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Busselton Ironman Western Australia 2007 When I arrived in Busselton on Friday the 30th of December I was thankful that I had heaps of time to make sure I had everything organized for Sunday. Checking in my bike, clothes and nutrition in on Saturday left little for me to do on Sunday but turn up. I slept well the night before the race and arrived in transition at 4.30am. I was amazed at how calm I was and just prepared myself like I would for any other triathlon. Time passed quickly and before I knew it I was heading for the water at about 6.00am. The swim consisted of one 3.8km clockwise loop around the Busselton jetty. Although the water was cold the conditions were perfect, clear and flat. I started the leg to the far left hand side of the jetty to avoid the “washing machine” and was lucky to get clear water the entire way. I was wearing a brand new wetsuit that was considerably tighter then my old one and didn’t like the cool conditions so unfortunately I had to stop several times for cramps and lost some time. I didn’t let it worry me, ten minutes was neither here nor there in the scheme of the day. The bike course was 180km in length and was divided into three 60km loops. I was excited about riding on a smooth, flat fast road because all of my training was done on bumpy hilly Collie roads. Andrew had concocted a nutrition plan that required me to concentrate the entire time. Every ten minutes my watch timer went which meant that I had to eat or drink something. This made the time pass quickly and made me forget about everything else around me. I finished my first lap 20 minutes slower then anticipated but felt fresh and certainly like I could push harder on the next two laps. I decided against this as that would have meant my heart rate would have increased above what Andrew had told me to sit on. I was having fun and looking forward to the run so I didn’t worry about not meeting my bike target. I jumped off my bike and felt my legs buckle underneath me. I wondered what it was going to feel like running 42.2km. Good friends Scotty and Roberta RICHARDSON were there waiting for me and yelled out lots of encouragement. I thought I better hurry up and started to run. I ran past Scotty and told him how good I felt, I was expecting it to feel a lot worse. My nutrition plan was different for the run but less confusing which allowed me to have a look around. I observed all of the runners around me and focused on catching the person in front of me. Some runners looked like they were running really well and then I would surprise myself by passing them. Fellow triathlete Mark HENRY had positioned himself as a loud spectator on a corner. He asked me what pace I was running at. I replied, “I’m too scared to look.” My experienced Ironman friends had instructed me what to do once I entered the two hundred metre finish chute. It went along the lines of relax, enjoy the moment, acknowledge the crowd etc etc. This didn’t happen! I saw the finish line and pushed hard the entire way until I had crossed it. I finished my first Ironman in 12 hours and 27 minutes. I made lots of new friends and learnt so much about racing, nutrition and most importantly what changes could be made to training. I was looking forward to stuffing myself with ice cream and pizza but was a little dismayed when I couldn’t stomach any food for 24 hours after the event. Many thanks to my coach Andrew Budge, my boss and crew at Collie, WAPOL Sports Federation and friends and family for putting up with me. Next stop is Ironman France in June 2008!!! Amanda Bowman
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After completing Busselton Half Ironman in May 2007 I set myself a goal of finishing Ironman WA 2007. I enlisted the help of wene.I followed my program religiously and was fortunate enough to be able to take six weeks leave through the bulk of my training. My body adapted and responded well right up into my taper. I was looking forward to two weeks of eating and sleeping but managed to pick up a head cold and aggravate an old injury. It made me anxious being so close to the race so I went and spoke to Andrew for some reassurance. He told me what I already knew, “You have done the work and will be fine on the day.”