glued on, but it would have left me with no spare for the race. I did have my 50mm rear wheel with me, after a few umms and errs I decided to not risk the disc and just use the 50mm wheel. My feelings were I would rather have piece of mind than the added stress of fitting a tub and the worry of what happens if it punctures mid race.
I was happy with the decision, and in all honesty the speed difference was going to be minimal from previous experience. I racked my bike and then met the wonderful Eleanor Haresign as she was racking at the same time. Seeing a friend really helped my peace of mind and we had a really nice chat before making our way back to our hotels to prepare for the following day.
Sunday dawned and I was feeling good, after breakfast I made my way down to the start at Hobie Beach, a quick check of the bike, and bags and I was all set to watch the pros start whilst I got suited up. It was a lovely sight watching the sun slowly rise across the bay and for one of the first times since starting triathlon I felt calm about the swim and the day ahead, very eager to go. Watching the 1st wave got off it was a great sight of 1000+ athletes stream into the water, 15 mins later and it would be my turn.
The sun slowly rising on race morning
Swim: Bang the cannon goes off and it is a quick run into the water, after speaking with Eleanor the previous day it was decided that running and straddling the breaking waves was probably the quicker way to get to where you could start swimming. This went very well and I was soon swimming on the feet of faster swimmers, I was also taking care not to go too deep as this just doesn't work with me and swimming. It wasn't long before we got to the first buoy, I had no idea of where I was placed, but I felt good and didn't seem to be struggling. I did get into a slight scuffle with another swimmer who thought I hit him on purpose, but I think he needs to realise that 800+ athletes aiming for one small buoy is going to result in contact, there isn't a lot you can do about it. We swam side by side for the majority of the 1st leg, I probably hit him a few more times but he didn't bother to have a fist fight again.
Sighting the buoys was proving difficult, although most of the time sighting off the cranes in the distance was good enough. The majority of the 1st 1600 metre leg went well, pretty straight and it was only when we got towards Kings Beach the swell and chop really made it presence felt and I found it a little more difficult to keep on the feet of other swimmers. At the next turn buoy I got a chance to see others around me, there was a pretty big pack by the looks of it, and by now we were passing some of the slower swimmers from the previous wave.
Returning back was as plain sailing, I was sighting off the hotels, but with the tide I was always going slightly left rather than straight. As seeing the buoys was difficult I just relied on the hotels for guidance. I passed the first sighting buoy not too far away, but then must have drifted even more left as it wasn't long before I heard the safety crew shouting to go right. I did a recheck and saw that the buoy I should have been aiming for was a fair bit to my right. Oh bollocks, I turned more right and just aimed to intersect the other swimmers by the time I got to the pier. After correcting my direction things went well and the last 400-500m went well and I came out of the swim not feeling too tired.
Bike: After a fairly quick T1, I was soon out on the bike. I had secretly hoped for an easterly wind, it would make the bike slower, but as a very aero rider it would also make it tougher for those that weren't strong cyclists. I did notice it was quite hot even though it was only about 8:30 in the morning, it was going to be a hot day for sure. One aspect I was worried about was the amount of athletes I would be overtaking on the bike, I expected it to be worse than it was, in fact in the main the riding standard was pretty good and I had no issues at all. I felt good on the bike and settled down to race power and with the wind being low early morning the speed felt good. I concentrated on getting fluid down me as I could see just from my arms I was sweating a fair amount. As per other races I had a strong energy drink mix which meant I only needed to take on water from the aid stations. You can never be sure of the strength of the energy drink supplied so I try to make sure I get in enough from my own source if I can.
Feeling chilled out on the bike
After the majority of the climbing there was a nice downhill with a 90 degree bend in the middle, now I knew where this was and the speed you could go around it, what I wasn't counting on was my tri bar bottle jumping out whilst braking on the bumps. This caused me to momentarily to ease off the braking, and then the speed was too high for the corner. I managed to get around on the mud on the outside and not fall off, but I did have to jump off and collect the lost bottle, certainly gets your heart racing LOL. On the return leg the wind was getting up, but the speed still seemed good for the power and I was feeling pretty good still. The most tiring aspect of the race was the road surface on some parts of the course, the vibrations just seem to sap extra energy out of you. The first lap was almost over and then hitting Marine Drive you got to see the crowds lining the road for the 1st time, this for me was an awesome experience, being my first branded IRONMAN event the crowds were just so much bigger than I have ever experienced in a race.
