“Ten Weeks to Ironman Finish Number 4” - A Race Report

“The run is where it’s at…” (Part 1)
That is the quote from a training mate who owns a sub-2:45 standalone marathon and a 9:30ish IM finish. When I started this ironman thing back in 2002, neither the 3.8km swim nor the 180km bike worried me, it was the marathon, or more exactly, the training for the marathon that occupied my mind. You see, I don’t have a good history with running. Although I did some athletics in my primary school years, my forte was sprinting. Anything more than 100 metres became distance running for me, and coupled with childhood asthma problems, I used it as an excuse to give running a miss altogether. I would put on the sort of wheeze you only hear from a terminal asthmatic, and it worked every time. I thought they were suckers those PhysEd teachers. But as it turns out it seems I was the sucker, because as the result of my ability to skip PE fairly regularly, I was to start my adult sporting career with the equivalent running training age of a two year old.
After I got talked into doing my first triathlon by a work mate, I spent consecutive years training for my 6 week season – 6 weeks being the average time it took for me to end the season by giving myself a running injury trying to emulate the training programs of the latest featured triathlon pro, gleaned from American Triathlete magazines. The pattern was two weeks ‘base’, then two weeks speed work, before a two week race season. I always thought I was doing some pretty quick 400s before falling apart with some ailment.
So as you can see, I had absolutely no idea.

The last Forster Ironman
I signed up for Forster almost immediately after Busso IM, out of sheer exuberance. I would regret such a rash decision later as I struggled with, you guessed it, run-related injuries. After several physio appointments, bone scans and other various investigations, lotions and potions, and with ten weeks to go and nearing the deadline, I gave myself the all clear to start doing some training. To be honest, it was easier to just do the race than to cancel everything. I’ve heard some hairy tales about how IM administrations don’t have a good reputation for giving money back after you have handed your hard earned dosh to them, and I didn’t particularly relish the thought of testing if that was an urban myth.

My first ironman in 2002, with the help of a coach who believed in me and who taught me the value of good training structure, and that a ‘base’ needs to be a little longer than two weeks, was a thorough preparation of 11 months. This time I had 10 weeks. Sure, I had a winter base from Ironman Busso, but by the time I got down to the nitty gritty of actually doing some real training, Busso was almost two months ago, more than the usual 4 weeks I usually take anyway as a normal off-season rest before preparing for the next IM. Still, I trained sufficiently well in the time I had, to feel in pretty good shape, maybe even sub-10:30 shape, my injuries were now merely niggles, more than manageable. I put this down in part to better body composition – I have the opposite problem to most other people, I fight to keep weight on, especially during the final 4 weeks before an ‘A’ event. I supplemented with chocolate because someone who had done ten ironmans told me how many good nutrients there were in there, it was dreadful how I had to force down every one of those Cadbury Hazelnut squares.

Race Week
I felt the most relaxed I have ever been for an IM race week. In fact everything was near perfect – no worries about a major injury (first time in a long time), the bike made it in one piece, I felt good, I felt confident, we had great weather, no virus from the plane trip. The only thing missing was my wife, a vital member of the IM team, who after two Forsters decided to give this one a miss. Still, I was determined to give this one a crack and to really ‘enjoy’ the race day. Now there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
I camped with Marcel, an ex-pat Dutchman going for his 11th IM and another Hawaii berth, and Naomi doing her second IM. Needless to say, IM race week went very smoothly except for causing Naomi to dry wretch when Marcel and I had our farting duals. I am proud to say that I was in-form early in the week, out-scoring a very strong fart opponent. How strong? Well, ask anybody who stayed in the same house as Marcel during the infamous Margaret River Half IM course reconnaissance trip of 2001 will testify to Marcel’s pedigree with the art of delivering over-powering, near death-inducing smells. That year, he gave us all a new definition for the term “Dutch-oven” – he turned the whole house into a Dutch-oven!

Swim
Having wanted to try biking and running in the mornings instead of swimming, I tried a new swim squad that swam in the evenings. The new coach changed my stroke around a little, subtly, but enough for me to have to think about it again for a while. It must be have been ok, as I ended up with my usual 58:00ish swim, but this time I felt it was a very easy 58:00. The plan was to go easy & I stuck to that plan like glue.

