Almost in Tears

There was no anger just pure sadness when I pulled out of the Bastion on Sunday, it truly was a devastating thing to do, but ultimately the wisest thing to do.

I had gone into the race the fittest I had ever been, I was totally chilled out and really looking forward to race with good fitness and knowledge gained in my 2 years of triathlon, for it go wrong when going so well, will take some time to get over I suspect.

One may ask why pull out, why not just get round anyhow? That, to be honest, is a fair question and it is one I talked over with myself for some 30 mins or so before coming the conclusion that I didn't want to get into the state I did after Ironman South Africa last year, as that ultimately scuppered my season.

Yesterday my back was sore as soon as I ran uphill, and on the Bastion run course there is a lot of uphill. I hoped it would ease and ran at a pretty good pace for the first lap, but I was struggling on any uphill section. It got to the point that any slight incline hurt, but the steeper parts I just couldn't run up and had to resort to a walk, it was just getting worse. I tried to make hay on the downhill and rare flattish parts, but soon the downhills were just jarring and it was only the flat parts where I felt remotely comfortable. Even these were slowing down though. I think that settled it for me, to do another 21km in that state was foolish given my race programme and the longer term damage it might have done. It really was a very difficult decision, I have DNF'ed when time trialling and each of those decision I had to wrestle with inner demons, but none more so than this race of any. It is a race that means so much to me and to fail to complete it almost brought me to tears. The fact I was in a very clear 2nd place at the time didn't have any bearing on how I felt.

Looking jolly, but not feeling jolly
Thanks Deanna Pennington for the photo.

I now have to try and find out what caused the issue, I have been fine on the Gauntlets, but over 5.5 hours in the saddle over very tough terrain as well as being cold and wet might have been the straw that broke the camels back. It is easy to blame the bike fit but to be honest I don't really think that is the issue, it was only ever so slightly changed in December to give a more triathlon based fit, and I think it has helped my run for it, at least at half iron distance. This was the first iron distance event at race effort that I have used the position, but I have done plenty of training on the bike and not really noticed much of a problem, but long training rides are not done at the same effort.

Late last year and early this year I did have some glute medius tendinopathy, which was eventually cleared up with rehab, or so I thought. Given the complex structure of the glute muscles however there might have been something else going on. I know there is a link between the piriformis and sciatica, could the issues I encountered be a symptom on a piriformis issue. The physio that massaged my back and glutes on Sunday did say the left felt quite tight, and this is the one I have had issues with. I also have noticed a couple of times in the last few weeks of having a achy lower back before early morning swims that didn't ease during swimming. There may well be a underlying issue that only made it's full impact on Sunday.

I suppose the other cause may have just been due to going too hard on the bike, an IF of 0.77 and 330 TSS is a tough bike ride with a marathon to follow, but with a tough trail marathon it was probably over stepping the mark a bit I suspect. In all honesty I had to get into T2 in the lead as with the 2nd place guy (coming into T2) being a faster runner I was never going to be able to run him down, my only hope was to hopefully make him bike hard as well and just hope to hold him off on the run. The thing is my legs didn't feel too bad it purely was my lower back, sure the legs had some grumbles as they usual do, but nothing to suggest I had gone very silly on the bike. I guess that if I had over done the glute muscles then that may well have been the start of the problem and although they didn't feel sore they might have been causing issues elsewhere to compensate. I suppose I know for IM Wales to be more conservative on the bike at the very least, that is a nice hilly marathon as well.

So now the main thing is to get the back sorted, even today sitting down it is sore, goodness knows what it would have been like if I had carried on. The knowledge I did the right thing doesn't make it any easier and all of the Castle Triathlon team were really wonderful. Speaking with Yvonne afterwards and I was almost in tears, never have I been so upset about pulling out of a race, so glad she got pulled away. Massive thanks to anyone that helped out with marshaling, feed stations, cheering and other support jobs, you all did a fantastic job. Many thanks to SixPhysio for helping ease the pain on Sunday.

So do I do it again next year, I know the Castle Triathlon team want me to do it and Heather is happy for me to do it again but I had said I wouldn't make any 2017 race plans until after September, I guess I really do have demons to crush now. I am pretty certain now where I will be in July 2017 ;). Plus the goody bags given out at this year's Bastion were the best I have ever seen, they really did make some of the bigger IM brands seem pathetic with what you get, thanks again to Castle Triathlon, Kitbrix, dryrobe, Speedo, Vita Coco for your generosity.

Also last but by no means least many thanks for your support and to Darren for the great training, and there was me worried about my biking, still as good as ever ;)

Secret Training
Sundried
Go Resourcing
Hart and Co