The second lap and you could really feel the heat, and each of the hills seemed to be slower than before, but there was no point pushing the power up, everyone would be feeling the same. The outward leg didn't have any dramas, but I did need to start taking on energy drink from the aid stations as I was getting through a lot of fluid, not surprising in the heat.
The last 40km into the headwind proved a bit more challenging on the second lap, I was still overtaking riders and power was still OK. I made sure I didn't push too hard into the wind, I just accepted the speed would be slower, and I wanted to make sure I still had something left in the legs for the last 15-16km section where the road surface was awful. I came into T2 feeling pretty good, well as good as you can 6hours+ into an IM.
Run: Again T2 went well and I was off out running, legs felt a little wobbly and I felt as though I was running pretty slow, 1st km down and although feeling slow I was running 4:50 min/km, bang on pre race target. It didn't feel too hard so I didn't feel the need to ease off. I had a bottle of electrolyte drink in my run bag which I drank down pretty quickly on the run as well as taking on coke and water at the aid stations. I was starting to feel the heat by now and I just made sure I got as much water over me as possible at each aid station. The support when running was even better than I realised on the bike and the first lap of 14km went pretty well.
My legs were starting to hurt a little, but nothing unexpected, a couple of km's later though my quads were really starting to hurt, and each foot strike was like someone shoving a knife deep into my quads. I expected this feeling perhaps 5-10kms from the finish, but not 26kms, it was going to be a very painful couple of hours ahead. I managed to get to 20kms and then walked an aid station and a small hill to the university just to try and ease off the quads a little. I started running again and although the pain might have eased slightly it wasn't long before it got pretty intense again.
There is only so much pain one can endure and I had to resort to a run/walk strategy just to give myself a few moments of lesser pain, even walking hurt. It ended up being a long second half of the run where I just tried to motivate myself to run a little further each time, though when cramp started hitting me in my feet, running for any length of time proved to be a real challenge. The finish was a long time coming though pride forced me to run the last 2kms through the finish line, never have I been more glad to reach the finish.
The finish of an Ironman is always nice
During the run when others in my age group were coming past me I realised the goal I had set myself to qualify for Kona was probably well out of the window, I had plenty of time to reflect. Even though the last lap and a half was a very painful experience I really tried to just absorb the atmosphere that the locals of Port Elizabeth create. The whole race was a great experience and hopefully I can learn from what went wrong so that in future races it doesn't happen again, though I am sure it will.
So what did happen, well I don't think I will ever know 100%, and it probably was a combination of factors, I have had 4 different opinions of why it likely happened, and I have my own thoughts based on previous events. I rode easier than any other long distance event I have done, the run I started off slightly more aggressively than I have done before, but not by a huge amount. I took on food and fluid similar to other events, but in all honesty probably not enough electrolyte for the conditions on the day. I should of aimed for a 3:40 marathon and not a 3:20 as in all honesty the conditions on the day would never have allowed me to do a 3:20 marathon no matter how easy I took the bike leg, and even then the bike leg wasn't anything special power wise. I should have had more electrolytes in my bottles or at least in my bike or run bags, I just didn't really appreciate how much I would be sweating, but a full 9+ hours in full sun with little to no shade is tough conditions, especially for a ginger haired Englishman LOL.
Even though I was disappointed, the trip itself was great, and in hindsight it has saved me a fortune as at least the temptation for Kona in 2015 is no longer there. I would like to thank Eleanor, Caroline Livesey, Lucy Gossage, Susie Cheetham, Paul Burton, Troy Spires, Tony Cullen, Craig Twigg, and many others for making the last night in Port Elizabeth fun and adding to the wonderful week out in South Africa. Massive congrats to Jodie Swallow, Lucy and Susie for their podium places, to Eleanor and Caroline in finishing just outside the top 10 in what was a stellar pro field, and to Paul and Troy for getting their Kona slots. Cheers to Craig for making the 5 hour stop over in Johannesburg enjoyable, it was great to meet you. Failure to qualify does open other doors however and I always had a back up plan if I didn't qualify for Kona. I will now race the ETU Long Distance Championship in Weymouth instead, providing I get a qualifying slot. The chance to race for GB is something I relish and something I am really looking forward to.
Will I attempt to qualify for Kona again, well yes I will, but it won't be until 2016 at the earliest. As to what event to do I am not sure, but the lure of Ironman South Africa in 2016 is there, and we certainly have some unfinished business ;) It is now onwards to get fit and ready for the Bastion again, and race with no real pressure in the glorious Kent/Sussex countryside.