Bike
I put my previous IM run problems to perhaps going too hard on the bike. Being a half-decent biker, the temptation is always to try to make the bike a weapon, then pray I can keep from walking half the marathon. I have never really hammered the bike in any of my previous ironmans, but this time I showed even greater patience than previously, in an attempt to come off feeling ultra fresh off the bike. I took the first 50km virtually spinning, HR hovering around 70-75%. Believe me this took enormous self-control. The 50 - 100km section was planned to take it up a notch, HR 75 – 80%, which is what I did. From 100 – 150km I upped the ante again. It was during this period that I rode up to, and passed a LOT of people, including several packs of riders of various sizes, dropping them all eventually. By about the 150km mark, I caught a bunch of about 5-6 riders who I couldn’t drop. This pack eventually grew to what seemed like a massive pack, maybe 40-50 riders, and as we rode up to other riders ahead and were caught by riders behind us, to make one big pack. I heard after the race that this was not an isolated phenomenon, and I was particularly distressed to hear that one such pack ahead of me happened to contain virtually all of the Bell Tower boys, …all, except me. Have to ride harder next time.

So was I fresher off the bike for taking it easier early? I can’t honestly say that I did. I still felt as stiff and sore as I remember feeling off previous efforts, when I rode virtually the whole thing at 80-85% HR. Rode my usual 5:20, my times don’t seem to vary much on this course, whether it’s stormy and windy, or perfect. Thank god it was a perfect day, so it could have been worse. I must say I was glad to get off the bike, my shoes were absolutely soaked from having an IM piss every hour. No problems with hydration for me. The washing machine got a workout when I got home.

“The run is where it’s at…” (Part 2)
I didn’t know what to expect in the run. I’d never had such a short lead-up to an IM ever, and training running pace was sacrificed to simply make time, deliberately conservative so as not to flare anything up. I had no idea what my pace during the race was, as I couldn’t get my Polar 625X-gizmo foot pod to work. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I did my usual 4 hour + marathon, with a grand total of 10:47. I felt just the same as I always do, the last kilometre perhaps feeling a little more painful than the last kilometre of my first IM, but an IM finish is always sweet. Since I thought it may be the last chance to do it, I made sure I got a kiss from Karen Pini at the finish line, and I even toyed with the idea of doing a Greg-Welch-collapsing-with-exhaustion trick into her ample chest region, but thought maybe my wife might not appreciate seeing that on the Ironmanlive broadcast.
Some people kept telling me that some other injury-racked athletes have turned out blinders after a less than perfect lead-up. Alas, I can’t report one of those miracle PBs I was half-hoping may appear, but it’s not bad for 10 weeks work. I am a poster child for consistency, having kept my record of finishes in the 10:40s. I had 6 pisses on the run, must have been really hydrated. On hindsight, I don’t know why I didn’t just stop drinking water, but you don’t think clearly in IM marathons sometimes.

Epilogue

Why Ironman? This is a common question from ‘normal’ people that know me. A sports physio once told me, after examining my feet, that I would never run a marathon. I have proven that opinion wrong a few times now.

Why do I keep doing it? Well, for me it’s not just about doing it, well maybe the first one was, but I wanted to keep at it until I thought I was doing it as well as I thought I could, within the limits of my god-given potential. So, as I take one IM at a time, I evaluate each one when the memory of the pain subsides, and I ask myself whether I could run that marathon just a little quicker, with a little less angst, with a little more flair. I also like the idea of trying to get faster into my 40’s, kind of like a prospective biological experiment. My triathlon sporting inspirations are the local ‘old’ dudes, the Otis’s, Boyes’ and the Grumpys’, these guys set the pace for longevity in the sport and how fast a 40 / 50 + year old can go.
There are a few other reasons, females pros are fantastic to ride behind (legally of course), but most of all I, and maybe like some other repeat ironmaners, am simply trying to find myself, trying to find the ‘best me’ using IM as the vehicle. Some guys try to do that in their work life, some by trying to pick up chicks at nightclubs, I do it with a little swimming, biking and running.
I was surprised at how much fitness I was able to harness in ten weeks. Maybe my body is a little more triathlon-mature than I thought, maybe my training age is now primary school age instead of toddler age. With the exception of my running which has had a few enforced breaks, I’ve biked and swam fairly consistently year round for a few years now. If you’re not born with it, I think the key is to find a path to durability, and thus consistency, over a long period of time.

I think I’ve got at least one more IM ahead of me. Five finishes seems a nicer number, four seems neither here nor there. Gotta work on that run.